Gallipacci

By Baxter

Maybe you've seen a lot of retrospectives about famous people who have died this year. While we admit that many folks we care about have checked out in 2017, let's take a moment to salute the long-running performers who are still with us.

Here are Carl Reiner, 95, and Nanette Fabray, 97. God bless them!

Some Cold, Hard Facts About Puerto Rico

By Miss Kubelik

Twenty years ago this January, a crippling ice storm paralyzed Quebec. Nearly four million people in the province were without power for weeks. Businesses closed, the Montreal subway ground to a halt, banks and their ATMs shut down, no mail was delivered, and people lined up for gas. In short, life stopped in its tracks.

So imagine what Quebec went through in cold temperatures, and transpose that to Puerto Rico in the tropics, today. The difference? The weather event that crippled Puerto Rico happened 100 days ago, not yesterday. The fact that American citizens in this US territory are still struggling is unconscionable.

Look: Climate change means that extreme temperatures are going to occur, hot or cold. Right now, the US and Canada are dealing with subzero weather, but the rest of the world is baking. And while the original disaster to befall Puerto Rico was quite possibly due to global warming, its aftermath is totally the fault of humans. (That is, if you consider Trump Administration officials human.)

We don't. As far as we're concerned, Trump has committed Puerto Rican genocide. He should be impeached, removed from office and sent to Guantanamo — just for that. But since no one will hold him to account for a US territory's suffering, we'll have to nail him on foreign collusion and obstruction of justice. Go, Bob Mueller, go! We cats PURR.

Yeah, We Still Hate Mike Pence

By Zamboni

Lost in all the chatter about impeachment and the 25th amendment is how truly, deeply, madly awful Mike Pence is.

We cats will never support removing Trump from office as long as Pence is next in line. Let the Democrats win the House next year, and let a Democratically-chaired House Judiciary Committee impeach both Trump and Pence, and we'll think about it. But until then, nyet.

In the meantime, this banner erected next door to where Pence and "Mother" are spending the weekend in Aspen will have to do. In fact, it's pretty darn swell. We cats PURR.

"Now, This Is A Knife"

By Sniffles

Turns out that the Trumpsters' claim that the Russia investigation is illegitimate because it sprang from the Steele dossier is a lie — like everything else Team Trump says, right? Thanks to today's reporting from The New York Times, it was, instead, a squiffy conversation that the hapless George Papadopoulos had with the Australian high commissioner to the United Kingdom that got the whole thing started.

Alexander Downer passed along Papadopoulos's drunken "the Russians have dirt on Hillary" boasts to US intelligence, and the rest is history.

In light of this important reporting, we send kudos to our Australian allies — and will refrain from saying that the ratting out of Papadopoulos was, for a Trumpsters, a real "downer." Oops, we just did. We cats PURR.

Tidbits And Cat Treats: The Day After The Day After Boxing Day Edition

By Baxter

We cats haven't finished opening our presents yet, preferring to extend the gift-giving as long as possible. But we'll start tearing at them soon. While we cavort among the crumpled paper, ribbons and bows, consider some of these stories floating around the political world today.

Happy Certification Day, Doug Jones. The Democrat prevailed in Alabama's Senate race by 21,924 votes after a last-ditch effort by sore loser Roy Moore to stop the final count. Moore alleged election fraud in black precincts that turned out in record numbers to vote against him. Gee... we can't imagine why African Americans would want to defeat a guy who openly pined for the good ol' days of slavery — can you?

Donald Drumpf's tweet about today's Vanity Fair-Hillary Clinton dust-up seemed to imply that he thought Vogue editor Anna Wintour was at the helm of VF, too. We certainly thought it did. Some folks on Twitter tried to defend Trump by pointing out that Wintour holds an executive position at Condé Nast, the two magazines' joint publisher. We don't buy it. But you can bet that if HRC had made such a slip, Trump would have been all over it — tweeting that she'd lost her mental faculties and needed to check into an assisted living facility.

