A Feeling Of Emptiness

By Hubie and Bertie

Doesn't Eastern Kentucky know that Donald Trump, Jr. is going to be elected President in 2024? Guess not: Why else would so sparse a crowd have turned out for him at a Matt Bevin rally today?

It's just another bad omen that the Drumpfs have endured recently. Top of the list surely is the fact that Hurricane Dorian skirted Puerto Rico — "one of the most corrupt places on earth," according to Trump — and now is heading not just for Florida, but (GASP!) Mar-a-Lago. Following close behind that are all the economic indicators that seem to be pointing in the direction of a recession. And which appear to be freaking Benedict Donald out.

And then there are the bedbugs at Doral. What a week.

We cats have noticed a real uptick in the "Trump-is-mentally-losing-it" chatter, which we think bodes well if, God forbid, another Supreme Court seat opens up. While we're not expecting it — RBG seems tough as nails — Senate Democrats had better be prepared to play hardball on this. Can a President with failing mental faculties be allowed to make such a lifetime appointment? We think not.

Final thoughts on this Thursday evening? That the news could not possibly be worse, and we need to grab at whatever positive straws we can. The fact that a former Canadian PM — a Conservative, no less — has publicly hoped that Dorian will hit Mar-a-Berchtesgaden head-on is truly something to savor. We cats PURR.

Randy Rainbow Does It Again

We cats are superior beings, but even we feel inadequate when we encounter the brilliance of Randy Rainbow. He makes us PURR.

A Moment Of Quiet Amidst The Madness.

By Miss Kubelik

As the world convulses, burns and (in the UK's case) edges toward fascism, a startling reminder of the past: The man who took this photograph just died at the age of 94.

We cats had no idea he would have still been with us. But Orlando Suero was a young, up-and-coming photographer who got to spend a couple of days with Senator and Mrs. John F. Kennedy at their Georgetown home in 1954. This was just one gorgeous result.

Just when you think that the grace and intelligence of eras past couldn't be farther away, they suddenly pop into the garish present. We choose to savor the intrusion, and we PURR.

Holy Toledo

By Zamboni

So this is depressing: Isabel Toledo, who designed Michelle Obama's 2009 inaugural dress and coat, has died of breast cancer. We're seeing photos of that day and are reminded of how upbeat everything felt then.

"Toledo gave voice to immigrants and women," reports The Washington Post. "She spoke for those who go their own way and aim for success on their own terms — sometimes by choice and sometimes because that is the only way possible. Toledo was the first in a long line of designers whom Obama championed as first lady — designers whose personal story said something about the breadth of the American Dream."

Hang on, everyone. Sooner or later, the feelings that we had on January 20, 2009, will come back again. Until they do, we cats are tired of smart women dying too young of cancer, and we HISS.

Emoluments, Schmoluments.

By Baxter

The emoluments suit by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia was tossed by a judge, but the House's suit is still, we think, alive. Which is a good thing, since Benedict Donald is agitating for the next G7 to be held at his Doral resort in Florida.

But we're wondering: Even if Drumpf holding a summit at Doral isn't a violation of the Constitution's emoluments clause — and we think it is — why would he insist on holding the G7 there when he could do so much more good for his party by having it in some other red state?

Examples:

Invite world leaders to The Greenbrier in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, and you inject a ton of money into an ailing state economy that's not benefiting from Trump's tax cut for the 1 percent.

Propose holding the G7 at The Homestead in Virginia, and see if that will help the GOP wrest that purple state from Democratic control.

Have the pooh-bahs gather at The Broadmoor in Colorado, and you might do the endangered Republican Senator Cory Gardner some good. Choosing the Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina, might be a favorable move for the re-election of GOP Senator Thom Tillis.

You get our drift. Of course, Donald Trump is never going to try to hold the G7 at some other billionaire's property (like The Greenbrier) or in a state that might help his party in the 2020 election, because he's a malignant narcissist for whom greed comes first.

Let's just hope that somehow, in some way, the emoluments people catch up with him. Until then, we cats HISS.

Please Caption This Photo.

It's getting a lot of attention. Wonder why? We cats PURR.

But Her Emails!

