Tidbits And Cat Treats: Counting The Wins Edition

By Baxter

It might be time to tally up a few recent victories. So put your feet up, pop a cool one and read on.

Lawyer and independent journalist Katie Phang is making life difficult for the Trump DOJ and for Todd Blanche in particular. Phang filed a lawsuit claiming that Blanche's non-cooperation with the Epstein Transparency Act impeded her professional ability to report the news. She's trying to get the courts to force Blanche to comply with the law, and the judge on the case, Emmet Sullivan, seems sympathetic to her cause. He agreed she had standing, and he ordered Blanche to produce the redacted files or explain why he cannot, no later than 3 PM Eastern time on Thursday, July 30. Great job, Katie!

The Warner Bros.-Paramount Skydance merger may not happen. Wouldn't that be loverly?

Republicans in Florida have been desperately trying to push extreme right-wing nutcase James Fishback off the ballot for the gubernatorial primary on August 18. Welp, too bad for them: A circuit court judge has ruled that candidate Jay Collins's claims that Fishback doesn't meet residency requirements were unproven. Fishback stays on. Gee, Trumpsters can't succeed anywhere in court, can they?

Lots of reassuring stories are surfacing about people rescuing cats, dogs, horses, and even hedgehogs from the fires in France and Spain. And aid workers are, believe it or not, finding pets who survived the Venezuelan earthquake, a whole month later. Those amazing animals!

Finally, Benedict Donald tried to rally what's left of the campaign faithful in Michigan today. From the coverage, it looks like his performance was weak, his speech rambling, and the crowd tepid. As if that weren't special enough, some fabulous dude shouted "Pedophile protector!" at him. We cats love it, and we PURR.

Well, All Right / Okay / You Win / We're In Love With You

 

The Mamdani Administration just budgeted $750,000 for New York City's first-ever pet food pantry — and another $750,000 for affordable spay and neuter services. Nicely done, Your Honor! 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.

"They Already Know Who's In Charge"

The Bidens have adopted two rescue black lab rescue pups. Willow Biden has the situation well in hand. We cats PURR.

Happy St. Gertrude's Feast Day!

 

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

Crazy Cat Lady Crosses The Rainbow Bridge

By Hubie and Bertie

Gee, the folks at Turner Classic Movies have had a rough December. It looks like they're going to have to update "TCM Remembers" again, now that Brigitte Bardot has left the planet.

We cats are conflicted about Bardot. Her animal-rights activism was excellent, and the foundation she established in her name fought against abuses like seal hunting, bullfighting and vivisection. But at the same time, she was openly right-wing, marrying into the political circle of Jean-Marie Le Pen. She also thought the #MeToo movement was ridiculous. Maybe things were different in Europe, where she made her films. (Or maybe she was just wrong.) Let's put it this way: If she were American and MAGA, that would definitely cancel her.

But it's hard to argue with her when she says, "People get on my nerves." We cats PURR and HISS at the same time.

Giant Cat Visits For Christmas

Please don't rag on us for these quickie Christmas posts. Yes, they're missing our usual trenchant political analysis — but next year is going to be a busy one, and we're resting up to get ready. We hope you've been able to do the same. Merry merry and happy happy! We cats PURR.

(IMAGE: John Fugelsang)

A Very Nico Christmas

Nico Carney is a very cute cat. Have you ever wondered why Benedict Donald doesn't have pets? It's because nobody wants to own him. Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, on the other hand, is a different story. We cats wish you a happy holiday, and we PURR.

These Pups Aren't Horsing Around

By Hubie and Bertie

Big day at the historic Saratoga Race Course tomorrow: It's the inaugural run for the Saratoga Corgi Cup!

(Yes, we know that we're writing about dogs here, but sometimes you have to bend the rules a little.)

Cats, obviously, are vastly superior creatures, and would never deign to compete in a "race" of any kind. Puh-leez. But when it comes to canines, we share the late Queen Elizabeth's passion — if not for horse racing, for these cute, low-riding pups who always seem to work so hard to get anywhere on those short little legs.

"Forty-eight corgis have been registered by their owners to take part in the competition," the race course reports. "Two qualifying rounds featuring four heats of 12 corgis each will take place on the main track after the third and fifth thoroughbred races of the afternoon. The top three finishers from each heat will advance to the championship round to comprise a 12-corgi field that will go to post after the seventh race."

