It's A Bad-News Morning

Very few people in show business have made us laugh as much as Carl Reiner. We loved his TV shows, his books, his tweets, and, lately, his visceral disdain for Benedict Donald. What a shame he couldn't have lived to see the Ultimate Downing of Trump. We cats are very sad.

ICYMRR

This is much more amusing than the last video we shared, but just as hard-hitting (albeit in a fun kind of way). We cats PURR.

"Haven't We Asked Enough Of The Greatest Generation?"

The former Republicans over at the Lincoln Project just keep cranking them out. Well done, lads! We cats PURR.

Is It November Yet?

We cats spent some time calling voters today. Our main take-away: People are frustrated. This could be the ultimate "throw the bums out" election — assuming that Vladimir Putin, who pays bounties to Afghan militants for killing US soldiers, allows it. We cats HISS.

LBJ vs. DJT

By Sniffles

The situation is looking so grim for Benedict Donald that pundits are starting to speculate about The LBJ Scenario.

For those of you who weren't around or weren't paying attention on the evening of March 31, 1968, that was when Lyndon Johnson, realizing that the bottom had fallen out of his Presidency, shocked the nation. What was supposed to be an Oval Office address on the war in Vietnam ended with, "I will not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President." We cats were kittens at the time, but we remember it like it was yesterday.

Johnson bowed out even without today's sophisticated, computer-driven polling and punditry, because he was a politician to the core and knew he had lost the country. Benedict Donald, on the other hand, has none of those skills. So the Beltway crowd is speculating.

This morning, the Morning Schmoes predicted that Trump will decide to be a quitter rather than a loser. "This is not a guy who is acting like he expects to be around on January 21, 2021, in the White House. And he’s acting like he’s setting everything on fire before he leaves," top Schmoe Joe Scarborough said — basing his theory on the notion that Trump would rather go down in history for the 2016 electoral stunner than for a humiliating defeat in a 2020 Biden landslide.

That argument is persuasive, but it opens so many cans of worms that we almost don't know where to begin. Leaving aside the question of how many prosecutors are waiting in the wings to indict Trump once he leaves office — and forgetting about what a cesspool of deep doodoo that would leave the GOP to wallow in (a delicious topic worth revisiting) — the one thing that gives us pause is the knowledge that by not running again, Benedict Donald would preemptively turn off the spigot of money he's been enjoying since he monetized the Presidency. We can't see him willingly walking away from that.

So we'll go with a theory proffered by another pundit we know: Donald Trump will lose in November, and God knows what he'll do during the transition. But he won't be at the White House on the morning of January 20, standing on the North Portico with Moose & Squirrel, waiting for the Bidens to pull up for coffee. He'll have decamped to Mar-a-Lago on January 19. We cats HISS.

Lincoln's Latest

The Lincoln Project started airing this new ad in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan today. Boy, those anti-Trump Republicans are good at this stuff, aren't they? We cats PURR.

About Those Statues

By Hubie and Bertie

Charleston, South Carolina, took down its statue of John C. Calhoun overnight. This is a good thing: Calhoun was an unapologetic champion of racism and slavery.

Benedict Donald and his MAGA and right-wing friends will have you believe that removing all these statues means the end of our country. Ridiculous. These statues aren't America — they're 19th-and-20th-century representations of what the people in charge at the time thought was important, and too often they are not only not great art, but eyesores. (Nathan Bedford Forrest, anyone?) So good riddance.

But now, protesters are pulling down replicas of Washington, Jefferson and Ulysses S. Grant. What to do?

Since we cats are superior beings, we'll lay down the statue laws for you. Follow these simple rules and you won't go wrong:

1. Tear down all the Confederates, nearly all of which were erected with malevolent intent well after the Civil War. Plus, they fought against the United States in name of slavery. Enough said.

