We All Scream

We don't exactly know what this is, but we love it already. And yes, thank you, we'll have some ice cream. We cats PURR.

Cover Woman

 

FLOTUS is on the cover of Vogue, and looking swell. Somewhere in MAGA cyberspace, they must be bitterly complaining that the magazine featured Michelle Obama and now, Jill Biden — but not the, um, First Lady in between. We really don't care, do u? We cats PURR.

Complicity

By Baxter

Remember how encouraged we all were when corporations cut off their campaign contributions to Republicans who voted against certifying the 2020 election? Well, guess what: They've started donating again.

Companies that originally stopped giving to the GOP's democracy destroyers — but who obviously hoped they could "quietly" resume donations — include Walmart, Cigna, General Electric, Pfizer (AUGH!), Home Depot (no surprise), AT&T and JetBlue. These are in addition to Toyota, which has been enduring a public relations nightmare since it lamely tried to justify becoming not just a donor but the leading donor to Republicans who refused to certify Joe Biden's 2020 victory. Boy, are we cats glad our humans drive Subarus.

It's is all disgusting, of course, but at least CREW has been monitoring this corporate perfidy, and tweeps are calling it out. We're also hopeful that the select committee Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced will help uncover further GOP connivance — so the insurrectionists' accomplices can not only be starved of corporate money but tossed out of Congress altogether.

At the very least, we'd love to see Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, Mo Brooks, Matt Gaetz and any other Republicans who gave tours or otherwise assisted the storming of the Capitol be forced to give 11 straight hours of testimony to this committee, Benghazi-style. But then, not everybody has the smarts and stamina of Hillary Clinton. We cats HISS.

The Awful Truth

By Sniffles

Listen, we cats would like nothing better than if John F. Kennedy Jr. were still alive. The anniversary of his death, coming up next month, is always depressing. And it's just one more reason to hate the QAnon fools, for toying with our emotions about it.

Because believe it or not, the Qidiots think that this guy (below, on the left) is JFK Jr. His name is really Vincent Fusca, and he shows up at Trump rallies, where they beg for selfies with him — requests he obliges before (they believe) he'll join Benedict Donald to rule America:

See the resemblance? Neither do we.

Meanwhile, those of us connected with reality know some important truths: It's 108 in Portland, Oregon, and climate change is real. Nobody, we're sorry to say, is going to be found alive in that hideous pile of rubble in Surfside, Florida. President Biden is not going to be denied communion at Catholic Mass. And the Trump Organization is on the verge of being indicted.

The news can be downright dispiriting. But it really is better to face facts than to be seduced by ridiculous pipe dreams and conspiracies. So, yes, as sad as it is, we know that John Kennedy Jr. died in a plane crash in 1999. We wish it never happened, but we know it did. And we HISS.

Redraw Those World Maps, Folks!

 

This cartoon is by Terry Mosher, who is probably the most honored and storied political cartoonist in Canada. He draws under the name of Aislin. Americans aren't familiar with him, but he's worth getting to know. We cats adore him, and we PURR.

McCarthy Disses Fanone

By Hubie and Bertie

We cats confess: We have a crush on DC cop Michael Fanone. This is new territory for us, because he has outrageous neck tattoos (not our cup of tuna). More significantly, he says he's a Republican. But maybe he won't be a Republican much longer.

That's because Officer Fanone, who was beaten, tased and seriously injured by Trumpsters on January 6, who suffered a heart attack as a result, and who ended up begging the mob to spare him because he had children, finally got a meeting with worthless POS House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy today. And by all accounts, it didn't go well. You don't say "I need a drink" after a positive, productive encounter.

McCarthy didn't agree to any of Fanone's requests — such as to publicly repudiate the 21 GOP members who voted against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to officers who defended the Capitol on Insurrection Day. And so the Republican denials of what happened at the Capitol on January 6 go on.

Fanone sounded disgusted. "This experience for me is, you know, this is not something that I enjoy doing," he said. "I don't want to be up here on Capitol Hill. I want to be with my daughters. But I see this as an extension of my service on January 6."

