Doubts

By Miss Kubelik

We cats finally read Jane Mayer's New Yorker piece on Al Franken last night. After all the vitriol we saw about it on the Twitter machine, we expected a hit job, a real Al-Franken-was-screwed screed, one that pulled no punches and that trashed one of our Democratic Senators, Kirsten Gillibrand, to hell and back.

Well, no, actually.

Mayer's article — it was very long, as is The New Yorker's wont — was thoughtful and balanced. You came away with suspicions about Franken's main accuser, a right winger named Leeann Tweeden, and her Hannityesque cheerleaders, but also with uncertainty about Franken himself. You could see how he misbehaved, or perhaps didn't misbehave but was misinterpreted. You understood how Democratic women Senators believed — rightly — that they needed to be consistent about accusations leveled against a member of their caucus in the fresh heat of #MeToo. You learned how the Senate's ethics process moves slowly — too slowly to keep up with the drumbeat of the news cycle. You realized that maybe our other Democratic Senator, Chuck Schumer, isn't such a great Minority Leader.

But you also were reminded that Franken had multiple accusers, one of whom was a Senate staffer — and then there was that picture. Always that picture. Yep, Al was toast.

We're sorry about Al Franken. We gave him money and thought he was great. We loved his books. We loved the fact that the nutcases hated him. We are grateful that it was his adroit questioning (he's not a lawyer) that helped lead Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from Benedict Donald's Russiagate scandal and appoint Robert Mueller as Special Counsel. But we have doubts about him. And we don't understand why Al Franken's behavior is Kirsten Gillibrand's fault.

So before anyone is tempted to rage on Twitter about how Franken was railroaded and Kirsten is a witch and Leeann Tweeden was out to get him (she was) and how Jane Mayer is awful (she isn't), they should read the article and take some time to think. Mayer's reporting leaves us with valid questions.

What do we do when men we admire behave badly? If women have always been unjustly accused of inspiring rape by dressing provocatively or getting drunk, is it fair to make someone like Al Franken explain his effusive, physical personality over and over? (Joe Biden might have something to say about misinterpreted displays of affection.) Can we ever understand what is in our hearts and minds when we act the ways we do, and how our actions are perceived by others?

We're posting about this here rather than try to tweet about it. First, because Twitter is limited, and second, because we don't want to be deluged with hostile replies from pro-Franken bullies. That's pointless infighting. We refuse to engage in it, and it makes us HISS.

Lest We Furr-get: Killing While White

By Sniffles

Back in 2009, the Department of Homeland Security issued a report that rang alarm bells about white nationalism, far-right extremism and domestic terrorism. And Republicans promptly had a cow.

Then-House Minority Leader John Boehner took particular umbrage, indignantly bleating that DHS was demonizing "American citizens who disagree with the direction Washington Democrats are taking our nation." Then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano ended up walking the report back — something that infuriated us at the time.

Well, of course you know what's happened. Shooting after shooting by right-wing haters has taken place in America, the most recent one just yesterday in Northern California. Before 19-year-old Santino Legan started firing at a food festival crowd with a semi-automatic weapon that he had to go to Nevada to buy (since it's illegal in the Golden State), he posted approvingly about a white supremacist manifesto.

After this, and after the church murders in Charleston, and the Sikh temple murders in Wisconsin, and the synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh, etc. etc. ad nauseum, we have one question: Do we hear a chorus of apologies from conservatives and Republicans who were outraged about a prescient DHS report 10 years ago?

Of course we don't. And since we can't depend on the press to follow up with those members of the GOP who defended right-wing terrorism in 2009, we have to jog everyone's memory here. We cats are disgusted, and we HISS.

IMAGE: Stephen Romero, age 6 — killed by a right-wing terrorist who, to paraphrase John Boehner, probably agreed with the direction Washington Republicans are taking our nation.

