SNATU

By Baxter

Well, all righty then. We may no longer have the rule of law in this country.

Customs agents at Dulles continue to defy a federal judge's order staying part of Donald Trump's Muslim ban — not only refusing to allow Muslim travelers access to attorneys, but unlawfully canceling visas and sending a few back from whence they came. So now the Commonwealth of Virginia has joined the fight in federal court to make these jackass agents comply.

Or do they only obey the law of Trump? Whatever that is. We dare anybody to tell us, because as the Commonwealth's attorney general, Mark Herring, has so succinctly pointed out, Trump's executive order on Friday was "sweeping, poorly understood and chaotically implemented, and led to the violation of the constitutional and statutory rights of numerous residents of Virginia."

In other words, Situation Normal All Trumped Up.

We cats PURR in the direction of General Herring for hopping on the stop-the-bigots train. And we take this final opportunity to remind the rest of you: If you need healthcare coverage, sign up for Obamacare here. Tonight's the night!

Obamacare: Coverage For What Ails You

We cats have been comparing the last 10 days to the Saturday Night Massacre, and now it appears that it's finally here. (And that Dana Boente, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, is the new Robert Bork.) Goodness gracious, what's going to happen next?

But even with the country hurtling toward a Constitutional crisis, let's still not forget that tomorrow is the deadline to sign up for Obamacare.

If you need health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, get to this website now and enroll!

Lest We Furr-get: Circle Back

By Miss Kubelik

With news cycles churning at lightning speed and reporters dropping balls left and right, it's discouraging that we rarely see defenders of deplorables asked for comment when new developments could put them squarely on the spot.

For example: In November, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach took to the interwebs to publicly chastise Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, for speaking out against noted white supremacist Steve Bannon. (You know Bannon — the guy who now has a seat on the National Security Council.) "I don’t think even the most hostile media can point to a single reason to consider [Bannon] anti-Semitic," the rabbi sputtered at Greenblatt.

So, okay. We assume Rabbi Boteach isn't familiar with Breitbart News because he doesn't know how to read. That's the only excuse we can think of for not knowing about a website that called Bill Kristol a "renegade Jew."

But surely Boteach hasn't been able to escape the latest news, has he? — that a Bannon-created White House proclamation on Holocaust Remembrance Day failed to even mention the six million people the Nazis slaughtered because they shared, um, a very particular characteristic?

Sadly, we'll probably never know — because we haven't heard any journalists dialing Rabbi Boteach back up and asking for his reaction.

Come on, members of the Fourth Estate. We cats know you have a lot of craziness to report on these days. But you really shouldn't be letting Jewish defenders of anti-Semites off the hook like that. We cats HISS.

Memo To Trump: America Is In Your Face

By Zamboni

Remember last weekend? It seems like an eon ago, but hundreds of thousands of women in Washington — and millions of Americans and like-minded citizens across the country and around the world — marched against the New Worst Person Who's Ever Lived, his white supremacist BFF and all the hideous policies that this administration-without-a-mandate is trying to enact.

Fast forward to today, and people are pouring into the streets, with demonstrations growing by the minute in New York City, Los Angeles, downtown Washington, and once again at Dulles International Airport — where it appears that Customs & Border Patrol agents are refusing to comply with a federal court order and allow detained Muslim travelers access to lawyers.

We're in a full-blown Constitutional crisis, folks. It took Richard Nixon five freaking years to get to this point. For the Trumpsters, it's been little more than a week.

We cats will have more to say on all this, but it'll be a struggle: We've already run out of adjectives to describe our outrage (our thesaurus broke a long time ago). In the meantime, though, isn't it ironic that President Bannon is blocking highly vetted refugees from entering the US, but barely bothered to scrutinize nominees for his own Cabinet? We cats are disgusted, and we HISS.

What He Said

"We see tonight what I believe is a clear violation of the Constitution. And so clearly tonight we have to commit ourselves to the longer fight. Clearly tonight, we have to commit ourselves to the cause of our country. Clearly tonight, we have to be determined to show this world what America is all about."

—Senator Cory Booker at Dulles International Airport, Saturday, January 28

Flights And Fights

By Sniffles

Here's what we cats get for being busy and then social yesterday. We came home to find another Saturday Night Massacre underway — this time, at the nation's airports over the New Worst Person's outrageous Muslim ban. (Sorry, folks, but that's what it is.)

