Au (Revoir) Canada

By Sniffles

We cats soon will be traveling from one enviable Western democracy to another. In the Western democracy we'll be leaving, climate change is taken seriously, federal elections wrap up in a matter of weeks, diversity is valued, Syrian refugees are welcome, and women can go to a health clinic without worrying that they'll be shot by a Republican-inspired gunman. Sadly, in the Western democracy we'll be entering, none of those things is true. Which makes us HISS.

More Strange Language

By Miss Kubelik

As if we needed more possible proof in this world that words matter, a middle-aged white guy has attacked a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado and killed three people, including a police officer.

No, we don't know why he did this. Maybe it was a domestic violence dispute with a patient or a staffer at the clinic. But sorry, folks — after 1) months of PPA vilification by smarmy little video editors and bandwagon-jumping Republicans, 2) Cecile Richards abuse on Capitol Hill, and 3) over-the-top language by GOP Presidential candidates, we cats find it hard to believe that this Colorado moron didn't have a political agenda.

Was Robert Lewis Dear inspired by Carly Fiorina's completely bogus lie that Planned Parenthood harvested the brain of a living, leg-kicking fetus? If so, will Fiorina accept any responsibility for the death of the Colorado police officer (a religious man and father of two) and the others at the clinic?

Somehow, we doubt it. After all, Donald Trump said he wasn't to blame for the recent beating that a Black Lives Matter demonstrator endured at one of his rallies. In fact, he endorsed it. Trump supporters have messed with pro-immigration demonstrators, too, and it's hard not to draw a direct and very bright line between Trump's routine demagoguery and people's awful behavior.

Words, as we all know, are powerful, but they're particularly dangerous in a culture as steeped in guns as ours is. We Americans are currently obsessing over ISIL guys shooting us up at the mall. But with the deliberately provocative language and total lies that are being tossed around by the Republicans these days, we should worry about our fellow citizens instead. It's too easy in America to get mowed down, not just at our workplaces, our churches, our McDonald's and our schools, but at our health clinics, too. It all makes us HISS.

(IMAGE: Chan Lowe, Tribune Content Agency)

UPDATE: Of the passengers in the 2016 Republican clown car, only Kasich and Cruz issued statements today, neither of which mentioned Planned Parenthood. Fiorina and the rest were conspicuously silent, even though a police officer was killed. They are all cowards, knaves and fools, and we cats HISS.

Then Again...

We cats stand corrected on the selfie thing — at least as far as the legendary Montreal cartoonist Aislin is concerned.

No Selfie Necessary

 By Zamboni

Justin Trudeau meets the Queen. Looks like it was a pleasant encounter.

And about that portrait of Elizabeth II that Trudeau had removed at Ottawa's Foreign Affairs building in order to restore two Canadian paintings?

"[Taking down the Canadian paintings] was something that the previous government did as, I think, a sign of its disrespect for the arts community — for which they had been famously accused, and I think rightly accused on many levels," Trudeau told the BBC. "So it was more about restoring Canada’s place, and not meant at all as a disrespect to our Queen."

We cats note that Her Majesty seems to not have a hair out of place over the whole affair. And we PURR.

Another Passenger For The Clown Car

By Baxter

Does Ralph Nader have dementia? We cats have never been fans, especially since Nader helped cost President Gore an important election 15 years ago. But we can't think of any other reason why even Ralphie would write this obnoxious open letter to Federal Reserve Board chair Janet Yellen:

"Chairwoman Yellen, I think you should sit down with your Nobel-Prize-winning husband, economist George Akerlof, who is known to be consumer-sensitive" — to discuss, as Nader favors, raising interest rates.

Aside from acting piggy to the Fed's first-ever female chair, Nader apparently felt that, for clarity, he needed to name Yellen's husband in a public letter. But we're wondering if he was also trying to remember it himself. We cats HISS.

Voice Of Reason

By Sniffles

Despite the day, we cats are resisting calling Donald Trump a turkey. "Turkey" is too mild for him.

Now, he's in the news for making fun of a disabled New York Times reporter. Well-deserved outrage has ensued, and Trump, as is his wont, has pushed back by attacking some more.

All of this clownishness is paralyzing the Republican Party, which we Democratic cats love, but as we've said before, it's also wearing thin. Immature behavior from privileged white guys who enthrall trailer-owning, Confederate-flag-flying, not-so-privileged white guys ceases to amuse after awhile.

So this Thanksgiving, we're grateful that just over the 49th parallel, we're hearing reassuring words from Justin Trudeau, who recently cited both Trump and the fat drug addict from Toronto, Rob Ford, as wannabe leaders who are destined to fail.

