Squeaker

By Miss Kubelik

Here's what we like to see: A Democrat who nearly takes out a repulsive GOP member of Congress and, right away, resolves to run again.

Doug Applegate lost to the disgusting Darrell Issa by just two points — close enough that the race in California's 49th District was only recently called. But Applegate has wasted no time in announcing for 2018. "As a Marine Colonel, I know that the hardest fights often take a couple of battles," he said.

This is so great. We cats have often wished that Democrats would be more diligent about running people even in safe races (you never know when some Republican is going to get caught abusing children or animals) — and we've always wanted our good candidates to brush off defeat and go right back at 'em again.

After all, why give the Republicans a moment's rest or a smidgen of breathing room? Like a feline with a mouse — and like millions of voters across the country who are furious about this year's results — we Democrats are a lot bigger, and lurking. And we PURR.

As a Marine Colonel, I know that the hardest fights often take a couple of battles — and I look forward to continuing our fight in the days, weeks, and months ahead,” - See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/doug-applegate-darrell-issa?utm_name=newsletters&utm_source=rollcallnews&utm_medium=email#sthash.Y9Jw9jrl.d

As a Marine Colonel, I know that the hardest fights often take a couple of battles — and I look forward to continuing our fight in the days, weeks, and months ahead,” - See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/doug-applegate-darrell-issa?utm_name=newsletters&utm_source=rollcallnews&utm_medium=email#sthash.Y9Jw9jrl.dpuf

Conduct That Doesn't Fly

By Zamboni

Wow, remember when people dressed up and behaved when they flew on a commercial jet? Even with our nine lives, we cats barely do. But although we wouldn't want to go back to the time when flight attendants were "stewardesses" (and constantly under siege about gaining weight), sometimes we find ourselves yearning for travel in the days that the Trumpsters like to call When America Was Great.

How funny, then, that it's a Trumpster who is the latest example of how not to act on a plane. Thanks to a silly rant on a recent flight from Atlanta to Pennsylvania, this jackass is now banned from Delta Airlines.

No doubt the Freepers and the Breitbarters are up in arms that a vulgar, shouting fool who spent way too much time in the airport bar is now having his right to abuse his fellow passengers infringed upon. But although we applaud Delta's eventual (if not its initial) handling of the situation, we'd have preferred to push the guy out somewhere over eastern Tennessee or western Virginia. If he survived the fall, he could die along with all the rest of Appalachia's heroin-addicted, underachieving white men whose Obamacare is about to go away. We cats HISS.

Lest We Furr-get: That Other October Crisis Thingy (Hint: No Missiles Involved)

By Sniffles

Being in Canada at the moment, we cats are reminded that we're in a totally different world when it comes to Cuba and Fidel Castro.

We remember that here, Elian Gonzalez's kidnappers were not the American government at the behest of Janet Reno but rather the repulsive "Miami relatives," who tried to keep Elian from being reunited with his dad.

We're reminded that billboards advertising Cuban tourism are everywhere, and Cuban cigars have long been easy to buy.

And now that Justin Trudeau's statement on the death of Castro has been ridiculed on the Twitter machine, we wonder how many of today's umbrage-y tweeters were around during the 1970 October Crisis.

Probably none. But if they look it up, they'll see that then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (father of Justin, bien sur) had to deal with what 2016's Republicans and right wingers would call terrorism.

A quick recap: Forty-six years ago, the Front for the Liberation of Quebec (FLQ) kidnapped and murdered government officials and set off nearly 100 bombs in English-speaking neighborhoods in Montreal. In response, Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, which temporarily suspended personal freedoms and civil liberties in a national emergency. When the kidnappers were found, with the approval of Fidel Castro they were flown to Cuba in a nonviolent resolution of unprecedented domestic unrest. The result: Peace was restored. And the cause of Quebec sovereignty was dealt a severe blow. Both of which were good things.

Pierre Trudeau's invocation of the War Measures Act is still controversial today, not least because he was a strong civil libertarian. But you know that old Vulcan proverb: Only Nixon could go to China.