2. Andrew Jackson has to go, too. And get him off the twenty. (Yes, we know why that hasn't happened yet.)

3. Remove any statue, like the one of Teddy Roosevelt in front of New York's Museum of Natural History, that places people of color in symbolically subjugated positions. (TR's great-grandson and the museum board agree with this.)

4. The other Founders are more complicated, so treat them as a giant educational opportunity instead of tearing them down. Washington, Jefferson and other Founders owned slaves (and in Jefferson's case, of course, there was Sally Hemings). But we're not going to raze Mount Vernon, Monticello, the Jefferson Memorial or Mount Rushmore. Therefore, we need to add to them. Americans need to understand that the Founders were brilliant but compromised, and exactly how.

To repeat: Taking down these statues is not canceling America, because they are not America. But the Constitution is. That's what we really should be worried about — because that's what Benedict Donald, Bill Barr, and the Republicans who enable them are working hard to cancel, every day. We cats HISS.

We Can Have This Again.

Joe Biden and Barack Obama are teaming up for a Biden fundraiser today. Wouldn't it be nice to have a President who just worked hard for us instead of one who creates endless stupid drama, destroys the Constitution, and kills Americans every day?

Math Is Hard.

By Miss Kubelik

John Bolton's interview with Martha Raddatz on Sunday got 6.2 million viewers — about 100 times more people than Benedict Donald had at his sad little Tulsa rally the night before.

Schadenfreude aside, however, the Tulsa event was not only sad but alarming. Trump boasted that he'd told officials to slow the testing for coronavirus down. The crowd roared. Because they don't understand basic stuff like this, many of them could soon be dead.

And now, Trump is doubling down, tweet after tweet. This morning it was, "With smaller testing we would show fewer cases." Yes, Skippy — but the cases would still be there. Look at the hospitalizations, look at the death rates, look at the obits in the local paper.

Or click and look here. See, we have a lot of people: 330,959,930. But with 29,027,198 tests, per capita, we're not doing so hot. (Speaking of "hot," didn't someone once say that the virus would go away in the summer?) We're also not ramping up testing because the federal government has basically abandoned a national effort to combat the virus, leaving it to a patchwork approach by the states.

So we're not seeing spikes in the virus because we're aggressively testing. It's because mostly Republican-run Sunbelt states are opening too soon, and without strong, responsible leadership (see "Cuomo, Andrew"), the people in those states are flouting CDC guidelines.

As one of the tweeps we follow observed, this is more than Trump being hypocritical. It's like he's gaslighting himself. We cats HISS.

TikTok'd

By Zamboni

Well, kids, we've all been celebrating your great success in trashing Benedict Donald's "show" in Oklahoma last night. But your work has just begun! Trump is heading to Phoenix on Tuesday for a "Students for Trump" event, and you can prank it, Tulsa-style, by clicking here.

(From the registration form, it looks as if someone on Team Trump was finally smart enough to make the form ask your age. So at least they won't potentially violate the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.)

One of the best things about the TikTok-ing of the Trumps is that it helped produce the instant-classic portrait of dejection and defeat above. The other is that the damage the kids did is greater than one bad night in Tulsa. The Trump database — either the whole thing or at least the last 10 days' worth of it — has been seriously compromised, which could spell trouble for them from now through November. It could also cause headaches after the election, when Team Trump tries to sell their data to the 2024 wannabes — Pence, Cotton, Haley, et. al.

In other words, a fine mess. You know, campaign managers get fired for stuff like this. We cats PURR.

Red State, Blue Seats

By Baxter

We're just going to savor this moment.

There's so much online coverage and commentary to soak up about Donald Bedford Forrest Trump's failed MAGA rally in Tulsa last night, we're thinking of making another pot of coffee and canceling our plans for the day. The fun has just begun! So far, our favorite headline is from the CBC: "Trump Rally Features Empty Seats, Staff With Coronavirus Infections." Sweet!