We are proud that thousands of incensed Americans — including kids — turned out across the country, from JFK International to Boston, to Dulles International here in Virginia, to Chicago's O'Hare, Denver, Phoenix and Sea-Tac in Seattle, where the crowd was especially feisty.

We send big PURRS and thanks to our Governor McAuliffe, our state Attorney General Mark Herring, and all the local lawyers who showed up to help people unconstitutionally detained here at Dulles. We salute the American Civil Liberties Union for jump-starting the courts, and send big Cheshire cat grins to former CIA/NSA director General Michael Hayden, who seemed amazed but pleased to find himself on the ACLU's side. We're thrilled that so many young people gave up their Saturday night to protest something bigger than themselves.

But a word of warning from us cats, dead and not-so-dead: Don't forget that this executive order was signed just as we were all fulminating about Trump canceling the Obamacare enrollment ads. So remember: If you need health coverage under the ACA, the deadline to sign up is still Tuesday, January 31 — and you can do it here.

Want To Sign Up For Obamacare? Act Now: The Deadline Is January 31!

We cats are posting this because the New Worst Person Who's Ever Lived has canceled TV advertising for the Affordable Care Act — because, evil POS that he is, he's trying to depress enrollment. Resist! If you need health insurance, click here before January 31 to get started.

Mr. Thirty-Six Percent

By Baxter

So — wow. It took the Previous Worst Person Who's Ever Lived five years to attain the depths of approval that the New Worst Person has reached in less than a week in office. And in George W. Bush's case, that was after the idiotic invasion of Iraq, the exposed lie of the WMD, and the horrors of the botched response to Hurricane Katrina.

All of those disasters helped drive the Smirking One's ratings into the ditch. Will Donald Trump brag that he equaled that accomplishment in just days? We wouldn't be surprised.

Ya know, any Democrat who is babbling about trying to "work with" this gang of Nazis and thugs in the White House should just give up and resign office right now. These people are, as our 2016 candidate once said, irredeemable. They are trying to enact off-the-charts policies that nobody gave them a mandate for. So only out-and-out resistance will stop them in their tracks.

We cats agree with these guys — and we don't need a 270-foot construction crane to say it. And, of course, we PURR.

Mary Tyler Moore, 1936-2017

Wow, two feminist icons gone within a month of one another. "Oh, Rob!" — how we cats will miss Laura Petrie and Mary Richards.

Surrendering Before The Fight

By Miss Kubelik

What's more disgusting than a Republican state lawmaker in South Carolina beating his wife bloody while his children scream and beg for him to stop?

The fact that this past November, the jackass easily won re-election because he ran unopposed.

Yep, that exasperating little nugget was buried in an article reporting the wife-beater's resignation from office yesterday. How is it possible that we Democrats failed to put somebody up against this guy? Jaime Harrison, South Carolina DNC chair who wants to be head of the Democratic National Committee, we cats are looking at you.

But it's not just a question for Harrison. Every Democrat vying for the national committee chairmanship should be asked what his or her specific plan is to ensure that we have absolutely zero uncontested elections going forward. We are in total war, folks. This kind of thing simply cannot be allowed to happen.

Call us cats suckers for the Howard Dean 50-State Strategy — but heck, we are. You can't be a national party if you don't run nationally. Not only is it essential to build our party back incrementally, election by election, but you never know when lightning is going to strike.

So, sorry, Jaime — but if you couldn't find a credible candidate to run against a Confederate-flag loving spouse-and-kid abuser, you have no business sitting in the big DNC chair. We cats are sick of having to learn the same lessons over and over and over, and we HISS.

Tooth And Nail

By Zamboni

We cats always thought Kellyanne Conway was kind of butch, but now we know for sure. The inaugural ball she attended on Friday turned into an inaugural brawl — with her punching away in the middle of it.

No pun intended, but it's striking how violent these Trumpsters are.