We cats would love to give Officer Fanone ankle rubs and make biscuits in his lap. But we understand he has a job to do: to speak out even more forcefully about what happened on Insurrection Day, and to continue to shame Republicans for their attempts to rewrite history. So the best we can do is to encourage him to keep on keeping on. You go, Officer Fanone! We have your back. We cats PURR.

It's Complicated.

This isn't a sports blog, but we have to say, it's quite a night in Montreal. The Canadiens, playing at home, are one win away from the Stanley Cup finals. It's also St.-Jean-Baptiste Day, la fête nationale. And there's a full moon. Why do we think it's going to get crazy? In the meantime, enjoy this special "Habs-edition" image of Ponto, that other symbol of Montreal — a road construction barrel. We cats PURR.

UPDATE: And the Canadiens have advanced to the finals! #GoHabsGo

Thoroughly Modern Milley?

By Miss Kubelik

Do you know anybody who's learning about critical race theory in school? Of course not, because nobody's teaching it. But that's not stopping the GOP from getting into a lather about it — "banning" it from being included in curricula where it doesn't yet exist, and screaming about the evils of "wokeness."

The problem is, the Republican Party is nearly all-white and doesn't have a clue what wokeness really is. But that didn't stop the soon-to-be-indicted child sex trafficker Matt Gaetz from bleating about it in a House Armed Services Committee hearing today.

Enter our newest unlikely hero: General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who read Republicans the riot act over all the CRT pearl-clutching.

"I do think it's important, actually, for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and be widely read," he told Gaetz and his fellow Florida fulminator, Congressman Michael Waltz. "I want to understand white rage, and I’m white. What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this [Capitol] building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America?"

Very impressive! We cats never expected this from Milley, who toddled after Benedict Donald for Trump's Bible-toting photo op after Lafayette Park was cleared of BLM protesters last June. (He later apologized for it.) So maybe Milley is really with the program after all? We cats are willing to be convinced, and we PURR.

Why No Post Today? Here's A Hint.

And no, we haven't been drinking and jumping hurdles. But at least this image is of the lovely Paul Newman, from a play and movie with "Cat" in its name. See you tomorrow.

Tidbits And Cat Treats: Closed-Border Edition

By Zamboni

Things are really heating up over the continued closure of the border between the US and Canada. It's been extended again through at least July 21 to general nonessential (read: tourist) travel, and while we cats are getting as itchy for it to reopen as everybody else, we have a few thoughts.

New York Congressman Brian Higgins may be a Democrat, but he's continuing to annoy us. If members of Congress still accepted correspondence from non-constituents, we'd write and tell him that his vulgar tweet on Friday was unacceptable. Why is he acting like Trump? He needs to cut it out.

That said, it's extra disappointing that Canada won't let us in because the country's lone team in the Stanley Cup playoffs is doing unexpectedly well. The Canadiens knocked off the Leafs, the Jets, and now are battling Las Vegas (with the series tied). No doubt, plenty of Montrealers are already planning the Cup parade down Ste.-Catherine Street, and it would be a shame to miss it. OTOH, if the Habs fold, we won't have to worry about it, will we?

By the way, the US-Mexico border is also closed until at least July 21. Just sayin'.

In the end, yes, we're frustrated. But isn't it better for Canada's government to err on the side of caution when there was so much idiocy, incompetence and malevolence on our side of the border last year? You can't blame them for being spooked by Trumpian ineptitude and 600,000 deaths. At least Justin Trudeau has never speculated about shipping COVID patients to Guantanamo. We cats HISS.

"So Nothing Will Happen Until December?" (QAnon Bereft.)

By Baxter

Two sexual predators, Donald Trump and Bill O'Reilly, plan a speaking tour later this year. Tickets start at $100.

We've heard rumors that the QAnon crowd is very upset. The tour is taking place well after the time that, they believe, Benedict Donald will have been restored to the White House. Why, then, would he be traveling the country having "conversation[s] about the goals Trump accomplished and challenges he faced in office"?

"OK I GUESS MY QUESTION IS TRUMP COMING BACK? WHY WOULD HE BE DOING A TOUR THRU THE END OF THE YEAR WITH O'REILLY. HMMMMMMMMM SOMETHING DOESN'T FEEL RIGHT?"