Anyway, before we all go spouting off about Justin's statement on the death of Fidel, a little history lesson would be in order. But will today's tweeters ever realize that not knowing the past condemns them to repeat it? We cats doubt it, and we HISS.

Vendredi Fou

By Baxter

Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, not November, but they still observe the storied shopping tradition known in the US as Black Friday. Except here, it's not black — it's "crazy."

To us traveling American cats, though, the day seemed both crazy and black. As much as we've been able to get away from the drumbeat of awful political news back home, every now and then we get reminded. And, ugh... vendredi was indeed fou et noir.

Crazy in that it's dawned on us that this whole cat fight over Giuliani or Romney for Secretary of State is a total sham. Romney will never get picked. Because, of course, Vladimir Putin will make the decision.

Black in that Washington's incoming crowd of buffoons, fascists and clowns are citing Franklin Roosevelt's biggest mistake as precedent for keeping all those scary Muslims out of the US. How quickly can we write a big holiday check to the ACLU?

So, yes, we've had more joyous Thanksgivings. But we're not going to wring our paws and lament. We just have to figure out where things went wrong and, then, how to fix them. And we actually may find out something about that soon. We cats PURR.

That's Why We Wanted To Be There

By Miss Kubelik

This is not a music blog, so we cats will justify this post by declaring that one of the best political funerals we ever saw featured music by Leonard Cohen.

Feeling a need to close the circle, then, we took a few minutes this afternoon to visit Leonard Cohen's grave in the Shaar Hasomaym Cemetery on Mount Royal. You can't tell from this photo, but we were not the only cats paying our respects — although we were definitely the coolest cats.

(Afterward, a short headstone survey revealed a lot of names that Stephen Bannon wouldn't like very much. Yep, he's a Nazi, all right.)

N'Oubliez Jamais

At a time when we all may be justifiably paranoid about our right to free expression (and the prospect of its continued protection), here is a reminder of the price that is paid when others choose to oppress.

This is Montreal's Fine Arts Museum's tribute to the journalists and cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo. It has a place of honor at the entrance to the museum's newest wing. We cats PURR.

Yep, He's A Nazi

By Zamboni

We cats have the funny feeling that we're going to be writing endless posts on former Vermont Governor and (we hope) future DNC Chair Howard Dean making comments that get the right wing all upset and pearl-clutchy — and then, when all the dust clears, those comments being proven exactly correct. (This has happened many times before. We just haven't always written about it.)

So, here's the installment for today: Dean called Drumpf adviser Stephen Bannon a Nazi in an interview with CTV over the weekend. And Republicans, who never have liked being called out for the unsavory people they cultivate and coddle, are having a hissy fit.

Well, goodness gracious. Not only is Bannon's history completely Nuremberg-esque, we remember a time when the chairman of the Republican National Committee referred to the 44th President of the United States as "Osama" — and kept doing it even after reporters corrected him.

Apparently, that's okay. But correctly calling out Bannon for what he is? Unacceptable! The double standard is breathtaking. We cats HISS.

Passing Muster

By Sniffles

Just when we cats find a silver lining to the US's very dark November 8 cloud — like Alec Baldwin's SNL gig that vexed you-know-who so badly — we hear something else that really, really depresses us.

Like Kellie Leitch, a Conservative MP in Canada, who was so excited about the results of the American election that she released the following statement: "It’s an exciting message and one that we need delivered in Canada as well... It’s why I’m the only candidate [for Prime Minister] who will ensure that every visitor, immigrant and refugee will be screened for Canadian values."

Ugh. But let's look on the bright side of this incredibly stupid quote. Did Leitch realize the generally understood definition of "Canadian values"? Let's ask the current Prime Minister of Canada what those values are.

"The importance of diversity can sometimes be taken for granted," said Justin Trudeau. "But there is no doubt that we’re a better country — a stronger, more successful country — because of it. ...We're open, accepting, progressive and prosperous. There is a direct line between each of those attributes and Canada's success in building a more diverse and inclusive society."