Conway was apparently trying to break up a fight at the ball — a fight? — and we're still waiting for somebody to explain how that happened. (We're already used to the punching and shoving that regularly took place at Trump campaign rallies. But at inaugural balls?) Last year, we learned that Steve Bannon, the white supremacist co-author of the worst inaugural address ever, once tried to wring his ex-wife's neck, and smashed her phone. Since then, Trump's Labor Department nominee has been similarly accused by a former spouse — and we all know how Trump himself feels about sexual assault, don't we?

While we're amazed, we're not exactly surprised. The Trump crowd is made up of liars, lamebrains and lowbrows, just one step up from the Neanderthals. And, of course, the original hillbilly superstars of the teabagger crowd — the Palin family — set the Republican tone a long time ago with their own drunken donnybrooks.

We're not noticing anybody calling out this awful behavior, or demanding to know if the people who are newly in charge of the federal government — not to mention the nuclear codes — are stable and reasonable. We cats find this appalling. We remember when a prominent Democrat was relentlessly grilled about his temper and judgment — and, ultimately, ruled unfit for the Oval Office — simply because somebody handed him the wrong microphone. The double standard is infuriating, and it makes us HISS.

UPDATE: Here's another one. A Republican (of course) state rep from South Carolina — who's a staunch defender of the Confederate flag (also of course) — has resigned his seat after beating up his wife and terrorizing his children on the day after Christmas. But he still faces criminal charges and, maybe, 20 years in prison. Lock him up!

Women's March, Aspen-Style

Just because you're on a skiing holiday doesn't mean you have to miss the Women's March. The Aspen demonstration also made the record books by taking place at the highest elevation: 11,300 feet!

Women's March: A Few Of Our Favorite Things

By Sniffles

Most unexpected places for sister marches to spring up: Springfield, Missouri, Boise, Idaho, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Erbil, Iraq, and Antarctica (yep, Antarctica).

Thing that would have pleased Carrie Fisher the most: Lots of in-your-face signs with Princess Leia on them.

Signs with lines we wish we'd written: "Don't forget to set your clocks back 300 years." "Nyet my president." "I didn't come from your rib. You came from my vagina." "So bad, even introverts are here." "Look out, Trump — my generation votes next." "Keep your tiny hands off my rights." "I cannot believe we still have to protest this crap." And, carried by a man: "I know signs. I make the best signs. They're terrific. Everyone agrees."

Funniest moment on MSNBC: Camera pans over signs placed by protesters on the Ellipse in Washington. Pauses for a long time over one that says, "FUCK HIM."

Best sentiment to carry us through the next four years: "I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I will change the things I cannot accept." We cats PURR.

Tidbits And Cat Treats: Women's March Edition (With Alternative Facts* — And Some Real Ones)

By Baxter

We cats didn't attend the big Women's March on Washington yesterday — we would have gotten trampled underfoot by 750,000* people. But we sent plenty of surrogates. And today, we were able to read the coverage of the DC event and sister marches worldwide with great satisfaction. Here are a few of our thoughts.

Billions* of people were demonstrating in Washington, but there were no police incidents, no arrests — and despite the fact that it had its second-busiest ridership day ever, Metro ran okay. Pretty good for a subway system that's under considerable strain even without one-million-plus rides in 19 hours.

The object of the huge throngs' derision and contempt finally couldn't restrain himself. "Why didn't these people vote?" he tweeted this morning in typically pouty fashion. Um, dude, they did. Hillary beat you by three million, remember?

Speaking of which, that 2016 popular vote — coupled with yesterday's astonishing turnout, not only in countries across the globe but on six other planets* — makes us cats hopeful that the 2018 midterms might not be such a Democratic disaster after all.

Finally, we cats are undecided about the startling fact that the word "pussy" has suddenly entered the political lexicon. We do like it that trillions* of women sported pink knitted hats with cat ears and carried cat-themed signs. But gee: Is it a good thing that the New Worst Person Who's Ever Lived has ushered in a new age of verbal vulgarity? Well, if it makes people sit up and take notice that rights they thought were secure are about to vanish — then we cats approve. And we PURR.

*Hey, they make up stuff. Why can't we?

Ours Was Bigger Than His. And That's No Lie.

By Miss Kubelik

Aside from the enormous crowds around the world today — and Chicago, you are our kind of town — what's astounded us cats the most is how the White House responded.