Seems to us that this is the perfect opening for an intrepid journalist to start asking Trump questions.

"Gee, sir, your QAnon supporters say you're going to be back in the Presidency by August. So... does Chief Justice John Roberts know he's going to swear you in? Have you formed your Inaugural Committee? Who's on it? How much money have they raised? When will they build the parade stands along the North Portico of the White House? Have you started writing your inaugural address? Where will your inaugural balls be? Is Vladimir Putin invited?" Et cetera.

It is all ridiculous and crazy, of course. But let's get him — or Mike Lindell — on the record. We cats PURR.

Champ Crosses The Rainbow Bridge

Yes, we know he was a dog, but he sure seemed nice. We're very sorry for the Biden family and hope that if Major gets lonely, they'll adopt the cat they've been teasing us with. Cats solve everything.

Factions

By Sniffles

With the cable news pundits opining on the 2022 midterms, it occurs to us cats that they have not totally gotten their heads around the reverberations of January 6. How do they know that traditionally Republican voters will continue to stick with their party in the wake of an obvious insurrection?

We think they don't know.

Similarly, how do the pundits know the effects that COVID-19 will wreak upon future elections? Yes, America was able to conduct a free, fair, high-turnout election in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. But what effects will it have on people's opinions going forward? To predict that, perhaps it would help to appreciate the experiences of the past — specifically, the effects of the last great pandemic in 1918:

"It killed from Alaska to Zanzibar. Groucho Marx caught the flu in New York, and Mahatma Gandhi in Ahmedabad. The future Mustafa Kemal Atatürk went down with it in Vienna. Haile Selassie fell ill in Addis Ababa. T.S. Eliot got the flu in London — he wrote The Waste Land as he recovered. Other victims who recovered included Franklin Roosevelt, Lillian Gish, Franz Kafka, D.H. Lawrence, Béla Bartók, Walt Disney, Ezra Pound and the aviator Amelia Earhart. In Colorado, Katherine Anne Porter’s black hair fell out as a result of flu. When it grew back her hair was white and Porter went on to write a memoir, Pale Horse, Pale Rider."

The bottom line is that the headlines of today don't reflect the story lines of historians' tomorrow. We cats suspect that after the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, American voters might be more in the mood to punish Republican/Trumpian candidates than the pundit class realizes. After all, as President Biden said, the Trump wing of the Republican Party is the bulk of the GOP — but it's a minority of the American people. We cats agree, and we HISS.

Juneteenth 2021

By Hubie and Bertie

Future generations will surely be amazed that there was a time when Americans didn't know of or appreciate the struggles of our fellow citizens who are Black. With today's signing of Juneteenth as a national holiday, here's hoping that the country just took an important step on the road to understanding.

Because now every Juneteenth, there will be official observances and events and workshops and performances and messaging. We won't have to rely on ad hoc promotions by champions of diversity to help people learn Juneteenth's significance. Juneteenth will have the full weight of a federal holiday behind it.

For all the Trumpsters who are acting umbrage-y about this, let's just remember that it was Benedict Donald himself who, one year ago, called unparalleled attention to Juneteenth by thoughtlessly scheduling his Tulsa, Oklahoma, "show" on the date. When an outcry ensued, it was one of the few instances that Team Trump backed down from the fight. They moved the rally to the next day, and infected a lot of people with COVID afterward (some fatally).

And to the right wingers and other assorted nutcases who are bleating that Juneteenth is an "affront" to July 4, here's the best response we saw today: "July 4th is an affront to Juneteenth." We cats couldn't agree more, and we PURR.

Kamala's Confab

By Miss Kubelik

While President Joe Biden was overseas meeting with our foreign allies — and oh yes, with Vlad Pootie, who seemed to have difficulty sitting up straight in his chair today — another notable gathering was occurring back in Washington.

Vice President Kamala Harris hosted all the women Senators at her official residence for dinner last night. Even that Republican nutcase, Marsha Blackburn, attended. She characterized the event as "an evening of relationship building" — but only after she complained to reporters that where Harris really needed to be was at the southern border. 