By Sniffles

We cats have one question for journalists: What will it take?

When will they finally wake up to the fact that these Trumpsters are out not just to destroy the free press, but American democracy?

"A loose network of conservative operatives allied with the White House is pursuing what they say will be an aggressive operation to discredit news organizations deemed hostile to [Trump] by publicizing damaging information about journalists," The New York Times reports.

These autocrats have gone after journalists from CNN, the Times and The Washington Post, combing through their social media posts and other public statements to discredit anyone who has reported responsibly on the Administration.

This, folks, is what a dictatorship does.

So when will reporters wake up and smell the coffee? They're already not getting regular press briefings from the White House. They've been branded multiple times as "enemies of the state." Now, shadowy Trump-aligned forces are actively trying to annihilate journalists' careers.

Is that enough to get the American media to realize that the future of democracy is at stake? Or will is take a public lynching of a reporter by a mob in MAGA hats to drive the point home? We cats HISS.

(IMAGE: Obama meets the White House press corps. Remember when stuff like this happened?)

Koch Checks Out — RBG, Not So Much

By Hubie and Bertie

So if you had to pick a Koch brother to die, would it have been David? We cats are thinking maybe not. Unlike Charles, David at least supported the arts and healthcare providers. But just read his obit and you have a renewed appreciation for the grievous damage he wreaked in his lifetime — and how it cancels out any good he may have left behind.

Ironic that this billionaire climate change denier crossed the Rainbow Bridge just as the Amazon rainforest was burning. Can we drop his corpse there for cremation?

Meanwhile, the Notorious RBG has apparently been treated for a tumor on her pancreas. Although her doctors say it was successfully removed, all of us who care about the survival of democracy clutched our chests in panic today. Then we heard she was on the mend. But, still.

Tell you what: We're confident Justice Ginsburg will hang in there (she surely has inspiration to do so). But if — God forbid — she doesn't, the Senate Democrats will have to pull some serious rabbits out of their hats. As in: Declare that Benedict Donald is mentally unfit to nominate a Supreme Court justice? Why not? Moscow Mitch set the precedent for outrageous confirmation behavior. Let's make him pay. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

"Buying Greenland" Isn't Wacky — It's Evil

By Miss Kubelik

We cats are seeing a lot of commentary on social media about the "nuttiness" of Benedict Donald. Oh, ho, ho, he's so crazy that he wants to buy Greenland, and because the prime minister of Denmark was "nasty" to him about it, he's canceled a trip to see her. Boo-hoo!

Please, news media and everyone else: Can we stop chortling at this and see it for what it is — an evil international cabal bent on making money off of climate change instead of saving the planet?

From shipping lanes opening up in the Arctic to the melting in Greenland (which will make its rich mineral deposits suddenly accessible), the autocrats of the world, led by Vladimir Putin, are scheming to get richer while Mother Earth burns. "They've been pretty open about their goals," tweeted journalist Sarah Kendzior. "They're not actually climate change skeptics. They're climate change opportunists, and they have no concern for the humanitarian consequences."

So Benedict Donald, who is clearly beholden to Putin in some way, put the buy-Greenland idea out there — not out of the blue, but because Vladdie wanted him to. 

Got that, TV pundits? We don't want to hear another chuckle about Greenland, or see another eyeroll and head-shake over the Danish prime minister. It's not funny, and it's not crazy, damn it. It's frightening.

Okay, one thing that may be amusing to see: how the evangelical Christians are going to justify Trump trying to make a shekel from the destruction of God's creation. In the meantime, we cats HISS.

Trump's Troops

By Zamboni

This cheerful hater is a 20-year-old geek whose name we won't repeat, but who was arrested last week in Ohio for threatening to shoot up a local Jewish community center after he'd outed himself with a provocative online video. He sure seems pleased to be headed for the hoosegow, doesn't he?

We cats are pleased, too. What still concerns us, however, is that even though a few other neo-Nazi losers have recently been caught planning massacres before they could commit them, there are plenty more of them out there — in a country with hundreds of millions of guns, headed by a sociopath spewing the ultimate in dangerous rhetoric.