So if Leitch wants to screen immigrants for those Canadian values, it's A-okay with us. We cats PURR.

Refugees

By Baxter

The weather was clear, cool and dry today, all the way up I-95 and along the full stretch of Route 87 in New York. So anyone driving to Canada was making record time — until they hit Customs at the border with Quebec.

A 55-minute wait! Unheard of, in our book. It's still two months to Inauguration Day. Has the exodus already begun? We cats could only hope to see Justin on the other side, welcoming fleeing Americans with kind words and winter coats. That would have made us PURR.

"The Arc Only Bends Toward Justice If You Make It"

By Miss Kubelik

The man who we cats hope will become the next DNC chair drove the right wing crazy again this week. (It's a habit with him, which is one of the reasons we're fans). "DEAN COMPARES TRUMP WIN TO KENT STATE SHOOTINGS, BLOODY SUNDAY," the Breitbarters and the Town Hallers and the Daily Callers screamed. Goodness gracious — such silly and predictable outrage.

We know that it's not the alt-right's forte, but shall we engage in a little nuanced thinking? Here's what Howard Dean actually said.

"This young generation, which I think is absolutely great... they're so disheartened, so down and so tired and discouraged, this [election] may be their Kent State or their Edmund Pettus Bridge — where you finally realize that you've got to do something, that institutions matter, and, I'm hoping, that will be the call that gets this generation into politics and change everything."

In short, anti-Trump young people won't just stand by and be appalled — they'll be galvanized when the Republicans' cruel and hideous policies start affecting people in their lives.

The undocumented family next door that's torn apart. A sister or cousin or girlfriend who can't get an abortion. Relatives and friends who lose their health insurance. African Americans who are denied the vote. Muslims. Gays and lesbians. Disabled people. Themselves. The list goes on and on.

We'll have to see if the Trumpsters are able to do all the horrific things that their candidate promised. But if they accomplish even a fraction of them, they'll wake up 75 million young Americans who just might decide to rise up and take them on. In the words of Neil Young: "What if you knew her / And found her dead on the ground / How can you run when you know?" We cats PURR.

Catcalls

By Zamboni

We cats are heading up to Canada pretty soon, and as you can imagine, we are counting the hours. We're wondering how the Customs agent at the border will react when we ask if we can stay. (Our apologies, John Oliver: We know you said that option was off the table.)

One thing we won't have to worry about, though, is whether "The Star-Spangled Banner" will be booed at the hockey game we'll attend on Tuesday night. Because it's Montreal versus Ottawa. Whew.

Meanwhile, the spirit might not be quite so sporting down south. The NFL is bracing itself for boos and worse when Texas and Oakland play in Mexico City on Monday. "I will be booing the bad parts of America," said one young ticket holder. "Trump, intolerance, racism, how some people feel towards Mexicans."

This makes us cats really sad. We've always had an appreciation for our country's reputation in the world, and we care what non-Americans think. It's depressing to imagine that the new Worst Person Who's Ever Lived is the face that will be conjured in people's minds when they hear the name "United States." And how proud we would have been to have Hillary Clinton representing us abroad.

Even more dismal: Reported incidents of harassment and intimidation against Muslims, gays and Latinos in the US have zoomed since November 8. The haters feel emboldened, don't they? Yes, we know that stuff like that even happens in Canada. But we say to the NFL fans in Mexico: Go ahead and boo. We cats will be HISSING.

P.S. We can't end this post on a sorrowful note. So... Happy Birthday, Gov! We wish you a continued long first life and, of course, eight more. And we PURR.

Measuring Our Words

By Sniffles

After a Presidential election in which the losing winning candidate campaigned on hate, divisiveness and fear, we cats are unsurprised to see incidents of vitriol and violence cropping up.

