Trade Wars, Name-Calling, Undeserved Pardons... It's A Red Panda Kind Of Day!

via GIPHY

Or we could just keep reminding ourselves that after years of GOP opposition, the Commonwealth of Virginia just expanded Medicaid. Whatever it takes to cheer up and PURR.

Bring On The Strudel

By Baxter

Obama adviser Ben Rhodes has a new memoir coming out, and it's getting people's attention thanks to revelations of 44's — and our allies' — reactions to the catastrophe that is Donald Drumpf.

According to Rhodes, "Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany told Mr. Obama that she felt more obliged to run for another term because of Mr. Trump's election to defend the liberal international order," The New York Times reports. "When they parted for the final time, Ms. Merkel had a single tear in her eye. 'She's all alone,' Mr. Obama noted."

No, Mr. President, you're wrong! Angela will always have her trusty and loyal aide, Birgit, at her side (not to mention Helga, her special trade envoy). We cats feel better just knowing that. And we PURR.

A "Roseanne Reaction" From The Makers Of Ambien

Okay, we cats are not fans of Big Pharma, but this is pretty neat.

Roseanne And Eric Are History, But These Stories Are Way More Important

By Zamboni

Did Eric Greitens suddenly decide to resign today because he thought the news would be lost in the "Roseanne" cancellation? We can't think of any other reason — he'd been hanging on for months, and it's not yet clear what else may have spurred him to act.

(Anyway, it didn't work. Slimeball Eric is the second headline everywhere, after Barr.)

We kinda wish Greitens had continued to twist slowly in the wind rather than decamp, since he was making Missouri Republicans so uncomfortable. And we're happy that Roseanne's vileness finally caught up with her. But both of these cretins, sadly, stepped on some other important news stories today. Here are just a few:

With his lamebrain, racist lack of response to Hurricane Maria, Donald Trump has now killed more people than Osama bin Laden did on 9/11.

The Trumpsters are tearing migrant children away from their parents, and have lost 1,500 of them. Trump is trying to blame this, of course, on President Obama.

Trump told Jeff Sessions to un-recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

The stock market dropped almost 400 points today because the United States — and oh, yeah, Italy — are in chaos.

A new video game, "Active Shooter," lets players massacre a school.

Most distressing of all, a National Guardsman has died trying to save a woman trapped by the Ellicott City, Maryland, floods. Just the other day, he had posted his hopes as the nation prepared to honor its war dead. "Okay kiddos, it’s the start of Memorial Day weekend. Let’s get the hate out of our hearts." We cats are very sad.

Cat Fight! Kelly Sadler vs. Mercedes Schlapp

By Sniffles

Apparently the White House leaker wanted to resurrect the "John McCain is dying anyway" story just in time for Memorial Day and tonight's HBO McCain documentary. And just as apparently, it worked. Consider the controversy, if not McCain the brain cancer patient himself, officially revived.

The latest brouhaha has Kelly Sadler outing Mercedes Schlapp as the White House leaker in the presence of Donald Drumpf himself. But we cats are patting ourselves on the back, since as soon as Schlapp gratuitously let the "I stand with Kelly Sadler" comment slip, we knew she had leaked the McCain insult in the first place.

That's because Schlapp and her femme husband (they remind us a little of Mr. and Mrs. Michele Bachmann) are avatars of the hard-core Christian right, which has never loved McCain. So they're sending a message to their fellow travelers on the GOP's anti-McCain fascist flank, for whom the senior Senator from Arizona is surely expiring too slowly. Also, Schlapp is campaigning hard to be White House Communications Director, and Sadler's travails reflect badly on Lyin' Sarah Sanders, to whom Sadler reports. A classic meow mêlée, in our eyes.

Or chalk it up to the fact that the Trumpsters are all incompetent, power-mad, hateful fools. Can both be true? (Sure!) We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Lest We Furrget: Today's Die-In Is Yesterday's Boycott

By Miss Kubelik

Back in 2010, which feels like a hundred years ago, Target Corp. faced a firestorm of criticism when the public learned that the store was bankrolling a conservative Republican candidate for Minnesota Governor, Tom Emmer, who was anti-gay and anti-marriage equality.