Blackburn doesn't realize that Kamala Harris prefers to focus on substance and long-term strategy, not cheap publicity stunts with boats, guns and camo. And it's really clear that Republicans don't know what to do about her. The shots they take don't make a dent in Harris — but prove instead how much she terrifies them.

Well, never mind all that now. We look forward to voting for Kamala for POTUS someday. In the meantime, we'll settle for the day when an all-women-Senators dinner needs a much larger room. We cats PURR.

Canada, We Miss You

By Zamboni

Today we cats attended a POLITICO webinar on reopening the US-Canadian border. Which isn't happening yet. But we appreciate some of the insights the speakers shared, particularly MP Wayne Easter of Prince Edward Island (who, we're sad to discover, is retiring soon).

GOP Congressman Bill Huizenga of Michigan was also on the panel. Although he didn't vote for the bipartisan January 6 commission, he isn't one of those crazy insurrectionist-supporting Republicans. So he didn't particularly repel us. But Congressman Brian Higgins of New York, although a Democrat, was irritating. Someone should tell him that even if you're vaccinated, you could still carry the coronavirus and, while it might not make you sick, you can give it to a child or an immunocompromised or unvaccinated person. He's endangering people by insisting otherwise.

Everyone on the panel was itching to get the border back open. We are, too — but since we have nine lives, we guess we can wait. Meanwhile, Quebec and Ontario will allow cross-border traffic again, which is good news. It's hard to imagine international borders opening before provincial ones do.

Still and all, it would be nice if what MP Easter suggested could soon come to pass: that the US and Canada will agree on sensible plan that would reopen the border in stages to vaccinated people. Easter thinks this might occur by the end of July. That would make us cats PURR.

Mystery Tour

By Baxter

Who guided Marjorie Taylor Greene on her alleged tour of the Holocaust Memorial Museum? We cats would like to know that person's take on the QAnon-crazy Congresswoman's de-Nazification — and whether he or she thinks Greene's mask-comparison apology today was sincere.

What parts of the museum appeared to affect Greene the most? The artifacts from the Warsaw ghetto? The replica of the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign? The audio narratives? The shaken testimony of American soldiers who liberated the camps? Did Greene learn who Anne Frank was? (We're really not sure she knew before.)

In her statement today, Greene couldn't resist prattling on about the dangers of socialism. (Maybe someone should explain to her that Hitler's National Socialist party wasn't the same as the socialists she and the right wing scream about today.) Despite everything, she still had to take a final shot at the face-mask rule in the House — insisting that "increased government control" is dangerous. Well, Marge, so is COVID.

And it's probably lost on Greene that the US has just passed the 600,000 mark on coronavirus deaths — one-tenth of the number of people murdered by the Nazis. Her hero, that other mass killer Benedict Donald, must be so proud. We cats HISS.

Unknown Unknowns

By Sniffles

To paraphrase Harry Truman, the only thing new under the sun is the Trump treason we don't yet know.

We're getting this feeling because more stuff is coming out. This past week we learned about a wide breakdown of intelligence among government agencies, the military and law enforcement in the run-up to January 6. Who was behind it? We also found out that Benedict Donald's Justice Department targeted Democrats like Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, forcing Apple to hand over data from their accounts. (Then-Senator Kamala Harris's grilling of AG nominee Bill Barr in 2019 is taking on new meaning. Watch him dodge and weave.)

Now, it's becoming clear that it wasn't just Democrats. The Trumpsters went after Apple data from White House counsel Don McGahn and his wife in 2018. Hmmm.

And look who was part of the insurrectionist mob at the Capitol! (See photo, above.) Yep, that's former Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who when he was in office did an able job of representing Vladimir Putin's Russia — his own California district, not so much. Makes you think a little harder about Republicans who may have given pre-January 6 tours or guided the Trumpsters around the building once they got in, doesn't it?

What other shoes are going to drop? Don't ask. There are reports about a Trumpy "war room" at the Willard Hotel that served as Insurrectionist Central. Yes, it's only on Twitter at the moment, but stories like this have a habit of surfacing there first and then getting confirmed. Brrr.

With all this and more coming out, we wonder how our country managed to stay a democracy in the last four years. And who knows what we'll know by this time next year? We cats HISS.

