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.

An American Family

 

Two things about this fabulous photo of the Obamas: Is there anyone as gorgeous as Sasha? (Answer: No.) Also, we thought the tan suit had been given away. Barack still has it? Is that why it's not on display at the Obama Presidential Center? We cats switch our tails, and wonder.

Night Of The Hunter

Have you seen Hunter Biden's posts on Twitter these days? He has mastered the art of owning MAGAts, and we cats are here for it. But he's also engaging in sincere back-and-forths with people struggling with addiction. He's brutally honest, owns his mistakes, and encourages others who have faced, or are facing, the battles he has. We cats admire him for it. And we PURR.

Seat Of Power?

By Hubie and Bertie

In 1945, just back from Yalta and weeks before his death, Franklin D. Roosevelt apologized to Congress for addressing them from a chair instead of standing at a lectern. "I hope you'll pardon me for this unusual posture of sitting down," he said, "but I know that you will realize that it makes it a lot easier for me not to have to carry about 10 pounds of steel at the bottom of my legs."

It was a rare FDR acknowledgement of his polio-induced disability. He and his staff masked it so efficiently — and the press cooperated so thoroughly — that many Americans probably wondered what he meant by the "10 pounds of steel" reference. We can picture them listening to their radios and saying, "Wait, what?"

So, okay, we cats adore Franklin Roosevelt. But we have at least two quibbles with him. The first is the obvious one — the Japanese-American internment camps. The second is his lack of candor with the American people about his health in 1994-45. Although we pretty much understand why he did it, there's no excuse for his having kept VP Harry Truman in the dark about the atomic bomb and more.

Having admitted that, we have to say that the current cloak of silence around Benedict Donald's situation is extraordinary. We are well past a time in which the press would willingly collude with a popular President to come less-than-clean about his health, right? (We're thinking not just of FDR but of JFK.) But Trump isn't even popular now. So what's stopping journalists from demanding answers about Trump's health?

He's disappearing for days (if not a week) at a time. He's making appearances and giving remarks sitting down. He's repeating speeches from one event to another. He's got ewwy punctures on his neck, swollen cheeks, and bruises on his hands — not to mention weird bulges under his suit coats and trousers. WTF is going on?

This is the exact situation that the 25th amendment, enacted in the wake of John F. Kennedy's assassination, was meant to prevent. It guarantees that we will have a functioning President in the event of a current President's death, resignation, removal, or incapacitation. Sadly, the "incapacitation" part requires the Vice President and the Cabinet to take action. Which is not going to happen, right?

The thing about the Constitution is, it's not perfect. We can make it better. That's what amendments are for. So maybe we need an amendment to improve the 25th amendment? We cats PURR.

Benedict Donald Gets Slapped Back Again, Sleeps Through It

 

By Miss Kubelik

Well, actually, we don't know if Trump slept through his most recent smackdowns on Capitol Hill. But if he didn't, he surely will be shitposting about them all night. (Or maybe deciding to bomb Iran?)

Three Republican Senators — Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski — voted today with Democrats to keep the odious and utterly inexperienced Bill Pulte from becoming the acting DNI. Then the House passed a new aid package to Ukraine, with 18 (count 'em, 18) GOP members defying Donald.

So much winning! If Biden or Obama or Clinton had this many losses in the space of a week, the media would be hyperventilating. Democratic pearl clutchers would be collapsing on their fainting couches, and the Republicans would be declaring the President dead.

Which is precisely what some tweeters and skeeters were saying when Trump went seven days without a live, in-person appearance — finally showing up yesterday at an Oval Office presser to talk about nonsense. He also made a special effort to insult CNN's Kaitlin Collins. It's inexplicable that nobody in the White House press corps will stand up for the women Trump abuses. We cats HISS.

De Adder Du Jour

 

Benedict Donald sure has been losing a lot lately. The Kennedy Center, the Iran war, the slush fund for terrorists, and the billion-dollar ballroom all seem to be slip-sliding away. And yesterday, his chosen candidate for Iowa governor crashed and burned in the primary. Trump even had to show up in the Oval Office today to take reporters' questions after more than a week of no-shows and rumors he was stroked out or dead. Hm! More on the elections later. In the meantime, we cats PURR.

(IMAGE: Michael de Adder, deadder.net)

Smullen Doesn't Give A Shake

 

 

 

By Zamboni

There's a nasty (i.e., very fun) fight going on between the Republicans who are vying for Elise "Elsie" Stefanik's Congressional seat in NY-21.

As we posted a little over a month ago, the Trump-endorsed candidate, Anthony Constantino, is giving a whole lot of headaches to the more traditional, state-party-blessed hopeful, Assemblyman Robert Smullen. No love is lost between these two dudes, and when they met in a debate last week, the fur kinda flew.