The best part? Lucky Puppy, Inc. of Argyle, New York, will be there to showcase dogs that are seeking their forever homes. So maybe some lucky pet will go home with a family this weekend, thanks to the corgis.

We cats wish all the racers luck. Tomorrow will no doubt be so huge that soon, Benedict Donald will insist that he be awarded a Corgi Cup himself (just like the Purple Heart). We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

This Will Put A Twinkle In Your Eye, Too

 

These days, it's important to keep laughing. We cats PURR.

Everything's Terrible, So Here Are Some Cute Cat Pictures

Best Friends: Simply The Best.

By Zamboni 

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, is hard at work rescuing pets from the fires in Los Angeles and to help free up space in local animal shelters there. Caravans of cats (and dogs) have arrived at the sanctuary, where they will stay until it's safe to go home.

"Yesterday’s transport flight was a resounding success, bringing 58 cats and 26 dogs from Los Angeles to Kanab," Best Friends said in a statement. "Today, we’re pulling in dozens more animals from Pasadena Humane Society and LA Animal Services so they have room to provide a safe place to hold pets displaced by the fires.

"Additionally, more than 300 people have raised their hands in the last 24 hours to volunteer, many local to California. Some have already started vital cleaning assistance at the Best Friends Pet Adoption Center in Los Angeles, freeing up staff to focus on lifesaving transports."

This is the kind of work Best Friends is known for. They first got our attention back in 2005, when they rescued and re-homed pets after Hurricane Katrina. Sadly, the disasters keep marching on, but as Mr. Rogers said, "Look for the helpers." If you'd like to support Best Friends' efforts on behalf of pets in LA, click here. We cats PURR.

Woof Woof

 

By Baxter

Here's another dog-themed commentary on the vomit-inducing bilge that makes up today's news. For our sanity's sake, we've been shielding ourselves from most of the awful headlines, but somehow this one sneaked through. Of course, "Joe" and "Mika" are not journalists, but entertainers. Still and all, their bending the knee at Mar-a-Lago is a chilling reminder of the dangers of obeying in advance. For more helpful hints on authoritarianism, here is a link to On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder. We cats HISS at The Morning Schmoes and MSNBC.

(IMAGE: Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Now, That's A Doggie Bag

Unlike dogs, we cats are fastidious souls and use litter boxes for our business. So we wouldn't have run across this fabulous poop-bag box ourselves — we have BlueSky to thank! It's a pretty nifty sight on the day that President Biden authorizes Ukraine to hit Russia with our long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems. Take that, Vlad. We cats PURR.

Here's To Hadji

By Miss Kubelik

Every now and then a cat makes a headline that nearly everybody sees. Larry the Cat, who serenely presides over 10 Downing Street as chief mouser, is one. World leaders who visit Prime Minister Keir Starmer consider themselves lucky if Larry photobombs their arrivals at No. 10.

Another such cat was Hadji, the 22-year-old sidekick of legendary New York Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez. (If you're not a Mets fan, or even into baseball, pro tip: Hernandez was a guest star on that brilliant two-part Seinfeld episode, "The Boyfriend" — which we can watch and laugh at again and again, even in the darkest times.)

Hernandez announced yesterday that Hadji had crossed the Rainbow Bridge. "It was his time to go," Hernandez said. "He passed painlessly and with dignity. See you in another life, my old buddy. I know you'll be waiting for me with open paws." We cats salute Hadji, and we PURR.

This Will Not End Well

By Hubie and Bertie

It's really too bad that you can't do recall campaigns against state or federal officials in Ohio. State laws only allow recalls of local and municipal office holders — but if the rules went further, Ohio voters would have excellent reasons to exercise buyers' remorse on disgusting Republican Senator JD Vance.

Vance has put thousands of his own constituents' lives at risk by pushing, and then refusing to disavow, the hideously racist story that Haitian immigrants in Springfield are eating pets. (Benedict Donald famously repeated it in his disastrous Tuesday debate with Vice President Harris, whose reaction spoke for all of us.)

After they denied the story, Springfield's city offices have received bomb threats, which this week prompted two nearby elementary schools to close. Now, medical offices and two hospitals had to go into lockdown after similar threats. And the Proud Boys are on the march.

