Melissa Hortman Is Laid To Rest

"It's incredible that neither the President nor the Vice President was here. The politicization of all facets of American life is coming from the White House. No other American President would have failed to pay his respects." —Joyce White Vance

"Whenever in my lifetime, a lawmaker, a public servant had been assassinated, every sitting President, regardless of party, would have attended their funeral, expressed condolences to the family, tried to comfort them, their community and the country. I really miss that grace, that compassion." —Mia Farrow

Consoler-In-Chief, Still On The Job

Once upon a time, a good and decent person was our President. It's completely unsurprising that Joe Biden showed up in Minnesota today to pay his respects to Melissa and Mark Hortman and their dog Gilbert. We cats are holding on for better days, and we PURR.

Bill Moyers, 1934-2025

So now we've lost Bill Moyers — one of those rare people, like Katharine Graham or Pamela Harriman, who knew everybody and did everything. We cats will miss him, and we PURR.

"Your Polo Shirts Are Nii-ii-ice"

By Zamboni

Remember this? To honor Andrew Cuomo's loss in the New York mayoral primary on Tuesday, here's a throwback to one of Randy Rainbow's best — before Cuomo destroyed everything by undercounting COVID deaths in nursing homes and harassing women. (Actually, that this video hasn't aged well makes it even better. Never take it down, Randy!)

It became clear from their comments in the after-hours Tuesday night that the big-money donors to Cuomo's campaign had bankrolled him because he was up in the polls and they wanted to get on a future mayor's good side. Ugh Let this be a wake-up call for anyone who thinks money doesn't taint politics, or that the Supreme Court's execrable decision in Citizens United was a good one.

(P.S.: There are reports that Andrew will not run in the fall as an Independent after all. Yay. He needs to find something new and redeeming to do instead. P.P.S.: Helping Eric Adams ain't it.)

Meanwhile, since Zohran Mamdani, the apparent winner (final numbers in ranked-choice voting won't be available until next week), is a mere kitten and not experienced in city government, there's a warning for him, too: Don't screw this up. Mamdani needs to bring highly experienced hands into his administration — people like Comptroller Brad Lander, who is getting massive props on social media for throwing himself on the tracks to help stop the Cuomo train.

Speaking of trains, we refuse to jump on the one that the pundits have cheerfully boarded, claiming that Mamdani's win is a problem for Democrats. *Sigh* — so many lazy takes from reporters who think most of the country cares who the mayor of New York City is (we do, but we get that most folks don't).

The best thing that could happen now would be if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and other progressives immediately capitalized on Mamdani's momentum by barnstorming against Benedict Donald's Billionaires' Bailout Bill in working-class red districts across the country. That would make us cats PURR.

Bonne St-Jean!

Happy Fête Nationale (a.k.a. St-Jean Baptiste Day) to all Quebecers! And try to stay cool, everyone. We cats PURR.

(IMAGES: Ponto: Because We All Love Montréal)

Mad For Brad

By Baxter

Tomorrow is primary day in New York. Nobody really knows how this week's intense heat wave will affect turnout in New York City, so the successful campaign for Mayor will most likely have banked a lot of early votes in the last couple of weeks. Will Bernie Bro Zohran Mamdani edge out Andrew Cuomo? (Polls say it's possible.)

But if we cats were registered to vote in the city, we'd vote for Brad Lander. And probably not rank anybody else.

You may have first become aware of Brad Lander when he was tackled, handcuffed and arrested by alleged goons from ICE for attempting to escort migrants safely out of their immigration hearings. (Which is something a true mensch would do, by the way.) But Lander's tenure as New York City Comptroller makes him the most qualified candidate.

"The mayoralty sits atop more than 40 agencies and 300,000 employees," Ezra Klein wrote in the Times. "You have to be at least a little bit nuts to think you can manage this city. But Lander...knows how those agencies function and which do and don’t work."

