Meanwhile, Outside Civil Court In New York

 

The best thing about Halloween is that it brings out people's creativity. We cats heartily endorse this, and we PURR.

No Tricks, Just Treats

This photo of President Biden with a pint-sized guest at the White House Halloween party is sweeter than candy. Happy All Hallows' Eve, everybody! We cats PURR.

Treatless

We're a day early with our greetings, thanks to Clay Bennett of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. But Happy Halloween anyway!

No Good People Anywhere

By Miss Kubelik

There have been a ton of anti-Semitic incidents lately, both here in the US and around the world, and they're highly disturbing. It's unclear what any of us can do about an airport riot in Dagestan (here it is on a map if you need to find it), but how upsetting is it to know that Jewish students at both Tulane and Cornell have been threatened and harassed? And last week, anti-Semitic images were projected onto the side of the Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library at George Washington University. Now, that's a place we know well.

You know whose fault this is, right? Benedict Donald's.

Donald Trump did not invent anti-Semitism, of course. But ever since he stepped onto the national political stage eight years ago, by his words and actions he's given racists and bigots blanket permission to be loud, proud and their own worst selves.

He began lowering the political discourse the moment he stepped off that golden escalator, with his comments about Mexicans and rapists. And that was just the start. Remember how he encouraged crowds at his rallies to beat up protesters? And how Trump supporters started threatening delegates before the GOP convention? And remember how Republicans demanded that he stop it, or the party would turn against him en masse? (Whoops! That last part never happened. On the contrary, their silence enabled it.)

And then there was Charlottesville in 2017. After the Tiki Torch lamebrains marched and chanted, "Jews will not replace us," Trump said there were good people on both sides. No, Donald: Nazis and anti-Semites are not good people, but POTUS implied they were. And now we're reaping the wild wind of what might be Donald Trump's most egregious exercise of Presidential power.

No wonder he's known in some excellent quarters as the Vulgaryan. Trumpism is a cancer on our country, and it needs to sent back to the dark, sinister fringes of American life. We cats HISS.

(IMAGE: Trump at his "both sides" press avail. Look who's standing with him: Gary Cohn and Steve Mnuchin, both Jewish, and Mitch McConnell's Asian wife. This picture, and the memory, make us sick.)

Boo!

Lots of rumors going around about some kind of coup in Russia and that Vlad Pootie is dead, because he hasn't been seen in public for a while. That might be scary to some Putin lovers, but until we see something substantive, we're going to file it under "Too Good To Be True." In the meantime, enjoy this trick-or-treating event from the White House, circa 2015, when the Obamas met Baby Pope. We cats PURR.

(PHOTO: Pete Souza)

Quel Surprise

By Zamboni

In the category of You Learn Something New Every Day: The mother of the late actor Matthew Perry was press secretary to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

This is news to us because, and we admit it, we are totally out of the "Friends" loop. There are many sitcoms we never watched, and that's one of them. So we weren't up on the Perry parentage until now. (We've also learned that Matthew went to school with Justin, and beat him up in the fifth grade. Amazing!)

Here is Prime Minister Trudeau with Suzanne Perry in Ottawa, circa 1980. Makes you wonder: How many political leaders at the time had the moxie to employ a female spokesperson? (DeeDee Myers didn't come along until the Clinton Administration, in 1993.) We cats PURR.

Virgil, Quick Come See, There Goes Robert E. Lee

By Baxter

MAGA jackasses are having babies over the fact that the Robert E. Lee statue from Charlottesville, Virginia, has not only been removed, but also melted down. Cool, cool. Folks, nobody's trying to erase history. What's being erased is a bunch of early-20th-century white supremacists trying to dictate to voters of color that they should know their place.

The important fact here is not just that the Lee statue helped foment the deadly 2017 protests in Charlottesville. (You know, the ones about which Benedict Donald said there were "very fine people on both sides"?) It's that Robert E. Lee was a traitor to the United States, and nothing in Virginia or anywhere else in America should have been named after him. No statues should have been erected 60 years after the Civil War to intimidate Black Americans.

But what the MAGAts are forgetting is that Lee's demise goes far beyond having his statue destroyed. Lee was so persona non grata back in the day that the US Army seized his home, the Custis-Lee Mansion, during the Civil War, and eventually turned it into Arlington National Cemetery. It's a place where patriots who didn't rebel against the United States — in fact, who gave the last full measure of devotion — rest in peace.

