Joyeuse Saint-Patrick!

Don't ask us to explain this, but apparently the City of Montreal's St. Patrick's Day parade was today — five days after March 17th — and it took place in a snowstorm. Not only that, the city's mayor, who is of Chilean descent, was out there celebrating with everyone else. This is really cool. We cats PURR.

AIPAC Crashes And Burns

By Sniffles

The midterms' primary season grinds along, and we cats have a few thoughts about the Illinois contests that took place last week. Our particular focus is the Congressional race in IL-09 — not our personal when-we-were-kittens stomping grounds, but close enough for government work, as they say.

IL-09 was one of those races that highlighted the unfortunate role of money from AIPAC — something that we've noticed is a worrying source of discord in our party. The race was to succeed able Congresswoman Jan Schakowski, who is retiring after nearly 30 years. Evanston mayor Daniel Biss came in first with 29.6 percent of the vote. Bernie Broette Kat Abughazaleh was second with 25.9 percent. AIPAC-funded candidate Laura Fine trailed embarrassingly in third place with 20 percent.

This makes us happy, because Biss's win shows us that Jewish Democratic candidates do not need to toe Benjamin Netanyahu's line to be successful. Biss, whose mother is Israeli and who has said that the current Israeli government's behavior is "appalling," has made it clear that AIPAC should not dictate America's foreign policy — and that the lobbying group's tactics against him were deceptive and undemocratic. "AIPAC found out the hard way that my district is not for sale," he said.

You know, at this point, we should just treat AIPAC today as a Republican organization. They are completely Netanyahu-Trump-aligned, and we should salute Jan Schakowski for bucking them — although we're pretty sure that she received a bunch of AIPAC money in her earlier campaigns. (Those were the good old days.) She has had a distinguished career in Congress as a loyal Pelosi lieutenant, has always encouraged and supported women to run for office, and in this race picked the most highly qualified candidate to succeed her.

The other point is that AIPAC —which once had an unassailable reputation in Washington —is now toxic. More evidence that everything Trump touches dies. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

File This For When He Goes

Will any Republicans condemn this? Or will they wear it like cheap Florsheim shoes that don't fit? We cats HISS.

For Women's History Month: Sister Rosetta Tharpe

 

Her influence on rock 'n roll is self-evident. All she needs is for white folks to recognize it. We cats salute her, and we PURR.

"This...Is London"

By Hubie and Bertie

So CBS News Radio, after nearly a century of broadcasting, is being shut down by Gen X idiot Bari Weiss, who cannot possibly understand the influence and impact of the House of Murrow on American journalism, politics, history, and culture.

"We understand how difficult this news is for our staff and their colleagues, who have worked side by side with us to cover some of the most significant stories of our time," Weiss said.

No, you don't, Bari. You absolutely don't. We cats call bullshit on that.

Weiss was born a full 40-plus years after Edward R. Murrow set the standard for on-the-scene reporting with his broadcasts from the 1940 London Blitz. The so-called Murrow Boys reported not only World War II and its aftermath, but also the McCarthy era and every story of national importance through the end of the Sixties. (When we were kittens, our dad, in fact, listened to WBBM every morning in Chicago before he went to work.) Walter Cronkite was not a Murrow Boy, but he inherited the distinguished mantle. His time, sadly, is long gone.

This raping of CBS makes us sick. Let's hope that in some future timeline, clueless fuckups like Weiss can be ejected, and its former glory restored. In the meantime, we cats HISS.

Now All They Need Is A Nobel Prize

The people of the Twin Cities have received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for their peaceful protest against the brutality of Trump and ICE. An honor they well deserve!

And just to make Benedict Donald extra-mad, the Kennedy Library Foundation is honoring Fed Chair Jerome Powell, too. We cats PURR.

Is Everyone An Epstein?

By Miss Kubelik

Cesar Chavez's farm worker world could not have been more different from Jeffrey Epstein's high-flying mixing and mingling with zillionaires, but apparently the two shared something important: an appreciation for little girls. That's the news from a New York Times investigation that hit our screens today, and it's astonishing.

Is it a good thing that we can still be shocked and appalled? Because we're shocked and appalled. So are a lot of other folks, who are rushing to cancel the annual parades and celebrations that were scheduled for Chavez's birthday on March 31. Heck, in California and a few other states, Chavez's birthday is a state holiday, for crying out loud. (Note to Gavin Newsom: Yes, please change the name to something that salutes farm workers as a whole, not just their now-tarnished leader.)

And we haven't even mentioned the other part of the story, which is that Dolores Huerta — Chavez's partner in building the UFW, who has her own well-earned place in labor union history — has finally told the world that Chavez raped her twice and that she had children by him. You can't help but wonder how she felt when #MeToo exploded in 2017, because she's admitted today that she's realized there were others Chavez abused, and because of that she couldn't be silent anymore.