Trump is going to hate this, but our first thought when we saw the barren arena and the empty overflow area — where they canceled the outdoor speeches and struck the stage in broad daylight, not even waiting for the cover of darkness — was that hapless Romney event in 2012 at Detroit's Ford Field. The massive football stadium swallowed up the crowd.

Brad "Weird Beard" Parscale tried to blame "protestors" (we prefer the "er" spelling) for interfering at the arena entrances, but no such people existed. In truth, the campaign was frantically texting people with "There's still space!" In short, MAGA just didn't show up.

Yes, we know crowds don't measure the ultimate result on Election Day. George McGovern pulled tremendous crowds in the last week of the campaign in 1972, and you could cite dozens of other examples. But with a local stagehand union reporting a mere 6,611 in the house last night, it's very clear: epic fail. Fun fact: Kamala Harris had three times that number at her Presidential campaign kickoff in Oakland.

Benedict Donald, Weird Beard and Team Trump all got rolled. It looks like lots of people — mostly but not all teenagers on TikTok — registered tickets online and hoarded them. And Weird Beard was gleefully tweeting that they had nearly a million requests! Egg, meet face.

When you make the expected crowd your benchmark of success and then fail to meet it, that becomes the story. Somebody like Parscale should have known better. Did he fly back on Air Force One, or did he have enough sense to wait until today and fly commercial out of his own pocket? That couldn't have been a fun flight. We cats PURR.

A New Flag For The Trumpsters

That's it. That's the post. We cats PURR.

Somehow, We'll Bear Up

Losing Governor Cuomo's daily COVID briefings is assuaged by the knowledge that he's guided New Yorkers through both the height of the pandemic and a responsible reopening. The journey continues, our task still lies before us, and the dream will never die. We cats PURR.

"It's About Us"

To kick off your weekend early, here's a new Biden ad. We cats PURR.

Weekus Horribilis

By Sniffles

"Is the tide turning on Trump?" pundits ask. Benedict Donald has certainly had a terrible week, what with the Supreme Court, John Bolton and even Facebook piling on. And the nationwide coronavirus curve has started going back up. Not here in New York — we're doing well enough that Governor Cuomo's last daily briefing will be held tomorrow, and we cats can go to the groomer soon. Progress!

Then there are the polls. Six battleground-state surveys show Joe Biden in the lead. Trump's approve-disapprove rating is minus-19 in Reuters and minus-17 in POLITICO/Morning Consult. Even Republican-friendly Rasmussen has him down by seven. (Rasmussen!) And on the question of whether the country is on the right track or wrong track? Multiple polls show "wrong" beating "right" by more than 40 points.

And the Black Lives Matter demonstrations continue. There is trouble in Trump World.

The Trump campaign is trying to distract everyone by hinting at an extra general-election debate, for a total of four, held earlier to account for absentee voting. Don't fall for it, because it's nonsense. Benedict Donald will not debate. Brad "Weird Beard" Parscale and Team Ivanka will not allow it, because Trump's incapable of coherent thought. (Tweeps are even wondering if he'll make it to November.)

We won't make any predictions about anything that's five months out. But after the week Trump has had, surely his remarks at his "show" in Tulsa on Saturday night will be even more incendiary and off the wall than usual. Brace for impact. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Will Trump Be Triggered? (Part II)

By Hubie and Bertie

Rick Wilson and his buddies over at the Lincoln Project must have had an advance copy of John Bolton's book — or Bolton himself on speed-dial. Because they launched this ad on the very day the Bolton bombshells hit the headlines.

It seems likely that if Benedict Donald explodes over any one of the recent Lincoln Project ads, it's going to be this one. (Note that it mentions Ivanka, the favored daughter-wife. Daring!)

But it's foolish to predict what the progressively impaired Trump will do. Maybe the Lincoln lads are the least of his worries. After all, somebody claiming to be his soon-to-be-best-selling niece is tweeting that he can't control his bowels. (That's the next book the White House will try to stop.) We cats hack up a hairball, and count the days until November 3.

