Letter-Perfect.

When The "Good Guy" Gets It

By Zamboni

We often hear the gun nuts say, "If only there had been a good guy with a gun..." That's your cue to fill in the blank as to which recent massacre allegedly wouldn't have happened.

Bunk.

Sometimes, the good guy with the gun stands by and does nothing.

Other times, he shoots the bad guy. But then guess what? The police show up, think he's the bad guy, and shoot him themselves.

We're sure that this happens a lot, but the most recent incident occurred early yesterday morning in, of all places, Aurora, Colorado. A homeowner killed an intruder and then was promptly shot dead himself. Why? Because the police didn't know who he was, and he had a gun. (P.S. Why don't police officers shoot to wound and not kill? You just have to wonder.)

We cats predict we won't hear one peep from the NRA about this. First, because they're too busy criticizing 3D-printed guns (manufacturers don't make money from them, don'tcha know) — and second, because it doesn't support their narrative. So they'll be about as vocal about this Aurora case as they are about Maria Butina. We cats HISS.

"31 People Who Are Changing The South"

By Miss Kubelik

When we cats lived in Manassas, Virginia, it was easy not to think of it as "the South."

Sure, the first big battle of the Civil War was fought there, and the local museum's volunteers were Confederate sympathizers — but all that seemed musty and overwhelmed by the Argentine, Greek and Peruvian restaurants and the many languages we'd hear at the grocery store. Nevertheless, Time magazine still considers Virginia Dixie. We get it. Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy.

But Jefferson Davis wouldn't recognize it today. Not with politicians like Danica Roem working there.

Danica won a seat in the House of Delegates in Virginia's blue wave election of 2017. She beat a hideous religious hypocrite named Bob Marshall, who refused to debate her or even to use female pronouns when he talked about her. Danica chose to ignore the hate and focus on the issues, and voters swept her in 54 to 46 percent. Asked later to comment on Marshall's lack of courtesy during the campaign, she said, "I don't attack my constituents. Bob is my constituent now."

Yes, Danica is a star, but mostly because she works her butt off every day for the people she represents on the issues (like traffic!) they care about. Is she changing the South? Maybe. Our hope is that one day she helps change the whole country. We cats PURR.

Lest We Furr-get: Hitler Was Putin's Model

By Sniffles

The news is so alarming these days, we cats thought we'd have to resort to posting pictures and GIFs of red pandas again. (Red pandas always cheer us up.) But then we decided just to get offline and curl up with a book instead.

Our choice: "1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler — The Election Before the Storm," by Susan Dunn. Boy, was that a mistake. Kinda gave us nightmares.

Because guess what? Nazi Germany tried to interfere in that year's Presidential election.

It wasn't that the Republican nominee, Wendell Willkie, was a big fascist and German sympathizer like Charles Lindbergh was. (In fact, after his '40 defeat, Willkie went to work for Roosevelt as his personal envoy to war-beleaguered Great Britain.)

But the Nazis didn't want FDR to get a third term because they knew what a formidable enemy he'd be. Their ambitions extended beyond Europe, and they appreciated how deftly Roosevelt was navigating prewar domestic politics — reassuring Americans that he wasn't spoiling for a fight, but at the same time shoring up the US's defenses by spearheading Lend-Lease and instituting a draft.

So, Dunn writes, the German government secretly bolstered the American isolationist movement, paying for newspaper ads during the Republican convention that summer, buttering up isolationist Congressmen and Senators, financing an anti-interventionist "Make Europe Pay War Debts Committee," and in short, doing everything possible to "convince Americans that fascist aggression posed no danger to them...and to engineer Roosevelt's defeat."

The good news is that the Nazis failed — it was 1940, after all, and Hitler didn't have Facebook, Twitter and a cowardly, complicit Republican Party at his disposal. The bad news is that today, scarily, Putin does. We cats HISS and hide under the bed.

This Is What Happens When The NRA Doesn't Call The, Um, Shots

By Baxter

Here's a headline you'll never see in America: CITY COUNCIL SUPPORTS BANNING HANDGUNS.