Well, good for Huerta, who is about to turn 96 and deserves to unburden herself. Still, it's heartbreaking to think that she had to hide all this for the sake of the farm worker movement. How many other Dolores Huertas are out there, in how many other political and social campaigns? It's unknowable, but disturbing to think about.

When we cats were kittens, we first realized who Cesar Chavez was when we saw him break bread with Bobby Kennedy to end his 1968 hunger strike. He seemed like someone from another plane of existence — a man who would sacrifice everything for the sake of the people he led. He's certainly come down to earth now.

At least, unlike the Trumpsters, we're willing to reassess our thinking when our heroes turn out to have feet of clay. (MAGA will never admit they've been duped by Donald.) But it still makes us HISS.

Happy St. Gertrude's Feast Day!

 

Did you think we forgot? (Happy St. Paddy's Day, too.) We cats PURR.

HIPAA Violation

 

By Zamboni

These two are simply horrible. No morals, no decency.

What was that? You thought that Trump's fundraising email with the photo of the dignified transfer of remains was as bad as he could get? Guess again — except this time, he has help from Preacher of the House Mikey Johnson, who is too simpering and sycophantic to object.

Donald Trump takes such pleasure in other people's misfortune. And he has absolutely no qualms about behaving like this with Susie Wiles sitting right next to him. You know Susie Wiles — the Chief of Staff who's just been diagnosed with breast cancer? Incredible. We cats HISS.

De Adder Du Jour

 

We saw a gas price of $3.75 a gallon today, and we're beginning to think that, all things considered, it might be a bargain. We cats HISS.

(IMAGE: Michael de Adder, deadder.net)

Lest We Furr-get: The DAR Has Always Sucked

 

By Baxter

In 1939, the Howard University School of Music asked the Daughters of the American Revolution to reserve DAR Constitution Hall for a benefit concert starring the renowned contralto Marian Anderson. As you may know, the all-white, all-idiot DAR refused, because Anderson was Black.

They banned Paul Robeson in 1930 for the same reason. However, in 1930 Eleanor Roosevelt was not First Lady.

ER furiously resigned from the DAR, booked Anderson for a concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and the rest is the kind of history that the Trumpsters are now trying to erase.

So we cats were intrigued to see this photo in an exhibit of Richard Avedon's portraits at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. It's titled The Generals of the Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Convention, Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC, October 15, 1963. We need the back story. How did this photo happen?

Look at the expressions on the faces of the white Daughters: fury, annoyance, rejection, resignation. Everyone looking everywhere except at the one Black general in their midst. It's an amazing shot.

Fun fact: This photo was framed and mounted opposite Avedon's enormous (and famous) portrait of Anderson herself. MMFA's exhibit curator really knew what she was doing. We cats PURR.

Three Little Kittens Want These NATO Mittens

 

By Sniffles

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Norway observing NATO exercises and sending the message that no malign actor should think of messing with the Arctic. And he got this nifty pair of mittens. (We still need them — it's snowing picturesquely in Montreal right now.)

Back here in Canada, things are looking pretty rosy for Carney's party. The MP for Nunavut, Lori Idlout, crossed the floor from the NDP to join the Liberals, putting them one vote away from a majority in Parliament. Four MPs have changed parties since November, three of them Conservatives. All Carney needs to do now is win two of the three upcoming by-elections, and he'll have 172 seats. (It'll be a thin margin, but Carney will manage his caucus better than Mikey Johnson.)

Conservatives can whine all they want, but they never had a problem when Stephen Harper engineered high-profile floor crossings 20 years ago. It must be frustrating for them, though — Harper was a much stronger leader for them than the hapless and unappealing Pierre Poilievre, whom they picked to head the party even though polls show that a whole lot of Canadians loathe him.

It's the mirror image of where the Liberals are right now. In fact, the word that pollsters are using is "Carneymania." Wherever Justin Trudeau is, that's got to make him smile. We cats PURR.

Clown Show, Clown Shoes

Does anyone know why the Cabinet members didn't just go online and buy Trump's cheap Florsheim shoes in the correct size? Why would grown men be willing to humiliate themselves for Donald? We cats HISS.

Brigadier General (Ret.) Shawn Harris, WOW!

By Hubie and Bertie

Gosh, is Georgia's 14th Congressional District really going to go on our list of possible House flips? Yesterday's special election to replace Marjorie Taylor "I've-Got-My-Pension-So-I-Can-Leave-Now" Greene landed the Democratic candidate, Shawn Harris, in first place. Harris got 37.3 percent to Trump-backed Clayton Fuller's 34.9 percent, with the other Republicans in the race distantly trailing.