"Both candidates adhered to the rules of decorum during the debate, confining their statements to their allotted time and requiring little intervention from [the] moderator," Yahoo news reports. "But they continued to attack each other in harsh terms, with Constantino casting Smullen as an unknown 'C-lister' who has failed to adequately support Trump. Smullen countered that Constantino is 'unfit to serve' and noted his campaign had once hired a man accused of murder."

(Note to the file: That last bit is true. We kid you not.)

"The caustic parley that has defined the primary race spilled over when Constantino reached across his podium to offer Smullen a handshake," Yahoo continued. "Smullen ignored Constantino, gathered his belongings, and walked off the television studio set."

Wow. Smullen later explained that he wasn't going to shake hands because Constantino had sent him a mean text. (The text was not nice, but it was also ridiculous.) This gave Constantino another line of attack, and made Smullen look petty — positively Trumpy, in fact.

The snub reminded us of Ann Richards's reaction when her Republican opponent for Texas governor, Clayton Williams, pulled the same stunt on her. It was back in 1990, when Trumpian behavior was still unknown. "Oh, Clayton," she said, "that's bad." Yup. We cats PURR.

Jon Ossoff: Trump Is "A Failed President And A National Disgrace"

 

Got a few minutes (or maybe 30 of them)? You'll want to check out this knockout speech that Senator Jon Ossoff gave in Atlanta yesterday. Let's put it this way: He didn't mince words. This is how you do it!

Lots of folks are talking him up for President in 2028 — but we need to get him re-elected to the Senate first. Click here. We cats PURR.

(UPDATE: We must add this spot-on observation from an account on, believe it or not, Twitter: "Two things I particularly enjoy: 1) His utter contempt for Trump and his ilk is palpable, but it's almost apolitical. It's moral without being preachy. Tough needle to thread. 2) There is a seriousness here that is woefully missing in our politics today." We cats agree 100 percent, and we PURR again.)

Numbers Don't Lie (Les Chiffres Ne Mentent Pas)

 

By Baxter

New data reveal that the Canadian boycott of the United States is still going strong — stronger than previously estimated, in fact.

"While official Statistics Canada figures show a roughly 25 percent decline in Canadian residents returning from the US last year, cellphone data compiled by researchers at the University of Toronto's School of Cities found that the year-over-year drop in cross-border trips was closer to 42 percent," the CBC reports.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and multiple locations in Florida like Miami and Orlando have been particularly hard hit, despite Canadians' famous tendency to escape south during the winter. And business travel has been affected just as much — all thanks to Benedict Donald, his stupid tariffs, and his ridiculous "51st state" BS.

This is costing the United States nearly $9 billion — so far. (Nice going, Trump.) But our American ambassador in Ottawa just can't understand it. He's particularly miffed about Canada's boycott of US booze.

"We think the alcohol ban is totally unfair," Pete Hoekstra said. "It's a clear indicator of how 11 provinces [and territories] feel about trade with the United States. They're sending a very, very clear message about how doing business with the United States doesn't appeal to them.

"The prime minister has reinforced that message. It creates some questions about whether Canada really wants to do business with the United States."

Wow, he's so close to getting it. What an idiot. We cats HISS.

Girlbosses Rule

Alors, the boys in the NHL couldn't get it done this week — but the girls definitely did. Bien joué!

Montréal had a championship parade today — for the PWHL's Walter Cup-winning Victoire, not the Canadiens. Les Habs? You're young, talented, and have a lot of promise. See you next year. We cats PURR.

Happy Birthday, JFK

By Sniffles

A federal judge has stepped in to halt the Trumpy desecration of The Kennedy Center. Thank goodness.

"US District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, DC, ruled that The Kennedy Center board's March 16 vote to close the facility was 'ill-informed and seemingly preordained' with no regard for its legal obligations," the AP reports. "The Administration had announced the work would begin in July and last approximately two years, but Cooper’s ruling halts those plans for now."

To our surprise, Benedict Donald has folded. He said he won't fight the decision, and will give control of the Kennedy Center back to Congress. (As if he ever had the authority to take it away in the first place.) Interesting. There must be something else he needs that he's not talking about, or he's just so cognitively gone that he can't remember what he cares about from one day to the next.

Of course, Judge Cooper is an Obama appointee, so Trump couldn't concede defeat without taking a swipe at that (typing President Obama's middle name in the tweet in all-caps, as you'd expect). The judge ordered Trump's name to be removed from the building and any other materials associated with the venue. Yay!

Coincidentally, today is JFK's 109th birthday. Obviously, like most people he wouldn't have lived to see this day — but it would have been nice if he had had more than the 46 years he spent on this planet. Still, it's a satisfying coincidence. Thanks, Judge Cooper. We cats PURR.