That would be the Toronto City Council, which on Tuesday voted unambiguously — 41 to four! — to ask the Canadian federal government to ban gun sales in the city, and to ask the provincial government of Ontario to ban ammunition sales as well. After two high-profile gun rampages, Torontonians have had enough.

We cats love this. We also love the remarks by Toronto's mayor, the appropriately named Conservative Party member John Tory, who spoke to the council prior to the vote. "Why does anyone in this city need to have a gun at all?" he asked. Why, indeed.

Oh, sigh. What would it be like to live in a country with no Second Amendment, no Wayne LaPierre, and no Russian agents infiltrating the NRA and subverting elections and laundering money and thwarting the will of two out of three Americans? We can only imagine it's heaven. And while you're at it, Canadians, better pass some laws against 3D-printed guns, too. We cats HISS.

This President Stood Up To The Russians. Since Trump Won't, Here's What Journalists Need To Do.

By Zamboni

Over the course of our nine lives, we cats grew up on the notion that a free and independent press should cover the government, and particularly the executive, fairly but relentlessly — holding feet to fires and, without fail, asking, asking, asking. In our experience, each side understood the game, its advantages and disadvantages — but most of all, each side understood and accepted its responsibilities.

In a healthy American democracy, that scenario could be sophisticated and joyful (JFK, above), or tortured and excruciating (Nixon), but the basic jobs of the journalists and the White House communciations office never changed.

Well, now they have.

The Trumpsters have proven themselves to be such enthusiastic agents for the Russian government that we cats are calling on members of the Washington press to put the brakes on everything. After multiple outrages — the latest one: that the White House will no longer publish summaries of Benedict Donald's phone calls with foreign leaders — it's time for journalists to change course.

Here is the new set of media marching orders:

1. Refuse to attend the White House press briefings.

2. Or, if you do attend, stand up and walk out as soon as Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells her first lie. (Don't worry, it won't take long.)

3. No more live television coverage, unedited, of Trump rallies. They are filled with so many falsehoods, and represent such a small sliver of American public opinion, that they aren't worth the air time. Run edited videotape later, with the lies pointed out.

4. Refuse to cover Trump doing anything unless he's taking questions. No questions, no coverage. That includes Easter egg rolls, Christmas tree lightings and wreath-laying, anywhere.

5. Instead of serving as this treasonous administration's handmaiden, spend all your time working to out their perfidy and corruption. That would make us cats PURR.

UPDATE, July 26: Since the White House has banned a CNN reporter from the premises, now would be a good time for the cable news networks to refuse to provide live coverage for Trump's appearances in the Midwest today. Alas, however, we fear no backbone will be shown.

Lock Them Up.

By Miss Kubelik

We cats don't like to use the word "empowering" when it comes to Donald Drumpf inspiring his merry band of loser-white-guy haters, because Trumpsters are not "powerful." They are whiny little cowards who skulk around in the dark of night and vandalize.

So we'll just say that Trump is "enabling" or "licensing" his base to do crazy stuff.

Take the unidentified white idiot in an Albany, New York, Home Depot last week, who berated Maurice Rucker, a black employee, for being "from the ghetto" and worse. "If Trump wasn't President, you wouldn't even have a job," the guy yelled. (Home Depot's response? Fire Rucker. No, we're not kidding. Happily, they've tried to rehire him but Rucker has told them to take a hike.)

This happened in the same week that somebody shot through the window of the Albany County Democratic Committee. Nobody was in the office because it was the dead of night, thank goodness.

Now, early this morning in Virginia, a brick shattered a window in US Senator Mark Warner's office in Roanoke. Good news: Unlike the two Albany incidents, police have arrested a jackass named James Trainor, who was seen walking around carrying bricks. We hope the law comes down on him like the proverbial ton of.

Tweeps have debated whether these cretins represent the real America or just its fringe-y underbelly. We cats like to think the latter. Until these horrible days are over, though, we can only HISS.

Corey Stupid

By Sniffles

In case you were wondering: Yes, there were people in America who looked at last Monday's press conference between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin and thought, "There's a President who's standing up to the Russians."

People like Corey Stewart.