Will Trump Be Triggered?

By Miss Kubelik

Rick Wilson and Jeff Weaver from The Lincoln Project have been teasing the release of their new ad for more than a day. They're anticipating a "10 Filet-o-Fish meltdown" from Trump in response.

Some tweeps have complained that the buildup was overkill. But since the Lincoln lads bought time for the spot on FOX "News" in the DC marketing they're clearly only aiming at an audience of one.

Will he take the bait? Go crazy on Twitter? Issue a cease-and-desist letter? Sue anyone who runs the spot? And what will he do when the Morning Joes talk about it tomorrow?

Anything's possible with Benedict Donald. After all, he's threatening to sue his own niece. We cats PURR.

Razor Thin

By Zamboni

Rhe talking heads have been all aflutter about Benedict Donald's sinking approval numbers and various alarming-to-Republicans Senate races (Iowa, where Joni Ernst now trails her Democratic challenger, comes to mind). But somehow this weekend, a poll out of a Southern, slam-dunk-for-the-GOP state got past them.

At least, we didn't hear anyone discussing it. But according to a Talk Business and Politics-Hendrix College poll, Joe Biden is statistically tied with Donald Trump in... Arkansas.

"Trump has the support of 47 percent of likely Arkansas voters," The Hill reports. "The President leads Biden, who is supported by 45 percent of likely voters, by two points, which falls within the poll’s 3.3 percentage point margin of error.

"The poll found Biden was leading among independent voters, 46 to 40 percent, according to the report. 

"In 2016, Trump won the state with 60 percent of the vote."

Those numbers are attention-getting enough, but consider this: Arkansas has one of the lowest-percentage African-American populations in the South (only about 16 percent). Hispanics are only 7 percent. So this is not a minority-driven result. And it's a respected statewide poll.

It's only June, but in the meantime, this will not hurt Biden's fundraising. Which should bring a smile to his face. We cats PURR.

And Now: Montpelier, Vermont

We're still sensing a Black Lives Matter trend. How many more state capitals to go? We cats PURR.

#DatabaseGate

By Baxter

Benedict Donald has caved and moved his next "show" from Juneteenth to the very next day. But he's still holding it in Tulsa, the site of the brutal white-on-black race riot in 1921. He doesn't care. And he equally doesn't care if anyone gets COVID-19 from attending. He's making them sign waivers.

Meanwhile, campaign manager Brad "Weird Beard" Parscale is bragging that more than 800,000 tickets have been registered for, even though the Tulsa venue only seats about 19,000.

This seems odd. Aren't the fools who are registering already in Brad's database? After all, it's not like Benedict Donald has worked overtime attracting first-time Trump lovers. (Or working overtime at anything, come to think of it.) So what's the value of the 800,000, assuming Brad's not lying? (Big assumption, we know.) Something is fishy.

You can't help wondering: How many of those "signing up" are Russian bots? Chinese bots? Iranian bots? North Korean bots? Antifa bots? Democrats playing pranks by taking "tickets" away from Trumpsters and then not showing? And how many are actually MAGAts who will sign up, drive 200 miles, and stand in line in 90-degree weather for 18 hours — and not get in?

Perhaps it takes 800,000 sign-ups to get a decent Trump crowd these days? If so, Weird Beard and his boss better be careful. They can't afford to kill off any more of their voters. We cats HISS.

Happy Obama Day, June 14

On Twitter today, people are marking Benedict Donald's birthday by paying tribute to Barack Obama's Presidency. We cats PURR.

Can't Breathe

By Sniffles

Sorry to gross you out on a Friday night, but we cats are sharing this because we're beside ourselves at the number of Americans who are whistling past the COVID graveyard.

This photo's been making the rounds. It's a section of lung from a 20-year-old coronavirus patient. The virus did so much damage that she had to undergo a double-lung transplant. (This is per a doc at Johns Hopkins, so the intel is good.) Twenty years old!!