Speaking of ordering Hillary Clinton around, we have no interest in watching the silly Vanity Fair video that got everyone so upset. But we thought that actress Patricia Arquette had the best response: "STOP TELLING WOMEN," she tweeted with the F-word, what “THEY SHOULD DO OR CAN DO." Perfect.

Finally, yes, it's freezing here in the Northeast, and teeth are chattering up in Canada, too. But before idiot Republicans start tossing snowballs on the Senate floor and denying climate change, let's remember that the rest of the planet is breaking records for warmth. As Neil deGrasse Tyson cautions, weather does not equal climate. Take note, North America. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Always In Our Hearts

By Miss Kubelik

In a year in which Nazi sympathizers marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, and killed a woman there, it feels especially good to salute one of the 20th century's leading badass anti-Hitlerites, Marlene Dietrich, on her 116th birthday.

Google is sporting a stylish doodle today, and she was trending on Twitter, too. We cats would like to add our two cents and toast Madame Dietrich for her patriotic moxie during World War II.

Born in Germany and naturalized a US citizen in 1939, Dietrich was fiercely outspoken against the Nazis — which got her films banned in her home country, probably to her great delight. During the war, she visited and entertained American troops scarily close to the European front lines. She had spunk!

Oh, and did we mention she was gorgeous, and a terrific actress? Maybe those idiots who marched in Charlottesville should check out one of her best films, "Judgment at Nuremberg." They might learn a thing or two. We cats PURR.

Salt Lake Tribune: Bury The Hatch

By Zamboni

We cats were steaming the other day about Senator Orrin Hatch's pusillanimity on CHIP — the joint state-and-federal health insurance program for children that he and Ted Kennedy created back in the day. Funding for CHIP ran out weeks ago, and the GOP appears content to let it die — just like the kids with cancer who depend on the program to cover their lifesaving drugs, we guess.

So we were just teeing off on Twitter about how we hope Hatch is haunted by the ghost of Kennedy forever when we noticed that The Salt Lake Tribune agrees with us: Utah's senior senator is a disgrace, and should retire from Congress.

Heck, they didn't even mention CHIP. They went after Hatch for the tax bill and the environment — and his timidity in the face of this awful Administration's rapacious actions against America. Recognizing Hatch as 2017's "Utahan of the Year," the paper made it clear it wasn't a compliment — it was for Hatch's "utter lack of integrity that rises from his unquenchable thirst for power."

See? Republicans have a price to pay, even in the reddest of red states, when they sell their souls to Donald Trump. We cats take this as a further excellent omen for 2018, and we PURR.

Looking Ahead

We've had plenty of snow this holiday. How ironic that the first Christmas of the current, Nazi-loving Presidency is, um, a white one. Well, take heart, everyone — 2018 will help put America on the road to restoration. We cats PURR.

Is It Safe To Come Out Yet?

By Sniffles

Since Pope Francis has decided to speak out on the plight of the world's migrants tonight (in an assumed rebuke to the racist sociopath who currently occupies the Oval Office), we cats must report that politics have also touched our holiday revelries — at least a bit.

Having enjoyed a terrific performance last night at Montreal's House of Jazz, we've learned that the establishment was formerly named for its previous owner, Charles Biddle, an American bass player who relocated to Quebec after serving in World War II. Why did Biddle make the move? Because he was impressed that in Montreal, white and black musicians played together with no problem — unlike in the United States.

Of course, the civil rights movement came in the Fifties and Sixties, and things in the US got better. But lately, we've been feeling like we're backsliding. It's amazing how effectively hate can seem to take hold when it flows down from the top.

So our holiday wish is that, in 2018, love manages to trump all that — with a ton of Democratic votes. That would make us cats PURR.

"Miss America"... Is That Still A Thing?

