End-Of-The-Holidays Reflections

By Zamboni

On this New Year's Eve, we cats have conflicting feelings. The year 2025, which would have had so much promise under a Kamala Harris presidency, was a nightmare of destruction by Benedict Donald. Next year may bring us even more. But at the same time, 2026 offers hope.

Tonight, for example, Trump has pulled the National Guard from LA, and has stopped his planned Guard deployments to Portland and Chicago. No doubt this was in response to the SCOTUS decision upholding a lower court's stay on his Chicago invasion. But he also clearly didn't want to be beaten by Gavin Newsom in a future ruling by SCOTUS on the LA deployment. We suspect that either Clarence Thomas or Samuel Alito gave the White House a head's up on a sure defeat in the Court on LA. But barring that knowledge, all we can say is that if you call a bully out on his tactics, the bully will back down.

Meanwhile, Democrats keep racking up decisive, even historic, wins in special and other elections, which says to us that despite the Trumpsters' attempts at manipulating and suppressing, free and fair elections continue to take place in the United States. And Democrats keep winning them — by margins that are too big to rig.

This is all swell, but it doesn't cancel the fact that too many Americans have spent a tense and unpleasant holiday season. Either they're worried about being hauled off to the hoosegow by ICE, or they're dreading the increases in their healthcare premiums that will clock in tomorrow — thanks to Mike Johnson, the Republican House, and their inability to pass an extension of the ACA subsidies. Many other fellow citizens are worried about being able to afford groceries and rent. Affordability will be a key issue in the 2026 midterms, and Republicans haven't got a clue about how to deal with it.

You have to wonder how many times our country will entrust itself to the GOP, which proceeds to wreck everything, and then vote for Democrats, who fix stuff, but whom voters then punish for not making everything perfect. Are we in for another round of that? Or will the destruction wreaked by Trump 2.0 be so extensive that it will usher in a Democratic era akin to FDR-HST in the 1930s and 1940s? We will wait and see. In the meantime, we cats will get to work, and we PURR.

(IMAGE: Jamie Wyeth, Broken Christmas Tree Ball, 1961)

Maybe We Ought To Give Iowa A Try

By Baxter

Here's a big HAHAHAHAHA on the Republicans that we can all celebrate this New Year's Eve: After the right-wing-ish news site The Hill breathlessly speculated that the Iowa GOP could regain its supermajority in the state senate, Democrat Renee Hardman crushed yesterday's special election with a record-breaking win.

We have a couple of excellent morals of this story. First, wishcasting is a bad idea if you're purporting to be journalists. (We cats are not reporters ourselves, but we refrain from rosy spinning nevertheless. It makes you look so silly.) The second moral is that after nearly a year of Benedict Donald 2.0, voters could not be more pissed (or motivated). Even in a Harris-supporting district, this race is another jaw-dropping Democratic overperformance, less than a week after Christmas.

The Hill grudgingly provided some context in their coverage. "With Hardman’s win, Iowa Democrats are closing out the year strong," they wrote. "Back in January, Democrat Mike Zimmer flipped an Iowa state senate district that had overwhelmingly voted for Trump in 2024. And in August, Democrat Catelin Drey flipped another open state senate seat, breaking the GOP supermajority."

It's reasonable to assume that Iowa will remain the red state it's become over the last 10 years. But you never know, especially these days. Happy New Year! We cats PURR.

A Good Writer, Gone Too Soon

 

Thanks to Tatiana Schlossberg's brilliant piece in The New Yorker, everyone knew this was coming. But it doesn't make it any easier. We hope Joe Biden was on the phone to Caroline Kennedy today.

Canadians: Kristi Noem Wants To See Your Face

By Sniffles

As of Friday, Canadians crossing the border into the US must be photographed both entering and leaving. Wow. We cats remember when all you had to do was show a driver's license — or maybe just chat up the friendly customs agent. It was a lot more relaxed, because the US and Canada had the longest undefended border in the world.

We still do.

More rigid rules came into effect after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 — but there have been no such attacks since, and the only reason that Canadians are having to put up with this crap now is because Donald Trump and his minions are a bunch of dicks.

Plenty of Canadians on social media are complaining about this rule, and saying that it will only reinforce their decisions to avoid the US for vacations and other travel. Treating our closest ally like a suspicious character has a chilling effect — who knew? Visits by Canadians to the United States have dropped by nearly a quarter. It's not just that they loathe Benedict Donald. They don't want invasions into their privacy, or maybe even the possibility of being detained. Holy smokes!

It's a tribute to the power of our postwar and post-Cold War influence that Canadian goodwill remains at all — they're able to separate the Trump regime from their affection for the American idea. But how long will that last? It's just one of the many things we cats worry about going into 2026, and one of the zillion reasons we know we have to win the midterms. Let's get working, everyone. We cats PURR.

Crazy Cat Lady Crosses The Rainbow Bridge

By Hubie and Bertie

Gee, the folks at Turner Classic Movies have had a rough December. It looks like they're going to have to update "TCM Remembers" again, now that Brigitte Bardot has left the planet.

We cats are conflicted about Bardot. Her animal-rights activism was excellent, and the foundation she established in her name fought against abuses like seal hunting, bullfighting and vivisection. But at the same time, she was openly right-wing, marrying into the political circle of Jean-Marie Le Pen. She also thought the #MeToo movement was ridiculous. Maybe things were different in Europe, where she made her films. (Or maybe she was just wrong.) Let's put it this way: If she were American and MAGA, that would definitely cancel her.