Powerful On The Outside, Fragile On The Inside

By Hubie and Bertie

Just this past Monday night, former Montréal Canadien Claude Lemieux carried the torch into the Bell Centre for Game 3 against the Carolina Hurricanes. More than 20,000 Habs fans cheered him — for his history with the team, and for the current Canadiens (who've made it far into the playoffs when they weren't even expected to play one post-season game). It was a magical moment for Montréalers.

Today, the hockey world learned that Claude Lemieux has died. The four-time Stanley Cup champion apparently committed suicide overnight in a furniture showroom that his family owns in Lake Park, Florida. He was found by one of his sons in a warehouse at around 3 AM.

Now, we cats understand that the current political state of Florida is pretty depressing. So maybe flying back there from a delirious city of Montréal was a bummer. But when you see how composed and, by all accounts, happy Lemieux looked just a few nights ago, this news is truly shocking. He was only 60. He looked fit and as if he had many years ahead of him. And tens of thousands of people had just poured a whole bunch of love onto him. What the heck happened?

We cats can only think: Nothing that we'll understand immediately. And if the Lemieux family doesn't care to share, nothing we'll understand ever, if at all. The bottom line is that we can never know what burdens people are carrying. So if you encounter a person who seems rude, surly, or unpleasant, try to think that maybe that person is suffering something you can't, or maybe shouldn't, comprehend.

Unless it's Donald Trump, of course — or Stephen Miller, or any of the Trumpsters or MAGAts. They deserve no benefit of the doubt, because they have no consciences, and carry no burdens. We cats HISS.

John Cornyn Ass-Snorkels Trump, Gets Beat Anyway

By Miss Kubelik

As Richard Nixon liked to say, let's make one thing perfectly clear: Benedict Donald's endorsement did not make Ken Paxton's Senate runoff victory in Texas possible yesterday. Benedict Donald made the (late) endorsement because he already knew that Paxton was going to win. The MAGA tea leaves were clear, and you know how Trump hates to be associated with losers.

Which means that not only is there a clearer path for Democrat James Talarico to get elected in November, but Texas Republicans just threw away more than two decades of Senate seniority for their state. (The 49 other states in the union say, "Thanks, guys!") And the relationship between the GOP Senate caucus and the White House just got uglier. Get ready for some fun when lawmakers return to DC next week.

It's doubtful that John Cornyn will take advantage of the fact that he's been unleashed. We don't see him going anti-Trump the way Senator Bill Cassidy did after he lost in Louisiana. Most likely — because he's a traditional dude, a near-Senate-Majority Leader, and an institutionalist — he'll remain mostly silent about his humiliation. But we can't say the same for his supporters.

Talarico wisely held out an olive branch to Cornyn voters last night, assuring them that they were welcome in his camp. So it'll be interesting to see what, for example, the Lone Star State's blue-haired Barbara Bush ladies do going forward. Surely they're appalled at their official Senate candidate. Will they close their checkbooks? Probably. Will they even show up to vote? Uncertain. Or will they do the right thing and turn out for the Democratic seminarian in November? To the GOP's consternation, it's possible. We cats PURR.

In Love With Leo

By Zamboni

Ever since Elon Musk took it over, Twitter has become a cesspool of MAGA madness, Nazis and racism. So you can imagine how they're reacting to what Pope Leo's been up to this week. (We don't recommend scrolling through any of their threads.)

If Leo has turned out to be a thorn in Benedict Donald's side, he drove himself in deeper yesterday with his encyclical calling for AI regulation, something the Trumpsters are definitely not keen on. But since Trump is probably the most racist President since Woodrow Wilson, what really must stick in his craw is the Pope's apology for how the Catholic Church historically enabled the slave trade.

"Already in the early modern period, the Apostolic See of Rome, responding to the requests of sovereigns, intervened several times in order to regulate and legitimize forms of subjugation, and, in certain cases, including the enslavement of 'infidels,'" Leo wrote. "For this, in the name of the church, I sincerely ask for pardon."

We wouldn't be Catholics for a zillion dollars, but gosh, we're awfully smitten with this Pope. We love anyone who drives Trump and his minions crazy, but leave it to journalist and historian Rachel Swarns to remind us what's important in all this. "I have spent nearly a decade documenting the Catholic Church’s involvement in the American slave trade, but this news hit me first as a Black Catholic," she wrote. "I have held tight to my faith, as the church has begun grappling with this history, and today I feel so deeply moved." We cats PURR.

De Adder Du Jour

 

Michael de Adder is just one of the best political cartoonists around. We cats wish him a happy birthday today, too! And we PURR.