Lander's main competition on the Democratic side? A former Governor who had to resign in disgrace and a 33-year-old who's only been in the State Assembly for four years. Curtis Sliwa (ugh) is the lone Republican candidate, and the incumbent, the supremely corrupt Eric Adams, is running as an Independent. Gee, New York City just can't catch a break. We cats hope for the best, but meanwhile, we HISS.

True. And Scary.

"Do you remember what I taught you, Rafe? Did you not read the Book of Henry, which I wrote for you? Never say what the King will not do."

De Adder Du Jour

There are some days — and this is one of them — that we don't know what we would do without Michael de Adder. We cats PURR.

Joe's Juneteenth

By Sniffles

So, okay — things are really bad at the White House. Benedict Donald is paving over the Rose Garden and erecting car-dealership-sized flags on the North and South Lawns. (Will inflatable tube men be far behind?) And he's threatening to build a ballroom. (Where?) We can't even. So we've decided to ignore it all until a Democratic — or, even, a sane — President can come in and set things right. (Please, God.)

During these dark days, we need to grasp for all the decency we can. Since Trump decided to pointedly ignore Juneteenth yesterday, let's note that former President Joe Biden traveled to Galveston to observe it. (Flying commercial, by the way. How Jimmy Carter-esque.)

Biden, of course, was the American President who first officially recognized Juneteenth as a national holiday. And Galveston was the city to which Union General Gordon Granger traveled in 1865 to inform enslaved people there that the Emancipation Proclamation had set them free. (Communications were slower, then. No social media. If there had been, though, Black Twitter would have been lit.)

Maybe the media you consume chose not to cover Biden's trip to Texas, so in case it didn't, here it is. We have a few thoughts. First, that Joe looks pretty good for someone with Jake-Tapper-level cancer. Second, that the base of the Democratic Party has always loved him — with good reason — and always will. We're with them. We cats PURR.

The Green Mountain State's Not Seeing A Lot Of Green These Days

By Hubie and Bertie

It's Juneteenth — a national holiday for which, as we all know, racist Benedict Donald has no use. But Trump's terrible second term is also bad news for Americans who are, um, not of color. Let's see how his policies have affected one of the whitest states in the union, Vermont.

Trump's offensive "51st state" bluster against Canada and his ruinous tariff threats are battering the state from top to bottom.

In Vermont's northernmost counties, businesses that depend on Canadian visitors are seeing their tourist traffic take a nosedive. Only four percent of Quebecers, for example, tell the Canadian Automobile Association that they have plans to vacation in the US this summer. That's down from 12 percent who said they'd visit last year — back when Joe Biden, a sane person who didn't insult them, was President.

In the south, sportswear and outdoor gear retailer Orvis, based in Manchester Center, just announced they're laying off at least 50 employees in the coming months. "Tariffs disrupted our business model in ways we haven’t faced before," the company's president said. Why? Because so much of Orvis's clothes and other products are made in Asia. (We cats have noticed this because our humans are big Orvis fans.)

It makes you wonder what Republican Governor Phil Scott is going to do about all this. Vermonters should ask him. Even though Scott has said for years that he wouldn't vote for Trump, that doesn't let him off the hook. We cats HISS.

Adding Iinsult To Narcissistic Injury

By Miss Kubelik

Benedict Donald's abrupt exit from the G7 yesterday was not unexpected. Some actually speculated days ahead of the summit that Trump would find an excuse to leave. It ended up being events in the Middle East (or so the White House said), but the true reason was that Trump is a sociopath who had just suffered a lot of humiliation:

Eleven million (and still counting) Americans turned out on No Kings Day to protest Trump's Administration and his policies. And, quite simply, to tell the world that they hate his guts.

His birthday "perade" on Saturday was a bust. Nobody came who didn't have to. He didn't even try to look like he was enjoying it.

At the G7, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney shut down his press avail once Donald started blabbing about "Democrat-run cities." Somebody also apparently cut off Trump's mic. Sad!

Soon after Donald sat down at the G7 meeting table, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had a whispered conversation that ended in a spectacular eye-roll from Meloni (and a fabulous internet meme for the rest of us).