Stewart managed to capture the GOP Senate nomination against Tim Kaine last month, which just goes to show you what pathetic shape the Virginia Republican Party is in. It also speaks to the content of Tim Kaine's character that he was willing to debate Stewart at the Virginia Bar Association on Saturday.

Stewart, who is a racist and a fool, was heartily laughed at for his Russian remark. Delicious.

It's just another example of how the big-lie philosophy drives the Trumpsters. We cats nearly nominated Corey for our new "Maybe You Shouldn't Be in the Country" prize, but then we realized he was too stupid to figure out how to leave. So we'll leave it at a HISS.

A Truer Thread Was Never Tweeted

"I read Maggie Haberman's op-ed and I have some thoughts.

 

"For me, it boils down to accountability. Journalists need to be accountable for their work. We are bombarded with stories about how the Trump voter feels. We are bombarded with stories on how neo-Nazis are normal people.

 

"We are bombarded with stories about how Bernie Sanders speaks for an entire party. During 2015 and 2016 we were bombarded with stories about emails and how Hillary Clinton wasn't likable. This isn't just in print, online, it is also on our TV screens. This continues today.

 

"We are given stories as breaking news, that end up having been leaked by Trump and the people around him and we're tricked into thinking they come from someone else. Members of the media sometimes spread what is in essence propaganda that poisons the electorate. This isn't right.

 

"Studies have showed just how skewed the coverage has been. What is often pushed to us is conservative talking points. Someone recently posted about how little the coverage of The New York Times quoted actual Democrats. But they are quick to promote how Democrats 'are in disarray.'

 

"The media actively withholds stories that may be consequential. For example, on Thursday it was revealed that [emails to and from Bernie Sanders adviser] Tad Devine are in evidence for Paul Manafort's trial. Not one media outlet has covered this as of yet. Instead, Bernie Sanders will be interviewed about a rally in Kansas... we are [also] treated to stories about how the Democratic Party is afraid of Bernie Sanders's wing. How is this fair and balanced coverage? The truth is that it is not, and it can get frustrating for us.

 

"We turn on channels like CNN and we get panels with right wingers who lie about everything and get very little pushback... We are bombarded with segments on Trump voter panels when the Trump voters are a little over 19% of the US population.

 

"Democrats are doing things, like Nancy Pelosi, who went in on Trump this week. The only reason I knew she did that was because of Twitter. None of this gets covered. What we get is stories on how she needs to retire because of age. What we get is right-wing talking points.

 

"Protests led by Adam Parkhomenko have been going on in front of the White House since Trump returned from Helsinki. Were it not for Twitter and Rachel Maddow, I wouldn't know about it. Instead, we get panels on if the Trump voter agrees with what he did in Helsinki.

 

"The press as a whole is supposed to be the fourth estate. They are supposed to keep the US population fully informed. While they do some things well, there are areas where they have failed us greatly. We should be able to hold members of the media accountable and have them hear us.

 

"We should be able to hold them accountable without having them write op-eds saying we are nasty, which is what I think Maggie Haberman's op-ed is. I understand how she feels but she needs to understand us. We don't want the media to be partisan. We want fair and balanced coverage.

 

"We want the media to give us the coverage that we deserve. We want the media to stop being interested in press access and to be more interested in providing the coverage that keeps us informed on where things actually stand in this country. That isn't much to ask.

 

"It isn't much to ask for the members of the media to have a discussion with the voters, with us and to listen to us. It isn't much to ask the media to acknowledge ways in which they failed us in 2015-2016 and how they continue to fail us today... Accountability." 

—@lynnv378

New Series: "Maybe You Shouldn't Be In The Country," By Donald Drumpf

By Baxter

We cats are struck by the fact that Donald Drumpf wants to Philip-Nolan members of the NFL who take a knee during the national anthem — but he's perfectly comfortable having Vladimir Putin, a murderer, America-attacker and a tyrant, come to DC.

In our furry opinion, protesting NFL players deserve to be in the US much more than Vlad Pootie does. Which got us thinking about how many Trumpsters should probably be kicked out.