(IMAGE: deadder.net)

Cat Fight! John Cornyn Vs. Ken Paxton

By Baxter

If you want to find some fun this Memorial Day weekend, look no further than Texas, where John Cornyn and Ken Paxton are scrapping like mad, wet cats before Tuesday's Republican Senate runoff.

"In a race that’s been defined by personal shots, the latest online dust-up between the two underscores the difficult path forward for the Texas GOP," POLITICO reports. "The fighting between the two camps has gotten so ugly that some Republicans are fearful it will dampen turnout in the midterms, hurt down-ticket Republicans — and possibly cost them the seat." (Yes, please.)

Meanwhile, we cats have returned from being away a few days to find the "Senate-Republicans-are-livid-about-Trump's-Paxton-endorsement" story still going strong. Kind of surprising since they're mad about a whole bunch of things — particularly about Benedict Donald's zillion-dollar terrorist slush fund. (After all, they can read a poll.)

But it's not difficult to understand they're so pissed about Trump stiffing Cornyn. John Cornyn may be an unexciting institutionalist to the MAGA faithful (and to anyone else who gives him at least a moment's thought), but in GOP circles he's been a prodigious fund-raiser. He chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 2010 and 2012 election cycles, and has always been tight with the moneybags types. And he's been generous to his Senate colleagues.

Imagine if you're a baby Republican from a state like, say, North Dakota, with a limited universe in which to raise cash. A good fund-raising friend like Cornyn can not only help get you elected/re-elected, he can help keep the Senate in your party's hands so you can taste at least a little bit of power on Capitol Hill.

If you drill down far enough — and it usually doesn't take long — you'll find that every story like this springs from a question of money. What will Senate Republicans do for spare change, without their longtime friends John Cornyn and (since he's retiring) Mitch McConnell? They could end up in the minority, and guys like Ken Paxton won't raise a dime for them. But he'll post a few mean tweets. We cats PURR.

CRAP (Congressional Republicans Always Punt)

By Sniffles

John Thune and his merry band of spineless Senate enablers were — well, not so merry today. With the entire world throwing up over Benedict Donald's billion-dollar slush fund for Trumpsters who beat cops, their reconciliation bill was stuck. Finally, they just called it a day and went home. (This was after House Republicans put the Iran war powers resolution on ice — they didn't have the votes to kill it.)

Meanwhile, Americans are paying a shit-ton more for gas, groceries, and healthcare, and the GOP — in charge of all branches of the federal government — are doing nothing about any of it. It's not governing by morons — it's complete and utter non-governing. (By morons.)

It's becoming increasingly clear that if you stand up and say no, good stuff happens. Remember, Democrats refused to bend on funding for ICE and border patrol. Eventually, the Republicans buckled and passed Homeland Security funding, thinking they would take care of the rest in reconciliation. Well, it didn't quite turn out that way, did it?

Donald, wanting billions for his silly ballroom and for insurrectionists, has put his party — you know, the one that the media say he has in an "iron grip" — in this terrible bind. And now, we have unhappy Republicans in disarray. Hanging tough pays off. We cats PURR.

Paxton Wins Endorsement — Cornyn, Senate Republicans, And Texas Kids All Lose

By Hubie and Bertie

The Republican Senate runoff in Texas is next Tuesday, May 26. And now the hapless incumbent, John Cornyn, has gotten a nasty surprise.

Benedict Donald had neglected to support either Cornyn or his crazy and corrupt primary opponent, state Attorney General Ken Paxton — even though he had promised an endorsement ages ago. Then, he somehow let it slide, and some pundits and observers were wondering if he'd just stand aside and let things play out.

Well, not anymore. Today, Trump endorsed Paxton.

Cornyn is stunned, and Senate Republicans are furious. Paxton, they believe, is the much weaker candidate, so Trump may have just handed the seat to Democrat James Talarico (wouldn't it be loverly)? Majority Leader John Thune, who had been lobbying Donald for Cornyn, tried to get past reporters without saying much of anything beyond "It's his decision." We cats offer a shake of the hand and a fat Daniel Webster cigar to the first journalist who asks, "And you're surprised?"

Any Republican who's shocked by this is too stupid to be in the Senate. But there they are. It's baffling how they continue to delude themselves about the malevolent toddler who controls their party. Each one of these guys is certain that he'll be the one to figure out, sidestep, or somehow survive Trump's wrath.

And one other thing: If they had been paying attention, they would have noticed Paxton's "settlement" with Texas Children's Hospital last week. The unholy agreement is making the hospital pay $10 million in Medicaid reimbursements (even though it denies any fraud took place), fire five doctors who provided gender-affirming care, and establish a "detransition clinic" (ugh). In other words, Texas Children's caved to Paxton and agreed to bully trans kids.