Our history is fraught with stuff. Maybe we didn't totally realize it in the sunshine of the postwar era, but we're definitely grappling with it now. There is no understanding of American history without a complete appreciation of the Black experience. If iPhone video had been around during the antebellum period, things would be a lot different now, wouldn't they? In the meantime, we cats are glad that Lee has been melted down, and we PURR.

Golden Is Not Silent

By Sniffles

We cats have always been fine with the idea that the Democratic Party can accommodate lots of different people. In the House, for instance, you have Bernie Bro-ettes like AOC and Ilhan Omar, and you have Blue Dogs like Mary Peltolas. They come from different states and represent different constituencies. We don't always agree, but the ultimate goal is always, always, to put Democrats in the majority so good things can get done for the American people.

And today, one of the Blue Dogs, Jared Golden of Maine, held a press conference and, in the wake of the mass shootings in Lewiston, changed his position on banning assault weapons.

Good for him. We thought he was wrong before, but unlike some lefties on Twitter, we're not going to pound him now. On the contrary — all of us should welcome him to the fight. We need all the help we can get.

But Republican Senator Susan Collins? We could definitely punch her in the face. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

“I Wonder How Long He’ll Be Speaker For”

 

That's a direct quote from GOP Senator John Cornyn from Texas. Are Republicans dispirited, or what?

And why did it take three weeks, multiple would-be nominees, and a ton of embarrassment for House Republicans to end up with an election-denying Christo-fascist from Louisiana they could have just picked from the get-go? Ah, well, it won't matter in the end — because Democrats are going to take the House back in 2024. We cats PURR.

(IMAGE: Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

The Gray Lady Can Be So Gross

By Hubie and Bertie

It was startling to see last week's screaming headline on the New York Times website, "Israeli strike kills hundreds in hospital, Palestinians say."

We cats didn't major in journalism, but boy, that headline struck us wrong. Apparently a lot of other folks agreed with us, because in a few hours it was gone. Still, as they say, the interwebs live forever, and the Times is dealing with the fallout.

You have to wonder: Why would the Times assign responsibility for the Gaza explosion to anybody, even with the caveat "Palestinians say"? (And anyway, shouldn't it have been "Hamas says"? Hamas does not represent all Palestinians, and Hamas governs Gaza and its health ministry.) The Times also immediately went with the story that 500 were killed, which has since been credibly disputed — and Hamas is not helping clarify it, as you can imagine.

It got embarrassing enough that yesterday, the Times published an "Editors' Note" about their rush to judgment. "The early versions of the [hospital] coverage — and the prominence it received in a headline, news alert and social media channels — relied too heavily on claims by Hamas," they said.

Humph. The phrase "early versions," apparently, is a cowardly stand-in for "we." The "Note" also contained no expression of regret for their egregious failure to enforce normal journalistic standards, or for the fact that their reports contributed to the cancellation of President Biden's Arab summit in Jordan.

Memo to the Times: The lameness of your "Note" may have given this story even more legs, so you really should have owned your mistakes. But we aren't hopeful you'll reform: You're still pretending that it's unclear who hit the hospital (or, we should say, the hospital parking lot), and you've never explained why you have such shitty headline writers. We cats continue to be disappointed, and we HISS.

Contrasts

We may be risking becoming the owners of a photo blog, but we cats couldn't resist contrasting this famous 1940 picture of Republican Wendell Willkie by the AP's John Collins — one of the most emblematic campaign shots in American history — with this one of Mike Pence, which broke the Interwebs this weekend. Tweeps summed it up succinctly with "Dude, just drop out." We cats PURR.

He Alone Can Fix It

By Miss Kubelik

This post is about Benedict Donald, but we can't bear to post an image of him. So here's a lovely photo of the Vice President, who celebrated her 59th birthday yesterday. Many happy returns of the day, MVP!

Overall, though, what's occupying our political minds at the moment is why Trump hasn't taken any action on the chaos in the House of Representatives. Because, you know, he could. After all, he's supposed to be the leader of the Republican Party, right? At least, that's what the media keep telling us.

If he put out a statement that said, "I want My Kevin back, or you'll never get another dime from Republican PACs and I'll make sure you're all primaried next year," the MAGAts and other GOP fools would immediately fall in line and the Speaker situation would be resolved.