Why not? We can play this game as well as Donald Drumpf can. So from time to time, we'll finger some fuckface who we think has no business being in the good old US of A. Tonight's nominee: JOSH HADER.

The Milwaukee Brewers pitcher, who pretty much stunk up the mound at this week's All-Star Game, sent racist, sexist and homophobic tweets a few years ago — including tweets promoting "white power."

We don't care how much contrition or sensitivity training Hader evinces or undergoes. When you say the words "WHITE POWER," Jesus God, you're consigned to the trash heap forever — unless you have, like, the reincarnation of Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King to vouch for you. Nobody like that appears to be stepping up to the plate (pun intended) for Hader.

For us, any white-supremacist language cancels you out of humanity for all time. We don't care how young or silly or drunk you were when you posted it. You're dead. In fact, you're out of the country. Surrender your citizenship, your voting rights and your passport, Josh Hader — our America doesn't want you. We cats HISS.

Three Cheers For The Old Biddy

"Meddling" drives us almost as crazy as when people use "Democrat" as an adjective. Our country was and is under attack. We cats HISS.

Body Language

Read it and weep, Trumpsters.

The Day The Earth Stands Still?

By Zamboni

We cats were around for Watergate, and we thought that was the worst Constitutional crisis we'd ever see in our nine lives. Obviously we were wrong (something that doesn't happen very often). But we're now seeing what's been hiding in plain sight, for years, maybe — the occupant of the Oval Office is a willing agent of the Russian Federation.

For all those Trumpsters out there who are perfectly fine with this — probably because they've been in love with Vladimir Putin ever since he started persecuting gays — we have a few questions.

Do you like your Internet? Your air conditioning? Your TV, computer, DVD/CD players, toasters, heaters, refrigerators and microwaves? Do you like being able to pump gas into your car and go places? Go to the hospital and have X-rays, ventilators and other machines find out what's wrong with you? In fact, do you enjoy anything powered by electricity? Because Vladimir Putin wants to shut you down.

He's already done it to Ukraine. You probably don't remember it because it was right before Christmas in 2015 and you were already deep into the eggnog. But take it from us, that was a trial run. Putin banked on the fact that nobody in the US would care about a country they couldn't find on the map if their lives depended on it.

Now, in the words of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, "the warning lights are blinking red... the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack." We're in the worst danger since just before 9/11, he says. (Just for the record, Coats is a Republican.) And believe us, when Putin takes the American power grid down, he won't benevolently turn it back on after 30 minutes like Klaatu did.

We don't know about you, but we cats are terrified. In the meantime, aside from working our butts off to get Congress back in the fall, all we can do is HISS.

President Clinton's America

By Miss Kubelik

We cats think it's time to visit that alternate universe in which Hillary Clinton is President. Why not? She got more votes than the treasonous douchebag who's trying desperately to say today that he meant "wouldn't" and not "would." And it's become pretty clear — even to right-wing nutcases — that Donald Drumpf is one illegitimate POTUS.

So, let's think about it: With Hillary in charge, here's what wouldn't be happening:

The Affordable Care Act wouldn't be under siege. In fact, more and more Americans would be getting health coverage, and nobody would be worrying about pre-existing conditions coming back to haunt them again.

The Supreme Court would not be tipping over into Nazism for the next 30 to 40 years. And, oh yeah, Merrick Garland would be sitting on it.

Children and parents would not be ripped out of each others' arms at the border and put in cages.

Zillionaires would not be enjoying a tax cut at the expense of regular Americans' pocketbooks and futures and the entitlements, like Social Security and Medicare, that they worked so hard for.

The emoluments clause of the Constitution wouldn't be generating the headlines that it is today. In fact, taxpayers would be saving a ton of money not making payments to Trump properties.

That nightmare about losing net neutrality that you just woke up from would never have happened in the first place.

Our allies wouldn't be upset. They'd be united and strong against a murdering Russian thug who loathes and despises and — most important — fears the President of the United States.

America wouldn't be ashamed and embarrassed. We'd be proud and moving forward. We cats PURR at the thought, but knowing how things really are, we still have to HISS.

We'll Be There In Spirit

P.S. Is it just a coincidence that our page views from Russia have gone way, way up?