It wasn't enough that 22 people in El Paso had to die at the hands of a Trump-repeating manifesto writer. Today, Trump sat in the Oval Office and called the majority of American Jews traitors. Let that sink in.

We say "majority" because more than 70 percent of Jewish Americans support Democrats (which means that, by extension, Trump is calling the nation's oldest political party equally illegitimate and treacherous).

Is there any doubt that Benedict Donald is marching America down the sure path to autocracy? Disloyalty to Donald is disloyalty to the country. L'etat, c'est moi. And somewhere soon, some self-appointed stormtrooper with an assault weapon isn't going to get nabbed like the idiot in Ohio did. He (and it's always a he) is going to kill American Jews in Donald Trump's name — maybe more than in Pittsburgh. Can we impeach Trump then? We cats HISS.

Lest We Furr-get: Antifa, 1940s-Style

As two right-wing haters who call themselves "Proud Boys" have been convicted of assaulting members of antifa in New York, let's take a moment once again to salute some famous anti-fascist badasses who helped save the world 75 years ago. We cats PURR.

The Sue Me State

By Baxter

A lot of talking heads are asking whether Benedict Donald's economy is really working for people. The answer appears to be no, especially based on polls that show Trump already losing to a generic 2020 Democrat by double digits. Seems that that budget-breaking tax cut for the 1 percent didn't "trickle down" to the folks in modest suburban neighborhoods, trailer parks, and — especially — rural America.

Why "especially"? Well, first of all, rural America is Trump country. And second, for them, the United States of Trump is a pretty hostile place to live. Consider the citizens of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, who are being dragged into court by the hospital they owe money to.

"So far this year, Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center has filed more than 1,100 lawsuits for unpaid bills in a rural corner of Southeast Missouri, where emergency medical care has become a standoff between hospitals and patients who are both going broke," The Washington Post reports. "Unpaid medical bills are the leading cause of personal debt and bankruptcy in the United States according to credit reports, and what’s happening in rural areas...is a main reason why."

Many of the patients profiled by the Post have insurance — they just can't afford thousands of dollars in uncovered medical services. And it's a vicious circle: Both they and their hospital are scraping the bottom of the barrel (it's the only hospital that hasn't closed in a five-county area).

Can we all agree that there's something seriously wrong with this? Or will Republicans and Trumpsters keep insisting that any alternative is evil, awful "socialized medicine"? We're puzzled. These folks in Missouri have their freedom, their guns, and their new Christian warrior Senator. How did things get so bad? We cats HISS.

A Momentous Anniversary

By Sniffles

Hard on the heels of its most awful headline ever, The New York Times has followed up with what appears to be a profound piece of journalism, The 1619 Project. We can tell because although we've just started reading it ourselves, right wingers' heads are already exploding.

The thesis of the project is that America didn't begin in 1776. America began when the first black slaves landed in Virginia 400 years ago this month — because literally and figuratively, enslaved Africans and their descendants built this country. "Black Americans have been, and continue to be, foundational to the idea of American freedom," the opening essay says. "More than any other group in this country's history, we have served, generation after generation, in an overlooked but vital role: It is we who have been the prefecters of this democracy."

It's an interesting reframing, and one we can't wait to read. Not so the right-wing nutjobs of the world, who are apparently too racist to even be willing to entertain the argument for discussion.

We have a lot of problems with The New York Times, from "But her emails!" to "Trump urges unity over racism" — but we're all for telling the truth about our country's history at last. We sure didn't learn it when we were kittens. We cats think we smell a Pulitzer, and we PURR.

Here's An Anti-Fascist Group We Can Get Behind (But Not Step On)

The "Banana Bloc" turned out today to counter-protest the Trump-loving Proud Boys in Portland, Oregon. How great is it when people stand up to hate with a sense of humor? We cats PURR.

What's Next?

By Hubie and Bertie

We cats are very interested in the way the media folks appear to have turned against Benedict Donald. After all, what else is left for them to do, since he's the one in power and the Democrats haven't nominated anybody yet?

So we're hoping that maybe the media won't totally be in the tank for Trump this time around. First because the Democratic Party will not run anybody by the last name of Clinton, and second because people like Rick Wilson and Rick Tyler and Mike Murphy won't be dialing them up and poisoning them against Democratic candidates in 2020.