So okay, GA-14 was a jungle primary, which meant the GOP vote was split every which way from breakfast. But nevertheless, the Democrat in Taylor Greene's district came in first. Republicans should be spooked even if Fuller ends up winning the runoff on April 7.

Fuller should have come in first since he had Trump's backing. In fact, once Trump endorsed him the other GOP candidates should have immediately dropped out of the race. Isn't that how it's supposed to work in MAGA World? How dare the other Republicans not follow the Donald Decree? Hmmm.

Maybe Trump's influence is fading? After all, if you'd told us a year ago that Greene would be out of Congress and the special election to replace her would give the Democrat the lead, we'd have said you were crazy. But it's 2026, and anything is possible. We cats PURR.

P.S. If you'd like to contribute to Shawn Harris's campaign, click here. (What the heck, why not?)

Now We Have The Whole Set

 

Benedict Donald said, "Cuba will fall very soon. It may not be a friendly takeover." But Baby Marco's on it, as you can see. We cats still miss Tony Blinken, and we HISS and PURR at the same time.

Gas Up, Donald Down

By Miss Kubelik

NBC News is out with a new poll that shows Benedict Donald laboring under a 54 percent disapproval rating. Hmmm. If you ask us, his numbers are probably a lot worse. Oil prices have jumped, the Dow is sinking, and that's on top of the unspeakable images from Dover this weekend. As it turns out, wearing a baseball cap and looking down your pants at a dignified transfer ceremony doesn't go over well.

Trump wants us to believe that the increasing cost of gas is just a "short-term" problem (it isn't), and that it's going to "drop rapidly" (it won't). Since he's always had people driving him around and has never run an errand in his life, it hasn't occurred to him that paying more for gas has far-reaching effects: DoorDash deliverers and folks like plumbers, roofers, housekeepers, and babysitters (in short, anybody who drives to your home to provide a service) are all going to have to jack up their prices. Are you moving this summer? You'll pay extra for the truck that hauls your furniture. Going on vacation? The cost of flying or taking the train is going to climb, too. It's not going to be a pleasant summer.

Republicans are already in a panic about the elections in November. Why else would they refuse to boot Tony Gonzales out of Congress and hope that his decision to retire would suffice? They must preserve that slim majority in the House, even if it means working alongside a guy who sexted a staff member into self-immolation. We cats HISS.

We've Lost Larner. What Do We Do Now?

By Zamboni

You probably don't know Jeremy Larner, who died a few weeks ago. But he wrote one of the best — if not the best — political screenplays of all time. And even though he wrote it back in 1972, it's barely dated. (Young women in miniskirts and straw boaters no longer dance in kick lines at campaign rallies, thank goodness.) That must mean the foibles and outrages of American politics are still true. In fact, they're worse. We cats PURR at Larner for a job well done, and HISS at the rest.

These Are Hilarious, But We Miss Tony Blinken

 

Now all we need is Marco Rubio as Fidel Castro, and we'll have the whole set. We cats PURR.

Noem No More

 

By Baxter

We cats were already feeling pretty good this morning about everybody who showed up for Tuesday's primary in Texas. "Democratic turnout reached record levels, as more voters participated in the party’s primary than in the Republican one," CNN reported. Turnout was strong in North Carolina, too. Excellent!

And then Benedict Donald proved the interwebs rumors right and fired puppy killer Kristi Noem. Fun!

What's even better is that Noem seems to think that "Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas," which Trump totally made up when he sacked her, is a real job. "Thank you, POTUS!" she tweeted. Donald promised to provide more details about the "shield" soon, but considering his erratic behavior, we think there's a non-zero chance that that announcement never comes.

It's also pretty amusing, if in a grim way, that the media and the tweeters and observers are treating Noem's firing as a Donald decision. Trump is in such bad shape, both physically and mentally, that Stephen Miller is running the joint like no one has since Edith Wilson back in 1919. Gossip has it that Miller highly disapproved of Noem's extramarital nookies with Corey Lewandowski — which is hilarious when you consider who he works for. And Miller no doubt didn't appreciate Noem's stumble back in January, when she said, "Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the President and Stephen."

(Speaking of adultery, how long, do you think, before the Noems land in divorce court? "Bryon" can't have been pleased to be a prop at yesterday's House hearing, even though he left before members started asking his wife about fucking Lewandowski on the plane.)

Markwayne Mullin, meanwhile, is a subject for another post. We're holding off because there's also a non-zero chance that his "nomination," if you can call a post on Truth Social that, eventually crumbles. But although the world is better without Noem at DHS, she's done a ton of damage that has to be repaired. And the tragedy is that Trump didn't remove her for her many failures and outrages — he fired her for making him look bad on television. We cats HISS.