Did these shocked Republicans not figure out that maybe Paxton timed the settlement to force an endorsement in his Senate race? After all, transgender people are one of the groups at the top of Trump's hate list. It's kind of beyond coincidental, don't you think? We cats HISS.

Le Chandail De Hockey

By Miss Kubelik

The jury is out on the new Quebec premier, Christine Fréchette. Everybody hated her predecessor, but we're expecting Fréchette to still champion a separation referendum — even though a majority of Quebec voters are not interested. (Can't let Alberta have all the fun, right?)

But she sorta gets points for giving French President Emmanuel Macron a Canadiens hockey jersey today. (The name on the jersey is Canadien forward Alexandre Texier, a native of Grenoble, France).

She has to be happy that her gesture turned out not to be an empty one, since the Habs managed to eliminate the Buffalo Sabres in the Stanley Cup playoffs tonight. But we'd caution her on the fall referendum. Canada is feeling especially unified these days, and we can all thank Benedict Donald for it. Like the Republicans' efforts at gerrymandering, perhaps the Canadian separatists should be careful what they wish for — or at least come to realize that they've chosen the wrong time. We'll see. In the meantime, we cats PURR.

Large Numbers

  

By Zamboni

For awhile this morning, the lede story on the homepage of The New York Times was about its latest NYT/Siena poll, which had Benedict Donald's approval ratings — across the board — in the toilet.

It's really tough to find a historical precedent for numbers like this. You're reaching back to Richard Nixon in the last throes of Watergate (approval at 24 percent), but the poll's internals tell an even starker story. It's so bad that you'd be forgiven for expecting to see Rabbi Korff show up in the East Room soon.

Trump is underwater with Latino voters by 51 points. Down with young voters age 18 to 29 by 57 points. Lagging among independents by 43 points. These three groups were key to his win in 2024, and it makes you wonder how wiped out the Republicans would be without all their desperate, racist gerrymandering and voter suppression.

The poll also found Democrats with an eye-popping 14-percent advantage on the generic ballot — despite the corporate media's lazy drumbeat that nobody likes us. Heck, the poll shows Latinos favoring Democrats by 30 points. When will the press wake up and smell the cafecito? We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Disrespecting Our Honored Dead

By Baxter

We cats were trying to think of the most affecting video to accompany the story about FBI Director Kash Patel's special "VIP snorkel" excursion at the USS Arizona memorial last summer.

Was it the newsreels from 1941? (Too many "Jap" references, ugh.) Or the clips from 1943's Air Force, or 1953's From To Here to Eternity? In the end, we decided on Pearl Harbor (2001), which, despite its faults, really packed a punch about how ordinary people — military and non-military alike — experienced the attack.

We're only doing this to (we hope) show how disrespectful it was for FBI Idiot-in-Chief and third-rate podcaster Kash Patel to have snorkeled above the USS Arizona memorial last year.

VIP snorkels are only granted on rare occasions. As in: You have the cremains of an Arizona survivor, and you want to scatter them there. Otherwise, recreational excursions are strongly discouraged.

Benedict Donald has already called the Americans who fell at Normandy "suckers and losers." Now, we have this Patel party dive on the Arizona. How revolting. And how much more will it take for Americans to turn on these Trumpsters? We cats HISS.

"Play-It-Down-The-Middle" Bill Cassidy Loses Big

By Sniffles

Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy lost his primary for re-election yesterday. In fact, he came in third. The last Republican Senator to come up this short was Luther Strange in Alabama, in 2017.

But Luther Strange didn't vote to convict Benedict Donald in his second impeachment trial. So there you go. (We'll see if the Trumpsters can similarly unseat Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie on Tuesday.)

We cats are not crying big tears over Dr. Cassidy, since he compromised all his principles to shepherd through RFK Jr.'s confirmation as HHS secretary. Sorry, Bill — you've actually also violated your Hippocratic oath. Allying with the Trumpsters not only has put Americans at risk but has been a death sentence for thousands of people abroad who depended on support from USAID. We don't know how you can live with yourself, but perhaps you have some innovative coping mechanisms.

Anyway, as the saying goes, Everything Trump Touches Dies. The other interesting aspect of yesterday's election is that Democratic turnout was nearly 345,000 votes — a respectable number in a crazily red state. We're thinking that people of color and other minorities don't like it when the ruling class decides to try to erase them. Maybe they channel that anger by turning out to vote instead. We cats PURR.

Tidbits And Cat Treats: Stuff We Don't Love Edition

By Hubie and Bertie

There are times when the news isn't so bad. This past week didn't qualify. Here are the stories that we found especially annoying today.