Trump appeared to fall asleep at the table, giving us all another priceless Mark Carney reaction shot.

Donald tried to announce a trade deal with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, but dropped the documents they had just signed. He also confused the UK with the EU. (Yes, this is a broken record, but just imagine if Joe Biden had done something like this.)

After Trump left Kananaskis, Carney greeted Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the summit — two leaders Trump undoubtedly wanted to avoid. Throwing a delicious bit of shade, Carney gave Zelenskyy Trump's seat at the table.

The Trump-less end-of-the-G7 group photo was something to see.

We don't really know what's going to happen with this Israel-Iran thing (although Donald is trying very hard to play catch-up to Netanyahu — not very convincingly, either). But we can all enjoy this schadenfreude in the meantime, right? By the way, maybe the real reason Trump fled the summit was his health — or lack thereof. His limitations are finally getting noticed (no thanks to the corporate media). We cats wish for more of the same, and we HISS and PURR at the same time.

An Email To The Staff Of Senator Mike Lee

"I knew Melissa Hortman. Many people in this office did.

"She was a longtime friend of Senator Smith's, who had seen her hours before she was murdered. So you'll forgive my candor as I speak through enormous grief.

"It is important for your office to know how much additional pain you've caused on an unspeakably horrific weekend. I am not sure what compelled you or your boss to say any of those things, which, in addition to being unconscionable, also may very well be untrue.

"But that is not the point. Why would you use the awesome power of a United States Senate Office to compound people's grief? Is this how your team measures success? Using the office of a US Senator to post not just one byt a series of jokes about an assassination — is that a successful day of work on Team Lee? Did you come into the office Monday and feel proud of the work you did over the weekend?

"Let's recap Saturday so you fully understand what Minnesota was going through. Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered. Senator Hoffman and his wife were shot numerous times and remain hospitalized. By the grace of God, it appears they will survive.

"Senators are discovered to be on a hit list of an armed man on the run — Senator Lee's colleagues. And the decision of the office of Senator Mike Lee was not to publicly condemn the violence or to express condolences to her shattered children — it was to intimate that Melissa and Mark somehow deserved this? By making jokes? Do you have any consideration for the survivors in her family? For the Hoffmans in the hospital? For their families?

"You exploited the murder of a lifetime public servant and her husband to post some sick burns about Democrats. Did you see this as an excellent opportunity to get likes and retweets? Have you absolutely no conscience? No decency?

"I pray to God that none of you ever go through anything like this. I pray that Senator Lee and your office beging to see the people you work with in this building as colleagues and human beings. And I pray that if God forbid, you ever find yourselves having to deal with anything similar, you find yourselves on the receiving end of the kind of grace and compassion that Senator Mike Lee could not muster.

"Lastly, I suggest you take a few minutes today to read about Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. They were remarkable people...She was a force. And a human being. And I beg of you to exercise some restraint on social media as we continue to grieve."

—Ed Shelleby, Office of Senator Tina Smith (D-MN)

Lack Of Logistics

By Zamboni

People have been arguing about the appropriateness of a military parade in America. Yesterday's sad spectacle in Washington made it pretty clear that Russian-style processions that celebrating war and weaponry just aren't in our country's DNA. (Thank goodness.)

But beyond that, Benedict Donald's organizers proved something else: They just didn't nail down the necessary details.

Check out this report from The Guardian:

"Although the Army's marching went smoothly, the larger public event seemed less than well-planned. The garbage cans, few and far between, were overflowing. There weren’t enough exits. The only food source for thousands of people was a handful of food trucks with lines of 40 or 50 people waiting at each. Because the parade closed down blocks and blocks and there was a dearth of signs with clear directions, it was also extraordinarily difficult to find one’s way in or out.

"A Secret Service officer, trying to explain the general confusion, just sighed. 'Nobody knows what’s going on.'

"A little over an hour into the parade, which was still going strong, the crowd was beginning to show some signs of restlessness. Even a few people in MAGA hats appeared to be packing up their things and heading home. The first wave of hundreds of people slowly funneled through the gates, and past entrepreneurs hawking MAGA gear and baseball caps with ICE written on them.