The Most Shameful Day Yet Of America's Most Shameful Presidency

"I always resist these comparisons, but Trump's performance today will go down with Neville Chamberlain's at Munich. He just gave aid and comfort to a despot who invaded our elections."

—David Axelrod, July 16, 2018

Where The Buck Never Stops

By Sniffles

The GOP used to style themselves as the party of personal responsibility. It was all those awful Democrats, don'tcha know, who wanted to give welfare to lazy (read: black) people. So in case you were wondering, yes, the Republicans were racists and still are racists. What they've given up on is the whole "responsibility" thing.

Take the execrable CEO of the ever-unpalatable Papa Johns pizza, John Schnatter. (A Trumpster, of course.) Papa Johns is in a heap of trouble because Schnatter, true to form, was recorded using the n-word during a company-wide conference call. Major League Baseball has dropped a promotion with the pizza chain, a dozen teams canceled local partnerships, and the University of Kentucky has taken Schnatter's name off its stadium. Papa Johns is even hoping to take Schnatter's face off the company logo.

Schnatter, of course, is casting blame elsewhere. He was "pressured" to use "that vocabulary." (Sorry, John, but — nah.) You know, we would almost respect him more as an out-and-out hater if he would just admit that using a racial slur was his idea and nobody else's, and take his lumps. Almost.

It reminds us of our Republican Congresswoman, Elise Stefanik, in the 21st district of New York, who can't seem to do what the Glens Falls Post-Star is requesting of her: Take a pledge not to lie during the 2018 campaign. Stefanik's Democratic opponent, Tedra Cobb, readily agreed. After radio silence from Stefanik, the newspaper called her office to get her pledge. "Of course Congresswoman Stefanik has overwhelmingly earned the trust of her constituents who re-elected her with a record margin," a minion said. "Congresswoman Stefanik is proud of her record of real results for her district."

Um.

These are just two of the many, many examples of Republicans ducking and dodging and refusing to look America in the eye. Will voters give this disgusting party the boot in November? Will Vladimir Putin let us? We cats are getting ready to HISS.

Hat Tip To The British People: "We Are Pro-America, Anti-Donald Trump"

For some reason, these words are bouncing around in our furry heads tonight. Maybe because things worked out, even after the Darkest Hour.

"We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.

"And if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old."

Drumpf's Friday The 13th, Draped In Awfulness

By Baxter

This unluckiest of days could not have been worse for Donald Drumpf. It was a veritable news overload, but to start, let us cats list the things we will not discuss here.

We will not get into the whole should-journalists-have-published-the-emails-from-Wikileaks thing. At least, not yet. That is a huge discussion for another day, and today is already chock-full.

Nor will we get into how Trump, oblivious to others and full of himself as always, walked in front of the Queen at Windsor. Except to say — gosh, remember when Michelle Obama wore a sweater set to Buckingham Palace and touched the Queen as they spoke? The right wing lost its mind. We're not sure how they're reacting to Trump turning his back on Her Majesty today, but we figure that after he left, she just shrugged, rolled her eyes, kicked off her shoes and had another gin.

Nor will we mention that Melania's clothes will never matter again after that "I DON'T REALLY CARE, DO U?" jacket she wore to the border — but clearly she saw this yellow number in the window and decided she just had to have it. (Apologies to Carol Burnett.)

We'll also not get into the backtracking that Trump had to do after his Theresa May interview to the Sun, but we will note that A) he has problems with all women in authority, no matter their ages, and B) the Queen wore blue. Maybe she's hoping for a wave in November, too.

Here's what we do think is important: Overshadowing this entire visit, Robert Mueller today indicted 12 Russians for hacking the Democrats in 2016. This announcement, coming not just at the same time as Trump's nightmare NATO visit and on the eve of his meeting with his boss, oops, Vladimir Putin — but a mere day after the House GOP tried to beat up a defiant FBI agent — is not coincidental.

In fact, in our eyes there's one indisputable fact: Mueller is not done. Charges against colluding Americans are on the way. We cats believe in justice and the rule of law, and we PURR.