Next Up: Boat Parades

We can fly flags off the back of pickup trucks, too! We cats PURR.

Tidbits And Cat Treats: Biden G7 Edition

By Hubie and Bertie

Well, thanks to Trumpian perfidy at the Justice Department, we really had to hunt for G7 coverage on the mainstream-media interweb sites today. But that's okay, we found it. At a later time, we might even have a few opinions to share on Jeff Sessions, William Barr and their merry band of traitors over at DOJ — but for now, our hearts are in Cornwall. Here are our thoughts.

Goodness gracious, but Queen Elizabeth is amazing. She's 95, has spent most of her life — or at least 70 years of it — standing and talking to people, and she still doesn't use a cane or a walker. We've decided that she has nine lives and is a cat. (That probably doesn't make the Prince of Wales very happy.)

You can't see it in this picture, but Jill Biden needed to buckle the second belt on her fetching Gabriela Hearst trench coat. But we're still in awe over her mastery of diplomacy in high heels. (Yes, Moose & Squirrel wore stilettos, but she never practiced diplomacy.)

Seen on Twitter today: "Overheard in the White House press pool: Why is Justin Trudeau's hair so long?" This sent us through the roof. Where has this person been for the last 15 months? And if this person is that stupid, why is he or she in the press pool? By the way, if Justin feels like cutting his hair when salons open again in the True North, fine — but we hope he keeps the beard.

Many, many comparisons online these last few days between the Bidens at the G7 and the Trumps at just about anything else. Upshot: It's important that our leaders represent us with class and grace abroad. And with uncrossed arms, and tuxedos that fit them. Just sayin'.

Finally, back to the Queen. Wow! As the leaders assembled for their summer camp photo, she made a racy joke! "Are you supposed to look as if you're enjoying it?" This is exactly the sort of comment we'd associate with her late husband Prince Philip, and we have to think it was on purpose. We cats PURR.

(PHOTO: Getty Images) 

"Bringing Love From America"

 

The President and First Lady are overseas, and — what a concept! — they're not embarrassing us, offending our allies, butting into conversations, pushing people aside to get photographed first, or kowtowing to dictators, and we cats are here for it. Also, the Jill Biden trolling of Moose & Squirrel makes us PURR and PURR.

Happy Pride Month... We Think.

By Miss Kubelik

What is it with bakeries and gay people? First we have the hater out in Colorado who didn't want to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. (Thanks a lot, US Supreme Court.) Now a bakery in Texas dared to make some gorgeous cookies for Pride Month, and posted a photo of them with well-wishes on social media. Trouble ensued.

Except with this baker in Texas, there's a happier ending. After losing a bunch of followers online and having a IRL client cancel an order for five dozen cookies that were already made, the bakery was swamped with customers, who waited in long lines that stretched for blocks in the rain. They bought up every one of the canceled cookies, and more. 

When the baked goods ran out, people offered money, which the bakery owners redirected to LGBTQ+ and animal rescue groups. Love wins!

On the other hand, there's Florida. Awful GOP Governor Ron DeSantis kicked off Pride Month by signing legislation barring transgender girls from organized sports, and then FDOT ordered the rainbow lights on Jacksonville's Acosta Bridge switched off. (Gee, who could have been behind that? FDOT swears it wasn't DeSantis, but we think we know.) However, once again, a backlash followed — and the bridge lights will go back on. Love wins again.

But gosh, folks, we're a long way from 2015, when the White House bathed itself in rainbow colors after the Supreme Court legalized marriage equality. The US is fracturing into pieces, made up of states where you can marry whom you love, be safe from COVID, have reproductive rights, earn a living wage and have reliable infrastructure and other services because you're willing to pay some taxes — and states where you can't. We cats know which we prefer. Still and all, we wish that our Democratic friends in Red America could enjoy what we do. The fact that they can't makes us HISS.

Not So Smarty Pants

By Zamboni

So we have to talk about this, right? Donald Trump's weird pants from the other night?