From the "ape in heels" Face Thing posts of two racist (and now, unemployed) women from Clay County, West Virginia, to a "Make America Great Again" high school student punched and kicked by his anti-Trump peers in Rockville, Maryland — well, it's getting pretty ugly out there. At the same time, our President is over in Greece, speaking in support of democracy and warning the world that we need to "guard against a rise in a crude sort of nationalism or ethnic identity or tribalism that is built around an 'us' and a 'them.'"

(This leaves us scratching our heads a bit, since democracy is the very form of government that most allows speeches of hate, divisiveness, etc. to flourish. The President left that part unaddressed — maybe because a free press is supposed to call bullshit on that stuff. But we all know how that turned out this year.)

Fearing for the Trumpster kid's safety, a parent who witnessed the Rockville anti-Trump demonstration tried to get him to leave. He refused: "I have my right to free speech, too!" Yes, he does. But perhaps a trip to the hospital has helped him understand what can happen, rightly or wrongly, fairly or not, when he exercises it.

We cats are not defending his attackers — far from it. But we'd like that Trumpy student to appreciate the hateful atmosphere that his candidate created by demonizing people who were not like him. Donald Trump was the king of Us vs. Them. And we've seen no backsliding from him on that score.

So can we all agree? Words matter. They get people upset. Sometimes they get people beaten up, and sometimes they get people fired. They must be chosen carefully. Trump would call that "political correctness." But speech is a weapon best handled with care. We cats HISS.

Positively Bannonesque.

Yesterday, we heard President Obama say that we all should "reconcile" ourselves to what happened on November 8.

Today, this: A jackass who heads a West Virginia nonprofit posted this vile thing on her Face Thing page. And her mayor promptly posted back: "Just made my day, Pam."

Sorry, Mr. President. We don't know how you feel about this. But as for your "reconciliation"? Include us out. We cats HISS.

UPDATE: These hideous women are out of their jobs: Taylor's been sacked, and the mayor has resigned. Taylor's former employer should make sure they not only confiscate her keys and her phone, but also all of her exclamation marks.

Live Trump-Free Or Die

By Baxter

Well, it's official: Hillary Clinton has carried New Hampshire.

So the Democrats have almost run the table in the Granite State. (We'll set aside the fact that someone named Sununu is going to be Governor again.) New Hampshire has voted for Clinton for President, Maggie Hassan for Senator, and Carol Shea-Porter and Annie Kuster for Congress. All women! Congratulations to our Democratic friends who helped make it possible.

And since we cats are looking for any bright spots of 2016 cheer we can find, let us also celebrate the fact that John McCain and Lady Lindsey Graham will have to return to the Senate without their BFF, Kelly Ayotte. Ah, Ayotte... the woman who tried to have it both ways on whether Donald Trump was a role model. The woman who "supported," but wouldn't "endorse." The woman who is such a loser she couldn't beat a Democrat in a year when Pat Toomey, Ron Johnson, Roy Blunt, Rob Portman and her buddy McCain all did.

If Kelly Ayotte is doing a little bit of soul-searching, perhaps she'd like to sign up for this. You never know — hanging out with thousands of angry and resolute women, she just might get educated. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Moore Of The Same, Please

By Miss Kubelik

If there's one thing Michael Moore has never lacked, it's moxie.

While the rest of us were spending this week lying in catatonic shock (see above), Moore, undaunted, marched into Trump Tower to deliver a message. "You lost," it said. "Step aside."

He made it a few floors up before he was turned out. But the Secret Service allegedly said they would forward the note. Why not? After all, its recipient received nearly 700,000 fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. (Some say it's closer to two million. Goodness gracious.)

We cats both like and dislike Michael Moore. His "Fahrenheit 9/11" was a cathartic experience, his subsequent Oscar acceptance speech an embarrassment. (And you could argue that he wouldn't have had to produce an anti-Bush documentary in the first place if he hadn't supported Ralph Nader in 2000.) Moore can be prickly and litigious, predictable and tiresome. But we appreciated the fact that, as a Bernie Bro, he apparently learned his Nader lesson, realized who the true enemy was and turned on a dime to support Hillary. And right now, his post-November 8 pugnaciousness is an attitude we heartily endorse.