Signs Of The Times

By Zamboni

We don't know about you, but we cats liked it a lot better when the world admired our President. Here's a sampling of the signs in today's London protest march, which has already far surpassed the number of people at the tiny 2017 Inauguration.

(We think this first sign is pretty funny, even though it's about dogs.)

More later on Donald Drumpf's not-so-great Friday the 13th.

Maybe There's Even More To This Meme

By Miss Kubelik

Social media will have a field day with today's NATO photo, if it hasn't already... Western leaders looking in one direction, Drumpf in the other. Priceless! But we cats are seeing something else as well: How interesting that Angela Merkel and Theresa May both chose to wear blue. Are they signaling their preference for the outcome of the midterms? We wouldn't be surprised. And we PURR.

Rules For Resisting

By Sniffles

We cats are lucky enough to have two Democratic Senators, so we weren't quite sure how we could contribute to the grassroots save-SCOTUS movement. But we've seen some good advice tweeted around by a young whippersnapper from Indivisible, so we're willing to share the following:

1. Unless you're a big donor or a celebrity, don't bother lobbying a Senator who doesn't represent you.

2. You generally don't need to bother with House members (they don't vote on Supreme Court nominations), but if you live in a red state it would be good if you can get every Democratic member of your Congressional delegation to put out a statement of opposition.

3. Petitions, even with lots of signatures, aren't really effective unless you gather and deliver them locally.

4. Use social media more to organize than to make noise. Senators will simply dismiss the noise.

5. If you have Republican Senators to lobby, try to do so in person rather by phone, email, letter or tweet. (Do people still write letters?)

6. Do something local like an anti-Kavanaugh rally or event that will get media coverage and make your Republican Senator look as bad and out of touch as he or she is. Senators don't like to be embarrassed.

7. Indivisible dude didn't mention this, but a political maven we admire did: Tell everyone you know that this Kavanaugh creep will gut the ACA's mandated insurance exemption for pre-existing conditions. Because he will. No one's going to change sides on the abortion issue, but everybody worries about not getting coverage for things like asthma, diabetes, cancer, pregnancy and COPD.

P.S. Despite the advice in Item #1, please feel free to contact our Senator and Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer, and tell him it's time to play super-serious hardball. We're already going to scold him for failing to instruct the Morning Joes that the American people did not vote for a conservative court in 2000. (Or in 2016, either.) We cats HISS.

Not-So-Secret Agent

"Suppose...the dark crevices of the Russia scandal run not just a little deeper but a lot deeper. If that’s true, we are in the midst of a scandal unprecedented in American history, a subversion of the integrity of the presidency. It would mean the Cold War that Americans had long considered won has dissolved into the bizarre spectacle of Reagan’s party’s abetting the hijacking of American government by a former KGB agent.

"It would mean that when Special Counsel Robert Mueller closes in on the president and his inner circle, possibly beginning this summer, Trump may not merely rail on Twitter but provoke a constitutional crisis.

"And it would mean the Russia scandal began far earlier than conventionally understood and ended later — indeed, is still happening. As Trump arranges to meet face-to-face and privately with Vladimir Putin later this month, the collusion between the two men metastasizing from a dark accusation into an open alliance, it would be dangerous not to consider the possibility that the summit is less a negotiation between two heads of state than a meeting between a Russian-intelligence asset and his handler."

—Jonathan Chait, New York magazine

This article by Chait is a service to the country and an important read for every American. Set aside some time to do it, because we cats have a terrible feeling that, like the Steele dossier, nothing in this story is going to be disproven.

Therese Patricia Okoumou, We Love You

Statue of Liberty climber on Trump:

"I can say a lot of things about this monster, but I will stop at this: His draconian zero-tolerance policy on immigration has to go. In a democracy, we do not put children in cages. Period."

Strong As The Bear? Republicans Don't Really Care (Do U?)

By Baxter

Remember this Ronald Reagan campaign ad from 1984? Sorry about the terrible production values — but that's what can happen when you snag stuff from YouTube.