In short, every bunny, you do not want to screw around with this virus. Yes, not everyone ends up with a double transplant and on a ventilator, but there's still too much we don't know. Some patients die, some end up critical, some have only mild symptoms, and others are sick for months. Why risk it if you don't have to?

Yet it's possible that some MAGAts will indeed risk it. They're not offended that Benedict Donald is holding his first pandemic "show" in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Juneteenth — we know that, because they are racists. But do they know that Tulsa has also had a huge spike in COVID-19 cases?

That's why the Trump campaign has insisted that Tulsa attendees sign a waiver exculpating them from any subsequent illness. (Even though Trump insisted the pandemic was a Democratic hoax.) They're already trying to take away healthcare from millions of Americans — they sure don't want to pay any MAGAt idiot's COVID-related hospital bills.

The Trump fans' blinkered ignorance is breathtaking to behold, but it succinctly explains why Benedict Donald is pandering to them so relentlessly. They're all he has left. What we can't figure out is: Why is he trying to kill them before Election Day? We cats HISS.

Why Tulsa Matters

This short video will give you a thumbnail look at the horrific 1921 Tulsa race riot (perpetrated by whites against blacks), and why Benedict Donald's choice of Tulsa for his "show" next Friday the Juneteenth is not just a dog whistle but an air-raid siren.

Meanwhile, the Republican National Convention could be looking at B.D. accepting the nomination in Jacksonville on the 60th anniversary of Ax-Handle Saturday — another white riot, and another slap in the face to the African-American community. But here's the good news: The next day, another March on Washington will be held. We cats PURR.

Gone, But Just For Awhile

By Hubie and Bertie

"Gone With the Wind" is a great film — at least, the first two-thirds of it is — not just because of its lavish production values but because it's carried by an Oscar-winning performance by Vivien Leigh, who appears in nearly every scene. It also features the first Academy-honored supporting performance by an African-American, Hattie McDaniel.

However, it's based on a racist book. Gone With the Wind the novel is packed with pro-slavery sentiments and offensive Negro dialect. Margaret Mitchell sure knew how to write, but let's just politely say she was a product of her time (1900-1949) and place (Atlanta, Georgia).

Now, Republicans and right wingers are all upset because the streaming service HBO Max has temporarily pulled "Gone With the Wind" from its catalog until, in light of the anger and unrest in the country today, they can figure out how to handle its shortcomings. "A spokesperson for HBO Max explained that the film would eventually return, along with additional content that would contextualize the controversial historical depictions and elements of the story," ET Online reported.

Because learning benefits us all, we cats think this is a good thing. We also hope that the added content will acknowledge that producer David O. Selznick struggled with this issue as well. Lobbied by African-American organizations and well aware of what was happening to Jews in Europe, he and his primary screenwriter, Sidney Howard, eliminated a lot of direct slavery references and completely expunged the Klan. Ultimately it was inadequate, but we give them credit for trying.

Nevertheless, it needs to be said: The biggest fault of "Gone With the Wind" is that it contributed mightily to romanticizing the antebellum South, a culture and economy that rested the enslavement of black Americans and that eventually declined into a traitorous rebellion against the United States. Recognizing that will not ruin our lives — something that's become abundantly clear on the day that NASCAR has banned the Confederate flag.

Times change for the better. In 1939, Hattie McDaniel wasn't allowed to attend the Atlanta premiere of the movie that eventually won her a milestone Academy Award. It's her 125th birthday today, by the way. We cats salute her, and we PURR.

Flailing

By Miss Kubelik

If you glanced at this photo and thought, "Oh, that's Washington, DC," guess again. It's a street mural in Albany, New York. And it's not the only one. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has started a trend.