Why in the world would Governor Jared Polis commute the unrepentant Tina Peters's jail sentence? Especially now, with all the Trumpy election f*ckery going on around the midterms. This is a despicable act — and by a Democrat, no less. As Senator Michael Bennet said, Peters "broke the law, undermined our elections, and was convicted by a jury of her peers. With Trump continuing to attack Colorado, we must stand strong for our institutions and the rule of law." (And Jared, you can kiss any Presidential ambitions you had goodbye.)

In the category of "Not A Surprise," SCOTUS has refused to let Virginia use the new map that the voters endorsed and which the Virginia top court unceremoniously tossed out. You'd think we'd be used to it by now, but the hypocrisy of the Roberts Court is still breathtaking — they allowed Texas's mid-decade gerrymander, even though it wasn't approved by anybody except Greg Abbott. Maddening.

On the sporting side, about 13,000 fans turned out in Quebec City's Videotron Centre last night to watch the Montreal Canadiens beat the Buffalo Sabres — on a jumbotron, not on the ice. No players skating in front of them, but they still cheered the Habs on to victory. But hey — let's try a new expansion team in Arizona or Atlanta instead. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman just knows it's going to work this time.

And of course the biggest and most awful thing is the rapid re-descent into Jim Crow that we're witnessing since the Supremes' Callais decision. We haven't been this depressed since they overturned Roe and Southern states rushed to deny women their bodily autonomy. But if you're looking for a way to vent your frustration, make plans to join an All Roads Lead to the South rally tomorrow. We cats PURR. 

First Nations Should Come First

By Miss Kubelik

Quite a smackdown yesterday for the silly separatists in Alberta, Canada. A judge in Calgary squashed their petition for an independence referendum, saying that Alberta should have checked in with its Indigenous citizens and how they think secession would affect their treaty rights.

No surprise that the Maple MAGA white guys who want to leave Canada brushed the First Nations off. But how sad for them, since they swore they had collected well over the 178,000 signatures needed to force the referendum onto October's ballot. (They also managed to screw up by posting the private data of almost three million Albertans on the interwebs, and somebody may get hauled off the hoosegow over it.)

Moral of the story: You can't hold a referendum on whether to take something that isn't yours in the first place — like land covered by treaties that predate the creation of your province. The separatists' racism and sense of entitlement blinded them to this simple fact. We cats HISS and them and PURR at everything else.

"Be Very Careful What You Pray For"

By Zamboni

The world is on tenterhooks, waiting for the results of FBI Director Kash Patel's alcohol test.

LOL. Like it's gonna happen.

So let's talk about something that did happen: The South Carolina state senate has refused to consider redistricting itself for the 2026 midterms. The vote was 29 to 17. The Republican governor didn't back redrawing the districts, either, but last week, the state house went ahead and passed a calendar extension to get it done. Yesterday's senate vote was a smackdown of that vote — and of Benedict Donald.

None of this especially noble. The state senators didn't suddenly wake up and realize how wrong it would be to erase the votes of more than a million Black citizens. They just didn't think they could redraw the maps in time for an early June primary. And maybe they took note of Jim Clyburn's warning the other day: Trying to wipe out his district could put three and maybe four Republican seats in play. We cats PURR.

Rock-A-Bye, Donald

By Baxter

After the rumpus that the media kicked up over Joe Biden's debate performance nearly two years ago, why don't journalists ask what the heck is up with Benedict Donald? Biden's bad debate was a single event. But Trump has appeared both mentally and physically compromised for months, in many different ways.

Today, he fell asleep during a public event (again). He can't walk a straight line from Marine One to the White House, and he when he descends the stairs from Air Force One, he grips the handrails for dear life. Every month he disappears for days at a time, and then re-emerges with bruises on the back of his hands, slathered in bad makeup.

He rarely holds road rallies now, and when he does go out in public, there are strange bulges under his suit that suggest Foley catheters or ventricular assist devices (placed as a bridge to a heart transplant).

Yes, it's an old saw at this point, but can you imagine if Joe Biden did stuff like this? Jake Tapper would be busy churning out his seventh book. (That's how many deadly sins there are, you know.)

The press's lack of curiosity has naturally left the rest of us to indulge in speculation. Currently, the favored narrative is that Team Trump is quietly preparing not just for a Democratic Congress (yes, please) but for a time, perhaps soon, when Donald is decedent or completely incapacitated — when the ruse can't be sustained anymore, even with our compliant, knee-bending media. The question in our furry minds is: What, if anything, are the Trumpsters telling Vance? We're guessing, not much. It might be the most flagrant instance of keeping a veep in the dark since Roosevelt and Truman in 1945. We cats HISS.