Boycotts sprang up. We cats, in fact, had been devoted Target shoppers — buying health and beauty aids and household items there almost weekly — but quickly stopped when the company's Emmer support came to light. (To this day, we avoid the store 99 percent of the time, not just because of the Emmer controversy but because we resented Target's previous posturing as an inclusive corporate citizen.)

Meanwhile, Target handled the PR crisis badly — dragging it out by defending and then apologizing. They could have taken a lesson from Publix Supermarkets this week.

With store aisles in Florida awash in die-ins — organized by Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg — the company quickly suspended its contributions to the Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Putnam, who is in thrall to the NRA and doesn't care who knows it. Publix also said it would re-evaluate its funding policies.

Now, when we say Publix reacted quickly and efficiently, we're not giving the company a clean bill of health. Its donations to the loathsome Putnam totaled many more thousands of dollars than Target's support of Tom Emmer, and included personal gifts by founders and executives as well. And frankly, we're disgusted that Publix would unthinkingly support a pig like Putnam just because they believe he'd be good for the bottom line. There's more to life than that, folks.

So we're happy that activists like Hogg and the people who boycotted Target eight years ago are able to cause big corporations pain, even if it's merely fleeting. But we're not sure everyone got their just deserts. After all, Tom Emmer is a Congressman now. Which makes us HISS.

Irish "Ayes" Are Smiling

By Baxter

As the United States churns backward, the rest of the world continues to move into the future. Or, in Ireland's case, to redress a grave wrong, by repealing a constitutional ban on a woman's right to choose — which drove uncounted numbers of Irish women out of the country if they wanted to terminate unwanted pregnancies.

It looks tonight as if Ireland has voted to can the ban — not narrowly, but in a Stacey Abrams-esque landslide: Exit polls suggest a 70-30 split in favor of repeal.

While the ban never should have existed in the first place, we cats are happy to salute its demise. None of us are ever really free without the ability to control our reproductive destiny, so we welcome Irish women back into the ranks of self-determination.

Meanwhile, the US is looking worse and worse, as our Trumpy government tears children from their mothers at the border. And the Republicans who are in charge in Washington claim to be pro-life? Clearly once the baby's out of the womb, they couldn't care less. It's all about controlling women, and we cats HISS.

Eighteen Egged Faces

By Zamboni

We cats aren't sure anybody looks more ridiculous today than the 18 Republican House members who nominated Donald Drumpf for the Nobel Peace Prize three weeks ago.

Now that Drumpf has huffily canceled the summit with North Korea, our only question is whether journalists will call these Republicans out on their stupidity — or once again, as they have with so many other issues, let them skate by.

If you live in one of these morons' districts, or even if you're just tired of GOP idiocy, here's the list of the 18 knaves and fools. Drop them a line and tell them how embarrassing they are. We cats HISS.

• Brian Babin, Texas
• Diane Black, Tennessee
• Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee
• Michael Burgess, Texas
• Kevin Cramer, North Dakota
• Scott DesJarlais, Tennessee
• Drew Ferguson, Georgia
• Matt Gaetz, Florida
• Evan Jenkins, West Virginia
• Steve King, Iowa
• Doug LaMalfa, California
• David McKinley, West Virginia
• Mark Meadows, North Carolina
• Luke Messer, Indiana
• Ralph Norman, South Carolina
• Pete Olson, Texas
• Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, American Samoa
• Jim Renacci, Ohio

The Solutions Nobody Seems To Be Talking About

By Baxter

It's all so simple. While the sports and political worlds bend themselves into pretzels to resolve the Colin Kaepernick-inspired kneeling during the national anthems at NFL games, we cats know there's a sure-fire way to put an end to the controversy:

Police officers could stop gratuitously arresting African Americans who have done nothing wrong. They could stop killing black men who are only holding cellphones, and they could stop shooting black men in the back. They could also stop shooting African American men who have permits to carry and who are doing everything they possibly can to cooperate during traffic stops.

Oh, and they could stop killing children who are playing in public parks in Cleveland.

