Tidbits And Cat Treats: SNAFU Edition

By Sniffles

We cats are super-glad that we hadn't been planning to fly anywhere today. Being generally fastidious creatures, we don't handle chaos very well. Stoically facing long lines at check-in and successfully tracking down checked baggage are not among our skill sets. What a nightmare! — and not just for today. What does this mean for Thanksgiving 2026, or for aviation in general? Not very reassuring!

But believe it or not, there are other reasons to throw the Trumpsters in the trash today. It's only 10 days past the midterms, and we have three new issues to hammer the Republicans on for 2028:

Nvidia — Epstein pal Howard Lutnick is in the crosshairs. As Senator Adam Schiff has said, "Reports reveal he was integral to allowing advanced chips to be sold to China, undermining our national security, even with the knowledge that China was targeting NVIDIA's CEO. Lutnick should've resigned months ago. It's time for him to go." Expect this to be a big topic when Democrats get control of Congress on January 3.

Measles — The United States is on the brink of losing its measles elimination status after 25+ years. What a tragedy for American families. What an embarrassment for American public health.

Fallout from the FAA Ground Stop — Okay, apparently it's been lifted, but it will take the airlines a ton of time to catch up, logistically. As menswear expert Derek Guy observed, "Imagine taking Sean Duffy's advice and wearing a suit to the airport instead of comfy sweats, and then not being able to fly for an indefinite amount of time."

Today is just confirmation that the American people did the right thing last Tuesday by voting to reject the Trumpian tumult. People just want to know that stuff that they have always relied on to work still works. So this will not help the Republicans recover any credibility between now and January 3. (Plus, how exciting: Lauren Boebert has lost re-election!) We cats PURR and HISS at the same time.

De Adder Du Jour

This de Adder dude from Nova Scotia has the best take on Scott Colom's victory this week. We're not crying, you're crying. We cats PURR.

"Sea Change"

"This is a moment of enormous relief and celebration. Trump can still do damage, and, in defeat, may prove even more unhinged and vengeful. But restraints in Congress and beyond are now far stronger. This aging autocrat, repudiated by an electorate he once believed to be under his spell, has been significantly weakened." —David Remnick

Mississippi Makes Its Pick

By Hubie and Bertie

The state of Mississippi has made history today. It's officially elected its first Black US Senator since Reconstruction, and we cats are so happy we think we're going to lose our damn minds.

There are many fascinating reasons that Scott Colom is headed to DC (and yes, we all know the fun one about how Cindy Hyde-Smith blocked him from becoming a federal judge). Here are some others:

Republicans stayed home. Hyde-Smith underperformed her 2018 vote total, with nearly 260,000 Republican voters who didn't turn out — perhaps because of the dismal environment for the GOP nationally, but certainly also because Hyde-Smith ran an equally awful campaign. 

Black voters got mad. When Republicans attempted to dismember Benny Thompson's Black majority district after Callais, they gave African-Americans off-the-charts motivation to get themselves to the polls. The previous record for a Democratic candidate in Mississippi in a non-Presidential year was Mike Espy's 2018 vote total of around 420,000. As of this past weekend, Colom was already at 470,000.

A lot of Republicans who did turn out split their ticket to send a message. About 25,000 regular Republican voters in urban and suburban districts went to their polling places to vote for their GOP House member — and then turned around and marked their ballots for Scott Colom. They voted against the one person in Mississippi most aligned with Donald Trump, Cindy Hyde-Smith. 

It's all too wonderful. But of course, none of it would have been possible if Scott Colom had not decided to ignore the naysayers and put his name on the ballot — and if he hadn't run such a top-notch campaign. The "Pick Another Senator" ad will have a special place in American political history. We cats salute Team Colom, and we PURR. 

Soon, All This Will Be Ours

By Miss Kubelik

Here's a succinct and helpful summary of why today's headline in The New York Times — "House Republicans Derail Effort to Impeach Hegseth" — is true and correct.

1). Yesterday's vote in the House of Representatives was a procedural vote, not an impeachment vote. There was never going to be a vote on Tuesday to actually impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — the House was going to decide what to do with the resolution of impeachment Rep. Thomas Massie introduced.

2). Republicans, who still control the chamber, moved to refer Massie's impeachment resolution to the House Judiciary Committee, where — their preference — it would surely languish in obscurity until January, when the Democrats take over. This motion passed, 211-204.

3). Yes, 11 Democrats did not vote. But neither did seven Republicans. Had all of these 18 House members been present and voting along party lines (a high likelihood), the GOP's hoped-for referral to the Judiciary Committee still would have passed, 218-215.

4). And yes, had only the 11 Democrats been present to vote against it, the referral to the Judiciary Committee would have failed, 211-215 — after which the Republicans no doubt would have exercised one of their other procedural options: tabling the resolution immediately. (Remember, they're still in charge.)