But he hasn't, and why not? Is he too distracted by his four court cases and 91 indictments ? That's a distinct possibility, because the walls continue to close in. Not only has Sidney Powell pleaded guilty in Georgia, but now so has Kenneth Cheseboro, and Tish James in New York is tightening the vise in her New York fraud case.

Or does he spend his time fuming about the good press Dark Brandon has received over Israeli-Gaza war? (Trump has threatened to go to Israel himself, which is hilarious for many reasons.)

Is it because he's decided that House Republicans are doomed to defeat next year and he doesn't want to be associated with losers? Or that a Democratic House would help him in 2024 because Americans like divided government? (That one seems like a stretch.) Or is he just waiting for things to get worse before he steps in?

We're betting that hes just plain distracted. Benedict Donald may be a master of PR, but he's never been canny in his political calculations, and things are getting so dire for him legally and financially that there's no bandwidth in his tiny mind for mediating the GOP bedlam in Washington. Stay tuned, though. We cats PURR.

Gym Gets Sent To The Showers

By Zamboni

Great photographs tell stories. Think about the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square, captured by Alfred Eisenstaedt on V-J Day, or Dorothea Lange's close-up of the weary "Migrant Mother" in the 1930s Dust Bowl. They've become symbols of the country's experience of World War II and the Great Depression.

We don't know who took this photo of Gym Jordan today. But we want to find out, because it says so much about the GOP's self-destruction — and Jordan's well-deserved humiliation.

Not to treat this Republican chaos as anything close to normal, but it has to be said that in even in a process as ugly as this, Jordan was an uber-ugly candidate. And so were his tactics, whether he personally directed them — as we're sure he did with Sean Hannity — or just inspired them. Either way, his Congressional colleagues didn't appreciate being threatened and bullied.

(Of course, they've always seemed untroubled by bullying when they weren't the targets themselves. Did any of these Republicans speak up in defense of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in Georgia? Surely not.)

Anyway, Gym is out and the GOP clown show continues. But hey, what else have they got to do? Just fund stuff like Israel, Ukraine and the southern border, and keep the government from shutting down in a month. Memo to the American people: This is the crap you get when you put people who hate government in charge. It's dangerous, destructive, and a farce, and we cats HISS.

Still Empty

By Baxter

We cats have been on the road today, but have been trying to keep up with the Republican bedlam in the House. No more Speaker votes? Empower pretend-Speaker Patrick McHenry to do stuff until they get their act together? No! wait — maybe they will vote tomorrow after all. Gym Jordan hasn't learned that the definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

So, still no real Speaker. In the meantime, though, Patrick's been doing a little redecorating. We cats LOL.

P.S. Big news day today, so we'll have more to say anon on Dark Brandon's address to the nation and Sidney Powell's Kraken-up.

Empty Chair

By Sniffles

You could make the argument that no Speaker of the House would be better than Gym Jordan as Speaker of the House. And it looks like 20 Republican Congress members thought that, too. So they're back at square one. As Jerry Seinfeld was known to say, "That's a shame."

Rumors and accusations have been flying, but one story line that has consistently emerged is that the GOP members who ended up embarrassing Jordan today didn't appreciate the ridiculous "text-message pressure campaign" that Sean Hannity and FOX "News" implemented over the weekend. Honestly, it was pretty lame — and amazing that 200 people fell for it. Even Congressman Don Bacon's wife received messages. Can you imagine how irritating that was?

More stupidity was on the docket when Elise "Elsie" Stefanik stepped up to give the nominating speech for a candidate who... promptly failed. You don't see the other members of House leadership willing to taint themselves with Gym's defeat — which makes one think that despite her Harvard background, Elsie just might not be very smart.

But the Republicans' greatest sin today was going to the floor without knowing they had the numbers to win. Competent legislators just don't do that, and the best of them make it look deceptively easy. FAFO, as they say. Perhaps the House GOP should take some math lessons from Speaker Emerita Pelosi. We cats PURR.

Meanwhile, In The War On Capitol Hill...

By Hubie and Bertie

As House Republicans apparently will vote on a Speaker tomorrow, let's do a quick recap of the last five of their guys who held the job.

Newt Gingrich — Run out of office by his own party after a disappointing 1998 midterm election and his own scandals.

Dennis Hastert — Sent to prison for child molestation.

John Boehner — Resigned from Congress in 2015 after butting heads with the nutcases in his caucus.