A Baltimore Sunburn (Well-Deserved)

"We would above all remind Mr. Trump that the 7th District, Baltimore included, is part of the United States that he is supposedly governing. The White House has far more power to effect change in this city, for good or ill, than any single member of Congress including Mr. Cummings. If there are problems here, rodents included, they are as much his responsibility as anyone’s, perhaps more because he holds the most powerful office in the land.

"While we would not sink to name-calling in the Trumpian manner — or ruefully point out that he failed to spell the congressman’s name correctly (it’s Cummings, not Cumming) — we would tell the most dishonest man to ever occupy the Oval Office, the mocker of war heroes, the gleeful grabber of women’s private parts, the serial bankrupter of businesses, the useful idiot of Vladimir Putin and the guy who insisted there are 'good people' among murderous neo-Nazis that he’s still not fooling most Americans into believing he’s even slightly competent in his current post.

"Or that he possesses a scintilla of integrity. Better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one."

—Baltimore Sun Editorial Board, July 27, 2019

Chappaquiddick 50

By Baxter

If Mary Jo Kopechne were alive today, she'd be 78 years old. Not old old, by today's standards. But who knows what she might have accomplished — or helped accomplish — in politics, had she not drowned in Ted Kennedy's car in July 1969?

Edward M. Kennedy is 10 years dead now. His Senate seat is held by Elizabeth Warren, and most of the 50th-anniversary coverage of summer 1969 has gone to the moon landing, which happened to take place at the same time that Kennedy drove his car off that bridge near Edgartown, Massachusetts. But we cats remember Chappaquiddick, and the nightly-news coverage that accompanied it, very well — although not quite the same way that we "remember" it now.

Back then, it was all about Ted Kennedy. Now, we can't stop thinking about the young woman who didn't make it out of the car.

We cats were not Ted Kennedy partisans. We worked for President Carter in 1980, and will never forget or forgive Kennedy's wounding primary challenge that year. It's amazing to us that he was able to run for President at all after the death of Mary Jo. But in later years, he partially redeemed himself with his illustrious Senate career. If — in the wake of that — we ever tried to excuse Chappaquiddick or dismiss the memory of the young woman whose death Kennedy caused, we'd like to apologize.

Forgive us, Mary Jo. Jimmy Carter would have gotten you home safe. In fact, if you had been working for Jimmy Carter, you never would have been in that car in the first place. We cats HISS.

From Ana's Lips To Our Ears

By Zamboni

It's a sign of how bad things are that we find ourselves constantly agreeing with a Bush Republican like Ana Navarro. But, entranced, we're now following her on Twitter — and we just noticed that she tweeted our entire post for today. Here's what she said:

"Every minute spent debating impeachment, is one less minute spent registering people to vote, organizing grassroots, laying the groundwork to beat Trump. Whether he’ll face impeachment is doubtful. That he’ll face an election is not. Want to hold Trump accountable? Defeat him!"

Yup.

It's absolutely true that the Mueller testimony on Wednesday laid the ground for impeaching Benedict Donald's wrinkly butt. We also recognize that impeachment is a political, not just legal, process. Therefore, House Democrats need to decide if they have the numbers to start impeachment now, or if they should focus their energies on 1) holding endless hearings the way the Republicans did on Benghazi and 2) registering billions of people to vote and GOTV'ing the Trump Crime Family out of the White House in 2020.

We endorse both. Hold hearings to educate the public, just don't call them impeachment. And work our butts off to win next year.

Because here's the thing: As the Uruguayan soccer team realized in the Andes in 1972, and as the passengers of United 93 understood in 2001, there is no one riding to the rescue. No one — not Mueller, not Tish James, not Nancy Pelosi — is going to save us. We have to save ourselves. There is only us.

So here are our marching orders. There are three major factions that make up the base of the Democratic Party: women, African Americans, and young people under 35. We need to nominate a ticket that will appeal to all three. And then we have to register folks and get them the hell out to vote.

We have to make the margins so big next year that Benedict Donald and Vladimir Putin can't claim they're rigged.

Got it? Let's get to work. We cats PURR.