See how easy? If cops stop doing shit like that, the kneeling will stop. We cats don't mean to be profane, but sometimes the subject demands it. And so we HISS.

Sorry, Elise: It Was Head-Butting Teabaggers Who Made The Farm Bill Fail

By Sniffles

Make no mistake about it: Despite what Elise Stefanik — our so-called moderate Republican Member of Congress — claims, the failure of the farm bill was not our fault. Not even close.

"Congresswoman Stefanik is disappointed that Democrats and the Freedom Caucus joined together to defeat the Farm Bill," her spokesperson said, trying to put lipstick on a pig.

It's a pig because the Republicans, autocrats at heart that they are, never had any intention on relying for Democratic votes for anything. Remember the Hastert Rule? It's a GOP invention to prevent the minority party from amending legislation by insuring that bills should only come to the floor with support from a "majority of the majority." (Of course, you'd think that now they'd change its name, seeing as Dennis Hastert turned out to be a child molester.)

In other words, we Democrats had no power to determine the fate of the farm bill. If the ever-loathsome Paul Ryan was any good at his job, the Republicans would have gotten the teabaggers in line and America would have a farm bill.

Oh, well! Ryan is an overrated idiot who can't deliver, which means that Stefanik has egg on her face and her dairy farmer constituents in upstate New York are screwed. Will they take revenge in November? We cats would drink a milk shake to that. And we PURR

Does Barbara Comstock Support Boy Scout Abuse?

By Miss Kubelik

We cats want to know. Because a scout in full uniform just got berated by a yahoo employee in a Purcellville, Virginia, hardware store — in her Congressional district.

"There is no such thing as the Boy Scouts anymore," the clerk said to the kid when he asked for help from behind the counter. "Did you hear me? We don’t support your organization. You allow in gays."

This jackass at Nichols Hardware — write it down, so that you never, ever go there — should have had his face punched in. Instead, the scout very politely replied, "Thank you for your time."

WOW! That kid should get a dozen badges just for that. Meanwhile, what's Republican Congresswoman Barbara Comstock's position on all this? Does she think kids should be humiliated by bigoted assholes in public? Does she believe there's money to be made in promoting hate? We cats are all ears. And we HISS.

(IMAGE: This is not the kid who got abused at Nichols, but we think this picture is cute.)

Trolling Trump

Salutations to whoever at the British Broadcasting Corporation was puckish enough to tweet Trump's paltry inauguration crowd next to the throngs at the Windsor wedding today.

Well played, BBC3, well played! We cats PURR.

More Dead Kids — But Sure, Blame Doors

By Zamboni

Wow, we cats knew that Dan Patrick was an idiot, but we had no idea he would blame school shootings on "too many doors."

This is a guy who clearly has never checked for the nearest exit as his plane taxis out to the runway. Does he not know that too few doors — especially when they're locked — kill people in, for example, fires?

Actually, that's asking too much of ol' Dan. Caring about the welfare of others is not something these right-wing Republicans are very good at. We cats are sick of them, and sick of gun violence, and we HISS.

Turns Out It's Not An Act.

By Baxter

So there's this guy, Aaron Schlossberg, a lawyer who is being tweeted to death by people who loathe him. It's all because of a cellphone video that went viral the other day of Schlossberg hatefully berating a couple of restaurant workers for speaking to one another in Spanish.

In New York City! — that great metropolis with hundreds of different languages spoken on its streets. WHUT!? We cats were befuddled. One would assume that Schlossberg's tirade was more Mobile, Memphis or Montgomery than Midtown Manhattan.

But as we watched the video and read the outraged tweets, we realized that this Schlossberg guy is a fairly renowned racist who rants at people of color in public a lot. Schlossberg also says he's Jewish. A member of an oft-oppressed minority, spewing hate?

This all seemed kind of fishy to us. His behavior was too over the top — it made us wonder if this wasn't some sort of long-running, twisted piece of performance art. Or maybe somebody was doing a reboot of "Candid Camera"? The possibilities seemed endless.

Well, apparently not. Schlossberg has been kicked out of his rented office space, and a complaint's been filed against him with New York's Unified Court System Departmental Disciplinary Committee.