That's because the Republican Party is split — among the basket of deplorables, the never-Trumpers, and the folks who used to vote GOP but now have to think twice because the party's economic policies aren't benefiting them the way they used to. This is serious for them — and contrasts with the transition that the Democratic Party is undergoing, which is driven by young people who are worried about the planet's survival, and which therefore in the end will be quite benign.

How will the Republican Party eventually self-destruct? Probably in a reversal of its birth. Just as the GOP came into being by unifying the Whigs and the Know Nothings, so will its undoing occur in a divide between reasonable Republicans and the Trump base. We cats cannot wait for that day, and we PURR.

Not A King, Just A Fool

By Zamboni

We cats thought the GOP had already gone off the deep end, defending treason, torture, racism, misogyny and pedophilia. (And if you go back to the George W. Bush years, invading countries that did not attack us.) Now, thanks to Congressman Steve King, add rape and incest to the list. What's next — necrophilia?*

Steve King's latest comment is so bad that even the third-ranking Republican in the House isn't vouching for him. Jeez! When Liz Spawn-of-the-War-Criminal Cheney says it's time to go, it's really time.

It didn't take white nationalism, anti-Semitism or homophobia to turn GOP opposition to King into a groundswell, although they did strip him of his committee assignments. (Probably because they were afraid he'd embarrass them further in Congressional hearings.) But thinking that rape and incest are swell — well, that might just be too much, even for today's Republican Party.

Our instantaneous thought when we heard this latest outrage? Gratitude that our terrific Congressional candidate from 2018, JD Scholten, is running to oppose King again. Send him some love. We cats PURR.

(*Come to think of it, Ted Bundy was a Republican.)

The New Colossus

By Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

(We're posting Lazarus's classic poem because the ever-loathsome racist Ken Cuccinelli said on TV that he wanted to change it to make it about white people. Cootchy is a colossal you-know-what. We cats HISS.)

Tidbits And Cat Treats: Jeffrey Epstein Edition

By Baxter

Now that it's been a couple of days since Jeffrey Epstein crossed the Rainbow Bridge, we cats feel it's finally time to opine. Since this is obviously a developing (and beyond-the-stars huge) story, these won't be our last words on the subject. But here goes.

Attorney General William Barr is "appalled," but here's the bottom line: Either Epstein was allowed to commit suicide while he was in federal custody, or the Trump Administration had him killed. Take your pick. Barr will try to blame anybody but himself, but this happened on his watch, and if this were a normal time in American political history he would have had to resign by now.

Every time the folks on cable TV talk about Epstein, they show still photos and heads shots that we've seen a hundred times. Why have they stopped showing the video of Trump and Epstein ogling girls at that party at Mar-A-Lago? You know that if it were Bill Clinton standing there with Epstein, it would be all we'd see.

Also, we've never seen a photo of Hillary Clinton with Epstein. But there are, however, a few of him and Melania. Again, if pictures like that of the Clintons existed, journalists would be showing them nonstop.

Benedict Donald's instant retweet of a Clinton-murdered-Epstein conspiracy theory is projection taken to a new level. Nobody should laugh at this.

We're trying not to succumb to conspiracies ourselves, but we think it's awfully fishy that a guy who had always successfully evaded justice before — and who was now spending up to 12 hours a day with his attorneys, preparing his case — should suddenly decide to chuck it all and hang himself. We're not saying it's not possible: It's just weird. And it keeps getting weirder.

If an Epstein victim was recruited while she was working at the Obama home in Chicago, the Republicans would have had Obama arrested within hours and then shot off into space.

Finally, speaking of the victims: It's a damn shame they won't get to face him in court. They deserved a real Larry Nassar smackdown, didn't they? So disappointing. We hope they find relief in the passage of time and good therapy. Meanwhile, we cats HISS.

And A Fencer Shall Lead Them

"This week I am honored to represent Team USA at the Pan Am Games, taking home Gold and Bronze. My pride, however, has been cut short by the multiple shortcomings of the country I hold so dear to my heart. Racism, gun control, mistreatment of immigrants, and a President who spreads hate are at the top of a long list.