Paul Ryan — Declined to run for re-election in 2018 after, you guessed it, butting heads with the nutcases.

Kevin McCarthy — Torpedoed by the nutcases in 2023.

So tomorrow, are they really going to elect the insurrectionist known as Gym Jordan, who — holy Hastert, Batman! — allegedly turned a blind eye to sexual molestation at Ohio State? GOP pooh-bahs who care about raising money are nervous. Fund raising, at least, was the one thing McCarthy was good at. Jordan, not so much. Republicans have whispered on background to journalists that Gym "could be a liability in key swing districts and turn off major donors." Yup.

Giving Gym the gavel will be a huge political problem for a party that has major headaches already: They're saddled with a probable 2024 nominee who has multiple indictments but who's rigged the primary-state rules in his favor, so they're stuck. Infighting has taken over in state parties across the country. And the post-Dobbs fallout just isn't stopping. We cats would rather be us than them, and we PURR.

(IMAGE: Nick Anderson, Daily Kos)

Human Rights Dark Brandon Is The Best Dark Brandon

It's very important that in a world gone mad, both the President and the First Lady chose to address the Human Rights Campaign National Dinner tonight. Their priorities are spot-on. We cats PURR.

"He Who Troubleth His Own House Shall Inherit The Wind"

By Miss Kubelik

Okay, probably nowhere on earth is as violent, ghastly and combustible as the situation in Israel-Gaza right now (or for that matter, in Ukraine), but the House GOP is trying real hard. They're still engulfed in a near-bloody political civil war completely of their own doing.

The latest? Gym Jordan is 65 votes short of becoming Speaker (P.S. that's a lot), credit card criminal George Santos just threw a hissy fit in the hallway of the Longworth Building, and the House won't even convene again until Monday. Sixteen or so have already gone home — not even sticking around to hash the Speaker madness out over the weekend. There are rumors that they left in disgust.

And we're seeing hints, perhaps, of why Elise "Elsie" Stefanik has been AWOL in all the drama: The Republican delegation from New York is furious at her over Santos. And they can't be the only ones, particularly after George's superseding indictments and the Longworth eruption today. Maybe Elsie is too busy putting out her own fires to try to plant her foot in the door of Kevin McCarthy's former office.

Perhaps there's no member of their caucus who can win the Speakership. If that's the case, they'll be forced to appeal to Democrats to cut deals and end the chaos. But they're not helping by doing what McCarthy did today: He blamed the Democrats, of course. So can Team Jeffries trust any of them?

So the answer continues to be this: Six Republicans from Biden districts have to come over and put Hakeem in charge. Otherwise, the GOP will just continue circling the drain — and dragging the country with them — during a time of world crisis. We cats HISS.

Whoops, No Scalise! Now What, Elise?

By Zamboni

The Capitol Hill clusterfuck continues as Steve Scalise has just announced he's withdrawing from the Speaker's race. (Just a quick thought: Can you imagine how everybody would react if it was the House Democrats who were flailing around while the world erupted?)

All those corrupt Republicans in Louisiana who were probably rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of owning another Speaker must be mighty disappointed. And it's not the first time they've been let down by one of their own. Remember Bob Livingston? How quaint his exit seems today.

The chaos in the House is objectionable for a ton of reasons, but it was made particularly unseemly when Republicans questioned Scalise's health, or stepped outside their private meeting to complain that the Democrats needed to ride to their rescue, or even — a bare three hours ago — denied point-blank that Scalise would drop out. As Senator John Fetterman observed on The Late Show last night, Americans are not sending their best and their brightest to Washington.

So who's next? "Elsie" Stefanik? (Who still doesn't seem to be anywhere, by the way.) Tom Emmer? Kevin Hern? Gym Jordan, back from the dead? Or somebody nobody's mentioned yet? It's almost too scary to ask.

P.S. You have to assume that Elsie is too busy lobbying to be Benedict Donald's running mate, but you never know. It's dawned on us that if she had continued to be a valid and contributing member of the bipartisan caucus, and if she hadn't gone off the deep end these past six years, her name could be seriously floating as a consensus candidate with support from Democrats and a handful of Biden-district Republicans. Oh, well! We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

"I Refuse To Be Silent"

 

By Baxter

Right-wing Republicans are trying to make fun of President Biden for banging the lectern today when he talked about the Nazi extermination camps. This is ridiculous and desperate.