The interwebs are having a terrific time with Trump's debate outburst (including the wonderful Sarah Cooper, above), but this has inevitably escalated into something very dangerous. Feeling unsafe, Haitian families in Springfield are rightfully hunkering down in their homes. Still, we're afraid that somebody's going to get killed anyway — and it will be Trump's and Vance's fault. 

Is this how all dying campaigns circle the drain to their end? No, this one is singularly awful. We cats HISS.

Kamala's Good Week

By Miss Kubelik

Every campaign has good days and bad days, and goodness gracious, did we Democrats have a passel of bad days between June 26 and July 21. Of course, it's entirely possible that we'll have more tough times ahead — that's just how things work. But for right now, Vice President Kamala Harris is having an excellent run.

This week in particular has been one to savor, and not just because Harris held huge, rapturous rallies in North Carolina this afternoon, while it looked that Benedict Donald wasn't able to fill the modest, 2,000-seat Linda Ronstadt Music Hall in Tucson, Arizona.

The week essentially started with the debate on Tuesday night, of course — and with Taylor Swift's quick endorsement, which helped kick off hundreds of thousands of voter registrations and brought $47 million to Harris-Walz within the first 24 hours after Trump stumbled off the stage in Philadelphia. We cats had been concerned about the quality of the post-debate analysis, because (except for Lawrence O'Donnell) the pundits and talking heads are pretty inadequate at their jobs. But the universal consensus was that Harris won big.

Harris did so well, in fact, that Donald has now proceeded to chicken out of a rematch. You can't help but wonder if JD Vance will do the same in two weeks. After all, aren't all the debates "rigged" now?

Then, the next day, everybody showed up in New York at the 9/11 commemoration, including Trump and Vance in matching suits and ties (jeez, they are creepy and weird). Donald managed to shake Harris's hand and tell her, "Good job." She merely nodded and said "Thank you," and turned back to her conversation with Senator Chuck Schumer. Dark Brandon didn't quite succeed in suppressing a grin.

The 36 hours since have brought one fascinating development after another. First, we heard this morning that Republican Attorney General Alberto Gonzales endorsed Harris. Then we noticed that Donald's advancing dementia is starting to get more of the media's attention. And why wouldn't it, when he goes on and on about kids getting sex changes in middle school, and immigrants eating pets? We're waiting for journalists to catch on to the fact that Trump has suffered severe narcissistic injury from his whooping. It will only get worse, because now a few post-debate national polls have come out:

• Harris 50 — Trump 45 (+5) Morning Consult 
• Harris 47 — Trump 42 (+5) Ipsos/Reuters
• Harris 49 — Trump 45 (+4) YouGov/Times (likely voters) 
• Harris 50 — Trump 47 (+3) Leger/New York Post 
• Harris 48 — Trump 45 (+3) SoCal Strategies

Poor Donald. How simply frightful. How humiliating! How delightful!

But our favorite new story is about that racist, performative fool, Laura Loomer, who is suddenly seen everywhere with Benedict Donald (and with Moose & Squirrel nowhere to be found). Republicans and Trump allies are unhappy, including Lady Lindsey Graham and — gasp! — Marjorie Taylor Greene. In fact, Loomer has descended into cat fights with both of them. Can Melania be far behind?

We can't think of anything right now that will peg Trump more as an unfit nutjob than the fact that he's hanging out with an unfit nutjob. Of course, there are tons of crazies around him, but Loomer's a real standout. We cats hope she never leaves his side, and we PURR.

Linda Tells Donald: You're No Good

"Donald Trump is holding a rally on Thursday in a rented hall in my hometown, Tucson. I would prefer to ignore that sad fact. But since the building has my name on it, I need to say something.

"It saddens me to see the former President bring his hate show to Tucson, a town with deep Mexican-American roots and a joyful, tolerant spirit. I don't just deplore his toxic politics, his hatred of women, immigrants and people of color, his criminality, dishonesty and ignorance — although there's that.

"For me, it comes down to this: In Nogales and across the southern border, the Trump Administration systematically ripped apart migrant families seeking asylum. Family separation made orphans of thousands of little children and babies, and brutalized their desperate mothers and fathers. It remains a humanitarian catastrophe that Physicians for Human Rights said met the criteria for torture.