Once we can find the strength to snap out of it ourselves, we Democrats should follow suit. We should all call upon our inner Michael Moores and Howard Deans and Harry Reids, say "nuts" to everything the Republicans want to do, and, most important, call them out for what they are. Remember, it was Michael Moore who got Charlton Heston to reveal that, even after marching with King in the '60s, he was racist to the core. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Wisdom From Harvey

"I know you can't live on hope alone. But without hope, life is not worth living."

Not-So-Great Communicators

By Zamboni

Reading this post by one of our favorite bloggers, we cats are wondering how things would have been different if the Obama Administration had taken the trouble to sell healthcare reform — after it passed.

That's because folks who are benefiting from Obamacare right now just voted in droves to destroy it. So how are they going to react when the Republicans don't just take away people's insurance but also free mammograms and coverage for kids up to age 26? How badly will they freak out when the GOP once again allows insurers to deny them for pre-existing conditions? We don't know, but it sure will be interesting to see how high mortality rates go in states like, say, Kentucky.

We cats say: The President and an army of his surrogates should have been crisscrossing the country from March 2010 onward — holding town halls, giving slide shows, getting local news coverage and explaining, explaining, always explaining to people how the Affordable Care Act was going to better their lives. Instead, after the ACA was signed into law nobody in America heard another word about it until its calamitous website rollout of 2013. And Hillary Clinton was left to try to explain it to a questioner in the second Presidential debate while Donald Trump lurked cartoonishly behind her.

You could tie this astounding lack of communication to our down-ballot defeats in 2010, 2014 and yes, 2016, even though we picked up a handful of Senate and House seats on Tuesday. Heck, you can trace it all the way back to our losses in 1980, 1988 and 2000. It's not the only reason for these disasters, but clearly we've had a serious problem for years now. Democrats are just not getting the votes of people we work so hard to help — whether we're trying to give them health coverage or save the country from another Great Depression. And we won't until we learn to celebrate our successes and invite all of our fellow Americans to join us at the party. We cats HISS.

No, Leonard, We Really Didn't Want It Darker

Just when we thought the week couldn't get any worse: Music legend and Montrealer Leonard Cohen est parti.

Tweet Music To Our Ears

By Sniffles

A piece of encouraging news in a dark, dark week: Howard Dean will run once again to chair the DNC. This makes us cats happy. His lap is one of the places in the world in which we would most like to curl up.

But there's another good reason that we want Howard back at the helm: When he was in charge, Democrats won elections. His 50-state strategy and the tight ship he ran helped bring us big Congressional victories in 2006 and 2008. After that, under Tim Kaine and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, it's been — no offense — a big-time downhill ride.

We also think it's important that the Democratic Party chair not have another day job. We cats are flawless multitaskers — in fact, we're perfect at everything — but humans, not so much. So although Keith Ellison is a swell guy, he's got something else he needs to do: represent the fine people of Minnesota's fifth Congressional district. (And his biggest backer, by the way, isn't even a Democrat.)

So thank you, Gov, for giving us a little bit of needed cheer. We appreciate your willingness to climb back into the trenches and build on that popular-vote margin that Hillary Clinton earned the other day. You make us PURR.

UPDATE: Howard Dean agrees: No other day job. See, this is why we love him. He reads our minds. Spooky and fun!

Ban All Trumps From Taking The Oath Of Office!

By Baxter

Okay, we know we're partisan Democrats, but all Americans should be freaked out that the Russian government says it colluded with the Donald Trump campaign.

"There were contacts," said Russia's deputy foreign minister. "Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage. Quite a few of them have been staying in touch with Russian representatives."

This is outrageous. Everyone should be up in arms about it, especially those faux super-patriots on the other side.

In the meantime, to paraphrase Trump himself, we cats are calling for a total and complete shutdown of the Inauguration until we can figure out what is going on. And of course we SNARL.