"A young man, asked what he thought of the parade, remarked that he was not impressed. He felt that Trump’s close association with the celebration had politicized it and 'made a mockery' of the Army, though it wasn’t the Army’s fault.

"More to the point, he added, the event was 'just kind of…lame.'"

We cats PURR.

One Last Thought For "No Kings" Day

We cats will have more to say about the fabulous anti-Trump, pro-democracy events we've witnessed today. Until then, let's just give a nod to the interwebs influencers who have proclaimed today "Obama Appreciation Day." That's terrific, but we'd suggest amending it to a day for Obama-Biden Appreciation. Because those two guys make MAGA equally infuriated. That's good in our book. We cats PURR.

Sorry, It's This

Are we really going to pretend that this pathetic asshole has any power or influence at all? Asking journalists across America. We cats HISS.

No, Wait — THIS Is L'Image Du Jour!

Perfect. Thank you. We cats PURR.

L'Image Du Jour

What can we say? We cats PURR.

5.5 Million And Counting

From the top:

• Indianapolis (Nice!)
• Charlotte, North Carolina (Also nice!)
• Maryland (Hey, that's Harry Dunn!)
• Alexandria, Virginia (We hear the crowds across the Potomac are pretty thin, by the way!)
• Minnesota (Sending you love, support, and solidarity 💔)

"No Kings" Across The Country

 

From the top:

• Boston (Home of the original Tea Party)
  
• Ocean Beach, San Francisco
• Chandler, Arizona
• Los Angeles (Of course)!
• St. Louis County (Image: Fred Wellman, Meidas Touch)
• Boise, Idaho (Boise!)

"No Kings" Kicks Off In Europe, Part Deux

 

Pas de rois in Place de la Bastille, Paris!

"No Kings" Kicks Off In Europe

 

And so it begins! Anti-Trump and pro-democracy demonstrators show up on in beautiful weather in Frankfort, Germany. We cats will post more good stuff throughout the day. Meanwhile, we PURR.

(IMAGES: Democrats Abroad)

Thursday Night Newsom (Full Press Conference)

Governor Gavin Newsom's presser from last night is worth watching in its entirety, even though the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed until at least Tuesday Judge Charles Breyer's decision to return the National Guard to California's control. So much good (and unnerving) stuff in here. But above all, we hope that the press understands Newsom's reference near the end to "perfect little sheep." Because that's what they've been for Trump. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

The Violence Inherent In The (Trump) System

"Because the incident was so sudden, and most cameras were trained on Noem as she began the press conference with deeply partisan prepared remarks, much of the initial video that circulated online did not actually show where Padilla was standing in relation to Noem when he tried to interrupt with his question.

"But one CBS News camera captured the exact moment that Padilla interrupted Noem, just after she said that federal forces, including the military, deployed by the Trump administration to Los Angeles to aid in immigration sweeps, 'are not going away. We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country, and what they have tried to insert into this city.'

"It was at this point in the CBS recording that Padilla could be heard beginning his question with the words 'Madam Secretary, I want to know why you insist on exaggerating —'. As Noem continued reading her remarks, without even pausing, the CBS camera panned to show Padilla, at some distance from her across the room.

"Just three seconds into the incident, Padilla could be seen standing, with his left hand raised slightly in a rhetorical gesture, and trying to continue with his question, as a security officer placed his hand on the Senator’s chest and began pushing him away from the front of the room.

"There is no visual evidence in the clip to suggest that Padilla was moving in Noem's direction when he started speaking, or was ever within 10 to 15 feet of her.

"Noem's decision to ignore the interruption and continue reading her remarks also did not look or sound like the behavior of someone who had been lunged at.

"Democrats, including Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota, pointed out that video of the incident also makes it plain that Noem's second claim, that Padilla did not identify himself, was false. At the nine-second mark of the CBS clip, the Senator can clearly be heard telling the officers pulling him from the room, 'I am Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the Secretary.'