You Should Be Dancing, Yeah

By Sniffles

Sir David Attenborough's birthday bash in London wasn't the only fabulous party this weekend. Hungary's new Prime Minister, Péter Magyar, took the oath of office yesterday in Budapest amid daylong celebrations that inspired some, shall we say, ecstatic moves from the incoming Health Minister, Zsolt Hegedűs.

Here's a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls: The Trumpsters were so openly rooting for Hungary's far-right, anti-EU autocrat, Viktor Orbán, that they sent the Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, over there last month to campaign for him. Disgusting and humiliating — for Vance. Orbán lost in a landslide. Someday, Americans will be able to dance like this, too. We cats PURR.

Sir David At 100, Part Deux

 

Big party at the Royal Albert Hall last night. It looks like a lot more fun than the Bezos-benighted Met Gala this week. The only problem with this video is that there are no cats in it. But we PURR anyway.

Peace, Not Apartheid

By Hubie and Bertie

Full disclosure: We cats are white. And we couldn't care less about the prediction that by 2045, the United States will become a minority-majority country. Are we falling down on the job as the dominant caste? Should we be defending our whiteness more?

Nah. In fact, total nah.

Who cares about that crap? In a democracy like America claims to be, racial imbalances are not supposed to matter, right? But — oh! Maybe we're not really a democracy, or white folks wouldn't be so worried about being outnumbered. Is that it? Yep, that's probably it.

There's always been a gap between what the US stands for and what it really is. We all know this. Thomas Jefferson may have written that famous line about everybody being created equal, but he was an enslaver, and his definition also didn't include non-property-owners, or Indigenous people, or women. But his words are immortal — so we've spent the last 250 years trying to live up to them. Sometimes we've done well. Most often, we haven't. It's a continuing struggle.

Even knowing this, though, it's been mighty dispiriting to see the developments over the last week: the Supreme Court obliterating the Voting Rights Act, the Southern states' rush to gerrymander Black people out of existence, and Virginia's top court tossing the Commonwealth's new map out on a technicality.

The Republicans' goal is clear. They're freaked out about 2045, so they're trying to make America a 21st-century version of apartheid South Africa, through draconian immigration enforcement and voter suppression. To see what they're doing in Tennessee, as just one example, is wildly depressing. But we can't believe they'll be successful in the long term.

First, the political and economic forces against the GOP in 2026 are just too strong to overcome. In a wave election, all the gerrymandering and suppressing in the world still won't be able to cancel out the will of the voters. (Important message here: Let's make it a wave, everybody. It doesn't happen without us.)

Second, the United States of America is a far more diverse country than apartheid South Africa ever was. We are too big and too cumbersome for minority rule to be effectively enforced (apartheid South Africa was, at most, 40 million people, with Black Africans accounting for 75 percent, while the current population of the US is 340 million, with 50 million identifying as Black). Still, the racist Trumpsters will try for it. But we have to believe most people in the US are not okay with segregation. Paws crossed.

We have our marching orders. The states will continue to wrangle over redistricting, but we have to keep registering people and getting out the vote in numbers like we've never seen before. We must have that wave election — not just to recapture the House, but also the Senate.

And once we do manage to get back into control, we have to follow South Africa's example in one respect: Hold a Truth & Reconciliation Commission. Unless we grapple with our racist, enslaving past, and are willing to extend the American dream of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness to all people, we'll still fall short of the ideal that the Founders envisioned. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

(IMAGE: Nicole Hester, The Tennessean)

Sir David At 100

By Miss Kubelik

On this, the eve of naturalist Sir David Attenborough's centenary — which, we're happy to say, he's with us to celebrate — we cats are in search of some gentler news.

So what better opportunity to revisit his memorable walk through the Buckingham Palace gardens with Queen Elizabeth in 2018?

You have to think that the Queen's interest in global warming was encouraged by her son Charles, but also by her keen sense of succeeding generations and what issues and challenges they will face. (The impending collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is our latest freakout, not to mention the 2026 El Niño, which promises to wreak some additional havoc this year.)

"I won't be here then," the Queen said, quite sensibly, eight years ago. But the rest of us are, at least for now. And in spite of everything, the United States is still the country the world looks to on existential issues like climate change. We have to lead on it, which means that we have to vote all these Trumpsters and Republicans out of office — this year, in 2028, and beyond. Let's get working, everyone. In the meantime, happy birthday, Sir David. You inspire us all. We cats PURR.

Chedrick Crushes It

By Zamboni

The press is buzzing about all those Indiana Republicans who got their heads handed to them in yesterday's primary election there (except for the one high-profile Trump resister who survived). But there was also a special election in Michigan, which (as you'd imagine, given the state of journalism today) isn't getting nearly as much attention.