"I chose to sacrifice my moment today at the top of the podium to call attention to issues that I believe need to be addressed. I encourage others to please use your platforms for empowerment and change."

—Race Imboden, championship fencer

Sanity Check

By Sniffles

It's worth getting away and spending time in a Trump-free zone. We cats spent the entire day at the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, enjoying four (count 'em) mini "Classical Spree" concerts, plus a free performance of Dvorak's New World Symphony by a youth orchestra in a nearby shopping mall. Fabulous!

It all ended with Beethoven's third piano concerto, performed by the OSM and a gifted soloist — and we are in heaven.

Our day was a refreshing respite from worrying about the future of democracy, and a welcome reminder that there are brilliant and talented people in the world — not just Trumpsters, cretins and reprobates. Civilization may survive after all. We cats PURR.

Once Upon A Time... In Donald Trump's America

"Posing With An Orphan He Made"

By Hubie and Bertie

Two things that are going on right now: climate change and impeachment.

We cats have a big list of stuff we're worried about, and at the top of it is the survival of the American experiment in participatory democracy. Close behind if not neck-and-neck is the deforestation of the Brazilian rainforest. Since Brazil was foolish enough to elect strongman Jair Bolsinaro, the monthly decimation of one of the world's vital natural resources is up by nearly 90 percent.

But for tonight, we're mostly worried about this baby.

Yep, he's the infant who survived the El Paso Walmart massacre because both of his parents died shielding him from the shooter. Benedict Donald and Moose & Squirrel, faced with shooting survivors' refusal to meet with them on Wednesday, summoned the child to be brought to them for this obscene photo op. And the world is throwing up all over it.

We've heard that the baby's father was a Trump supporter. It doesn't matter. What is important is that this child will have years of serious soul-searching ahead of him. Wouldn't you, if you lost your parents because a maniac with an assault rifle drove nine hours to kill them because of what Donald Trump said?

The kid is going to grow up and learn all of this. He'll also learn that the Trump Adminsitration rounded up nearly 700 immigrants in Mississippi on the day this photo was taken, leaving their children abandoned on the first day of school. We don't envy him having to process it. We just hope he has a really good therapist. We cats HISS.

Abbey Road 50

Let's take a break from the news by remembering the photoshoot for the cover of Abbey Road — 50 years ago today. We cats PURR.

Some Thoughts On The Stephen Miller Administration

By Zamboni

After yesterday's ICE raids in Mississippi, it became clearer than ever that Stephen Miller is President. As Benedict Donald stumbled over to Dayton and then down to El Paso on his "comfort and unite" tour — on which he did no comforting, and no uniting — the federal government rounded up more than 600 immigrants, leaving many children stranded on the streets after the first day of school. Only the odious and wretched Miller could have come up with such an evil plan.

(We also assume that many of those taken in Mississippi yesterday were poultry and other agricultural workers — you know, in those jobs that no Americans want? So, what are those employers doing today? Let's hope some enterprising reporters ask.)

But although Miller's hand is in everything this hideous Administration does, sadly it's the sociopath Trump who is officially occupying the Oval Office. And this week has taught us something about that.

The United States is a democracy that's managed to be successful and lead the world without the participation of all its citizens. Many Americans can afford to tune out politics altogether. They don't watch State of the Union addresses, don't follow the polls or talking heads, and maybe don't even vote. (Actually, make that definitely don't vote.) They've been able to be disengaged because no storm troopers are banging down their doors at night, nobody's putting them on trains, and — until recently — nobody was much threatening them as they went about their daily business.

Now it's different. People who never doubted their safety before are wondering if they'll be next. And people are seeing solid links between Benedict Donald's behavior and Dayton-slash-El Paso.

Everybody can picture themselves at Walmart on a back-to-school shopping day. Everybody, even if they're not Hispanic, can envision a gunman methodically shooting people because of how they look. Russian interference in our elections is more of an intangible, so it's harder for folks to wrap their heads around that. But getting your brains blown out in Aisle 4 by a white dude who drove 600 miles and posted a manifesto about how much he hates you? Yeah, that's real.