"There is no forgiving or forgetting the heartbreak he caused.

"Trump first ran for President warning about rapists coming in from Mexico. I'm worried about keeping the rapist out of the White House.

"PS to JD Vance: I raised two adopted children in Tucson as a single mom. They are both grown and living in their own houses. I live with a cat. Am I half a childless cat lady because I'm unmarried and didn't give birth to my kids? Call me what you want, but this cat lady will be voting proudly in November for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz."

—Linda Ronstadt, September 11, 2024

Swift Boated

By Zamboni

Gee, how brutal have the last 24 hours been for Benedict Donald? He tanked the debate with Vice President Harris, his "Truth Social" stock plummeted 17 percent, and in a display of exquisite timing, Taylor Swift officially endorsed Harris-Walz. See above: a snippet of her message, and a graph showing voter registration, which surged at four times the daily average just after she posted. Sweet!

It's been a total nightmare for all of Team Trump. Let's count the ways.

How are Republicans in Ohio feeling today? Donald specifically singled out Springfield, a hamlet just west of Columbus, when he raved about immigrants eating household pets. It's hard to imagine that the GOP's hold on the Buckeye State will loosen much, but Ohioans must be pretty unhappy that the Republican nominee for President and his blinkered minions are making their state a national laughingstock. (This, of course, is not to detract from the potential damage Trump is doing to the Haitian-American community. We should all try to show support for our local Haitian businesses in response.)

The world is laughing at so much of what Trump said last night — "Abdul," getting baited into defending his crowd sizes, etc. — but perhaps "I have concepts of a plan" tops the list. (That was the magic moment when ABC's Linsey Davis pressed him on alternatives to the Affordable Care Act.) Tweeps chortled as they tried to imagine how that kind of lame excuse would go over with their bosses at work. But, hey: After nine years of running for President, and his repeated attempts to kill Obamacare, at least Donald has "concepts." Third-ranking House Republican Elise "Elsie" Stefanik has been running on repeal-and-place since 2010, and she's still got nothing.

The debate and the Swift endorsement surely will just put more pressure on the Florida Republican Party, which is already fretting about tightening polls in the Sunshine State. If Florida's in play, it would be a huge embarrassment to home-stater and Trump campaign adviser Susie Wiles. And Susie's not alone: Campaign pooh-bah Chris LaCivita can't be pleased that Harris is ahead of Donald by double digits in Virginia, his old stomping ground. And we've already reported on Team Trump's apparent abandonment of New Hampshire — home to Trumpster Corey Lewandowski, who once considered running against incumbent Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen.

You have to think that Trump will be forced to turn to KellyAnne when he throws everybody under the bus. What else can he do to save face? He's in a pathetic zone right now. He practically had to beg Harris to shake hands with him at this morning's 9/11 memorial service. (A way-too-gracious Michael Bloomberg helped make it happen.)

So, much angst and anger in Trumpworld. If you're not feeling good enough already, just remember that Steve Bannon was unable to comment — he's still sitting in the hoosegow. We cats PURR.

Zzzzzz

By Hubie and Bertie

As you can tell from our body language, we're pretty unimpressed by this whole JD Vance-says-Haitians-eat-pet-cats thing. (Besides, we're resting up for tonight's debate.) But we'll make a few comments anyway.

It is, without a doubt, the most repulsively racist trope to date from Team Trump. Ever.

That's saying a lot, because from Day One, Benedict Donald and his minions have wallowed in and promoted race-based hate and fear. They've pushed bigotry out from under the rocks where it had always hidden (and where it once again absolutely belongs). Haitians are hardworking and, sadly, historically beleaguered people, and if any of them manage to make it to the US, they deserve our respect and support, not calumny. Trump and Vance are sickening.

Even though the Trumpsters have half-heartedly backpedaled, the trope is exactly where they want it — in the social-media bloodstream. Obviously, they've given up on trying to appeal to persuadable swing voters, and are now just focusing on their rage-filled base.

Can you win an election that way? We've always been taught that you have to expand your pool of voters, not contract it. But everything is topsy-turvy these days, so we can only hope that in four years, the uber-revolting JD Vance is left merely trying to decide whether to run for re-election to the Senate. Because he sure as hell won't be Vice President. We cats HISS.