So we cats stand corrected: Schlossberg really is a racist and a pig. Another cretin emboldened by Trump, no doubt. We're pleased that he's getting a taste of his own medicine now, and we HISS.

Don't Mess With The Jesuits.

"Calling people animals is sinful. Every human being has infinite dignity. Moreover, this is the same kind of language that led to the extermination of Jews ('vermin') in Germany and of Tutsi ('cockroaches') in Rwanda.

"This kind of language cannot be normalized. It is a grave sin."

—James Martin, SJ, Editor, America magazine

Beat It, You're Bothering Us

By Sniffles

We cats are not into this "Democratic civil war" narrative that the media are pushing. So we refuse to play that game — for lots of reasons.

First, it's counter-productive. The very future of our democracy is at stake with these Trumpsters in charge. Democrats need to focus on the enemy, not each other.

It's overblown. We've bitterly learned by now that the press is as anti-us as anti-them. (In fact, we started figuring that out more than 20 years ago, but we digress.) What we're saying is that it's in the media's and the lazy punditry's interest to try to stir up this "Dems fighting" storyline in the hope of more eyeballs, ears and clicks. No, thanks.

There aren't enough hours in the day. We're too busy plotting victory in the midterms to tweet back to Bernie Bros or even our fellow Hillary fans. We're ignoring all that. The good news: It's so easy!

There are too many swell things happening to focus on negatives. Take yesterday, for example: Democratic women candidates triumphed in primaries across the country. Pennsylvania was a particular smash. Note to the all-male Keystone State delegation: Move over, boys, you're about to get some company.

Finally, we don't care what part of the Democratic Party our 2018 candidates are from. They can be lefties or centrists — whatever works for the House district or state they're running in. We welcome all comers, so please leave your purity tests at the door. We can't start turning around the disaster that's happening to our country until we win. That will make us cats PURR.

We Could Really Use A Man Of Steel About Now

By Miss Kubelik

To the list of all the horrible things Donald Trump is, add mass murderer. He has now killed the same number of people that Stephen Paddock did in Las Vegas last fall.

How's that, you may ask? Easy-peasy. No US embassy in Jerusalem, no protesters, no Israeli soldiers opening fire on them. Fifty-eight dead, all because of Donald Trump.

This is a really good day to avoid the news. It's too depressing and infuriating, what with this insane embassy move and the Iran nuclear deal and gas prices going through the roof and Margot Kidder dying. It's so bad that even the plucky Lois Lane couldn't take it any more!

So we cats are going to go burrow under a cozy blanket until some better news comes along. But not before we take a parting shot at Willard Mitt Romney, who tweeted great umbrage about that anti-Mormon, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim pastor who spoke at the embassy opening today. Willard, who practically groveled to Donald Trump to be his Secretary of State! It all makes us want to hack up a hairball, but instead we'll just HISS.

Montreal To Racists: Sortez

By Zamboni

We cats are headed to Montreal soon, and we've noticed a lot of coverage lately about hate groups recruiting there. That's alarming — Canada prides itself on its diversity and welcoming spirit.

Happily, Montrealers aren't taking it lying down. Protests have popped up, including one yesterday in the Rosemont-La Petite Patrie neighborhood. "What we’re seeing is the far right taking up more and more space, spreading heinous ideologies that incite violence," one participant said. "We can’t tolerate it."

It's shocking enough to see Americans marching with Tiki torches and Nazi flags. (We cats know that a lot of battles, like for civil rights and reproductive rights, often have to be maintained with vigilance, but we never thought we'd have to re-fight World War II.) It's even more shocking when somebody flies the swastika in the True North. Part of the British Empire, Canada fought the Nazis for six long years. We Americans got off easy with four.

The emboldening of the far right, whether here at home or north of the 49th Parallel, is a direct result of the rise of Donald Trump. It should forever disqualify him for his deranged supporters' fondest wish — the Nobel Peace Prize. You cannot advance the cause of peace by fanning the flames of hate.

As dispiriting and disturbing as this all is, it's reassuring to see sane people pushing back. Let's hope they can hasten the end of Trumpism and drive the Nazis back to the shadows where they belong. In the meantime, we cats HISS.