Benedict Donald must be chewing the scenery down in the bunker. Everywhere he looks, people who have not supported BLM in the past are changing their tunes. Old white guys are stepping down in shame from corporate jobs after making racist remarks. Confederate and slaver statues are coming down (and Christopher Columbus just had his head knocked off). And Trump's hastily erected fence around the White House has been turned into art.

B.D. is so rattled, in fact, that he's tweeting about Confederate generals now. But it's hard to top the "cease and desist" letter he just had his campaign lawyers send CNN for a poll that shows Joe Biden 14 points ahead. Retract and apologize! CNN wrote a deliciously brutal response. "Your letter is factually and legally baseless," it said. "It is yet another bad-faith attempt by the [Trump] campaign to threaten litigation to muzzle speech it does not want voters to read or hear. Your allegations and demands are rejected in their entirety."

The only way CNN's response could have been better? Demand that the Trump campaign release its internal polls so that we all can assess their credibility and accuracy. Since John McLaughlin, a low-rated pollster, analyzed CNN's results, it's only fair. And then all Republican candidates should be asked whether they believe CNN polls or Trump polls. ("What? Trump hasn't shared his data with you? Why not? Haven't you sucked up to him enough?") We cats PURR.

UPDATE: NASCAR has just banned the Confederate flag at its events and properties. Does Donald's bunker have rubber walls? He'll need them.

Tidbits And Cat Treats: Offensive Republicans Edition

By Zamboni

Does Benedict Donald wake up after his customary three or four hours of Adderall-disturbed sleep and say to himself, "How many more voters can I offend today"?

You have to wonder. The latest is his deranged "false flag" tweet about the 75-year-old man shoved to the pavement by police in Buffalo. (The man, who had bright red blood pooling under his head after he fell, is still in the hospital.) As Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz has dryly observed, "Republicans are going to be extremely unavailable for comment today."

If you can stand it, here's some other news from GOP Crazy World.

Now that thousands of Americans are marching in support of Black Lives Matter, Trump's decided that he'll hold his rallies again, COVID-19 be darned. With this morning's tweet reawakening speculation about the 25th amendment, let's see how more deranged he acts when he cranks his "shows" back up. His crowd — minus any mild supporters who will be rightly scared by the coronavirus — will be maskless and out for blood, so Trump will be feeding off that. Threats of martial law, perhaps?

In case you missed it, Iowa Congressman Steve King lost his primary last week. Kinda disappointing, since we were looking forward to beating his butt in the general election come November. On the other hand, the successful GOP candidate, Randy Feenstra, couldn't even get to 50 percent against a solidly, irredeemably racist and anti-Semitic pro-King base. What an indictment of the institutional Iowa GOP. Our hill just got a little steeper, but we Democrats have a good candidate who could be carried to an upset win in a wave election.

Speaking of the election, though, a word of warning: Have you heard what's happening in Georgia today? It's primary day, and multiple precincts have malfunctioning machines, no paper ballots, hours-long waits, etc. Brian Kemp and the state Republican party are waging war on democracy — or, just doing a dry run for November. They know that Biden/Whoever can carry Georgia in the general, and that their Senate seats are in danger, too. Despicable. Can someone from the Georgia legislature or the state Democratic Party call in The Carter Center for election observation? They're right there in Atlanta. We cats HISS.

Muriel Bowser's Not The Only One Trolling Trump

Bunker Boy's Not Like Ike

Nifty new Lincoln Project ad highlighting the 34th President (a Republican who would not recognize his party today). Also worth noting: This afternoon, Willard Mitt Romney marched with 1,000 Christian activists outside the White House in support of Black Lives Matter. What in the world is going on? We cats PURR.

Glens Falls Steps Up

By Baxter

Glens Falls, New York, is a charming slice of Americana nestled at the foot of the Adirondacks. It's 95 percent white. And yesterday, 2,000 people turned out to protest the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

We love what happened in Glens Falls for a whole bunch of reasons, including the fact that our Trumpy Republican Congresswoman, Elise Stefanik, has a district office there. The protest was also organic — people spontaneously took it upon themselves to organize the march and show up. But the best thing? Attendees were registering to vote.