Online debunkers like Snopes and folks in the mainstream media have hastened to inform the interwebs that Benedict Donald was not wearing his pants backwards. We cats don't really care if he was. What thrills us is that Trump obviously wanted to make a huge splash in a big coming-out speech in North Carolina — and instead, everyone was asking whether he was wearing pull-ons over his Depends.

(The only downside was that we had to learn what a "FUPA" was. We were better off not knowing.)

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden was photographed with the First Lady as they took a bike ride on Jill Biden's 70th birthday last week. We were struck by three things: that Biden manages to somehow look less goofy in a bike helmet than most people, that he might very well be wearing skinny jeans, and that from the look of his arms he clearly lifts weights.

People tried to make fun of the Biden bike outing and failed. The pants story from Benedict Donald's North Carolina speech, on the other hand, still has legs. We cats PURR.

World War II's Antifa

The 77th anniversary of something isn't especially dramatic — it's not the 50th or the 75th or the 100th. But today, with the Republican Party sliding toward autocracy, it's worth pausing to appreciate the many Americans who stormed the beaches of Normandy in 1944 to end fascism in Europe. We cats PURR.

(PHOTO: Walter Rosenblum, US Army Signal Corps)

The Stuff Nightmares Are Made Of

By Baxter

Yes, we are all mad at Joe Manchin. We cats have never had much of a problem with him before, but this time, it's irritating. On the other hand, we have no desire to drum him or anyone else out of the party, because we remember too well what it's like to live under Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

We're hoping that instead of this being the end of the For The People Act, it's a beginning — as in, the start of a negotiating process that Joe Biden excels at. For example, we agree with Manchin that the John Lewis Act should apply to all states, not just the naughty ones. Voting rights need to be protected in places like Michigan as well as in Texas.

In the meantime, we feel sympathy for the poor slobs on Manchin's Senate staffs. The abuse they're about to hear on voicemail will probably be pretty brutal. While we won't add to it, we'll just say that maybe, Christmas Carol-like, Manchin should be visited by three spirits, who would show him the error of his ways. We nominate James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Swerner for that job.

Then again, perhaps a single visit from the ghost of Lyndon B. Johnson would do the trick. He would be the scariest, after all. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Empty Ballroom

The first week of June is momentous, anniversary-wise. There's D-Day, of course — not much can compare with that. But there's also the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, who for all his flaws might have made a very great President. We cats remember him, and we PURR.

The Arts Have It

By Sniffles

Here's something else to celebrate about the end of Trump: The Kennedy Center Honors are back.

With certain restrictions, of course: Due to the COVID pandemic, this year's event was scaled back to a White House reception last month. Still, it was more than Benedict Donald and Moose & Squirrel ever did, since they were openly hostile to the arts and knew that they'd be booed, hissed, or socially cut in the best Miss Manners spirit. (Think of Ivanka Trump at the G20, and you get the picture.)

That's okay. Next year, the Kennedy Center Honors will return in full flower, we have no doubt — with a show at the storied venue, attended by the President and First Lady, and masks optional. That's because not only are the Bidens arts-friendly, but they've gotten the nation vaccinated and back on track, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, let's take a moment to recognize these artists for their brilliance: Joan Baez, Garth Brooks, Debbie Allen, Midori and Dick Van Dyke. May they all join us as Kennedy Center alums at next year's celebration. We cats PURR.

Dumbest Member Of Congress (And The Competition Is Fierce)

By Hubie and Bertie

Marjorie Traitor Greene has written to the White House, demanding answers about the origins of COVID-19. (We won't repeat the phrase she uses for the virus, because it is racist.)

She's on a tear about Dr. Anthony Fauci: What did he know, and when did he know it? 

Born in 1974, Greene is too young to remember the AIDS epidemic or other major public health events in which Fauci played a major part as the nation's top epidemiologist. She simply knows that last year, he didn't bend his knee deeply enough to Benedict Donald. Now, we're not wholly uncritical of Fauci ourselves, because in our opinion he was too deferential to Trump. But anybody whom Larry Kramer decided was a friend is probably okay with us in the long run. (P.S. Betcha Greene doesn't know who Larry Kramer was, either.)

Anyhoo, we think this Greene missive is one that Team Biden will easily ignore. Check out the last sentence:

"We urge your administration to act to provide us with these answers by June 31, 2021."