"When you get right down to it, when citizens take a long hard look in the ballot box at actually voting against your neighbors, against someone who's different from you," Trudeau said, "in pluralistic societies like we have, it becomes very difficult to sustain the hatred."

We'll raise a glass of egg nog to that. And of course we PURR. Happy Thanksgiving!

Au Canada, Part Deux

Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, November 24, 2015

Strange Language

By Miss Kubelik

The Republican clown car increasingly inhabits another decade, another generation, another century. The way Donald Trump is talking these days, we cats are thinking that it's 1964 and that Freedom Riders are on the verge of getting murdered in Mississippi. And fast-forwarding to today, we wonder if we'll soon see extra security at the mosque down the road from us in Northern Virginia.

It is all despicable — and even more embarrassing to us as Americans, since we're visiting a Western democracy whose citizens have consciously chosen to embrace their diversity (and tell those who would divide them to go to hell).

But equally revolting as Trump's bigotry (which his fellow GOP candidates weakly refuse to decry) is the other weird stuff coming out of Republican mouths. Like Ben Carson, the world's stupidest pediatric neurosurgeon, saying that he saw "newsreels" of New Jersey Muslims celebrating the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Newsreels? If you asked Carson what year it was, what would he say? The 1930s? (Come to think of it, the GOP rhetoric is kinda Nazi-ish.)

As always, however, because it is just as offensive as casting aspersions on other groups of Americans, we cats are duty-bound to call out horrible grammar when we hear it. On that, we must finger Baby Marco Rubio, who, talking through his hat as usual, said in the latest Republican debate that America needed "more welders and less philosophers."

Sigh. It's "fewer," Baby Marco, "fewer." But we sure would like to see less of you. We cats HISS.

Confusion To The Enemy! (Cat Style)

By Zamboni

Post-Paris, while we Americans are whining and worrying that some ISIL guy is going to mow us all down at our local Starbucks, the citizens of Brussels are in actual lockdown for a third day.

So, how are they coping with across-the-board closures, with nowhere to go and nothing to do? Tweeting pictures of cats, of course.

After the authorities asked people not to use social media to discuss any of the anti-terrorism raids they're staging — and tip off ISIL to police operations — Belgians are doing the cops one better. What could be more confusing to the terrorists than a cute feline photo? Not to mention Super Cat, Darth Vader cat, Hovercats, Socks the Cat, gifs of cats jumping out of backpacks, and countless cats wielding machine guns, just daring ISIL to come and get them.

We cats are not only proud to play such an important part in the Global War on Terror, we are bowled-over impressed by our Belgian friends, who, despite all this crap going on in their capital, have clearly retained their sense of humor. Good for them! They deserve a great big PURR.

Strategic Alienation (Whoops!)

By Baxter

The Republican Party keeps committing suicide with different constituent groups. Shall we recap?

After the demonization of Barack Obama in which the GOP has engaged for years, African Americans have cemented themselves as the group most likely to shun Republicans in significant numbers for generations (if not centuries). Even Rancid Pieface and the rest of the Establishment must assume that's a given. But despite its post-2012 "autopsy," the Grand Old Party has been very successful in alienating a ton of other people: gays, Millennials, women, Asians, soccer moms — and, of course, Hispanics — with their regressive policies, gun love, religious zealotry, xenophobia and general intolerance of All People Not Like Them.

To that list, let us now add Muslim Americans.

That group might not strike you right away as a critical voting bloc in a general election, but here are a few points to keep in mind.

The Muslim-American demographic is growing, big time, and in key states. And while in 2000, 70 percent of them voted for The Worst Person Who's Ever Lived, 15 years later, we don't see them maintaining that GOP loyalty when the current Republican front-runner is talking about setting up Muslim databases, issuing special IDs and closing mosques. (Whatever happened to "religious liberty"? Oh, wait.)

We cats will be happy to welcome all those Muslim Americans who voted for Bush into the Democratic Party. Particularly if it means that, while maybe a few more paranoid white guys in Roanoke vote Republican, we get a bigger edge in Northern Virginia — solidly delivering the Old Dominion to Hillary in 2016, and to the Democrats overall in elections to come.

And we'll be pleased to cede a couple of percentage points in the Godforsaken red state of Alabama if the GOP's anti-Muslim rhetoric helps take Michigan off the table for the Republicans forever.

And do you know where else a lot of American Muslims live? Texas and Florida. Hmmm! We cats PURR.