It looks like Americans have realized we have a ton of work to do to eliminate racism and inequality (not to mention fight the coronavirus pandemic and fix a shattered economy). But the first step is to get Benedict Donald and his fellow fascists out of the White House. And people know it. We cats PURR.

Muriel Bowser Owns Donald Trump

By Sniffles

This is 16th Street, NW, in Washington, DC. At the direction of DC mayor Muriel Bowser, it's been renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza — with giant yellow letters spelling it out on the pavement, 35 feet long.

And as you can see, running south, the street dead-ends at the North Portico of the White House.

The District of Columbia is especially vulnerable to Donald Trump's autocratic fantasies, because it is not a state, but under the thumb of the federal government. Which means that Trump and Bill Barr and his fellow fascists don't have to go through a governor to do what they want. That's why you're seeing a zillion new fences go up around the White House and strange military dudes without ID policing the streets. It's scary as hell.

But DC is still a city, and it still has a mayor — so Bowser has decided to say, nuh-uh, nope, no way, step back. And neighboring Democratic governors like Ralph Northam can pitch in by refusing to send their National Guard. And, it turns out, even the lily-livered Defense Secretary Mark Esper can grow a pair and decide to de-escalate without consulting the White House.

Under these circumstances, tomorrow's expected demonstrations in Washington should be especially interesting. Also, it appears that Benedict Donald has canceled his planned trip to Bedminster, New Jersey, to play golf. So, he'll be behind his baby gate at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, while thousands of Americans protest him? We cats can't wait. And we PURR.

Life Is Complicated When You Lack A Backbone

By Hubie and Bertie

Lisa Murkowski is "struggling." She believes that former SecDef James Mattis spoke the truth about Benedict Donald in The Atlantic, but she's just not sure if she won't still support Trump in November.

Puh-leeese. Here we thought that with things being so terrible, Murkowski might harbor a little bit of Mary-Tyler-Moore-style spunk — after all, she's not up for re-election this year. But she's wringing her hands like Susan Collins instead. Even so, few of her Senate colleagues are rushing to join her in defending Mattis (except for GOP Chair Ronna Romney's uncle Willard). Conclusion: Don't expect cowed and craven Republicans to grow spines any time soon.

Will "soon" ever come? It's a good question. These Republican weenies always have one eye on the polls and another on the calendar. Right now, there are two dates that are probably looming large in their minds: their respective primary deadlines, and the Republican convention in late August.

Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, for example, did not proffer his meekly negative criticism of Trump until after he was past his primary. Others no doubt will follow suit. And none of them want to have the rabid MAGAts booing their names at the non-socially-distant 2020 haters' convention (wherever it's held), and planning social media and in-person protests in their home states this fall.

But here's their dilemma: If GOP Senators wait until after Labor Day to distance themselves from Trump, that'll be too late to deceive voters. And how will the RNC react? By cutting off their campaign funds?

That's what they're struggling about. Money, not morals. We cats HISS.

A Shift In The Club

By Zamboni

Benedict Donald is getting so deliciously snubbed, dissed and slapped around by world leaders like Angela Merkel (who threw Trump's G7 invitation back in his face) and Justin Trudeau (who was silent for a full 22 seconds before he could bring himself to comment on Trump's use of tear gas on peaceful protesters) that POTUS really doesn't need any more trouble. But he's getting it at home.

Even some of his own party are being, well, kinda critical. It's pathetic, but it's interesting.

Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, for example, begged to differ with Donald on the Lafayette Park debacle, saying, "I'm against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the word of God as a political prop." Obviously Ben's decided the GOP is toast come November, and he's positioning himself for 2024. How many more will follow him? (Tom Cotton, on the other hand, is going full-bore after Trump-base support with a "Send in the military" op-ed in The New York Times. All we can think of is "Send in the clowns.")