"'Liars,' Smith replied on social media to a post from the official Homeland Security account, which said that Padilla had not identified himself."

—The Guardian, Thursday, June 11

Gavin Newsom Addresses The Nation

By Baxter

We cats don't want to hear any social-media prattling about the 2028 Presidential election right now, and we won't engage in any of it ourselves. Let's see if we can get through 2025 first, shall we? And the 2026 midterms? Maybe after that it'll become clear if we'll even have an election in 2028.

Which means all the nonsense comments like "Gavin Newsom for President!" or "I won't vote for Gavin because I hate his podcast!" really need to stop. Let's focus our energy on defending democracy, please.

That said, Governor Newsom delivered an excellent speech last night, to Californians and to the whole country. He didn't just address the situation in Los Angeles, but covered all the outrages that Benedict Donald has committed against American democracy. He had the right to do that: As the world's fourth-largest economy, with a $4.1 trillion GDP and 40 million people, California is practically a country itself. Perhaps that's why Newsom seems to trigger Donald so much.

The Trump Nazis are threatening more cities, including Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle, and New York. So we hope that Democratic Governors Josh Shapiro, JB Pritzker, Bob Ferguson and Kathy Hochul are closely watching Newsom and taking copious notes. This is how you push back against authoritarianism. We cats PURR.

Getting Ready To Storm The Beach

By Sniffles

Are the anti-ICE demonstrations in LA — now spreading to other cities — signaling a turning point? "These protests look like the first mass movement against the second Trump Administration," says staff writer David A. Graham in The Atlantic. Some say that Benedict Donald has overreached on Los Angeles to distract Americans from three (to him) unsavory events: His Billionaire Bailout Bill has stalled in Congress. He's been tagged with the excellent nickname "TACO," which of course he hates. And Elon Musk linked him to the Epstein files.

There's also a fourth possibility: He and his stormtroopers are in practice mode for crackdowns on Saturday, June 14, No Kings Day.

So, are you planning to attend a No Kings rally, but a little worried about whether you'll get home for dinner? You're probably not alone, but your odds of protesting successfully go up if you know how to figure out when things are going south — and what to do if that happens.

To that end, No Kings organizers and other organizations like the ACLU and Nonviolent Peaceforce have created trainings and resources that will help you. Check them out and keep them handy — not just for this weekend, but for the future. (It's going to be a long four years.)

We wouldn't blame you if you decided not to show up on Saturday because you might get hauled off to the hoosegow for your trouble. And better to stay home instead of — say, in the wake of ABC News bowing to its corporate overload and sacking Terry Moran — going to Disney World. But the growing No Kings rallies are a solid signal of how vulnerable Trump is after less than six chaotic months in office.

Polls have shown that people do not like law-abiding immigrants getting arrested when they show up for their hearings. They don't like it when Donald's Gestapo disrupts grade school graduations. They don't like guys who aren't criminals getting shipped off to El Salvador. It seems that voters kind of understand and appreciate the concept of due process.

"Besides," Graham of The Atlantic adds, "Trump definitely wins if people disperse because they don't want to provoke him. The biggest win for Trump might be for people to be so scared of what he'll do next that they do nothing at all." Let's not let that happen. We cats PURR.

(IMAGE: Michael de Adder, deAdder.net)

Tiananmen Trump

(IMAGE: Clay Bennett, The Chattanooga Times Free Press)

Democracy On The Brink

By Hubie and Bertie

Gosh, we cats were really trying to enjoy the weekend without paying too much attention to Benedict Donald. But then we were momentarily distracted by this awful White House ballroom story. Just for the record: The White House, unlike most foreign presidential palaces, is really quite modest — by design. But as we know from his tasteless New York apartments and Mar-a-Lago, Trump has no acquaintance with the concept of "modest." We have no idea how he's going to pull this off, but we assume that he won't be able to. The White House does not belong to him — it belongs to the American people.

More importantly, though, there's the Trumpy threat this weekend to deploy the National Guard — or even the military — against peaceful anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles. "The federal government is moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers," California Governor Gavin Newsom tweeted. "That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions."