More Good News

By Hubie and Bertie

It doesn't get much better than this: another Republican retirement in the House — and in a district that the Democratic Congressional Committee has targeted to flip.

Representative Pete Olson from Texas's 22nd district has decided he's had enough. He cites "family issues," which... hmm, makes us think there's another shoe that's going to drop somewhere down the road.

Whatever. Our 2018 Democratic candidate in TX-22, Sri Preston Kulkarni, who raised a ton of money last time and came within five points of victory, says he'll have another go. So it is all good.

In fact, the DCCC is hoping to flip at least a half-dozen seats in Texas alone next year. So our main question now is: How many more House Republicans will announce retirements after the summer recess end? Depends on how much grief they get from their constituents back home, and that will be interesting to see. We cats PURR.

A Good Start

By Miss Kubelik

Frustrated by the media's focus on "optics" instead of on what Robert Mueller was saying today? ("These guys sold out their country for money, the guy in the Oval Office is probably compromised, our election was hacked, and they're still doing it and we should be worried.")

We're frustrated, too — even though we think that eventually, the "optics" angle will get stale, and someone out there in Journalism Land will simply have to focus on the substance. Whether that will lead to impeachment is anybody's guess.

But impeachment or no impeachment, there's an election coming up. And if we really want to get rid of Benedict Donald and his merry band of mobsters and traitors, we have to vote in droves next year. It'll take a lot of organizing, a lot of registering, and a lot of battling against Republicans' efforts to suppress the vote. It's going to be tough, but we can do it. We have to.

In the meantime, here's a bit of cheery inspiration: Benedict Donald's approval ratings in all 50 states, translated into Electoral College votes. Let's go, team! We cats PURR.

9/11 First Responders Are Heroes. So Is Jon Stewart. Rand Paul And Mike Lee... Not So Much.

By Zamboni

We cats love this photo of Jon Stewart smirking as Mitch McConnell strides past him. Ditto the one of Stewart embracing 9/11 first responder John Feal right after the Senate — minus Rand Paul and Mike Lee — secured the 9/11 victims' compensation fund forever. (Well, through 2092 — which is forever to those of you without nine lives.)

Also, here's a fun fact: While Rand Paul and Mike Lee voted "no" on this bill in the Senate, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar voted "yes" in the House. So who hates America? We cats HISS.

Everything Old Is New Again

By Sniffles

We cats have nine lives, so we well remember the days of Vietnam, when "Love it or leave it" was the rallying cry of those who supported America's endless Southeast Asian war. It was the best defense they could think of at a time when the nightly news shows were reporting hundreds of American soldiers killed in a week.

To those pro-war super-patriots, daring to question the mission in Vietnam was daring to question the entire American experiment, something we really don't remember any antiwar demonstrators saying. They just wanted the United States to get the hell out of Vietnam.

So now the Trumpsters are trotting out the tired old meme again, thinking it's going to wield some sort of magic. Funny, we don't remember it working before: The US frantically scrambled out of Saigon in 1975 (see above), and after 58,000 American deaths, Vietnam fell to the Communists. (Somebody later wrote a musical about it.)

Anyway, we're pleased to report that "Love it or leave it" still isn't packing much of a punch. In Appomattox, Virginia (site of another notable surrender), when some jackass minister put up a sign on his church that said you-guessed-it, his congregation walked out in protest.

That pastor dude probably doesn't read much James Baldwin, but one of Baldwin's most famous quotes is the perfect response: "I love America more than any country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually." We cats PURR.

Can We Stop?

By Baxter

Gosh, it was such a short time ago that America had a President who inspired and uplifted. A President who began his tenure with an appeal to those who didn't support him: "I hear your voices. I need your help. I will be your President, too."

Fast-forward to today and we've gone 180 degrees: Benedict Donald is fomenting hate and division. No wonder Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley calls him "the current occupant" of the White House. Any President who sows discord instead of unity doesn't deserve the title.