But the dudes who have really gotten our attention are members of the most exclusive club in the world: Former US Presidents.

Last week, Bill Clinton said, "No one deserves to die the way George Floyd did. And the truth is, if you’re white in America, the chances are you won’t." Then, yesterday, George W. Bush — who used to be The Worst Person Who's Ever Lived until Trump came along — issued an uncharacteristically eloquent statement supporting the protesters. This afternoon, Jimmy Carter called upon "people of power, privilege and moral conscience [to] stand up and say 'no more' to a racially discriminatory police and justice system...and government actions that undermine our unified democracy." (He means you, Bill Barr.) And Barack Obama held a town hall today to discuss how Americans can turn outrage into action.

As the only Republican, Bush got a lot of attention (even though he didn't mention Trump by name). And of course, Obama went a step further, with an event that was more of a conversation by a leader with his wounded nation. This, of course, will needle Trump to no end.

It seems that the old adage of "America only has one President at a time" has been thrown to the wayside — like so much else in this horrid Administration. But this one is probably for the best. There's an intriguing shift going on in the Presidents Club, and we cats would give a caseload of tuna to hear the conversations happening behind the scenes. In the meantime, we PURR.

(IMAGE: The four living ex-Presidents. And oops, one dead one.)

This Land Is Our Land (Not Your Land)

By Miss Kubelik

Wow, way to go, Jay Inslee! The Governor of Washington State, who like other governors is still grappling with the coronavirus pandemic (remember that?), said that Benedict Donald's blusterings over the past few days are "the rantings of an insecure man trying to look strong after building his entire political career on racism."

We won't kid you. Yesterday's shenanigans were alarming. But we cats are finding some hope today. Americans are saying, No, Trump. You're not doing this. We've had it.

Huge demonstrations continue across America — including one in Houston, George Floyd's hometown. (We particularly liked it when an African-American urban riding club, the Nonstop Riders, showed up on horseback, fists raised.) Republicans on Capitol Hill are being pressed by journalists about Monday's gassing in Lafayette Park and are uncomfortably squirming away. Former Joint Chiefs chair Mike Mullen has just published a piece saying, Enough. Confederate monuments are coming down. And Joe Biden gave a great speech on the soul of America, which is actually getting coverage.

Are we still worried? You bet. Benedict Donald has too many resources at his disposal, and the "law and order" playbook has worked before (although, in 1968, not with an incumbent). Trump is obviously still taking direction from Vladimir Putin, and who knows what the Russians will be capable of come Election Day. But clear-thinking citizens are pushing back. We're seeing 2020 versions of the 2017 Women's March, happening throughout the nation, every day. Beautiful to see.

And it's encouraging that the MAGAts' and white supremacists' efforts to foment violence and blame it on the left are being unmasked. Perhaps their sabotage and disinformation won't work.

Our paws are crossed. In the meantime, let's all keep laughing at Trump, because that's what he hates the most. We cats PURR.

We Don't Have A President

By Baxter

That's the bad news. And the worse news? There's a madman living at the White House with all the powers of the Presidency at his disposal.

Benedict Donald apparently did a complete meltdown on a conference call with mayors and governors this morning. Maybe all the Hitler-bunker memes and "coward" hashtags sent him over the edge. Or maybe he's been over the edge many times before, and this is just the farthest off he's ever gone. It's hard to tell.

Luckily, our system of government has mechanisms built in to check the executive. Still, the Trumpsters are straining them to the breaking point. Is it November yet?

We Democrats respect the notion that America only has one President at a time. But the situation is so extraordinary now that Joe Biden is not waiting. He met with community leaders in Delaware this morning and convened mayors on a conference call this afternoon to address the nation's tumult. In short, he's consulting with Americans instead of Vladimir Putin. We cats PURR.

(IMAGE: Michael de Adder)