Wrong Target.

By Baxter

Why does Kelly Sadler still have a White House job? She should have been fired 12 hours ago.

Then again, as folks have observed, Republicans don't move very quickly on their offenders, do they? Take the case of the two Erics: New York AG Schneiderman was gone in three hours, but Missouri Governor Greitens is still in office. (We'll see for how long.)

Meanwhile, a few Republicans have gingerly stepped forward to defend John McCain from the sadistic Trumpsters. Jeff Flake was one — no surprise. Joni Ernst weighed in, too, but we cats found significant fault with her statement.

"Our nation should be grateful for the exemplary service and sacrifice of @SenJohnMcCain," she tweeted, "and treat this war hero and his family with the civility and respect they deserve."

Um.

Why is Ernst scolding "the nation," and not Sadler? "The nation" didn't insult a Vietnam POW and his family. But Donald Trump and his hideous White House staff have. When will Ernst and other members of the GOP demand that they apologize, and not "the nation"?

Probably never. Because while all this is happening, Michael Avenatti is giving the world a head's up that he's got more info on Michael Cohen, Trump and Russian money, and we're guessing that a good chunk of those rubles made their way to the RNC and GOP members of Congress. So they're loath to speak up — about anything, no matter how outrageous. We cats HISS.

Art Shay, 1922-2018

If you're of a certain age, you've seen lots of Art Shay's pictures without even knowing it. He worked for all the big magazines in their heyday — Life, Look, TIME, you name it. He photographed lots of celebrities, but was also a master of simply capturing the moment. Spot the kitty?

Ignorance Is Bliss

By Sniffles

You know it's a bad day when you start seeing Dick Cheney's face pop up in your Twitter feed.

So let's talk about something that would put a scowl on that face: the 2018 midterms.

Frank Bruni of The New York Times has just conducted an op-ed Q&A with the bratty-faced Republican strategist Corry Bliss, who tries to argue that the Republicans can surmount all their midterm difficulties by adhering to "the Portman model." As in, Ohio Senator Rob. Bliss says that à la Rob, the key to victory in November will be persuading voters that the GOP cares about them and is doing good stuff for them.

Bruni is an acceptably likable opinion writer, but he's no maven when it comes to electoral politics. So in the next breath, he mentions the Republican tax "cut" — putting the very words (without quote marks) in Bliss's mouth — and although he observes that the tax "cut" isn't polling very well, he fails to corner Corry on this:

"Every member of the Republican Party should be spending all of their [sic] time selling the tax plan. Everything else is a waste of time and money."

Bliss said that in January. Since then, after a bunch of embarrassing stories (like the secretary who saved $1.50 while zillionaires have cashed in), GOP messaging on taxes has fallen 44 percent.

Gee. We're not seeing how the tax scam is going to save the slew of House Republicans who are in trouble (the top 10 most endangered all belong to the GOP). Maybe if a more canny political journalist interviews Corry the next time, we'll find out. Meanwhile, we cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Looking Bleak For Blankenship

By Miss Kubelik

Oh, sigh. We cats were so hoping that murderer Don Blankenship was going to kill the GOP's chances to defeat Senator Joe Manchin this November just as effectively as he snuffed out the lives of 29 miners at Upper Big Branch back in 2010. His campaign ads were so hilarious! (Unintentionally, of course.)

Results in the Republican Senate primary so far, with half the vote in: Blankenship's a distant third, at 20 percent. The Ted Cruz-endorsed candidate Patrick Morrisey and Congressman Evan Jenkins are duking it out for first place, 35 to 29. (Probably a reflection of Donald Drumpf tweeting that — um — Republicans should split their vote between Jenkins and Morrisey. We're still trying to figure that one out.)

So, while we realize we must let go of our Blankenship dream, there still might be fun in store.

Will the Mountain State's Republican party unite? Will the Blankenship voters stay home? As for fun we've already had, Mitch McConnell was forced to throw more than a million bucks into what should have been an easy primary race, and the divisions between the far right and the whackjob right in West Virginia just became a chasm. We cats PURR.