We've disagreed with Gavin recently, but he is spot-on here. And with 2028 ambitions, he probably welcomes a confrontation with Trump. But federalizing a state's National Guard under Title 10 only applies in situations of invasions, rebellions against the government's authority, or other situations in which the President can't fulfill his constitutional duty to enforce the law. One would think that a peaceful demonstration against ICE in Paramount, California — and there's some disagreement as to who actually torched that car or two — doesn't quality for Title 10. (Sorry to hair-split, but you really have to in cases like this.)

Even if Title 10 ever so glancingly applied, posse comitatus would still forbid the administration from deploying troops against American citizens. (See: Rutherford B. Hayes and the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. It pays to brush up on your Gilded Age history, ya know?)

The last time a President activated the National Guard was during the Civil Rights era. In 1965, LBJ federalized the Alabama Guard against segregationist Governor George Wallace. So, look at that history and decide whose side you'd want to be on. Johnson, as President, was defending democracy — not working against it.

Collateral damage from these anti-ICE demonstrations includes ABC reporter Terry Moran, who has been suspended by his network for tweeting a basic truth: that "round-em-up-and-ship-em-off" White House adviser Stephen Miller is a world-class hater. It is oh, so true. Did Moran cross a line? Maybe so. Are we in a space in which legacy media journalists need to cross lines? A thousand times yes. Stay safe next weekend, everyone. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Cats, Or Canadians?

By Miss Kubelik

So many reasons to root for either the Florida Panthers or the Edmonton Oilers in the 2025 Stanley Cup finals. What? — did you think we were talking sportsy-type stuff? No, we meant political.

Full disclosure: We cats were Panthers season ticket holders in the 1990s, and some of our fondest memories are of moments like Billy Lindsay's goal against Boston and the OT Stanley Cup final against Colorado that went into the wee small hours of the morning. Plus, Parkland dad and Biden fan Fred Guttenberg is a Panther fan, and his son works for the team. So it makes sense that a Florida victory this year would be a no-brainer for us, right? Go, Cats, go!

But — oh. Well. There's so much history between 1996 and 2025.

Politically, Florida has gone totally red in the last 30 years. We had a last few shining moments, but the state has completely strayed from the days of Lawton Chiles's "he-coon" debate into the dark days of MAGA Republicanism. Maybe former GOP Congressman David Jolly, now a Democrat, can win the Governor's race and save the Sunshine State from itself. But maybe not. For those reasons, and because we hate Ron DeSantis with the heat of a thousand suns, we're now kind of reluctant to root for the Panthers for the Stanley Cup.

The Oilers, on the other hand, are from the Trumpiest Canadian province, Alberta. But before you write them off, consider this: Canada hasn't brought home a Stanley Cup since Montreal (yay!) won it in 1993. And Canada's current Prime Minister, Mark Carney, was born in the Yukon but grew up in Edmonton. Did we mention he's a Liberal? That presents a kind of conundrum for Conservative Canadians who don't like Carney (or Justin Trudeau), but who want the Cup to come home.

Okay, here's our stand: We'd be happy with either outcome, but if we had our druthers, let's have Edmonton win. Canada needs the Cup, and it would be a nice bookend to the 4 Nations Face-Off. We cats PURR.

Cat Fight! Alien vs. Predator

By Zamboni

What a day it has been, what rare moods Trump and Musk are in. And it's not anything like being in love.

Benedict Donald and the Evil Elon have gone at each other tooth and nail today, and as with everything Trumpy, there is a ton of stuff we don't know. Musk lobbed his Jeffrey Epstein grenade (paging Pam Bondi), and then — as if tongues weren't wagging enough — followed up less than a half-hour later with "Donald would have lost without me." Social media blew up. Rumors abounded that Trump's platform crashed from all the traffic. (We wouldn't know, we're not on it.)