This hideous Trump person is proving that it really does matter who the POTUS is. Lots of Americans go about their business every day without giving a thought about the government, but when you're "the current occupant," you have quite the megaphone. Your attitudes and behaviors really do set a tone. That's why white supremacists have felt so comfortable about going bold, and why, we have no doubt, people all across the country are behaving badly.

The latest such story: the cop in Louisiana who got on the Face Thing and basically called on someone to shoot Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. That's right — a police officer. The jackass has apparently realized he's just put his job in jeopardy, because he's deleted the post. But he still needs to be fired.

Said AOC recently on Twitter: “I've had mornings where I wake up and the first thing I do with my coffee is review photos of the men (it’s always men) who want to kill me." And she doesn't even see them all — just the most alarming ones. What a way to start the day.

We don't know what the solution to all this is. Who is the leader with enough decency and gravitas who can step forward and shame these Trumpsters? Are his initials BHO? We cats switch our tails, and wait.

Moose & Squirrel Is No Jackie O

By Miss Kubelik

The Kennedy Center honorees have been announced — Earth, Wind & Fire, Linda Ronstadt, Sally Field, Michael Tilson Thomas, "Sesame Street" — and once again, the nation is wondering whether Benedict Donald and Moose & Squirrel will show up for the ceremony.

They were no-shows at the last two. And of course, none of the honorees are yet expressing any particular regret at the possibility that this year's event may be Trump-less.

Still and all, there's something important here that needs to be said. The Trumpsters' disregard for the creative arts is just plain un-American. Yes, we know that we have far more important matters to worry about — the continuing existence of the rule of law, for example. But the fact that we cannot remember a time when a performing artist was invited to the White House is disgraceful. And we're sure that the reason Trump can't abide the Kennedy Center honors is simply because the show is all about someone else and not him.

Benedict Donald spent about two seconds of his time awhile back trying to compare Moose & Squirrel to Jackie O. If that comparison were apt, the current occupant of the East Wing would be promoting the arts like there was no tomorrow. Instead, she's just proven herself to be a self-absorbed Slovenian nude model who can't possibly compete with the elegance and sophistication of Mrs. John F. Kennedy. We cats HISS.

PHOTO: Cellist Pablo Casals plays the East Room, 1962.

Never Twenty-One

By Zamboni

Trumpiness is everywhere. We're sorry to report that the province of Quebec has passed a "secularism" law that forbids civil servants from wearing religious clothing or symbols on the job, and a judge has just turned back challenges to it from two Canadian civil liberties groups.

Bill 21 has already inspired incidents of harassment, the groups claimed. But the judge said, "That some in society feel liberated today to claim their prejudices instead of stemming them does not originate from the secularism law."

We cats say, horse hockey to that. Laws like Bill 21 embolden haters as much as Donald Trump does. And while we're all for secularism ourselves (unless you're talking about worshiping cats), we have long argued that diverse, participatory democracies are plenty strong enough to tolerate their citizens' silly dress.

In the US, legislation like Bill 21 would forbid Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from wearing her turbans on the job. What do you want to bet that Stephen Miller is working with teabaggers on Capitol Hill right now to enact a version of it here? We cats HISS.

We're Just Going To Leave This Here

Did we say anything? We didn't say anything.

We Want 9/11 Back

By Hubie and Bertie

It didn't take the Republicans very long to hijack the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. By Friday, September 14, we cats had taken down the American flag from our house (we'd been the first in the neighborhood to put one up), because Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson blamed the attacks on gays and abortion providers — and the White House refused to repudiate them.

That same day, as we recall, George W. Bush — formerly the Worst Person Who's Ever Lived, but who worked mighty hard to live up to that moniker when he was President — quelled concerns about his lack of leadership during the crisis by standing on a pile of rubble in Lower Manhattan and blustering through a bullhorn. And America forgave him. (Somehow we think the same would not have happened to the rightful winner of the 2000 election, President Gore.)