Broken Glass, And Glass Unbroken

By Miss Kubelik

How disturbing is it that this past Monday, a transgender woman in Tennessee — a military veteran — found her pickup truck burned out, with the word "Trump" spray-painted on its side?

And how awful is it that Trump supporters rampaged through Philadelphia last night, spreading racist and misogynist graffiti?

And can we possibly wrap our heads around the fact that former KKK grand wizard David Duke is thrilled with the election?

All on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, no less. You don't have to be Jewish to feel a shudder down your spine.

As far as we can tell, the 2016 Republican nominee has made no effort to condemn all this. So we're finding it mighty hard to understand how someone who's supposed to unite the country fails to call out hate crimes done in his name. And although our Democratic nominee in her gracious concession speech today asked us to approach her opponent with an open mind — are we really, after swastikas and "Trump That Bitch" and "Jew-S-A," supposed to give him a chance to govern?

Seventy-eight years after the Night of Broken Glass — and on the day after the highest glass ceiling remains, sadly, itself unbroken — we cats have an announcement to make. We are relieving George W. Bush of the moniker of The Worst Person Who's Ever Lived. As of this moment, it goes to Donald Trump. We cats resolve to never let him forget it, and we HISS.

Now More Than Ever: A Dose Of Red Panda! (Oh, And Some Analysis, Too)

By Zamboni

We cats have been inundated with emails, not just from American friends wanting names of realtors in Canada, but Canadians who are, um, freaking out. (Join the crowd, right?)

As one Montrealer worried, when America gets the flu, Canada runs a fever. The question today is what happens to Canada when the US goes stark raving mad.

To our neighbors up north and everyone around the world who's wondering WTF happened, rest assured that the explanations will come thick and fast. We will agree with a lot of them and disagree with others. But if we had to sum up 2016 in an elevator speech, we'd say this: Republican obstructionism has been rewarded.

Quick rewind: On the night of January 20, 2009, leaders of the defeated GOP came together and secretly pledged not to cooperate with the newly inaugurated President Obama on anything — even to save the country from another Great Depression. And that was just the beginning. After the Democrats lost their Congressional majorities in 2010 and 2014, Washington ground to a halt. With Republicans refusing to budge, the government simply stopped working.

It didn't need to happen. If the GOP had accepted Obama — like we accepted Reagan's victory in 1980 — and worked with Democrats to rescue the economy, reform Wall Street, pass (and then fix) healthcare or even vote on a Supreme Court nominee, Americans would have felt much less frustrated this year. And a xenophobic demagogue would not have been able to harness the discontent and appeal to our darker instincts along the way.

We Democrats did everything right, organizationally. We wouldn't change a thing on our voter ID, our fundraising, our outreach or our GOTV. We not only need to keep that infrastructure in place, but figure out how to improve on it so we can fight all the battles to come. Why? Because when everything is said and done, Hillary Clinton will have won the 2016 popular vote by about 200,000. (She lost Texas by less than half of what Obama lost it.) We just have to keep all those folks voting.

The Electoral College may not have been on our side this year, but time and demographics are. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

World Doomed.

America has done something we never thought it would do: Choose darkness and division over Stronger Together. And not only that, it really is World Doomed: The Supreme Court is gone. Vladimir Putin is celebrating. Climate change will roast the planet.

We cats are inconsolable and in shock. More later after we catch up on all the catnaps we missed.

Shades Of Grant Park 2008!

Wow, that HRC concert and rally in Philadelphia last night was really something, wasn't it?

We cats are off to get out the vote for one more day. Have you voted already? Then make some calls, knock on a few doors or drive a passel of people to the polls. If you haven't voted yet — well, what the heck are you waiting for? We cats PURR.

Janny

By Sniffles

Over the course of our nine lives, we cats have been privileged to have our paths cross with Janet Reno's. So we had word from friends this weekend that Janet's life, to borrow a phrase usually associated with the passing of kings, was moving peacefully to its close.