By Baxter

It seems like every profession is being outed vis-a-vis bad behavior by the guys who inhabit it. Producers, actors, symphony conductors, CEOs, politicians, journalists, chefs, team owners — you name it, no field is immune. Because men are jerks, and they hold the reins of power pretty much everywhere.

With the possible exception of Al Franken, whom we've blogged about before, we cats are generally encouraged that abusive men are getting their just deserts. But we have to admit that we really don't care about the latest boor outing — Sam Haskell, the now-suspended head of the Miss America Organization.

Don't get us wrong — no Miss America contestant deserves to be referred to in a Haskell email as a "cunt." But gosh, in this year-of-our-Lord-almost-2018, beauty pageants are surely out of date, yes? There's no reason in this day and age for women to find affirmation by parading around in swimsuits and high heels — right? Can't we just disband the whole thing, and call it a day?

Well, we can discuss that. In the meantime, we think we know who the real cunt is: Sam Haskell. Screw you, asshole. We cats HISS.

America Needs You, Al Franken — In Whatever Capacity

By Miss Kubelik

We cats are sad to see Al Franken leave the Senate. Every time we start to fume that he got railroaded — Roger Stone's fingerprints are all over this one — we remind ourselves of that photo on the plane coming back from the Middle East. We love Al, but we would not have liked to have been the woman in that photo, and we've already said as much.

That said, with the mantle of the US Senate off him come January 2, we're hopeful that not only will Al Franken not go away, we'll see a new Al, unleashed. Unlike the last eight years, he won't have a staff warning him, "Okay, that's for inside the car." For Al Franken, everything will be outside the car. Which could be a good thing.

His farewell speech today reminded us that we need his voice now more than ever. Note to Senator Franken: Think about new ways to use that voice. Just no more silly pictures, okay? We cats PURR.

Shelly, By A Nose? Not So Fast.

By Zamboni

Democrat Shelly Simonds has apparently just wrested a House of Delegates seat from Republican David Yancey after a head-spinning recount put her up 11,608 to 11,607 in Newport News, Virginia. Wow!

Assuming certification takes place tomorrow, the lower chamber in Richmond will now be tied 50-50, and — with a closely divided Senate, a Democratic lieutenant governor to break ties and a new Democratic governor with a veto pen — Virginia Republicans will have to get off their wacky, right-wing ideological train and try to pass some real-world legislation for a change. Sweet!

This isn't just a lesson in how important your vote is. It's a portent — ominous, for them — of how much trouble the GOP is in. Sure, Simonds won by a nose — or maybe by just a whisker — but it was the Commonwealth's sweeping Democratic wave last month that helped get her in striking distance in the first place.

Note to Republicans: While you're celebrating your destruction of the American middle class today, be warned. You just lost your majority in Virginia by a single vote, and the rest of you clowns are next. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

UPDATE: See, this is why we cats are always careful to go with the bird in the paw, not the one in the bush. A three-judge panel refused to certify the results today and accepted a ballot for the Republican, Yancey — leaving the race tied. We won't try to predict what the coin toss will bring, but here's what's still true: The wave's coming, GOP. The wave's coming. We cats PURR.

Cat Fight! Puerto Rico Versus The GOP

By Sniffles

The odious, smirky-faced Paul Ryan must be turning cartwheels today that the House of Representatives has voted to rape America with its giveaway to the rich.

Lost in all the hootin' and hollerin' is the fact that the Governor of Puerto Rico has sworn to get revenge. Why? Because the bill will damage the island's economy by raising taxes on companies doing business there — at the worst possible, post-Hurricane-Maria time.

"Everything is on the table," Ricardo Rosselló said, accusing "those who turned their back on Puerto Rico."

Please note that Governor Rosselló has previously refrained from publicly criticizing Donald Trump and the GOP, even though this hapless Republican Administration has killed more than 1,000 of Rosselló's constituents and sent more than a hundred thousand fleeing to Florida, Chicago, New York and other US havens.