You do have to wonder why Kash Patel and Dan Bongino both suddenly felt the need to make separate statements last week that Epstein absolutely, positively committed suicide in 2019. Hmmm. What else will we know by this time tomorrow? Meanwhile, the shock and awe are still raging online, and we're just sorry that Trump and Elon have pushed the excellent Madeleine Dean "We cannot build bananas in America" story off the front pages. (Their shenanigans are bananas enough.)

In the meantime, we can only ask ourselves the question we've been asking since 2016: What will the spineless Republicans do?

Will they split into "Trump Republicans" and "Musk Republicans"? Imagine their Hobson's choice: Will they stick with Trump, and be forced to contribute to Donald's grift and graft (like booking fundraisers at his country clubs) — only to have to compete against Musk-funded whackjobs? Or will they run as the aforementioned Elon whackjobs, with potentially unlimited budgets — but suffer Trump's eternal enmity? They've done it to themselves. We cats PURR.

Make Donald's Day A Massive Mess

By Baxter

Doing anything special on Saturday, June 14? Maybe you're weeding your garden, planning to get the car washed, or applying for political asylum to Canada? Those are all worthwhile endeavors — but if you're not busy, you could attend a "No Kings" event near you.

June 14 is Flag Day, the anniversary of the founding of the US Army, and, coincidentally, Benedict Donald's 79th birthday. (We're still waiting for the media to freak out over his age the way they did over Biden's.) Trump is making the military "celebrate" by rolling tanks through the streets of Washington, Kim Jong Un-style. Not only did we never think we'd see it, but officials estimate that the parade will cause $16 million in damage to DC's streets. Incredible. Appalling. Un-American.

But there's hope: Anti-Trump forces throughout the country are organizing counter-protests against the parade and every outrage that Trump and his minions are inflicting on the United States. The idea is not to try to go to Washington (which could be kind of dicey), but instead to flood the zone with too many events across the nation to count. It's easy to find out what's happening in your community, and to download materials to help spread the word. Just click here.

If millions of us turn out to show Donald that we hate him and everything he stands for, it could take away media coverage and spoil his Very Special Day. And the special mass that Pope Leo is holding that day at Chicago's Rate Field — home of the White Sox — will pull attention away, too. This pontiff is tops with us so far. We cats PURR.

Eruptions

By Sniffles

It's hard to believe that tourists in Sicily would gawp at an erupting volcano at close range until — well, until they've suddenly figured out that they might be in, um, danger.

Mount Etna blowing its top today is reminiscent of the history we all know about Pompeii, whose eruption probably seemed curious to local citizens until the pyroclastic flow started. It buried the city at 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit. You want to go back in time and warn everybody — not just in Pompeii but also in nearby Herculaneum. Recent research has shown that the victims in both cities didn't vaporize immediately, but rather died slowly from heat, suffocation and toxic fumes. Ugh.

The moral of the story? Anything can happen any time — so, like the Boy Scouts, be prepared.

It seems like Americans today are decidedly Not Prepared. Trump 2.0 has been violating the Constitution and bending the rule of law to such an extent that we're in a volcanic-eruption-type emergency — but because it doesn't affect their daily lives, our fellow citizens are, so far, unconcerned. Other people are getting arrested by ICE. Women we don't know are being tracked by authorities if they seek abortions. National security experts are having their clearances revoked. None of this seems to have anything to do with the price of eggs, does it?

But pretty soon, the pyroclastic flow will catch up with all of us. Maybe Republican Senator Joni Ernst drove it home this weekend with her callous "We're all going to die" comment. Maybe Social Security recipients are feeling increasingly vulnerable, and checking their deposits every month. But sadly, human nature decrees that most of us don't care about public policy until it affects us personally.

Attention, everyone: The pyroclastic flow is coming. Let's not get caught in it. (Here's how not to.) We cats HISS.

Moxie

 

Ukraine planned today's successful drone attack on Russian airfields for 18 months, and didn't give Benedict Donald a head's up about it, either. Can you blame them? We cats congratulate them, and we PURR.

Happy Pride Month

 

What better way to kick off June, than to revel in a fabulous Randy Rainbow throwback to 2022? We cats PURR.