If this past weekend's events were the greatest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, the world needs to recognize that. If Americans need to understand Joe Biden's support of Israel and world Jewry, they can. Biden's eruptions of anger and outrage are not new. When we cats heard him speak in Washington in the fall of 1976, he was exactly the way he was today. He hasn't changed.

Republicans are marginalizing themselves in ways they may not yet understand. Meanwhile, we're grateful for the moral clarity that Joe Biden is providing. Angry Dark Brandon is the best Dark Brandon, and we cats PURR.

If It's Scalise, Where's Elise?

By Sniffles

We cats haven't paid a whole lot of attention to the allegedly-reasonable-Republican-turned-Trumpy-fangirl, Elise "Elsie" Stefanik, since we were blessedly redistricted into Democrat Paul Tonko's NY-21. But we know she's still around, mostly because people keep posting unflattering pictures of her on Twitter. Still... where has she been in all the GOP chaos we're seeing on Capitol Hill?

Politicos like Rick Wilson were sure she was measuring the drapes in the Speaker's office, but we've yet to see her name surface as a potential alternative to the bind the Republicans are in. "David Duke Without the Baggage" only nabbed 113 votes in their closed-door session today, a long way from 217. With far-right nutjobs in opposition and others objecting to Scalise for his white supremacist past (but somehow we're sure they won't hold it against him in the end), the gavel-banging Keebler elf, Patrick McHenry, adjourned the House with a vague promise to reconvene tomorrow.

Now, according to reports, Scalise's chances seem "bleaker." Oh, gosh! — the House is paralyzed, but it's not as if there's anything else happening in the world to command their attention.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, the Democratic caucus unanimously got behind Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker in about 10 minutes. You know, all we need is some brave Republicans from Biden districts to throw their lot in with us, and stuff could start getting done again. And you wouldn't have to choose between a sexual-abuse enabler and a guy who caters to the KKK.

(And hey! — whatever happened to the Trump-for-Speaker boomlet from a few days ago? Benedict Donald sure seems like yesterday's news.)

The Republicans are a joke. A complete joke. We'd be taking more pleasure in their distress if democracy weren't under siege around the world and Israelis weren't being murdered in their beds and Palestinians weren't packed into Gaza with an imminent Israeli invasion and nowhere to go. We need adults in the room, folks. If there's any greater argument for putting Congress and the Presidency in Democratic hands next year, we don't know what it is. We cats HISS.

The White House Tonight

 

"US President Harry Truman was the first world leader to officially recognize Israel as a legitimate Jewish state on May 14, 1948, only 11 minutes after its creation. His decision came after much discussion and advice from the White House staff, who had differing viewpoints. Some advisers felt that creating a Jewish state was the only proper response to the Holocaust and would benefit American interests. Others took the opposite view, concerned about that the creation of a Jewish state would create more conflict in an already tumultuous region."

—Harry S. Truman Library & Museum

The establishment of a liberal democracy should supersede all, we believe. And therefore, even though execrable leaders like Netanyahu have emerged, there is hope. And we cats PURR.

A Thought For Tonight

We cats have seen a lot of references to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor these last couple of days, but the one that really resonated with us was the Tet Offensive of 1968. That was a military action that didn't immediately dawn on America as consequential — but oh, how consequential it was. So let's reach back to the 1960s for a sentiment that we always hope will prevail. Plus, Dionne Warwick makes us PURR.

Tidbits And Cat Treats: Republican Insanity Edition

By Hubie and Bertie

Let's face it, when it comes to the GOP, every edition of Tidbits And Cat Treats could be labeled "insanity."

One of our two political parties has driven completely off the cliff. It's populated by nutcases at worst, and by people who hate government at best. (Or by people who are completely corrupt and cynical, like Mitch McConnell.) But wow, throw in another global crisis and they really show their stripes. Here are just a few sorry examples.

They tried to claim that the Iranian $6 billion deposited in Qatar for humanitarian aid — and which secured the release of American hostages — has funded the attack on Israel. (As many have pointed out, NOT.)

They tried to criticize President Biden for hosting a BBQ at the White House for residence staff last night. (Again, NOT. The event was pre-planned, took an hour or two from the President's time, and was held within literal feet of the Oval Office. Try again, idiots.)

They complained that the White House put a lid on coverage today just before noon. (Again and again, NOT. A "lid" means that there are no more public events — such as briefings — on the schedule, so the press can go get lunch or whatever. It doesn't mean Team Biden isn't working, and everybody knows this. They're just getting desperate now.)