The news that she has now quietly left the planet makes us sad. But it's also inspired us to redouble our efforts to get out the vote today and tomorrow. We're pretty sure that the nation's first female Attorney General would admonish us not to miss a beat in electing our first woman President.

Meanwhile, we're savoring fond memories, including a flight 20 years ago on which she folded all six feet of herself into a coach seat. (That was Janet to a T... utterly without a sense of entitlement, which, these days, is pretty refreshing.) But the one we're thinking of most is our visit to her Washington office in the spring of 2000, where we saw, propped up frameless on her desk, a snapshot of Elian Gonzalez and his dad — smiling and together again after a ridiculous political nightmare that Janet had navigated with skill and grace.

Sigh. Vaya con Dios, General Reno. We hope you're already loving that big Dance Party in the Sky. We cats salute you, and we PURR.

Knock, Knock

By Baxter

We cats have spent a busy Saturday getting out the vote in our battleground state. How busy? Well, let's just say that by our estimate, the number of doors that our group of Clinton-Kaine volunteers knocked on today was 10 times greater than George W. Bush's margin of "victory" in Florida in 2000. Do the math! It all makes us PURR.

Things To Come

By Miss Kubelik

We cats can't wait for Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni to get hauled off to the hoosegow. They richly deserve it — their vengeful George Washington Bridge "traffic study" was a threat to public safety. Now, if only those FBI jackasses who tipped off Rudy Giuliani can get the hoosegow treatment, too. (With Chris Christie right behind.)

Meanwhile, big weekend of GOTV coming up. We're not sure how much free time we'll have over the next few days, so we'll go out on a limb now and make a few election predictions. 1) Hillary Clinton will win. 2) Donald Drumpf will get more electoral votes than Willard Mitt Romney did. 3) But if early voting is any indication, Clinton will slay Drumpf in the popular vote.

With luck, a big popular-vote win for Hillary will suppress any temptation for Drumpf to whine and cavil and refuse to concede. And since Republicans know so much about suppressing things, we're sure they'll relate. We cats PURR and HISS at the same time.

UPDATE: Well, we went two for three! Unfortunately, we were wrong on the most important one.

Keeping Our Ears To The Ground

By Zamboni

We cats have nine lives, so we're old enough to remember the days when intrepid political journalists not only smoked and drank, but burrowed deeply into campaign organizations with good old-fashioned, shoe-leather reporting. Writers like Jack Germond and David Broder would visit field offices, spend hours with organizers, and shadow canvassers as they knocked on doors — all to get a detailed sense of how well a campaign's "ground game" was going.

That's because those seasoned reporters knew that a good field operation could make the difference between winning by a point and winning by a few points — or, between winning or losing, period.

A lot has changed since then, but not that. Coverage of the ground game, however, is way, way different. It barely exists.

After all, how can today's political reporters take the time to embed themselves in field operations when they have to: 1) file something every day, 2) tweet constantly, 3) appear on whatever cable news network snags them for on-the-ground stand-ups, and 4) swing by the studios when they're in either Washington or New York for in-person punditry and prognostications?

They can't. So the kind of pound-the-pavement reporting that illuminates who's really got the organizational chops to win pretty much falls by the wayside in favor of the horse race — which too often devolves into foolish, frenetic blather that encourages nail-biting and Xanax-reaching. That's journalism, 2016-style.

Thanks to the interwebs, news cycles that hurtle at the speed of light and, frankly, the passage of time — Germond and Broder are no longer with us — America has lost some truly profound and valuable reporting. If journalists today could take three to four days to write a campaign story instead of just a few hours, the contours of today's Presidential race would be at once much more nuanced and a whole lot clearer. As in, that it's the Democrats' ground game that's going to win in the end.

(Some folks have tried to do that kind of old-school reporting — visiting, for example, alleged Trump offices in Florida and discovering that they're just PO boxes, or staffed by a single person, or not staffed at all. But the stories have generally been one-offs. It's a pity.)