5). In January, Democrats will take control of the House and be able to do this the right way: conducting investigations, subpoenaing witnesses and records, gathering evidence, holding public hearings, and building a case for impeachment that will be more inclusive and carefully constructed than Rep. Massie's was. (Massie even stated that he was trying to spare Hegseth a "much more vicious" Democratic inquiry.)

6). Massie also said he hoped the pressure would force Benedict Donald to replace Hegseth immediately, instead of waiting for 2027, when a replacement would have to get through a Democratic Senate. 

So there you have it. Bad optics to have 11 Democrats be no-shows? Sure, for the Inside Baseball crowd. But was it parliamentary malpractice? No. We cats HISS.

One More Elsie Post Before She Fades Away

By Zamboni

Remember how we recently reminded everyone of Elise "Elsie" Stefanik's epic fail on her pet project, electing more Republican women to Congress? Ah, those were heady days for our girl! With great swaggering confidence, she launched "E-PAC" in 2018 to help boost the paltry number of women on the GOP's side of the aisle. (Back then, there were only 13.) Elise obviously fancied herself a queenmaker and party builder extraordinaire — a sure path to a brilliant political career.

Well, we all know what happened since. Elsie went full MAGA for Benedict Donald, who briefly nominated her as ambassador to the UN, but then yanked it out from under her just four months later. Undaunted, she declared her candidacy for New York governor, which went "poof" after only 42 days. Then she announced she was taking her ball and going home — and she promptly disappeared for nearly the entire 2026 election.

What kind of legacy will Elsie leave? Not much. The number of GOP women in the upcoming 120th Congress will be about 20. Meanwhile, as we also noted earlier, Democrats have just surpassed 100.

"Elect Democratic Women (EDW), the campaign arm of the House Democratic Women's Caucus, has had its sights set on achieving that goal since the beginning of the cycle," The Minnesota Reformer said. "The milestone is the culmination of decades' worth of work recruiting and fundraising for Democratic women by groups like EDW and EMILY's List, founded in the 1980s."

So, we have another reason to be thrilled about the outcome of the midterms: Not only do Democrats hit their goal of women in the House, but we all get to say bye-bye to Elsie in a few weeks. Yes, she'll be back — probably to run for Senate in 2028. But she has such a hamfisted political touch that we almost can't wait. We cats PURR. 

Onboarding

By Baxter

Here are the incoming Democratic US Senators who were on Capitol Hill today for freshman orientation. (Yes, one was returning after a Trump-Vance-induced hiatus, so he knew the ropes already. "Sherrod Brown having to attend Senate orientation is hilarious," one Twitter wag joked. "It’s like getting rehired at a job you worked at for 18 years and being forced to sit through new employee training.")

Or maybe Sherrod just wanted to do something fun on his birthday. It sure looks like a hoot!

Left to right in this selfie by Illinois Senator-elect Juliana Stratton are: Abdul El-Sayed (Michigan), Adam Hamilton (Kansas), Josh Turek (Iowa), James Talarico (Texas), Peggy Flanagan (Minnesota), Annie Andrews (South Carolina), Roy Cooper (North Carolina), Chris Pappas (New Hampshire), and the birthday boy from Ohio. We're not sure where Maine's Troy Jackson was — maybe in the men's room?

This photo sparks joy. And just imagine adding two more faces to it. Right now, Scott Colom is 2,536 votes ahead of Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi, and Mary Peltola is leading Dan Sullivan in Alaska by 2,517. Tomorrow should bring more exciting updates. Meanwhile, we cats are proud of all these smiling, shiny kids, and we PURR.

Tuesday Afternoon

By Sniffles

We cats are looking forward to Tuesday, when the political situation in both Alaska and Mississippi will become clearer. Election Day ballots, and absentee and provisional ballots, will be counted and/or dealt with by then. And Alaska's electorate is rural, wild, and far-flung, so let's all have a little patience there.

Rumors are that, by Tuesday, after the absentees and affidavit ballots are dealt with in Mississippi, Scott Colom will lead by approximately 4,000 votes, and Cindy Hyde-Smith will be forced to concede by Wednesday. (It's also been pointed out that Mississippi tends to elect its Senators for life. Scott Colom is only 43 years old.) What an incredible result, if it happens — Mississippi hasn't had a Black Senator since Reconstruction.

Colom plus Peltola should put the Democrats at 56 seats in the Senate. Can we all just take a break from the Russian-bot-induced argument over House and Senate leaders to acknowledge how incredible that is? Particularly when you look back at how inhospitable the Senate map was for Democrats in 2026. Thank you, Ken Martin and DNC; thank you, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries; and most of all, thank you, Black women, for organizing and making all this possible. We cats PURR. 

America, November 2026

  

This must drive Benedict Donald and his MAGA minions crazy. Which means we love it. We cats PURR.

Signs Of The Times

  

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has called six federal by-elections for December 7, to help augment his majority in Parliament. One of them is in Laurier-Sainte-Marie (our neck of the woods, Canadian-wise). Which means that as we toddle around, we're seeing a lot of campaign posters like this one. Kind of cool to run across the current Leader of the Free World on the streets of Montreal. We cats PURR.