So Benedict Donald, the worst person ever to inhabit 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and perhaps ever to have lived on the planet, has just proven something important: It really matters who's President.

Or who we think is President. Remember, when it comes down to terrorizing parents and children who don't look like him, it's Stephen Miller. We cats SNARL.

Tidbits And Cat Treats: No More Healing The Nation Edition

By Miss Kubelik

So the most important thing we're worried about today isn't where Benedict Donald is going to get enough paper towels to throw to shooting survivors in El Paso. (The Walmart there is surely closed today.) Instead, we're finding ourselves fretting about places we might get mowed down by a white supremacist Trump lover. They don't usually aim at cats, and we run fast — but, still.

As this awful week continues to unfold, we have a few thoughts.

1. It's hilarious that Republicans have their knickers in a twist over Joaquin Castro posting the names and professions of Trump's biggest San Antonio donors. They're comparing it to — we're not joking — mass murderers' hit lists! How whiny they are, considering their side's long history of cross-hair images and other threats against Democrats. (Remember the 2008 McCain rally where the dude in the crowd yelled "Kill him!" — as in, Obama? Not so different from the recent rally where Trump laughed at "Shoot them!" — as in, immigrants.)

The information Castro posted is public, easily available from the FEC. The Trumpsters are only taking umbrage because a bright spotlight is shining on their racism.

2. Beto O'Rourke is handling Benedict Donald perfectly. We are proud of him. And clearly he's gotten under the skin of the hater-in-chief. Good.

3. Best part of the day so far has been Sherrod Brown's and Nan Whaley's presser after visiting Dayton survivors in the hospital. Check it out! #MoscowMitch, a.k.a. #MassacreMitch, is surely feeling the heat as he "recuperates" from his "fractured shoulder" in Kentucky. If there's anyone having a worse week than Benedict Donald, it's Mitch McConnell.

4. For those survivors and families who are willing to take a Presidential visit today, our condolences. Not just for the horror and tragedy they're enduring, but for the fact that the President they're seeing is not Barack Obama.

5. Last but definitely not least: Benedict Donald just rudely tweeted about Joe Biden's Iowa speech about the shootings. Guess he's not sitting subdued on Air Force One, thoughtfully ruminating on the survivors he met with in Dayton and prayerfully prepping for El Paso. Surprised? We cats HISS.

The LA Times Shows How It's Done

Journalists everywhere, please take note.

What A Real President Says

"All of us have to send a clarion call and behave with the values of tolerance and diversity that should be the hallmark of our democracy. We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments; leaders who demonize those who don't look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as subhuman, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people.

"Such language isn't new — it's been at the root of most human tragedy throughout history, here in America and around the world. It is at the root of slavery and Jim Crow, the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. It has no place in our politics and our public life. And it's time for the overwhelming majority of Americans of goodwill, of every race and faith and political party, to say as much — clearly and unequivocally."

—Barack Obama, August 5, 2019

Author! Author!

A Boost From Beto

By Sniffles

Here's how you know the slaves-to-the-NRA Republicans are floundering: On El Paso and Dayton, they can't get their excuses straight. Benedict Donald and his noisome spawn seem to be adopting the "mental health" defense — never mind that Trump reversed an Obama-era order denying gun ownership to the mentally ill. Yahoos like Kevin McCarthy and the lieutenant governor of Texas are blaming "video games." (Message to Quentin Tarantino: Brace yourself, friend, you're next.)

Yep, the right wingers are all over Twitter, sputtering and foaming and defending our white nationalist "President." GOP Chair Ronna ROMNEY McDaniel is particularly incensed that Beto O'Rourke cut his travels short and headed to El Paso. "Politicizing" a shooting to try to rescue his campaign! Horrors!

Um. Beto O'Rourke is from El Paso. When he was in Congress, he represented that district. How stupid-slash-desperate can Ronna get? We bet money she used to criticize Barack Obama for not rushing back to Chicago every time the murder rate shot up.

We don't know if Beto thought his trip home would help his numbers or not, and we don't really care. His uplifting reports from a city that's rejecting violence and hate have brought a little cheer to our black weekend. Mr. Rogers always said to "look for the helpers." Beto is highlighting them on his Twitter feed today, and we're glad he is. It makes us PURR.