Thus began a milking of 9/11 that Bush, Cheney and the Republicans used to question people's patriotism, destroy American heroes in the 2002 midterms, and justify a disastrous invasion of a country that hadn't attacked us (Iraq). The Bushies were so protective of this that they were even willing to unmask a dedicated CIA officer and put in danger American assets abroad. So, lest you be tempted to think that Donald Trump's current hideousness has wiped out the badness of the Bushies — well, think again.

Today, though, the perfidy and hypocrisy of the Republicans' abuse of and disdain for 9/11 became abundantly clear: Republican Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah stopped the 9/11 first responders' compensation fund dead in its tracks. These are dudes who profess concern about national debt but who had no problem voting for Trump's ruinous tax cut for the 1 percent.

The GOP has apparently decided that its special brand of 9/11 exploitation is paying no more political dividends — so who cares what happens to the guys who worked the pile for months, and the journalists who covered them?

The Republican Party's transgressions over the last 40 years have been many, but one of the worst was the appropriation of a national tragedy for their political gain. Now, people are saying that Trump will self-destruct and take the party with him. We cats cannot wait for that day. In the meantime, we Democrats are taking 9/11 back from the Republicans' soiled hands. And we HISS.

Congresswoman Omar's Response

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

—Maya Angelou

RIP, JPS

By Baxter

Only in the time of Donald Trump can we cats feel bad about a dude who retired from the Supreme Court years ago and who dies at 99.

Still, even if Trump were not President (and God knows it would have been better for President Hillary Clinton to pay him tribute today), we would want to mark the passing of a titan of the Court. This was a guy who was appointed by a Republican President we did not like — but he became a champion for liberal causes and individual rights. Boy, are those days gone.

Meanwhile, we'd like to know why our Republican Congresswoman, Elise Stefanik, couldn't find it within her to condemn Trump's disgusting tweets this weekend. What will it take to give her a spine? Apparently, like her hero Paul Ryan, nothing.

We cats are disgusted and HISS — but please, everybody, REGISTER AND VOTE. Thank you. That will make us cats PURR.

P.S. Are we crazy, or could John Paul Stevens be played by Lee J. Cobb?

It Was 20 Years Ago Today

By Miss Kubelik

We cats were recently in a très cute store in Chatham, New York, which was selling votive candles with John Lennon on them. (Also candles with Frida Kahlo, if you must know. We were sorely tempted.)

We guess we should have bought the one with Lennon — because of course the 20th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's deaths is suddenly upon us. How fitting it would have been to light that candle tonight.

Gosh, we miss JFK, Jr. Smart, elegant, handsome, private, decent — he was the antithesis of what passes for celebrity today. Since we cats grew up in a time in which "If Mrs. Kennedy didn't do it, you didn't, either," John was truly his mother's son. America needs more of that these days, don't you agree?

The Q-Anon idiots said he was coming back on on the Fourth of July. If only he had. We cats weep.

Extra! Extra! Trump Is A Racist!

By Zamboni

It's no secret that American journalism is dominated by white people. (We cats almost said white men, but that's probably true, too — for all the wonderful female journalists we've been privileged to know.)

So the media have been dragging their heels on calling out Benedict Donald as racist. They've insisted on characterizing his tweets and other statements as "racially tinged" or "racially charged," but just haven't been able to bring themselves to call Trump an out-and-out racist pig. Which, as you know from his history, is what he is.

A German dad who was a member of the KKK. Getting busted for refusing to rent or sell real estate to people of color. Taking out full-page ads demanding the death penalty for the Central Park Five (who were later found innocent). Tweeting "I love Hispanics!" on Cinco de Mayo, and then caging Latin American migrants like something out of the Holocaust. Referring to African-American voters and thought leaders as "the blacks." Questioning Judge Curiel's impartiality. Saying there were "fine people on both sides" in Charlottesville. And now, this weekend's tweets. Did we miss anything? We're sure we did.

Still and all, reporters, from broadcast to print, have felt their testicles seize up when it comes to calling Trump what he deserves to be called. (Yep, we're thinking that the journos who are chickenhearted on this question are all dudes. Sue us.)