We expected the usual lame Republican homily about how wonderful it is when people exercise their right of free speech. Instead, Donald Drumpf and his press lackey (who really needs to get a suit jacket that fits) spent the day being mendacious and pissy.

And how did the press decide to handle their lunacy? We checked The New York Times for a quick answer. Hint: Looks like we're all going to be calling a spade a spade, folks. Their story uses words like "false," "falsely accusing" and "false statements." (On TV, the talking heads just flat-out said "lied.")

It already feels like the Saturday Night Massacre — and it's only their first day! We cats HISS.

UPDATE, January 24: The Grey Lady has used the "L" word! Check out this headline: "Trump Repeats Lie About Popular Vote in Meeting With Lawmakers." We cats can feel the earth move under our paws. And we PURR.

No-Shows

By Zamboni

So allow us to point this out — because we know that in his heart of hearts, it's all Donald Trump cares about.

Back in 1969, with no social media, and with a horrible traffic jam snarling the New York Thruway (which shut down) — Woodstock drew more people than the "inauguration" did today.

Meanwhile, just wait until tomorrow. We cats PURR.

George H.W. Bush Has A Ready-Made Excuse. Time For Jimmy Carter To Catch A Cold.

By Sniffles

The only thing we cats regret about the ballooning number of Congress members who are boycotting the Orange Man-Child's big day on Friday is that they announced it in advance.

Wouldn't it have been funny if they'd just not shown up — and left the Trumpsters scrambling to fill the empty seats?

Well, we won't quibble. It's already pretty swell that 65 Democrats have said they'll be otherwise engaged — and the statements they've made about their reasons are moving and eloquent. (We bet that the news that the FBI is investigating the Trumpsters and cash from Russia might move a few more off the fence, too.)

So, there are three ways that the Orange Man-Child could choose to handle this situation:

1. Do a mea culpa — as close as he comes to an apology — and invite the 65 Democrats to show up to demonstrate that January 20 is a pro-America event, not a celebration of all things Trump.

2. Attack the 65 and tweet, "Screw you. Putin & Bannon & Conway & Pieface & I will wipe the floor with you scum."

3. Ignore the whole sorry mess as best he can.

We think #2 is most likely, although #3 is a definite possibility. The first? Impossible. Not only is Trump personally incapable of it, but Putin would tell him not to. We cats HISS.

IMAGE: We've been glued to the tube before. But this time, we won't be watching.

A Quickie: It's All So Summer 2009

By Baxter

Have you heard the reports of mad-as-a-wet-cat voters descending on town halls to protest the Republicans' planned repeal of Obamacare? Clueless GOP House members are getting besieged by people who wonder how they're going to get by if they lose their health insurance. One Republican from Colorado even had to sneak out the back door to get away from his enraged constituents.

See, this is what happens when you hate America's first black President so much that you're willing to play with people's lives — just to make a political point. So these Republicans are getting exactly what they deserve. May the torture not just continue but get worse.

Isn't it funny how history kinda sorta repeats itself? These town halls are like a mirror image of the anti-ACA teabagger uproar seven and a half years ago. Except now, the angry mob loves Obamacare, and has fewer guns. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Monica Melts

By Miss Kubelik

Not too long ago, we cats predicted that the execrable incoming Administration would have a long list of people who would end up self-destructing thanks to some youthful indiscretion, awful business deal, white supremacy or other unappetizing naughtiness.

At the time, we were primarily thinking of people crashing and burning down the road, after they'd already been hired. But with this Trump crowd, it turns out that you can go down in flames well before you even get the White House lanyard draped around your neck. Chalk up another one today, in fact.

The perpetually scowling former McLaughlin shouter Monica Crowley has joined camera-breaking Jason Miller, who was the first to sputter less than a month ago — he for (ugh) sex, she for plagiarism.

Gosh! These guys are falling so fast, pretty soon they're going to equal the number of Congress members who are boycotting the inauguration. We cats PURR.

Fake News? Fake President.

By Zamboni

Rancid Pieface is upset, and wants Barack Obama to do something. Excuse us while we try to stop laughing.

Did Pieface really just demand, without irony, that Obama "step up" and tell Democrats who are questioning Donald Trump's election to toe the line? Yes, he did. And we cats can't think of anything that will keep us on the Trump-Is-Illegitimate Bandwagon more than bogus GOP umbrage.