Look, we cats will be the first to say we're wrong if we all wake up on November 9 to World Doomed. But every time we hear stuff about how the race has tightened, we keep going back to the ground game. It's not glamorous, and doesn't make for good TV or pithy tweets, but it will probably give us World Saved. Which will make us PURR.

The Crazy Is Back

By Sniffles

No, we're not talking about James Comey, although we all know that what he did last Friday was pretty loony. (Just ask President Obama.) We're talking about the stuff we're seeing on the interwebs today about the Trumpy side of the campaign.

White nationalists pledging to intimidate people of color at the polls, a black church burned in Mississippi with "Vote Trump" scrawled on its side, and the Republican nominee himself, after a few days of relatively restrained behavior, calling Hillary Clinton "very unstable" in another classic case of Donald Trump projection.

And we haven't even mentioned the press conference that's scheduled for 3 PM PST today. (Handy tip: The person giving it is bringing along her attorney, who is Gloria Allred's daughter.) We have no idea if the media will deem the presser important or if we'll all just keep talking about the stuff that they think really matters, like emails. Ironically, some guy at Trump's rally today kept screaming that it was Bill Clinton who was the rapist. Where are the Xanax?

On second thought, put that bottle down. Let's all ignore the dirty cat litter that's swirling in the air and just focus on the following facts:

Hillary Clinton has taken the massive organizational apparatus that elected Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and improved on it, making it bigger, richer and more efficient.

Hillary can win even while losing several states that Obama won in 2012. Trump has no margin for error.

The demographic groups that Hillary will win will outnumber the angry white guys devoted to Trump. She'll take college-educated white women (something a Democrat has never done), a whole bunch of other women, a decent number of college-educated white men, African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Muslim Americans, Jewish Americans and Millennials — plus a respectable chunk of Republicans who cannot bear Trump, several Bushes among them. Yes, we've seen the headlines that African-American turnout is down. But the surge in the Latino vote should make that a net-net.

Would we feel better if we were back in the pre-Comey days? Sure. But if you had asked Hillary two years ago if she would be happy going into the last week of 2016 with a huge cash advantage, the best organization in the history of Presidential politics, a favorable Electoral College map, the endorsements of dozens of Republicans and Republican-leaning newspapers, and the most unqualified, erratic opponent she could possibly ask for — she'd have thought it was a trick question.

Eyes on the prize, as the saying goes. We cats PURR.

UPDATE: The press conference was called off today. Oh, well, there's still plenty of crazy in Trump World. Stay tuned.

Joe Walsh Said WHAT?

By Baxter

Former GOP Congressman Joe Walsh must have Halloween backwards. The rest of the year, he's a hideous right-wing freak — but just in time for trick-or-treat day, he becomes a semi-reasonable person. Witness this weekend's tweet: "What [James Comey] did 11 days b4 the election is wrong & unfair to Hillary."

Wow! Okay, we admit that Walsh prefaced that comment with a dig that Comey screwed up back in July. But gosh — we never thought we'd see the words "unfair to Hillary" coming from him.

In all this mishegoss, when everyone's nerves are on edge and vigilantes are arming themselves to go to the polls and 52% of America is feeling election stress, we cats are seeing a glimmer of light. A whole passel of Republicans are blasting Comey for his craven Friday-afternoon letter to Congress. Amazing!

It's tempting to think that our country might not be too far gone when GOP stalwarts like Karl Rove and Chuck Grassley — plus 48 state attorneys general — are screaming about this. Heck, even the newly goateed Alberto Gonzales is getting some revenge. Saying "you have to question the decision" is, perhaps, thinly veiled payback for the ride to white knighthood that Comey enjoyed after the famous John Ashcroft Hospital-Room Showdown of 2004.

Is allegiance to our nation's hallowed institutions more important than short-term partisanship? We cats would dearly like to think so. In times so fraught and fractious, it helps to do the no-drama-Obama thing, step back, and hope that Republican criticism of Comey means that all is not lost. It also makes us PURR.