Texas Roundup

By Sniffles

The Democratic nominee for US Senate in Texas is a devout young man who calls out evangelical hypocrites with the actual words of Jesus, and wow, do they hate that. That's a side of James Talarico that we cats like a lot. But we do feel bad for Jasmine Crockett. Our hope now is that Texas Democrats have a kiss-and-make-up party like the one Maryland Democrats threw after their combative Senate primary in 2024. (Angela Alsobrooks went on to win the seat in November.)

Meanwhile, Republicans in Texas are a little grumpy that their Senate candidates, incumbent cipher John Cornyn and wildly corrupt MAGAt Ken Paxton, are headed for a runoff. Neither got more than 50 percent of the vote last night, and neither had received an endorsement from Donald Trump. But maybe it'll happen soon. Trump is promising that it will, and he wants whoever he passes over to quit the race.

In other words, Trump is auctioning his endorsement to the highest bidder. Which candidate will promise the most grift and graft in return for Donald's support? (Paxton seems like the likely expert in the field.) On the other hand, who will be more supine in the Senate? (Sounds like Cornyn, hands down.) On top of that, Senate Republicans are agitating for Trump to back Cornyn and put an end to all this.

But why would Paxton drop out? The runoff is May 26 — the Tuesday after the Memorial Day weekend, just tailor-made for a low turnout. Expect the MAGA fervent faithful who adore Ken to be much more motivated to vote that day than Cornyn's jaded elite.

Finally, what will distant-third-place-finisher Wesley Hunt do? If he were smart and kind of diabolical, he would get out in front of Trump and make an endorsement now — particularly if he was annoyed that he didn't earn Trump's support in the first place. It's hard to imagine him lining up behind Cornyn since Cornyn's team blamed its under-50 performance on Hunt's "vanity campaign" (ouch). Think of the mischief Hunt could make! That would make us cats PURR.

Tillis Is Tops (With Caveats)

By Hubie and Bertie

Lots of news in the firehose tonight, but what really stood out for us was Republican Senator Thom Tillis raking puppy killer Kristi Noem over the coals in today's Senate Oversight Committee hearing.

What we really like about it is that Tillis drew a direct line between Noem killing her dog to the lax training of the ICE agents who have detained, abused, and murdered American citizens, in Minnesota and elsewhere. That needed to be done, and was excellent work, Senator! Still, we wish that you and your fellow Republicans would not wait until (like you) you're retiring to call a spade a spade.

Our other question was: Why did Noem come to this Congressional hearing dressed like she was going to a party? Her hair was FOX-News-fluffed-out to the nth degree, she was flashing cleavage, and she was sporting a huge pair of dangling earrings. This is professional? This communicates her dedication to DHS's responsibility to protect Americans' safety? We think not. Please, universe, return us to the days of serious people at the head of serious government agencies, taking Congressional testimony seriously. We cats HISS.

World War Epstein Via De Adder Du Jour

Now we've had four service members killed in Trump's and Netanyahu's war against Iran. The casualty figure should actually be zero — because, well, obviously. Let's hope the American military families getting bad news are comforted that their loved ones died for Donald's shady business empire. We cats HISS.

World War Epstein

By Miss Kubelik

Now that the two Worst Persons Who've Ever Lived have plunged us into a war that nobody voted for (not Congress, not us), people are asking: What is the goal? What's the plan? What's the strategy? (Is there one?)

It's kind of hard to tell, since Benedict Donald hasn't troubled himself to speak to the nation about any of this. In fact, he's been under wraps — he must still be recovering from that endless SOTU.

Unfortunately, however, we cats know what the plan is. It's as obvious as the fake-gold gewgaws currently besmirching every surface of the Oval Office: Decapitate the Revolutionary Guard. Suppress the popular cries for democracy. Instead, install the Shah's son Reza Pahlavi as a puppet president. Once in power, Pahlavi will be free to merrily grift and graft in the finest traditions of Donald Trump.

In return, Trump will get:

• Control of the oil fields,
• Control of the other extraction industries like copper and zinc,
• Control of the Iron, steel, and petrochemical industries,
• Thirty-six miles of Persian Gulf coastline for tourist development, plus golf resort opportunities in the interior, and, of course...
• A shiny new Trump Tower on Pahlavi Square in Tehran.

In short, no nation-building here — just corruption on the scale of an entire national economy. And if anyone tries to claim that the Constitution prevents a President from unilaterally deploying the military to build his business empire, there are five to six justices on the Supreme Court who would probably disagree. We cats HISS.