Democrat Chedrick Greene was elected to the Michigan State Senate, which will keep the chamber in Democrats' hands until the end of 2026. Greene is replacing a Democrat who was elected to the US House of Representatives, and he'll run for a full term in November. Meanwhile, the Republican he defeated yesterday will have to earn his place on the November ballot in a contested GOP primary in August. (Greene is unopposed on the Democratic side.)

What's astounding, once again, is that Greene won big with 60 percent, in a district that Kamala Harris won in 2024 by just one point. Hello, everyone! We Democrats are still overperforming like gangbusters, but you wouldn't know it from reading corporate media. The story in The New York Times made absolutely no mention of Greene's margin of victory — journalistic malpractice, as far as we're concerned.

So forgive us if we find this result more important at the moment than Trump retribution in a solid-red state like Indiana. We cats congratulate Chedrick Greene, and we PURR.

Dear Donald, We All Hate You

By Baxter

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos and his blow-up sex-doll wife may be presiding over the Met Gala tonight, but his newspaper, along with Ipsos, just published a poll that shows Benedict Donald in deep doo-doo. (Bezos's paper also won a Pulitzer Prize in Public Service today, in spite of everything he's done to destroy it.)

But back to the poll. It's brutal.

• Sixty-two percent of respondents disapprove of Trump overall.
• Seventy-two percent disapprove of how Trump is handling inflation.
• Seventy-six percent disapprove of how Trump is handling the cost of living.
• Sixty-six percent disapprove of how Trump is handling Iran.
• Sixty-five percent disapprove of how Trump is handling relations with our allies.

Have we ever seen numbers like this? This might be one instance in which Trump's bombast is justified (but of course about the wrong things, from his point of view). We cats will try not to ask how the media would handle this if it were about Joe Biden.

Well, we know the answer to that. Meanwhile, Republicans are saddled with catastrophe, but still don't seem to be able to grab an off-ramp from the disaster that is Donald. They won't support a War Powers Resolution, pull back their support for ICE, or condemn the non-release of the complete Epstein files. To those of us clear-thinking Americans, any one of these stances seems commonsense and obvious. But they're caught between a rock and a hard place — partially because they've already gerrymandered themselves into ruby-red districts where it would be fatal for them to break with Trump.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has added eight newly competitive candidates to their "Red to Blue" initiative — including two in Texas's recently redistricted map, LOL.

You know, it's only May, and a long way to November. But you'd be tempted to think that things have gotten so dire for the Trumpsters and the GOP that try as they might, they won't be able to redraw their way out of it. That would be hilarious, and would make us cats PURR.

Rococo Loco

"The White House was designed by James Hoban, an Irish architect who migrated to the US for economic opportunities (what a great American story!). He originally designed it in the Neoclassical style, drawing on Palladian and Georgian influences.

"Neoclassicalism was a reaction against the Rococo movement, which reactionaries saw as overly ornate and frivolous. A bit of gold used sparingly and strategically can look fine in a Neoclassical building, but the amount Trump used has so radically encrusted the room that it's now in Rococo territory, making it look like a mismatch of aesthetics.

"The Oval Office offends on at least three levels: the ersatz nature of the decor, the way it grates against Hoban’s Neoclassical vision, and the way it misunderstands the classical-republican symbolism that the White House was meant to project in the first place.

"As others have noted, this is the kind of decor you'd expect from dictators who rob their own country."

—Derek Guy, on Twitter

Geography

We don't know how Round One of the Stanley Cup playoffs will end up, but we can say for sure that the island of Montréal looks like this right now. (Even after last night's game.) We cats PURR.

Our Plan

This says it all. We cats PURR.

Charles Schools The Trumpsters

"The Founding Fathers were bold and imaginative rebels with a cause. Two hundred and fifty years ago— or, as we say in the United Kingdom 'just the other day'—they declared independence. By balancing contending forces and drawing strength in diversity, they united 13 disparate colonies to forge a nation on the revolutionary idea of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

"They carried with them, and carried forward, the great inheritance of the British Enlightenment—as well as the ideals which had an even deeper history in English common law and Magna Carta.

"These roots run deep, and they are still vital. Our Declaration of Rights of 1689 was not only the foundation of our constitutional monarchy, but also provided the source of so many of the principles reiterated, often verbatim, in the American Bill of Rights of 1791.

"And those roots go even further back in our history: the US Supreme Court Historical Society has calculated that Magna Carta is cited in at least 160 Supreme Court cases since 1789—not least as the foundation of the principle that executive power is subject to checks and balances.

"This is the reason why there stands a stone, by the River Thames at Runnymede where Magna Carta was signed in the year 1215. This stone records that an acre of that ancient and historic site was given to the United States of America by the people of the United Kingdom, to symbolize our shared resolve in support of liberty, and in memory of President John F. Kennedy."

—King Charles III, Address to Congress, April 29, 2026