Face it, MAGAts and, yes, you maddeningly lazy journalists: The nation is lucky to have a President right now that it does. Joe Biden has hundreds of years of foreign policy experience, and if you would stop bitching for one minute about his age, you'd see that. Do you know how many times millions of Americans have thanked God that he's in the White House now instead of Benedict Donald? You can't count that high. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Not A Lot Of Peace In The World Tonight

 

"In light of the recent events in Israel, the Peace Tower is illuminated in the colours of the Israeli flag, and the National Flag of Canada is flying at half-mast from now until sunset tomorrow."

—Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons*

*There currently is no Speaker of the US House of Representatives.

Every Accusation Is A Confession

By Miss Kubelik

The speed with which the Republicans have accused President Biden of giving $6 billion to Iran to attack Israel today can only mean one thing.

Benedict Donald gave (or sold) Israeli secrets to Vladimir Putin from "his boxes" of classified info that he kept stored in the shitter at Mar-a-Lago.

In case you're wondering: The $6 billion was frozen money that Iran made off oil sales to South Korea. It was recently unfrozen and is currently banked in Qatar, where it cannot be withdrawn for any purposes other than humanitarian ones, under the supervision of the US government. Nevertheless, Trumpy shills like JD Vance have rushed to repeat the lie that "US tax dollars" funded Hamas's attacks — because they'll always put MAGA mendacity first.

And since they know it's a lie, they have to brand the Biden Administration as quickly as they can, so they can own the narrative.

The question is: What will American media do? Apparently even Fox "News" has told their viewers the truth about the $6 billion. But how will the so-called MSM cover it tomorrow on the Sunday shows? We cats aren't optimistic about that, because — and we never thought we'd say this — the press sucks. Therefore, we HISS.

The Velvet Hammer

While the mainstream media are furiously trying to spin a jaw-droppingly wonderful jobs report as bad news, Dark Brandon just keeps smiling. And he called the press out on that today. We cats PURR.

This Was The Week That Was (And It's Only Thursday)

By Zamboni

Yep, it's not Friday yet, but since we said a few days ago that this was going to be a week to remember, we thought we owed you faithful readers a recap. Because who knows what'll happen tomorrow!

On the Benedict Donald front, things are rapidly going south. "My Kevin" has become the first Speaker in American history to be fired by the House of Representatives. The judge in Trump's New York civil fraud trial hit Donald with a partial gag order, and then Forbes scratched him off their top 400 list. (As Tish James is showing, maybe he never qualified for the list in the first place.)

Meanwhile, Georgia co-defendants are flipping. Lawyers for Rudolph Giuliani and the Pillow Man are dropping like flies (they don't work for free, ya know). George Santos's campaign treasurer is taking a plea deal. The Republican knives are out for Matt Gaetz. And tonight, ABC News says Benedict Donald shared American nuclear secrets with an Australian billionaire (not Rupert Murdoch).

But wait, there's more: We don't want to raise expectations, but there have been five sealed cases filed in DC court in the last several weeks — "sealed," as in, not available to the public. Are indictments of Congress members coming down for January 6? Gee, it's not as if there's anything going on in the House these days anyway.

And here's some excellent news from the True North. Not only did the House of Commons elect its first Black speaker, but on the same day, the province of Manitoba turned out its Conservative government and voted in the NDP, installing Canada's first First Nations premier, Wab Kinew.

This is a warning shot to federal Conservatives and their detestable leader, Pierre Poilievre, who are working overtime to be as Trumpy as they can get. Tories in Manitoba followed the same playbook, running awful attack ads in the last days of the campaign that turned off voters in droves. "The US-style ads...were sleazy and sensationalist," a Winnipeg Free Press columnist observed. "They were cooked up by inept, far-right zealots in the Tory central campaign who are hopelessly out of touch with the political culture of Manitoba."

Because the news is often wall-to-wall Trumpism, it can seem like Benedict Donald and his acolytes are taking over the world. They aren't. In fact, they're failing badly. We cats PURR.

Picture Of The Day

Ladies and gentlemen, the Speaker Pro Tempore of the United States, "Petit Pat" McHenry of North Carolina. (See, we can do Trumpy nicknames, too!) He doesn't have very much power, but since he's only about five-foot-six, he likes to pretend that he does. We cats HISS.