So they haven't done it — until now. Visit The Washington Post's home page and you will see this headline: "House Votes to Condemn Trump's Racist Remarks." Earlier, it was "Trump Lashes Out Ahead of House Vote to Condemn His Racist Tweets." And a breaking news banner blared, "A Divided House Votes for Resolution Condemning Trump's Racist Remarks."

Meanwhile, over at The New York Times, it's a restrained "House Votes to Condemn Trump's Language as Racist."

Why has the Post taken the lead? "The 'go back [to your country]' trope is deeply rooted in the history of racism in the United States," said executive editor Marty Baron in a statement on Monday. "Therefore, we have concluded that 'racist' is the proper term to apply to the language [Trump] used Sunday."

We're with Marty. And since Trump is so fond of dragging Israel and the Jews into all this, let's also observe that M.O.T. Marty Baron used to be editor of The Boston Globe, where he ran into stiff resistance from an insular town that reflexively protected its abusive priests and questioned his motives because he was, um, kinda not Catholic. We feel compelled to point this out on a day that Kellyanne Conway asked a reporter what his "ethnicity" was. We cats HISS.

P.S. We couldn't help noticing that Speaker Pelosi wore purple on the House floor this afternoon. Nice touch.

The Silence Is Deafening

By Sniffles

Wow, we cats can't begin to count the number of outraged Republicans who have denounced Benedict Donald's racist tweets against progressive Democratic Congresswomen today.

KIDDING. Of course they haven't.

What we have seen is some never-Trumpers suggesting that Republicans should consider not nominating him again. The party, they aver, "can decide whether he has disqualified himself."

We like the idea of the media and, come to think of it, everyone else in the world cornering every GOP office holder and leader and forcing a response on this question. It implies hope that such pressure will cause the white-hood party to tear itself apart.

Except...

The Trumpsters have spent the last two and a half years rigging the GOP's primary system. They've taken over virtually every state party and changed the rules on who can be a delegate. So it's pretty clear we'll see icebergs off the coast of Florida before 2,000 certified, Trump-loving delegates refuse to nominate him next year.

Meanwhile, have you noticed how Trump's disgusting tweets have taken the focus off Jeffrey Epstein for a day? We have, too. We cats HISS.

We May Yet Send A Cobb To Congress

By Baxter

We cats just took a couple of days out of the news loop, and we're glad we did — because what we saw when we turned on cable news last night appalled us. Nazi-look-alike Mike Pence, surveying hundreds of migrant men behind chain link fence in McAllen, Texas, was so Eastern Europe circa 1943 that we couldn't believe it was the United States of America, 2019. We are still in shock — and will deal with that topic another time.

Meanwhile, we are encouraged by a Congressional race in our own back yard — NY-21. One of our perennial pieces of advice to Democrats who run for office is the tried-and-true "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." You never know: Lightning could strike next time.

Democrat Tedra Cobb ran a spirited but unsuccessful race against our Republican Representative, Elise Stefanik, last year — and, undaunted, has decided to run again. Elise is one of those GOP women who tries to pass herself off as a moderate when she's really a Paul Ryan acolyte and someone who's perfectly comfortable sharing a podium with Benedict Donald. We find phonies like her to be almost more despicable than the out-and-out haters and teabags. Almost.

Anyway, we'd be very pleased to see Elise go down in flames next year. And Tedra has not only declared against her again, but has raised a respectable amount of money to do it ($518,000 in this year's second quarter — the most raised by a candidate in our Congressional district at this stage of the campaign).

Elise, for her part, is looking particularly eggy-on-the-face these days, because since she's been working hard to recruit women candidates to run on Republican tickets, and they keep getting their heads handed to them. The latest case in point is Joan Perry, who was crushed by a person with a penis in North Carolina's special election this week. (At least, we think he has a penis.)

Long story short, with a Presidential year coming up, we're thinking that as of 2021 the ranks of GOP girls in Congress could be set to shrink yet again — maybe even in NY-21. Go, Tedra, go. We cats PURR.