A strong supporter of statehood, Rosselló has put Republicans on notice that their backstabbing, plus so many Puerto Ricans registering to vote on the mainland, will help spell doom for the GOP next year. "It's crystal clear that because we don't have that direct representation we're going to have surrogate voices, whether it's Puerto Ricans who moved to the US or the Latino community in general," he said.

The upshot? That the consequences of — and fallout from — this "beautiful" tax bill will be even more numerous and far-reaching than we thought. And no one in the GOP, not even the phony alleged super-wonk in the Speaker's chair, has the foggiest idea of how nasty this is going to get for them in 2018. We cats PURR.

Shot Across The Bow

By Baxter

Robert Mueller is a man of few words. These days, very few words. Since his appointment as Special Counsel last spring (which Republicans like Newt Gingrich praised to the skies), Mueller has been silent. He's too busy investigating the Trumpsters' collusion with the Russians.

But now that the Trump traitors feel the heat, they're going after Mueller like never before. The cranking up of the conservative attack machine — particularly their latest silly squawk that Mueller obtained transition emails inappropriately — has made lots of folks nervous that a firing is imminent. (Although King Tiny Hands denies it.)

So Team Mueller has decided they need to speak — briefly. Here's the official statement from spokesperson Peter Carr:

"When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner's consent or appropriate criminal process."

Ahem. Anybody else catch the use — not once, but twice — of the word "criminal"? We think that's not an accident. We cats PURR.

"Who Won't Buy Into Climate Change / Until It's Sold On The Stock Exchange?"

By Miss Kubelik

We cats have been struck by the similarities between the Trumpsters and the Stephen Harper crowd that got booted out of power in Canada back in the fall of 2015. Harper tried to muzzle scientists on environmental and other issues — and now, Trump is following suit, even more malevolently.

It sure feels like Nazi Germany or some other totalitarian state. So while we still have freedom of speech, can someone please write a Trump version of "Harperman"? 'Cuz it's time for Trump — and the GOP — to go.

A Movie And A Book

This video confirms it: There'd be no Christmas to wage war on if it weren't for us! We cats PURR.

This Is It

Folks, if you need health insurance in 2018 and don't have employer-provided coverage, tonight is your last chance to sign up for Obamacare. The Trumpsters are bent on killing the Affordable Care Act — don't let them. Sign up here before it's too late!

Good Riddance

By Zamboni

It's pretty Scrooge-y to be hardhearted during the holidays, but we cats are feeling no sympathy over the lamebrain Republican state rep who committed suicide in Kentucky the other day.

Sound harsh? You bet. But it's hard to muster anything but contempt for a guy who threatened to kill Muslims in his front yard (how Christian of him) and who circulated pictures on social media that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. Oh, and then there's the little matter of the 17-year-old girl he molested in church back in 2013. As far as we're concerned, now that this guy is gone a lot of underage vaginas are blessedly safe from his drunken, wandering fingers.

All righty then, we've gotten that off our furry chests. Nothing left to do but share this idiot's rambling, he-doth-protest-too-much Face Thing suicide note and acknowledge that at the very least, he was deeply disturbed. Of course, we knew that the moment he posted racist pictures of the Obamas. But it's taken killing himself to make the rest of the world see it. Don't rest in peace, Dan Johnson. We cats HISS.

P.S., USA Today: Trump Isn't Fit To Clean Joe Biden's Toilets, Either

One day after USA Today published this brutal editorial about Donald Trump — and after Trump's bigoted, pedophile US Senate candidate lost in Alabama — Joe Biden showed up on "The View" to remind us all what we used to have.

Happy First Night Of Hanukkah, Kayla Moore

By Sniffles

Many, many things about Roy Moore have offended us cats over the years. His flouting of the rule of law, which got him tossed off the bench not once but twice. His hatred of anybody who is not white, straight and male. His fake, fake, FAKE Christianity.

