Foreshadowing?

We've seen this photo before, but it was only just now that we noticed: Barack and Joe are sitting on white folding chairs. We cats PURR.

Ivana, Overgrown

 

It's hard to imagine where Benedict Donald could possibly be buried, since MAGA pilgrims would heap his grave with teddy bears, balloons, red hats and flags, and the rest of us would vandalize it (like his Hollywood star.) He'll probably have to be cremated and tossed somewhere, or (our preference) shot into space. 

 

Meanwhile, you have to wonder how his kids are okay with the neglect of their mom's tacky resting place on Trump's New Jersey golf course. What a terrible family. We cats HISS.

Signs Of Hope

By Hubie and Bertie

One of the things we like best about Benedict Donald's many indictments is the role that Black people are playing in holding him to account. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James are only two. Add Judge Tanya Chutkan in the January 6 case and, soon, Fulton County, Georgia, DA Fani Willis to the list. (Willis is expected to bring charges about election interference this week.)

Ain't America great? It's easy to get discouraged about the state of things these days, but just think about this: People of color are playing significant roles in thwarting the Trumpsters' war on our country. That says something really great about our fragile, inadequate-but-always-striving-to-be-better democracy. We cats PURR.

Ohio Does It Again

By Miss Kubelik

It's been a history-making week for the forces of oppression in the Buckeye State. But not in the way they hoped.

First came Tuesday's crushing vote on Issue 1 — Republicans' attempt to block an expected pro-choice constitutional amendment by raising the threshold for amendments to pass. Droves of voters resoundingly rejected it — even in areas that enthusiastically supported Benedict Donald in 2020.

And now, the anti-choicers' last hope to stop the amendment has also been squashed by the state supreme court (four Republicans, three Democrats).

Interestingly, the legal challenge to the pro-choice amendment was filed just days after abortion rights organizers presented about a billion more signatures than necessary to get the question on the ballot. Did the right wingers file the lawsuit as extra insurance because they secretly knew they were going to lose on Tuesday? (Nah. These zealots are too convinced of the righteousness of their cause to ever consider defeat.)

All of which means that bodily autonomy is about to be enshrined in the Buckeye State's constitution. Of course, that's assuming that our side can keep the momentum going and get our voters to the polls. But with the broad swath of people who humiliated the "Yes" folks on Tuesday, including 90-plus percent of Gen Z Ohioans, we're feeling quite optimistic. We cats PURR.

Tidbits And Cat Treats: Battle of Montgomery Edition

By Zamboni

News is breaking thick and fast, and we cats are here for it. It's only Wednesday, but take a gander at this week's excellent stories:

Yesterday's pro-choice vote in Ohio was indescribably delicious. It's impressive that so many people turned out on an August Tuesday in an off-year because they grasped what, in the end, was a fairly complicated situation. Think about it: Voters had to understand exactly what the Republicans were trying to do to the constitutional amendment process, how it linked to abortion, why it mattered, that voting "no" was good, and that they should get out and stand in line, maybe for a while, to cast their ballots on a hot summer day. 

Best of all, despite Ohio's lopsided result, the crazy right-wing nutjobs will take no lessons from it. In fact, expect them to demand that all the 2024 GOP candidates double down. Watch for a call for a national ban, since even red states can't be trusted to save the babies — which will continue to doom them at the polls. The loss of Roe is infuriating and distressing because women are dying. But it's been a, pun intended, supreme political gift. Keep the momentum going!

Moving a little south, it appears that DA Fani Willis in Fulton County, Georgia, is preparing to ask a grand jury to indict at least a dozen people next week. (Just like the big-mouth foreperson predicted in February, right?) Oh, gosh — please, please make two of them Lady Lindsey and Rootie Giuliani. In addition to Trump, of course.

Finally, Black Twitter continues to revel in Saturday night's riverfront brawl in Montgomery, Alabama, and it's fabulous. Tweeps keep cranking out video narrations, re-enactments and memes, one funnier than the next. Rosa Parks, Aquaman, and hats thrown in the air Mary Tyler Moore-style all figure prominently. And, of course, folding chairs.

Now that we've seen the crucial three minutes of the recorded fight, it's clear that the whole thing was kicked off by some drunken white privilege, and could have been a real tragedy if brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles hadn't rushed to rescue a Black man from — if not death — a real Rodney King beating. We don't even feel bad about the white woman who got hit over the head with that chair. As Black Twitter has eloquently observed, "Those white men and women tried to enforce a centuries-long racial hierarchy through violence, but Black folks said hell no." We cats wish them joy, and we PURR.

Proud Boys: Trying Crap In A Small Town

By Baxter

The results of today's election in Ohio are coming in, and with nearly a quarter of the votes counted, the "No" side is leading 70-30. Wow! Republicans may not be able to thwart the will of the people after all.

Meanwhile, here's a story that happened a little closer to home.