It's bogus because these are the same people who 1) never accepted Obama as President, despite his nearly 10-million-vote margin in 2008, 2) refused to work with him, even to save the country from economic disaster, and 3) questioned — and, in some quarters, still question — whether he was even born in the United States.

So spare us your outrage, Rancid. President Obama won in both 2008 and 2012 by decisive margins without having to lean on a hostile foreign dictator. And our latest nominee got three million more votes than your guy did. So between the Russian thug and the popular vote — plus a little dash of James Comey — we cats would say that yeah, your shiny new President is as phony as your pique.

We agree with John Lewis: Donald Trump is illegitimate. After all, we already know from the way that he treats people that he's a bastard. We cats HISS.

An Edmund Pettus Bridge Too Far

By Sniffles

For what beliefs has Donald Trump ever put his life on the line?

None. We know this, not just from history, but — most important — because eloquent people have stepped onto the world stage to point it out. "You have sacrificed nothing, and no one," said Khizr Khan back in July. How prescient he was.

Because today we see Trump, his thin skin so easily pricked, going after a man who has, willingly and constantly, thrust his life in danger in the service of a greater cause. Decades ago, John Lewis, now a veteran member of Congress, was arrested multiple times and savagely beaten so that black Americans could vote without harassment and be treated like any other American whose skin pigment didn't match his. How many of us would eagerly put ourselves at risk like that — especially in the age of social media, trolling and Pizzagate? We think, not many.

Is there a more fitting figure who could declare that Americans will not stand for Russian interference in our elections than a man who fought and bled against Jim Crow? Nope. The symmetry, in fact, is gorgeous.

We cats say kudos to the members of Congress who are lining up behind John Lewis and against Donald Trump and declaring, hell no, we won't show up at the Capitol next Friday for this farce of a swearing-in. We hope there will be more. And we're very interested that Republicans like Ben Sasse have jumped on board. "John Lewis and his 'talk' have changed the world," Sasse tweeted, obviously appreciating the difference between a civil rights hero and a rich-boy opportunist with heel spurs. (Keep your eye on this young Sasse lad, everybody. He's ambitious.)

There is still plenty of time for more Democrats to say, whoops — you know what? Start the inauguration without me. Jimmy Carter, Bill and Hillary Clinton, we Lewis-loving Americans turn our lonely eyes to you. Do the right thing — it would make us cats PURR.

John Lewis Uses The Blunt Instrument

By Baxter

We cats have long considered John Lewis firmly ensconced in the category of Greatest Living American. So you can imagine our delight when we learned that the veteran Congressman and civil rights hero has told Chuck Todd that, because of Russian manipulation of the 2016 election, he considers Donald Drumpf an illegitimate President. And oh, by the way, Congressman Lewis will not be attending the inauguration.

Hooray! Someone has said it. Now the boulders can start rolling down the hill!

We're also reminded of the 1936 abdication crisis, when an otherwise obscure Bishop Blunt mildly criticized England's King Edward VIII for not attending church — and broke the dam on the Simpson affair. In short, we're hoping that now that Lewis has, um, bluntly pointed out the obvious, the floodgates can open, and the rest of political America can fall into line. (Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, we're looking at you: Time to declare you'll be busy washing your hair on January 20.)

In short: This Trump thing is not normal, and we refuse to normalize it.

Meanwhile, we really — really, really, really — want Trump to attack John Lewis on Twitter. Please, Trump, please go after Lewis and give all of America permission to shun and reject you. We'll do it anyway, but if you dare to impugn the man who was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, you'll make it so much easier. We cats PURR.

The End Of Wet Paw, Dry Paw

By Miss Kubelik

We cats think that President Obama has put Donald Drumpf in an interesting box by ending the special status that Cuban nationals immediately get when they land in America. His decision, Obama explained, means that the US will be "treating Cuban migrants the same way we treat migrants from other countries."

Could Drumpf reverse this once he gets into office? Sure. But isn't he supposed to be anti-immigration? Hmmmm. We cats PURR.

LL Bean Ducks The Issue

By Zamboni

We cats have pointed out before that voting with our pocketbooks is one of the few tools that we Americans who are outraged about the election have to express our opposition and disgust. So while the right wing is no doubt screaming about the boycott of LL Bean, we heartily approve.