But nothing offended us more than Kayla Moore's "one of our lawyers is a Jew" speech last night. We just couldn't believe it — were we really hearing that in America in 2017? Then we realized that it was just more of what we saw in Charlottesville in August. Somebody might just as well have shoved a tiki torch in Kayla's hand and given her a Polo shirt and a pair of khaki slacks (size 18, no doubt).

So as close as it is, tonight's apparent win in Alabama by Doug Jones is sweet beyond words. Sore loser Mitch McConnell may not allow Jones to get sworn in in time to vote against the tax bill, but at least the anti-Semites got their just deserts. We cats PURR.

Double Digits? "We Poll, You Decide"

By Baxter

There are two ways to look at the FOX poll that shows Democratic Senate candidate Doug Jones 10 points ahead of Republican child molester Roy Moore in Alabama.

1. Maybe it's legitimate, with the pollsters doing their best to predict turnout — and, in an un-FOX-like desire for respectability, they reported the results as accurately and fairly as possible.

2. Maybe it's all about Trump. Saddling Moore with a 10-point deficit means that, should Moore lose by less than that, FOX will have let Trump claim that he brought Moore to a close, but not-quite-victorious finish. Remember, this is what Trump claimed about Luther Strange's showing after the primary.

Or, should Moore win, Trump can claim that he, and he alone, dragged a horribly damaged guy over the finish line.

We have to say that a version of #2 was the one that immediately popped into our furry minds. FOX's track record doesn't exactly inspire us to give them the benefit of the doubt. We cats HISS.

A Tale Of Two Campaigns

By Miss Kubelik

The shocking results of Election Day 2016 taught us cats not to draw too many inferences from the states of opposing campaigns. Who would have thought that the bumbling, stumbling Trumpsters and their fractious and fractured GOP would emerge victorious last November? (Well, Vlad Putin had something to do with it, didn't he?)

Nevertheless, if you look at the two operations down in Alabama this weekend, they're pretty intriguing. Democratic Senate candidate Doug Jones has been barnstorming the state, including hitting a passel of black churches today with Senator Cory Booker. Republican Roy Moore, he of the dead eyes and the wandering hands, has disappeared.

Moore hasn't been seen on the campaign trail since last Tuesday — which is extraordinary for a major-party candidate in the final stretch to Election Day. He didn't even attend church this morning! (Oh, and Moore people? If you convene a meeting with the press to discuss sexual misconduct allegations and then don't take any questions from reporters, you can't call it a press conference. Just sayin'.)

So what we have in Moore is not just a pedophile with contempt for the rule of law, but a coward. Roy Moore is paralyzed with fear — fear of the national media swarming Alabama, fear of a confrontation with an accuser, and fear of angry protesters — the typically craven behavior of someone who'd force himself on underage girls. We cats HISS.

(PHOTO: Cory and Doug, on the trail. GOTV, guys!)

"Traditional Values" Get Interesting

By Zamboni

We cats just knew that when the news broke that fetus-face Trent Franks — one of the GOP's most rabid anti-abortion crusaders — pleaded with his female staff members to have his surrogate baby, he was not talking about in vitro fertilization.

So we waited: Time will tell, we thought. And then, indeed, it did.

Franks abruptly resigned today. Not later, as he'd previously said — but today. And then in a few hours it emerged that he'd been importuning women on his staff to have his baby the "regular way." He'd even offered one of them $5 million for the privilege.

We just want to point out that Mr.-Must-Oppose-Abortion-At-Any-Cost pleading with staff members to bear his child isn't just creepy. It's about men who view women as nothing more than vessels — baby machines — and not as people. It's about allegedly Christian men viewing women as reproductive factories controlled by them.

Reminder: Women will never be equal until they have the methods and the means to control their reproductive destiny. Sadly, this appears to be a struggle that we are, still, far from winning. In fact, we're probably taking a few steps back every time we take a step forward. Weary from battles we fought that we thought were already won, we cats HISS.

Run Everywhere.