On Saturday, about 30 members of the seditious white supremacist group the Proud Boys marched in downtown Saratoga Springs, New York. They also held brief marches in the nearby towns of Waterford and Ballston Spa. The rallies were unexpected, but, at least in Saratoga, they weren't required to get a city permit. Still, they blocked traffic, parked illegally, and intimidated local business owners.

Why were they here? What were they trying to do? It's unclear. But it's racing season, and Saturday was a big day (something called the Whitney Stakes), so maybe they were just trying to get some attention. If so, they pretty much succeeded. We cats HISS.

Picking On Pence

By Sniffles

Mike Pence knows his career in the Republican Party is over, right? It's been teetering ever since January 6, 2021, when the Trumpsters who stormed the Capitol wanted to hang him — inspired in part by that infamous Benedict Donald tweet at 2:24 pm: "Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, etc., etc., blah blah blah."

Now that Pence has been forced to answer a DOJ subpoena — as opposed to the House January 6 committee, which he cavalierly blew off — and now that he's so obviously given the Jack Smith grand jury a ton of indictable detail on Trump's campaign to end democracy, you can't help but wonder why Pence is even running for President to begin with. The devoted MAGAts will never forgive him.

Meanwhile, Trump's lawyer claimed today that Trump had merely been asking Pence to do stuff in an "aspirational" way. (Mmmm, hmmm. See one of our favorite tweep's clever translation, above.) If that's all they've got, it's pretty weak. But the other stuff Trump has been posting on his silly social media platform has been more direct.

"WOW, it’s finally happened! Liddle’ Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor of Indiana until I came along and made him VP, has gone to the Dark Side...He’s delusional, and now he wants to show he’s a tough guy."

Thanks to posts like this, Pence has been confronted by protesters multiple times, most recently outside a town hall event, where they jeered him with "That's a traitor!" and "You're a sellout!" That's been it so far, but it's entirely possible that one of these Donald devotees — and Second Amendment lovers — will forgo the hanging idea and move to employ deadlier force. Head's up, Mikey: With your Secret Service protection expired, you may want to think hard about the motives of the running mate you called "this good man." We cats HISS.

He's Just Mad The Judge Didn't Call Him "Mr. President"

 

"It was also very sad driving through Washington, DC, and seeing the filth and the decay and all of the broken buildings and walls and the graffiti." —Donald Trump, lying as usual

Born August 4, 1961, Honolulu, Hawaii

By Hubie and Bertie

Donald Trump has been lying all his life — on just about every subject under the sun. And as we all know, he kept doing it in the White House. The Washington Post counted his lies and came up with more than 30,000 of them (about 21 a day). He lies like he breathes.

But one of his most famous lies started up years ago, when he first began to claim that Barack Obama had not been born in the US. Trump gave the "birther" theory so much oxygen that in 2011, President Obama released his long-form birth certificate in response. That same year, Obama mocked Trump, who was in the audience, at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. (The story kind of got lost in the next day's announcement that the US had killed Osama bin Laden.)

Since Trump's fluky ascendance to the Presidency himself, people have suggested that being so publicly humiliated by a Black man at the 2011 WHCD was what finally drove him to run. Who knows? Getting a definitive answer would be tough, since Trump always lies.

Well, tomorrow, the President whose citizenship Trump questioned will turn 62. He's building his library and foundation and enjoying his status as a well-loved former POTUS, best-selling author, Nobel laureate, and respected world leader.

And what was Benedict Donald doing today? Getting arrested and arraigned in federal court for The Big Lie (and for conspiracy against the United States). It was satisfying and fun — until you think about all the damage Trump has done to the country. We cats HISS.

Can't Dive For The Remote Fast Enough

By Miss Kubelik

We cats decided to allow Rachel Maddow brief us last night on the key points of Benedict Donald's January 6 indictments. We figured it would be helpful before we read the actual document.

We lasted a little shy of 32 minutes. When Chris Hayes started bashing Dark Merrick, we shut the TV off. (Because CNN is no alternative.)

As one Republican put it in The Atlantic, "The indictment handed down today challenges every American to put a shoulder to the wheel and defend our Republic in every peaceful, legal and civilized way" possible.

In short, this is existential. So we will brook no silly criticism of someone who is steadfast on the side of democracy — particularly when he's the head of the Department of Justice, which necessarily operates opaquely to protect the rights of defendants. Any airhead pundit who sits there and pontificates like he knows what's going on at DOJ is full of soiled kitty litter.

MSNBC has become insufferable for us — particularly Hayes, the ever-repetitious Rachel, and (GACK!) Andrea Mitchell. They make us hack up endless hairballs. We'll stay temporarily tuned in to hear Lawrence O'Donnell, Joyce Vance, Barb McQuade, George Conway and John Heilemann. But if they're not there, our screen stays dark. We cats HISS.