It's Not Their Party

By Miss Kubelik

"North Carolina Runoff a Test of Women's Standing in the Republican Party," the headlines screamed. Well, guess what? Women's standing in the Grand Old Party is pretty damn low.

We know this because that same North Carolina Congressional runoff (to fill the safe Republican seat of a dude who died) was a crushing defeat yesterday for Dr. Joan Perry, the anti-choice pediatrician in whom our New York Congresswoman, Elise Stefanik, had put so much stock. Stefanik is heading up her own PAC recruit more GOP women candidates, after failing miserably to drag most of the 100 she recruited across the finish line last year. Nice going, Elise!

The winner in North Carolina, Greg Murphy, was endorsed by Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan and Rudolph Giuliani, while Perry got support from Liz Cheney, Joni Ernst and Sarah Palin. And the race was not close (60-40). So, score a big one for the boys.

How ironic that the GOP should smack down women in the Tarheel State just as America is celebrating the US Women's Soccer Team with a ticker-tape parade in New York — and right after Amy McGrath rakes in $2.5 million in the first 24 hours of her bid to unseat the ever-evil Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell.

Seems like there's one political party that welcomes and uplifts women and girls, and it's not the Republican one. So what is any self-respecting woman still doing there? We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Will Kentucky Ditch Mitch?

By Zamboni

It's fun to keep posting fabulous launch videos from Democrats, particularly when they come from great candidates like Amy McGrath. She just declared her candidacy against a Senator who's done more damage to America and democracy than any other member of that previously respected body: Mitch McConnell.

McGrath pulls no punches about McConnell's deep disdain for the rule of law and his eager corruption of our governmental institutions. In fact, in our view, McConnell's perniciousness is worse than anyone's except except William Barr and Benedict Donald himself. He deserves to be taken down, and McGrath is going to be formidable enough that even experts like Nate Silver think she has a shot.

And to further celebrate, consider this: Senator Tina Smith is looking strong in Minnesota, and thanks to demographic changes and Benedict Donald's unpopularity in Texas, Republicans will likely have to expend precious resources to defend the ever-loathsome John Cornyn.

Seeing that news — on the heels of getting our desired candidate in Kentucky — makes us cats, you guessed it, PURR.

Professor Warren Teaches Us How It's Done

By Sniffles

Well, the crazy-news train barely paused for the July 4 holiday, and revved up to full speed again today. We cats are flying from one story to another. But there's one headline — besides Jeffrey Epstein, that is — that's gotten our attention.

Elizabeth Warren is raising money like it's going out of style: $19 million in the second quarter from 384,000 donors. This made people's eyes pop, since the expectation going in was that Warren would not show well this time around. She had no big fundraisers, is taking no PAC money, and came off a lackluster first quarter. And now, she's raked in more moolah than Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris — in Bernie's case, $100,000 more. Very smart play.

We've expressed our concerns about Warren before. And we've also outlined the ways that she's making inroads with us. Our major worry at the beginning was that Benedict Donald owned her on the "Pocahontas" thing. But now, after Trump's demented performance at last Thursday's Nuremberg rally, it's becoming clearer and clearer that he won't have the mental capacity to own anybody by this time next year. (It's just one of the reasons we predict that he won't debate the Democratic nominee, whoever that person is.)

Warren has earned her chops as one of our front-runners, thanks not just to this latest money haul but to her respectful-of-voters policy rollouts (see above) and her ability to connect with crowds, echoing their frustrations from the 2008 financial meltdown. So we're cautiously willing to say that we think "Pocahontas" might be yesterday's news.

Just one thing bothers us now: We don't see African-American women getting excited about Warren, and they've been such important and reliable members of our party's base that we're loath to disappoint them. We Democrats will have to figure all this out. In the meantime, we cats PURR.