They never proof anything, do they? We cats PURR.

De Adder du Jour

Michael de Adder is an award-winning cartoonist who lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We've just added another big reason to go back to the Maritimes: the chance to get his autograph and a selfie. We'd cherish  forever! We cats PURR.

Even After Trump, Still The Worst Ever.

By Miss Kubelik

Did you know that you can draw a straight line from George W. and Jeb Bush directly to our current inability to sacrifice for one another in the fight against COVID?

This dawned on us when we heard a conversation this week on the Morning Schmoes — which is what we call Joe Scarborough's weekday show on MSNBC — about how the nation has lost its "connective tissue." Now, we get impatient with the Schmoes, because six years ago they were dedicated enablers of Donald Trump, the most destructive force in modern American history (perhaps all of American history). But every now and then we beam in to see what they're saying, because they tend to set the daily conversation inside the Beltway.

Anyway, Team Schmoe was claiming that the nation's so-called connective tissue has clearly been lost because even in a crisis like COVID, we haven't rallied together to defeat a common enemy. The "sleeping giant" that awakened to beat the Axis powers in World War II is gone. But what they didn't mention that there was one moment — since the war, and before the pandemic — in which America did come together. One moment when the nation was ready to join up and do something, anything, to sacrifice and help. It was 9/11, of course.

And the Bushes turned that desire away. "Go shopping," said President George W. "Go to Disney World," said Florida Governor Jeb.

We cats have loathed all Bushes for as long as we can remember, but that refusal to call Americans to national service after September 11 is probably the thing we'll never forgive them for. (Well, okay, Clarence Thomas is pretty bad, too. And so was Iraq. And the financial meltdown.) Dismissing Americans' zeal to serve was the epitome of the tragically missed opportunity. And then the very next year, Team Bush and the Republicans turned voters' anxiety about 9/11 into a political weapon, smearing Democrats like war hero Max Cleland and comparing them to Osama bin Laden to steal Congressional seats.

Who was in that Republican crowd? Joe Scarborough, elected to Congress in 1994 (the Gingrich class). Who didn't leave the GOP until 2017 — after helping to vault Trump to power by giving him hours and hours of free airtime? Joe again.

So, Mr. Scarborough, don't sit there and bemoan the nation's loss of connective tissue. Not when your former party and its disgusting Bushes are the ones who worked so hard to destroy it. We cats HISS.

Thanks For The Memories

By Zamboni

So much in the news today: insurrection, military coups, voter suppression, Anthony Fauci's emails. (They're not very interesting, in case you're wondering. They're mostly careful, deliberate and bureaucratic, just like him.)

And oh, yes — this isn't a sports blog, but we have to mention that the city of Toronto is in shock. We're not comfortable with the idea of going to bars yet — still too much coronavirus out there — but it would have been nice to have been in one in Montreal last night.

The firehose of headlines continued with President Biden's visit to Tulsa today. He gave a memorable speech on the Greenwood massacre and race relations in America, and tied it directly — and correctly — to the GOP's frantic efforts to restrict the vote. By the time he finished speaking and we watched the talking heads, our backs were arched and our tails got fat. This fate of democracy stuff is very scary, everybody.

And as if that weren't enough, we've been reminded that today marks the first anniversary of Benedict Donald's infamous tear-gassing of Black Lives Matter demonstrators in Lafayette Park, all so that he could stand stupidly in front of St. John's Episcopal Church and hold up a bible. Was that ever explained?

Well, in case you're feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, here's a day-brightener. Because we were focused on the solemnity of Biden's trip today, it didn't occur to us right away — but in just a few weeks, we'll mark one year since a very different POTUS visit to Tulsa: Benedict Donald's disappointing turnout at his "show" the day after Juneteenth.

You know the one: The pandemicky confab, which was supposed to have an outdoor rally (canceled), and which ended up inside the Bank of Oklahoma Center with rows and rows of empty seats? (Except of course for the one that Herman Cain was sitting in. He died of COVID a month later.) Trump was furious. Ah, good times. We cats PURR.

(PHOTO: Evan Vucci, AP. How unhappy Donald looks!)