By Sniffles

Looking for some holiday cheer? Here's a story that made us smile: A gay man who was denied a marriage license by Rowan, Kentucky, County Clerk Kim Davis has just filed to run against her in the next election.

Here he is, in fact — filling out the necessary paperwork, while Miss Glum looks on.

We cats love this. Not just because karma's a bitch, and not just because the idea of maybe beating this hater is too delicious to contemplate. We love it because it's so important for liberals, Democrats — and everyone who's appalled and alarmed by the Trumpsters and the Republicans — to run in every race we can. At all levels — local, state and federal.

We saw this happen in Virginia, where great candidates sprang up for local races and, in many cases, turned the racists and the haters out. That's a real inspiration. But even if we don't win, we've damn well fielded somebody. After all, you never know when lightning will strike.

Meanwhile, if you want to support David Ermold and his campaign to oust the ever-loathsome Kim Davis, click here. We cats PURR.

Rescue On Highway 1

The world has a new hero — a young man who couldn't bear to see a bunny rabbit succumb to the flames of the Southern California wildfires. We cats are in love, and we PURR.

"When A Nation Loses Its Funny Man, A Part Of Its Heart Is Ripped Out Forever"

By Baxter

Okay, so all our caterwauling was for naught, and Senator Al Franken will resign his Senate seat in the next few weeks. And it looks like America will get another female Democratic Senator.

So maybe life could be worse? We were surprisingly reassured by Franken's speech today, which was intelligent and — in weird circumstances — uplifting. Falling on his sword has restored his credibility, and we're pleased to know that he isn't going away.

Now it's time to tell a tiny Al Franken story. When we cats met him at a fundraiser in 2008, we made a point of telling him how much we liked his short-lived TV series "Lateline" — especially the Buddy Hackett episode. (You can watch the meaty bits of it above.)

We were looking forward to an interesting conversation with the candidate about how, thanks to the sorry state of modern media, a celebrity story will always pre-empt more serious news. But instead, Al immediately launched, sotto voce, into a dirty Hackett joke that dated from Buddy's days in the Catskills. We don't remember it exactly, but it had something to do with testicles.

Kind of a disappointment, that. But it apparently was something that a comedian would do.

We guess that's why we can pretty easily picture Al Franken doing the things he did that, today, drove him from the Senate. It's probably unfair, and it's sad, but the Democrats' slate is now clean — until the next one comes along. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

(P.S. This "Lateline" episode is still fresh and funny, even though Buddy Hackett did leave us — for real — on June 30, 2003. But do check out the name of the fictional hospital that the "Lateline" Buddy was admitted to back in 1998.)

Just Another Reminder...

By Miss Kubelik

The Trumpsters are trying to sabotage the Affordable Care Act. Don't let them. Enrollments are exceeding last year's, but with budget cuts and the signup period slashed in half, that may not be enough. If you need healthcare coverage, enroll here today.

We Beg To Differ

By Zamboni

We cats like our Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, very much — but you can't agree with someone on everything, can you? So we're parting ways with her today on the question of Senator Al Franken. We sincerely hope that tomorrow, Senator Franken does not resign.

We've already opined on Franken's unfortunate #MeToo behavior, so we don't need to bore you by repeating ourselves. But events have moved so swiftly since then that now we need to come to Al's defense. Not only is he a good guy and a great advocate for women's rights, but his offenses just don't rise to the level of, say, Donald Trump's or Clarence Thomas's. (Or that Republican nutcase who's running for Senate in Alabama.) Why should he fall on his sword if those jackasses don't? Plus it feels like a right-wing setup, not that that excuses anything.

It all just makes us sigh, because this is how Republicans always have us over a barrel — they know that we believe in doing the right thing, and they don't. Frustrated as we are, though, we have a few suggestions that Democrats might want to consider:

Let Franken resign, but only if Roy Moore wins Jeff Sessions's Senate seat next week. After which Al says, "I'm not serving in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body with an accused pedophile!"