New Glory For Old Glory

via GIPHY

By Baxter

We cats pretty much ignored the Nike-Betsy Ross flag fracas, didn't we? There was too much squabbling about it, and by the time we thought about joining in, any comment we would have made had already been said. We're not sure, though, why anyone would wear any kind of American flag on a shoe. That's mighty close to the dirty ground, you know. Doesn't sound appropriate.

Then again, people are lax about such things, even wearing Old Glory on their butts — ugh. We're not flag wavers (in fact, in our book, you can burn it if you want), but flag-themed jeans, shorts, leggings and dungarees are beyond the pale. And in case you haven't noticed, the folks who parade around in them are usually notorious about other people showing respect.

But donning the flag as a Women's World Cup champion? Now, that we condone. Congratulations, US National Women's Team! May you wear the flag proudly all your lives. We cats PURR.

Q-Less

Trumpsters traffic in cruelty, but one of their worst is the wacky Q-Anon belief that John F. Kennedy, Jr. faked his death and would reappear in Washington this past July 4 to declare himself a Republican and run in 2020 on Trump's ticket.

Idiotic, we know. But also heartless, because we laugh derisively through pain. There's no doubt that the Kennedy family — not to mention millions of us who have mourned him for 20 years — would give anything to have John Junior back. We cats HISS.

This Land Is Still Our Land

By Miss Kubelik

We cats are spending part of Independence Day reading an amusing history of a song we despise, "God Bless America." We've always loathed it for its irritating tune and sappy jingoism. Now, it's funny to see right wingers getting up in arms about sports teams pulling the Kate Smith cover of the song, because Smith had a previously undisclosed habit of singing racist stuff in vaudeville.

After the Philadelphia Flyers removed a statue of Smith from the grounds of the Wells Fargo Arena, the Kate Smith Commemorative Society responded with umbrage, calling it "political correctness" and bemoaning "the unfair and all-too-frequent tendency to judge events of the past by the standards and sensibilities of the present."

Well, duh. When wouldn't we do that? Of course we reassess history as we become more enlightened. If we didn't, then we'd still agree that blackface is cool and slavery was okay. That interning Japanese-American citizens during World War II was right. That gays minding their own business in bars should be busted. That only white, Christian, landowning men should vote. And so on.

Our collective march toward progress has seen quite a few bumps in the road lately, what with the Trumpsters turning back the clock on women's rights, suppressing the vote, caging asylum-seekers, rolling tanks through the streets of Washington and destroying democracy. It's hard not to get discouraged. But a world in which a stupid Kate Smith statue can get covered up like a burka and then hauled off to the dump is a pretty good place to be. We cats remain hopeful, and we PURR.

#Unwanted Ivanka: Day Before July 4 Edition

Not just amusing, but also a handy reminder of the Trump mobster clan's abuse of the military. Tomorrow, Benedict Donald will compel members of the Armed Forces and the National Park Service to pay obeisance to him on a day that, in reality, celebrates America's rejection of a tyrant. Thomas Jefferson weeps, and we cats HISS.

Happy Fourth Of July, Everyone!

"The GOP wants a one-party state, and Trump wants to be the autocrat of that state. The idea that they are incompetent is a myth. They are very competent. They are just not interested in the process of governing. They are interested in ruling."

—Sarah Kendzior, journalist and expert on dictatorships, May 2019

Report From The Camps

By Zamboni

Are we cats glad to be in Canada right now? Yes, because as far as we can tell, the True North is not committing any human rights abuses.

Not so the United States, which is detaining and abusing migrant women and children in facilities toured by members of Congress today. Kids are separated from their parents, thrust into the arms of older children who aren't related to them, dirty, sick and dying. Women are being told to drink out of toilets. Meanwhile, 9,500 members of Customs & Border Patrol are trading messages in a secret Face Thing group, indulging in oral-sex fantasies about Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

We are officially ashamed to be American. And of course we HISS.

#UnwantedIvanka: Canada Day Edition

The #UnwantedIvanka memes continue. We cats are in Montreal right now, so this one really made us PURR. Happy Canada Day!