It seems that Linda Bean, granddaughter of the company's founder and active member of the board of directors, is a big supporter of Donald Drumpf, and has given beaucoup bucks to the cause of making America hate again. Facing blowback, LL Bean is reacting with extreme lameness. "LL Bean does not endorse political candidates, take positions on political matters, or make political contributions. Simply put, we stay out of politics," they bleat.

"Simply put," this is the wrong response.

Like its competitor REI, LL Bean would be well-served to be interested in politics when it comes to issues like climate change, environmental protection, saving endangered species, preserving natural diversity, and protecting national parks and natural areas from the ravages of resource extraction companies. Why would a leading retailer of outdoor recreational products "stay out of politics," when the people who are about to run this country are committed to the destruction of the very environment that its customers love?

Until LL Bean chooses to take a principled stand, we'll be shopping elsewhere. We cats HISS.

UPDATE: Well, Donald Drumpf has just made life more difficult for the "nonpolitical" LL Bean. Will the company accept his tweeted endorsement? Our inquiring minds can't wait to hear!

The Presser After The Speech

By Sniffles

This morning, Donald Trump is allegedly holding his first press conference since the election — a mere week or so before the inauguration that should be delayed, but won't be. Incredible.

We cats remember wondering if it would ever happen. And we're still wondering if it will happen. He's canceled before, you know.

But if it does happen, here are our questions-slash-predictions.

Will he radically change the format — for example, by having Sean Spicer or Kellyanne Conway "moderate"? (Calling on reporters and cutting off any questions they deem inappropriate.)

Will he only call on friendlies? (Who's got the White House beat at Breitbart and Stormfront these days?) Will he answer any questions that aren't softballs?

Will he argue about the content, tone and facts behind the questions?

When he's ready to wrap up, will he call on someone he knows will ask an aggressive question, issue a pre-planned "up yours" and walk off?

Finally, will he take a question about something completely unrelated to Barack Obama and turn it into an attack on Obama's speech last night? We're betting on that one. In the meantime, we hope that the journalists will do their jobs, and demand that he answer the questions he tries to dodge. We cats HISS.

World Doomed, The Sequel

By Baxter

Alarm bells going off in your head about Vladimir Putin's favorite candidate taking the oath of office next week?

Well, get ready for the decibel level to ratchet up times ten: This dossier published by BuzzFeed — which has circulated among the powers that be for months, and on which President Obama and Donald Trump have just been briefed by intelligence officials — should have every puss in America quaking in his boots.

Since we cats are expert sprayers ourselves, we refuse to get all bent out of shape by the allegation that everyone will be talking about (see page two, item three).

But the rest of it? We are freaking out.

So much of the Trump-Russia connection is shocking, mind-blowing and disqualifying, but there are two things about the latest pack o' bombshells that really disturb us. One, that the intelligence community appears to be leaking this stuff before the Cone of Silence clamps down at noon on January 20. (After that, what?) And two, that James Comey thought that emails from Anthony Weiner on Huma Abedin's computer were far, far more important than a hostile foreign power putting a blackmail-vulnerable puppet in the White House.

A President named Nixon nearly got impeached for stuff way less worse than this. And Trump is starting to make George W. Bush look like Mr. Legitimacy. We cats HOWL.

Good News

Rudy Giuliani will be relieved to hear that Donald Trump's latest claim is a lie: There are still plenty of inaugural ball gowns to buy.

Mad About Meryl (M.A.M.)

By Miss Kubelik

M.A.M., Donald Trump style: Display 140-character fury and childish petulance. Whine to The New York Times. "There will be plenty of movie and entertainment stars. It's hard to find a great dress for this inauguration." (WHUT?)

M.A.M., normal-person style: Savor the importance of empathy, respect and decent behavior. Newly appreciate the meaning of art, the value of diversity, and why good journalism is necessary.

Oh, Meryl, you are so brilliant. Next to Hillary, you should be President. You make us cats PURR.

Trump Voters Are As Bad As You Think They Are

By Zamboni

Our Canadian friends (and many of our fellow US citizens) are scratching their heads, wondering how Americans could elect such a brilliant and admirable man as Barack Obama in 2008 and then turn around eight years later and elect a psychopathic narcissist.