Let Franken resign, but only if the "Apprentice" sexual misconduct case against Trump is allowed to proceed.

Let Franken resign before the Alabama election, and have Governor Dayton appoint Congressman Keith Ellison to Al's seat — so there's a Muslim in the Senate waiting to greet Moore if he gets there. That would make us cats PURR.

Kellyanne Conway Says "Nobody Cares" About Her #MeToo Moment

via GIPHY

What can we say? She's right. We cats YAWN.

Counting Noses

By Sniffles

Team Trump has gone back and forth a few times on this "what-did-Trump-know-that-Michael-Flynn-did" matter when Trump "fired" Flynn on February 13. This is dicey for them, because as we all know, Trump met with then-FBI director James Comey on February 14 and asked that the Bureau stop pursuing Flynn.

After a self-incriminating Trump tweet that "lawyer" John Dowd later claimed to have written, Dowd has now decided to say that yes, Trump knew about Flynn lying to the FBI as well as to Mike Pence, but that's okay because a President cannot obstruct justice.

Hm. Interesting notion, that. We can hear Richard Nixon screaming from the grave right now.

Anyway, here's our take on all this: Trump screwed up, not just this but a whole bunch of Russia-related things, and he knows how much hot water he's in. We're not saying he totally understands it — just that he gets enough of it to be counting impeachment votes in the Senate.

How do we know? Easy-peasy. Why else would he be pressuring the 83-year-old Utah Senator Orrin Hatch to run for re-election again, and thus deny Willard Mitt Romney a shot at his seat? Hatch would be a "NO" vote on impeachment. Romney would be a "YES." We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Can't Wake Up In The Middle Of The Night For the Supermoon? Here's A Handy Feel-Good Substitute.

via GIPHY

Sometimes the news is so bleak, there's nothing left to do but curl up with some red panda. So here you go! We cats PURR.

Saturday Night Questions

By Baxter

It's been a rough week, hasn't it? Not that there haven't been some glimmers of optimism that in the end, the country will be salvaged and not sink into a corrupt oligarchy for the rest of its days. (We're looking at you, Robert Mueller.) But gosh — the US Senate just behaved like a banana republic, and John McCain, who is dying of brain cancer, decided that his legacy would be to rip healthcare coverage from 13 million Americans. That is depressing.

Nevertheless, hope springs eternal, and in that spirit, we have a few questions tonight.

Isn't it amazing that the one Senator with honor on the Republican side last night was Bob "Harold, Call Me" Corker? More proof that the GOP's souls are filled with unwashed socks.

Are we all going to find out who K.T. McFarland is now?

A new poll has put Doug Jones a whisker ahead of Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race — three points. So, okay, the polls are going to be all over the place for the next week and a half. But this one got our attention in a very special way. "Who do you trust more to handle the issue of abortion?" Forty-seven percent said Moore, but 46 percent said Jones. Abortion is supposed to be Jones's Achilles heel in Alabama. Could it be that it isn't?

Finally, OMG, can we not impeach Trump and Pence before January 2019? Because if Trump is toast and Pence goes down with him, the next one in line is Paul Ryan. We must get Ryan out of the Speaker's chair, tout de suite, before any of that can happen. We cats PURR.

Rope-A-Dope

By Miss Kubelik

Having heard the Michael Flynn guilty-plea news, we cats assume that the Interwebs are breaking under the strain of "LOCK HIM UP" being tweeted and blogged zillions of times.

But amid all the cacophony, it's dawned on us that this past May, it was revealed that in the dark days after the election, when President Obama met in the Oval Office with the narcissistic sociopath who was soon to occupy it, Obama warned Donald Trump not to hire Flynn for national security adviser. Or maybe for anything.

So we're wondering: Did Obama know that any advice that he, Obama, gave Trump would be not just instantly rejected by Trump but that Trump would race pell-mell into doing the exact opposite thing?

Yes and yes. We cats PURR.

(IMAGE: Look at Obama grin. He knows something.)