Not Good. Not Best.

via GIPHY

By Zamboni

As the allegations against the sociopath in the Oval Office continue to pile up — sexual assault, harassment, campaign finance violations, collusion, obstruction of justice, fraud, racketeering, lying, witness tampering, and on and on — we're amazed at the Republicans who continue to call him "a good man."

The latest GOP stalwart to step into the "good man" mess is retiring Senator Orrin Hatch, who wants John McCain to un-ban Trump from his funeral. "Well," Hatch groused, "he's the president of the United States and he's a —" You know the rest.

We cats say, WHUT! Orrin must have fewer working brain cells than McCain if he thinks Mr. Stormy-Daniels-Congrats-To-Vlad-NRA's-Great falls into the "good" category.

Then again, maybe Hatch is just following the example of the ever-execrable Mike Pence, whose "vote for this good man" video we're dying to resurrect as soon as all that stuff Michael Avenatti predicts will disgust the American people comes out.

In the meantime, John McCain can invite — or not invite — anyone to his funeral he damn well pleases. Orrin Hatch: Butt out. We cats HISS.

(GIF: Orrin Hatch, removing invisible eyeglasses. What was that about brain cells?)

#Moose&Squirrel

Kids! Be best! Go school! No use drugs! Nice better than mean! And one day, learn all parts English speech (articles good). Love, Melania

John McCain: An Advance Obituary

By Baxter

We cats absolutely understand the urge among Democratic office holders to speak well of Senator John McCain. Often, they came into office at the same time or shortly after he did, or he served as a mentor when they arrived on Capitol Hill. We know that this is all in spite of the Keating scandal (which we leave to your Googling talents).

We also totally understand the drawing together as the lamplights fade — the confabs of people who shared moments of glory and defeat with momentous figures whose lives are drawing to a close. We saw it happen with the last great lion of the Senate, Edward M. Kennedy, with whom we had differences of opinion but could admit that, yes, whose career made an imprint on the lives of Americans who needed health care, education or civil rights.

Sorry, but we kinda have to say that John McCain didn't contribute to any of the causes that we hold dear. Instead, this is his legacy: He nominated for Vice President someone who was eminently unqualified — someone who he thought would gain him votes, but who was completely unprepared to assume the responsibilities of the Presidency, should it become necessary. In short, he advanced the candidacy of a person who helped make Donald J. Trump possible.

We cats will never forgive John McCain for this. And since the fact of Sarah Palin helped enable the fact of Trump, we refuse to admire his current criticism of the latest Republican regime.

So: Planning to vote in November? Don't look to John McCain for guidance. Look to your heart, and your disgust at everything that is Trump. McCain, for all his protestations, helped usher Trumpism in. Vote for every Democrat you can. We cats PURR.

(UPDATE, May 10: Yes, we were tough on John McCain in this post, but we were positively Casper Milquetoast compared to the hideous Trumpsters and FOX "News" nutjobs. We cats HISS.)

Choices / Not Choices

By Sniffles

We cats are not black, so we consult reliable sources — i.e., people who actually are black — for appropriate reactions to issues that pertain to African Americans. However, as we are (predominantly) female, we feel no compunction to qualify our opinions when it concerns matters of gender. When it comes to girl issues, watch out.

Therefore, while we think that the "slavery was a choice" position is obscene and untrue, we'll confine ourselves to issues we know best. Stuff pertaining to women? Get out your oven mitts, you'll need them.

In a week in which the state of Iowa has dared the Supreme Court to invalidate Roe V. Wade, we're very glad to say that — even though we're long past having kittens ourselves — we don't live in a state that tries to regulate women's reproductive decisions.

Here's what women share with African Americans: As we did not choose our gender, nor did they choose their race. Neither of us should be discriminated against on the basis of who we are. As the arc of history has bent toward justice on the question of skin color, we can only hope that it equally bends on the question of reproductive ability.