Hellboy Gets It Exactly Right

"An ideology killed those people in El Paso. And Ohio. And at the Garlic Festival. And at the synagogues, churches and mosques. It is the ideology of Donnie. And Mitch. And Lindsey. And they wear it on their lapels like some Americans wear flagpins.

"They have armed their followers with the rotgut of hatred and the deification of all the instruments of death the NRA can sell. They have declared war on diversity as though it was Pearl Harbor. Their thoughts and prayers are a slap in the face to anyone who cherishes humility.

"In our desperation to make it stop we try to legislate. But one cannot legislate away an ideology. All one can do is stand up to it. Look at it in its face and make sure the haters never ever get to raise their hands and lie on a Bible as they swear to protect our Constitution."

—Ron Perlman on Twitter, August 4, 2019  

Killed By Republicans

By Baxter

After 20 children were murdered at Sandy Hook, the Republicans stopped any meaningful legislation on gun control.

We've lost count of the number of people who have died since. We won't even list the sites of mass shootings from 2012 on — there are too many.

All we know is, El Paso's shooter today was another young white male. Which means that nothing will be done because the GOP, which controls the Senate, is in thrall to the NRA and its Russian money. We cats HISS.

Running For The Exits

By Hubie and Bertie

Wow! You know who is having a lot of problems right now? Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, Democrat of Illinois. She's head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and a boatload of her employees have just resigned from the DCCC, citing a lack of diversity among the staff.

"Today, I recognize that, at times, I have fallen short in leading these talented individuals, but I’ve never been more committed to expanding and protecting this majority, while creating a workplace that we can all be proud of," Bustos said. "I know we must do better, and I will work tirelessly to ensure that our staff is truly inclusive."

So! The Inside-the-Beltway crowd is salivating, to say the least. But do you know what they're ignoring? Tom Emmer's disastrous stewardship of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee.

Eight Republican House members have announced their retirements: Martha Roby of Alabama, Susan Brooks of Indiana, Mike Conaway and Pete Olson of Texas, Paul Mitchell of Michigan, Rob Woodall of Georgia, Rob Bishop of Utah, and, of course, Will Hurd, the lone black Republican in the House — a real body blow for the GOP. (There's also the Gianforte dude from Montana, who assaulted a reporter and then got elected to Congress. He's leaving Capitol Hill to run for Governor.)

Funny how we're not seeing headlines about Emmer having lost control of the Republican effort to win back the House next year. Because how could he possibly pull it off with this record pace of retirements? More districts to defend is not a good thing — particularly Hurd's, which he had to fight hard in 2018 to keep.

Long story short, we're getting tired of journalists buying into the Republican world view. When will they start holding GOP feet to the fire the same way they hold ours? We cats HISS.

Tidbits And Cat Treats: Day After The Debates Edition

By Zamboni

Sorry, team, but we cats don't have much to say about on the last two nights of Democratic infighting (oops, we mean, debates). We're waiting for the field to thin out before we start watching these things. However, there are a few things we've picked up on in the hours since.

Kirsten Gillibrand wins the Line of the Night Award for saying she'd Clorox the Oval Office. Good idea. Steve Bannon's presence alone would have called for a dozen rounds of disinfectant. Amazing that Trump kept him around as long as he did.

There are two candidates in the Democratic field for whom we cats would never, ever vote. And Tulsi Gabbard is both of them.

She's still attacking Senator Kamala Harris on Twitter, and with a big boost from the bots, a pro-Gabbard, anti-Harris hashtag was trending for a bit. No doubt about it — with her support for Putin and Assad, her declaration that the Mueller Report exonerated Trump, and today's tweets, Gabbard is a Putin-Trump plant: the Jill Stein of 2020.

And how freaking bad do things have to get before Democrats attack Trump instead of each other? Do we have to become a full-blown dictatorship first? Any Democrat (except for Tulsi Gabbard) is better than Benedict Donald. So cut it out, everybody.

OTOH, this debate will be forgotten in a month. Maybe less. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.