We cats admit that it stumps us, too — even though we know that three million more people voted for Hillary Clinton, and that the way that Democrats have distributed themselves out in the states are two of the reasons we're facing Armageddon now. But still, we can't help wondering how in the world all those people could look at and listen to Donald Trump and think, "There's my President."

Now comes the news that those Trump voters are puzzled: Why, they wonder, would anyone be upset that Vladimir Putin is the other big reason their guy will be number 45? Astounding as it seems, the Trumpsters have absolutely no problem with a hostile dictator skewing the American democratic process.

Which proves that Trump supporters and the Republicans are not small-d democrats.

They're not small-d democrats because they don't care about the democratic process. They're fine with suppressing the vote, refusing to hold hearings on Merrick Garland, rushing unvetted Presidential appointees through Congress, and other unconstitutional stuff that would make the Founding Fathers throw up. And it's double-scary that these millions also think Vladimir Putin is a-okay, because — oh, goodness, don't get us started on the list of why he is not. (Let's just say that we realized the real hardcore Trumpies loved Vlad back when he started cracking down on Russian gays.)

So, no airbrushing of where the country is right now. Our half of America thinks we should keep making progress on issues like climate change, access to healthcare, reproductive rights, civil and voting rights, nuclear proliferation, the minimum wage, etc. — while their (less-than) half not only thinks that we should roll all those things back, we should allow Russia to call the shots. That strange, hateful, Putin-loving America is indeed irredeemable, and it makes us cats HISS.

When GOTV Pays Off

By Sniffles

It's always fascinating how the allegedly small-government champions in the Republican Party just love to impose the will of Washington (or name any of the state capitals) into people's personal lives. The latest example, we're sad to say, is our idiot delegate to Richmond, who gazed on the chaos that ensued in North Carolina and said to himself, "Gee, we should have a bathroom bill in Virginia."

Local coverage so far has ranged from skeptical to contemptuous, although we haven't seen anyone pointing out that the idiot who's introducing the legislation has plans to run for Governor, and obviously is trying to shore up his cred with the religious right.

We cats are still waiting for somebody to explain to us how this ridiculous law is being, or would be, enforced. And we're getting no answers because, of course, it's all just a stupid show to dupe the Bible bangers (while targeting, marginalizing and making even more vulnerable an already vulnerable minority).

In the meantime, we are mighty glad that we have a Democrat sitting in the Governor's Mansion who will immediately dive for his veto pen if this bill ever gets to his desk. That's one reason we cats went door to door for Terry McAuliffe in 2013, and that makes us PURR.

UPDATE, January 13: Bravo to InsideNOVA, for pointing out that not only is our idiot delegate wasting one of just 15 opportunities a House member has to introduce legislation, but that by pushing a radical right-wing agenda, he's made himself persona non grata with his colleagues, which has further crippled his ability to serve his constituents. Support your local paper!

Lest We Furr-get: When The GOP Really Believed That America Should Be First

By Baxter

We cats literally cannot believe two things: A) the headlines that we're seeing today, and B) that the Republican Party is okay with them. Here are just a few of those mind-boggling headers:

"US Intercepts Said to Capture Russian Officials Congratulating Themselves on Trump Win"

"Russia Meddled in US Election, Clapper Says, Rejecting Trump's View"

"Former CIA Director James Woolsey Quits Trump Transition Team"

"Trump Rhetoric on Intel Agencies Alarms US Allies"

It is clear that the Republicans' traditional hard line against hostile foreign powers has melted to nothingness in their zeal to eradicate (or prevent) all things Obama — the Affordable Care Act, environmental regulations, the Iran nuclear deal, a lawful Supreme Court nomination, and so on, and so forth.

Which is proof that the GOP's fear of the black man and his vision for America trumps fear of anything else — even if it takes them to the brink of what we'd consider treason. We cats HISS.

(IMAGE: Nixon/Agnew at the Republican convention in 1972. What would they say if they saw the GOP's embrace of Putin's Russia today?)