Thanks to science, women's control of their reproductive destiny has advanced significantly over the last 50 years. Should women therefore surrender their rights as human persons under a Constitution written more than 230 years ago? Because African slaves in America weren't counted as fully human in 1787 either, the answer is clearly NO. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Before The Parkland Kids, There Were These Kids

Just for some symmetry, on the day that the tone-deaf Donald Drumpf addresses the NRA convention in Dallas (yep, Dallas), let's remember the four students who were gunned down at Kent State 48 years ago today.

Lordy, how we'd love to erase America's endless infatuation with the gun. We cats HISS.

Gotcha!

By Miss Kubelik

One of the things we cats hate most in politics today is Republicans who try to portray themselves as "moderate" when they vote right-right-nutcase-wing on stuff, just like the Teabag Caucus does.

They try to do this because the goalposts keep shifting. Somebody like our upstate New York Congresswoman, Elise Stefanik, would have been a conservative in the old GOP. But since the party keeps going farther off deeper and deeper ends, she seems reasonable.

"Reasonable" no more. Happily, groups made up of real Americans who work hard and pay attention have decided that gauntlets should be thrown. The SEIU United Healthcare Workers East has taken out ads calling out Stefanik, her endangered Republican colleague John Faso in NY-19, and the totally crazy Claudia "Mass Shooters Are Democrats" Tenney in western New York for their votes against Obamacare. They're running radio ads, too.

This is just great, particularly since healthcare emerged as a critical issue in the recent special election in conservative Western Pennsylvania (won by the Democrat). Conor Lamb is a Congressman today because voters in his district were not only mad that the GOP was sabotaging Obamacare — they remembered to be mad.

Campaigns like this remind voters that Paul Ryan acolytes like Elise Stefanik shouldn't get away with acting like teabaggers without being noticed. We cats heartily approve, and we PURR.

"Hate To Tell Ya, We Won't Nobel Ya"

By Zamboni

Gosh! Right wingers and Republicans are still mad about Ronnie Reagan not getting the Nobel Peace Prize, aren't they?

Eighteen clueless idiots in Congress have written the Nobel Committee demanding that Donald Drumpf get the thing for Korea — before he's done anything yet. And true to form, they've included a typo: Drumpf should get the prize for "his work to end to [sic] the Korean War, etc." Goodness gracious, are we cats the only ones who proofread any more?

No question about it: This is less about Drumpf and much more about the fact that, in Republicans' eyes, only lefties, softies and Democrats get Nobel-ed. Jimmy Carter got it for eradicating vile illnesses in people that the GOP couldn't care less about. Al Gore got it for working to preserve the environment, which Republicans can't stop raping. Barack Obama got it for, let's face it, not being George W. Bush. Other than that, the committee tends to give the Peace Prize to folks with dark skin and funny names, at whom right wingers look askance.

But what they really can't forgive is that Mikhail Gorbachev got it in 1990. By himself. Hence all this Drumpf talk.

We cats don't really picture the Nobel dudes dialing up Mar-a-Lago in the middle of the night anytime soon, but we're willing to wait and see what happens on the Korean peninsula before we pronounce final judgment. In the meantime, aside from the Reagan thing, we're wondering why a team that includes warmongers like John Bolton is at all interested in a prize for peace. We cats HISS.

Rapid Response

By Baxter

Tomorrow morning the psychopath in the Oval Office will once again either be tweeting furiously about Robert Mueller, or fulminating on "Fox & Friends," or both. Tonight's scoop at The Washington Post about the Special Counsel's team raising the possibility of a subpoena will no doubt set him off.

It makes you wonder: Any firings around the corner? Either of Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein? (Rosenstein gave quite a feisty speech today — like he was expecting something.)

Trump may not know that if he does fire somebody, protests will erupt around the country. No doubt many will be spontaneous, but they're also being organized — more than 900 at this point, with 350,000+ people pledging to spring into action if anything untoward emanates from the White House.

We cats signed up for the demonstration in our quaint little upstate hamlet some time ago. Tonight, we've received a message from our organizer that basically said, head's up. The subpoena threat, the Rosenstein speech and, oh yes, that bizarre raid on Trump's doctor's office might set things off. Like an expectant couple with a packed suitcase sitting by the front door, we should be ready.

We don't know what — if anything — is going to happen. But being cats, we'll wait, and we'll watch. And HISS.