Misfires

By Baxter

The House elected a new Speaker today — and he's Black!

Sorry, we did it again. It was the House of Commons in Canada, not here in the US (lol!). Craig Fergus, Liberal MP from Quebec, is the first Black Canadian to hold the speakership, which is not a bad outcome when you consider how House members mistakenly applauded a Nazi last month.

Meanwhile, the United States House of Representatives is in chaos, thanks to idiot Republicans who, unlike Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, don't know how to govern with a five-seat majority. Benedict Donald, freshly gagged in his New York fraud trial, must be relieved for once that he's not the lead story of the day. (Or maybe not.)

Either way, it's a hoot to look back on the thrilling "Young Guns" of yesteryear and realize that they're all gone now. And they were all chased out of office by ultra-fringey nutcases on their side of the aisle whom they foolishly thought they could handle.

Back in 2014, then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor considered teabagger Dave Brat such a nuisance primary challenger that he barely bothered to drive back to his Virginia district to campaign. Surprise! After a tumultuous tenure, Speaker Paul Ryan quit in 2018 to "spend more time with his family." And now, of course, Kevin McCarthy is history because Everything Trump Touches Dies.

In addition to their many, many missteps, all these guys — plus John Boehner, one of the lamest House Speakers ever — should obviously have cracked the whip with the crazies and gotten them in line. But they didn't do it because they are weak, ineffectual men. And now, who knows what tomorrow will bring? At least Democrats have a great leader-in-waiting in Hakeem Jeffries. We cats applaud Hakeem for his masterful performance today, and we HISS at the hapless GOP.

Tidbits And Cat Treats: Fabulous Week Edition

By Sniffles

Back when Joe Biden was Vice President, one of our favorite amusements was watching C-SPAN on the day he swore all the Senators in. He was funny, warm and welcoming (to everybody, we might add). He clearly loved the Senate, and his job.

The next few days should bring another wonderful "welcome to the Senate" moment, when Vice President Kamala Harris swears in Laphonza Butler to succeed the late Dianne Feinstein. Many congratulations to California Governor Gavin Newsom for a brilliant appointment — and here are some other fun things we're watching during this first week in October.

Benedict Donald sure had a crabby day in his civil fraud trial today. He was fidgety, annoyed, turning colors, and finger-wagging, both inside and outside the courtroom. He bitched about New York Attorney General Letitia James and, inexplicably, whinged about the presiding judge. (Handy reminder: Trump asked for a bench trial. Or let's just say that his stupid attorney neglected to check the "Yes, we want a jury" box on the form she filed.) And this was just the first day! There's probably not enough popcorn in the world to get us through this.

Meanwhile, down in Georgia, it looks like Bernard Kerik is flipping for DA Fani Willis. At least, he wants immunity. And that's on top of co-defendant Scott Hall cutting a deal to plead guilty and testify. The Willis walls are closing in, aren't they?

Over on Capitol Hill, the shenanigans continue. MAGAts like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene are just furious at the hapless Speaker McCarthy for relying on Democrats and a handful of semi-reasonable Republicans to keep the government open this weekend. At first today, it seemed like Gaetz was waffling on his commitment to try to throw Kev out of the speakership. But now he's filed his motion to vacate. What were we just saying about popcorn?

The Jimmy Carter 99 celebrations were everything we hoped they would be. And since the government didn't shut down, folks got to enjoy a second day of 99-cent admission, with cake, games and birthday-card-making, at The Carter Center in Atlanta. Best thing about it: Jimmy and Rosalynn were around to hear about it. P.S. Can we get one of those Jimmy Carter 99 baseball caps?

We'll close on a slightly down note. It should be bigger news that at their phony impeachment "inquiry" last week, Republicans presented fabricated evidence — which Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez immediately called them out on. Is it possible that politics and government are so suffused with Trumpian nutbaggery that this is not a scandal? Apparently the answer is yes. We cats HISS.

UPDATE: A reminder from a canny tweep that Trump's outrage about not getting a jury trial is all performance art. "He intentionally wanted to avoid a jury. He is a well-established con man in New York. His legacy of discrimination, filing for bankruptcies and stiffing contractors is known to all." Thoughts and prayers for Alina Habba, not.

A Practically Perfect Day In Every Way

It's not only Jimmy Carter's 99th birthday today — it's Dame Julie Andrews's 88th! We cats send them both our best wishes, and we PURR.