We cats can't get this commercial out of our heads because we're amazed that, today, Reagan's beloved Republican Party is following in Trump's footsteps and capitulating to the bear. In a mere 34 years, the GOP has gone from demanding that Mikhail Gorbachev tear down the Berlin Wall (he did) to shrugging off Vladimir Putin's subverting democracy (which he's still doing). It's astounding.

If you're represented by any of the Republican fools (listed below) who traveled to Moscow to genuflect to Putin this week, call their offices at 202-224-3121 on Monday. Tell them they're traitors and that Ronnie Reagan is spinning in his grave. We cats HISS.

• Senator Steve Daines, Montana
• Representative Kay Granger, TX-12
• Senator John Hoeven, North Dakota
• Senator Ron Johnson, Wisconsin
• Senator John Kennedy, Louisiana
• Senator Jerry Moran, Kansas
• Senator Richard Shelby, Alabama
• Senator John Thune, South Dakota

Lest We Furr-get: Whatever Happened To "Country First"?

By Zamboni

While you've been grilling your hot dogs, chilling your beer and setting off your fireworks, you may not have been aware that eight Republican members of Congress spent Independence Day in Russia, sucking up to Vladimir Putin.

We cats are beside ourselves about this. And if we, Democrats to our core, are repulsed, how must traditional Republicans feel?

How fast is Ronald Reagan spinning in his grave? And George H.W. Bush, who is still alive and at large — does he have anything to say? His fellow members of the GOP are cozying up to the former KGB guy who is actively undermining democracy around the world. Not to mention John McCain — we know he's battling brain cancer, but surely he can speak out against something that's tantamount to treason. Right?

Wow! Russia attacked the American election in 2016, and less than two years later, Republicans are genuflecting to the guy who masterminded it all. What was that about "palling around with terrorists"? Our furry heads are exploding, and we cats HISS.

Lest We Furr-get: "This Fourth Of July Is Yours, Not Mine"

"What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.

"To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass-fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.

"There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour."

—Frederick Douglass, 1852

No Ordinary Anything

By Miss Kubelik

Finally, The Washington Post has decided to give some ink to people who not only did not vote for Trump but who are rightfully appalled by the hideous damage the administration is doing — and who are getting increasingly bold in their dissent.

The article covers the bases — shamings of Trumpsters in restaurants, demonstrations outside private homes, moms getting arrested in migrant kids' names at the Hart Senate Office Building. (By the way, Philip A. Hart, for whom the building is named, would have approved.)

Still, we detect a little whiff of disapproval hanging about the article. It's that unmistakable, inside-the-Beltway scorn of anything disruptive — whether in eateries, "outside private homes on quiet streets," or "in office hallways as people are trying to work." See what we mean?

We'd like to remind anyone who's taken aback by the anger and resistance — especially journalists, who have the power of the pen — of something important. These awful Trumpsters are suffering nothing worse than what countless women seeking to exercise their Constitutionally protected reproductive rights have had to endure outside women's clinics for decades. (Not to mention the abortion doctors murdered in their own kitchens and churches. Journos who live in uterus-free bubbles might spare a moment for the guys who have lost their lives to the "pro-lifers.")

So if you're feeling just a teensy bit offended that people are shouting outside Stephen Miller's apartment building and getting into Elaine Chao's face (because chicken hubby Mitch McConnell scampered away and into the SUV), give us a break.  

As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "This is no ordinary time. No time for weighing anything except what we can do best for the country as a whole, and that responsibility rests on each and every one of us as individuals." Angry and alarmed Americans are answering that call in droves, and we cats PURR.

102 In The Shade

By Sniffles

This is not an entertainment blog, but we cats feel like we shouldn't let July 1 go by without sending best wishes to Dame Olivia de Havilland, who was born on this day to British parents in Tokyo 102 years ago.

We're kinda sorry Dame Olivia lost her suit against FX Networks, but she can always point with pride to the de Havilland Law — otherwise known as California Labor Code Section 2855 — which has protected the rights of performing artists since 1944.

Oh, and it's also Canada Day. Here in Montreal, the temperature felt like Olivia de Havilland's age (and then some). But we all celebrated anyway. Bonne fête! We cats PURR.