Lack Of Intelligence

By Miss Kubelik

About that mocking tirade that Donald Trump tweeted last night regarding the US intelligence community and "so-called" Russian hacking:

Okay. Let's admit that in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003, US intelligence failed. Either they failed because Dick Cheney put a gun to their heads and told them what their briefings on WMDs should say — or they failed because they made the WMD mistake themselves. Whatever.

By all accounts, though, both the Bush and the Obama Administrations performed root-cause analyses and other diagnostics to figure out how it all went wrong. Congress investigated (whatever that was worth). Reforms were promised. Reforms were allegedly implemented. And no similar intel failure has happened since.

In short: Problem gets investigated, and reforms happen. That's the way things are supposed to work.

But Donald Trump, in his simplistic, 140-character world, obviously believes that if you make one mistake, you're wrong forever. (An interesting philosophy for a man who's landed in bankruptcy about half-a-dozen times.)

By Trump's logic, we can never trust the US military. Why? Because the British captured Washington, DC in 1814. Because Robert E. Lee was able to invade Pennsylvania, or the Japanese surprise us at Pearl Harbor.

By Trump's logic, we'd never be able to trust the Ford Motor Company because they made the Edsel. And on and on.

What more proof do we need of this man's sick, myopic vision? Or that if a Democratic President-elect were to behave like this, she'd be impeached before even taking office? We cats HISS.

Trump Uncalls Kitten 9-1-1? Unheard Of!

By Zamboni

The biggest problem with Donald Trump — aside from everything — is that you can never tell whether what he says or does is true.

Well, no — mostly everything is says is a lie. But when it comes to other stuff, journalists and the rest of us have our work cut out.

Did he really get Ford to nix its Mexican plant? (We're doubtful.) Did he drive the hapless Republicans on Capitol Hill off their unholy plan to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics? (Nah, they just postponed it until August.) But most important: Did he truly follow — and then unfollow — Emergency Kittens on Twitter?

Emergency Kittens seemed to think so. At least, they reacted by posting this image — after which Trump dropped out of their follower ranks.

We're having a hard time figuring all this out. Are the awe-inspiring responsibilities of the Presidency starting to close in on The New Worst Person Who's Ever Lived? Did he feel a strong if fleeting need to see cute kitten pics for relief? Was he just trying to grab more you-know-what? Or have the Russians hacked his Twitter account? We cats HISS.

Biden The (Bi)partisan

By Sniffles

Here's a tradition we cats will be sad to see go: Watching Vice President Joe Biden swear in new and returning Senators.

Tomorrow will be Joe's last day for such duty, after which it will be taken over by creepy Mike Pence — who, let's be frank, will never be able to live up to his predecessor. That's because whether Biden was administering oaths to Democrats or Republicans, he always did it with great panache and, more important, joy.

Here's Joe at his best from a few years ago. We cats sure will miss his million-dollar smile. And we PURR.

Objections, Please.

By Baxter

Who will be the first Republican not named McCain or Graham to scream about Donald Drumpf's lovefest with Vladimir "I Kill My Political Enemies and Invade Other Countries" Putin?

We cats are waiting breathlessly. After all, for most of our nine lives the GOP has been so rabidly anti-Communist and anti-Russian and anti-everything-anti-American that surely they will not put up with their Vulgarian President knuckling under to Putin. Will they?

Or... will they?

The most logical Republican to squeal foul on the Drumpf-Putin romance would be Baby Marco, of course. For decades, the Soviet Union (and then Russia) has propped up Rubio's hated Castro regime. Yet do we hear any objections from Baby Marco's corner about his Republican President's Putin crush? Hm, we think not.

Jeff Flake is a bit of a mini-maverick, so we're wondering if he'll step up to the plate. Bob "Harold, Call Me" Corker should probably say something, seeing how he chairs the Foreign Relations Committee and all. Rafael Cruz, Jr. has been stringently anti-Communist throughout his political life (although there's debate as to whether Vlad is a true Commie). So where is Rafael on this?

But in our book, Lisa Murkowski is the GOPer who should be most vocal and ballsy on this love-Putin crap. After all, she can see Russia from her house — right?

Sadly, we don't expect any of these Republican hypocrites to grow a spine and speak up. Which leaves us Democrats to take up the baton. Who has the guts — beside our most dependable man with moxie — to call 'em like he/she sees 'em?

We cats wait, and in the meantime, we HISS.