But it's hard to argue with her when she says, "People get on my nerves." We cats PURR and HISS at the same time.

When It Came To Equality, Ol' Blue Eyes Was A Radical Leftist

By Miss Kubelik

Stephen Miller is catching a lot of well-deserved online flak for an idiotic post he made today. "Watched the Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra Family Christmas with my kids. Imagine watching that and thinking America needed infinity migrants from the Third World."

LOL. Of course both Martin and Sinatra were the children of Italian immigrants, which is such obviously stupid irony that it almost makes you forget Miller used that pejorative "Third World" term. Immigrants from Italy may have brought great food and culture to America, but they were definitely looked down upon by folks who arrived earlier than they did. (Indigenous people didn't arrive from anywhere.)

Our suggestion to Hitler Junior is that he check out this short film from 1945. Playing himself, Frank Sinatra teaches a band of young boys who had been chasing a Jewish kid that anti-Semitism is bad and we are all Americans. (By singing, of course.) A valuable lesson if you could hear it over the screams of the bobby soxers in the movie theater.

Can't wait to see what Nancy Sinatra has to say about all this. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Giant Cat Visits For Christmas

Please don't rag on us for these quickie Christmas posts. Yes, they're missing our usual trenchant political analysis — but next year is going to be a busy one, and we're resting up to get ready. We hope you've been able to do the same. Merry merry and happy happy! We cats PURR.

(IMAGE: John Fugelsang)

Jesus The Savior = Larry The Cat

 Were you surprised? Please. We cats PURR.

Theme Of 2025: You're A Mean One, Mr. Trump

To Benedict Donald and every member of Trump 2.0: You're a three-decker sauerkraut/toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce. Your heart is filled with unwashed socks and your soul is full of gunk. We wouldn't touch you with a 39-and-a-half-foot pole. We cats HISS.

A Very Nico Christmas

Nico Carney is a very cute cat. Have you ever wondered why Benedict Donald doesn't have pets? It's because nobody wants to own him. Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, on the other hand, is a different story. We cats wish you a happy holiday, and we PURR.

De Adder Du Jour

In our wee corner of the interwebs, Canadians are spending the holidays happy that they are who they are (and not American). Maybe someday we can fix all this. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

(IMAGE: Michael de Adder, deadder.net)

What Will Liz Do?

By Zamboni

Elise Stefanik wasn't the only Republican woman calling it quits from politics this week. Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis announced on Friday that she won't run for re-election in 2026 after all. She's leaving an open seat in a red, red state. But there's a possible Wyoming wild card named Liz Cheney.

If Liz still has some fire left in her, and wants to get a bit of her own back against Benedict Donald and the MAGA morons who loathe her, she could run for Lummis's seat as an Independent. We cats have even dreamed up the perfect scenario. Check this out:

• Cheney (I) runs, but never states which side she'd caucus with in the Senate, or who she'd support for Majority Leader.

• Wyoming Democrats, sniffing out an opportunity, pull an Evan McMullin and decline to run anyone.

• Trump spends the entire campaign dumping all over her.

• She wins. Then what?
  

Well, let's say that when all the votes are counted, the Senate comes out with 49 Republicans, 48 Democrats plus two Independents, Angus King and Bernie Sanders, who caucus with the Democrats. If newly elected Independent Liz decides to caucus with the GOP, the Republicans will get to 50 — but JD Vance will have to spend every waking moment breaking ties instead of running for President.

But if Liz caucuses with the Democrats as their third Independent, she gets them to 51 — and Chuck Schumer (or Brian Schatz or Chis Van Hollen or Fill In the Blank) becomes Majority Leader.

It probably won't happen, but it's neat to think about. We cats PURR.

TCM Remembers, 2025

Gee, a lot of people we like crossed the Rainbow Bridge this year. As if the last 12 months haven't been bad enough! But Turner Classic Movies always does a fine job on their annual retrospective. As for the rest of you Hollywood folk we cats care about, let's not make a tough year any tougher — so please look both ways before crossing the street between now and December 31. That would make us PURR.

Tit For Tat

This doesn't exist in real life, but signs that do can easily be changed.

Elsie Can Read A Poll

By Baxter

Is it possible that Elise "Elsie" Stefanik is out of our lives now? She just dropped out of the race for New York Governor and says she won't run for re-election to Congress, either. Neat!

Elsie waited until nearly 5 PM on a Friday — and, on this particular Friday, right after the DOJ partially released the Epstein files — to break the news. She kept hanging her decision on the political landscape in New York State, but we cats call litter-box leavings on that.

Sure, Stefanik was trailing Kathy Hochul by 20 points. But it wasn't that long ago that she was calling Bruce Blakeman, her Republican primary opponent, a loser. And now she's saying it's going to be too tough a fight? Stefanik is obviously reading the writing on the wall: Under Benedict Donald, her party is going to get wiped out everywhere, and Trump might not appreciate it that she's acknowledging that.

And hey — what does Congressman Mike Lawler think, since Ed Cox and the New York Republican Party muscled him out of the governor's race for Elsie's benefit? What about all those state legislators who endorsed her? Stefanik has just hung them all out to dry. Sad!

There's got to be more to this story than that tired cliché of wanting to spend time with her family. We're looking forward to the details. In the meantime, what else is there to say but: Poor Elsie! How simply frightful! How humiliating! How delightful! We cats PURR.

Going Over Like A Lead Balloon

 

"This was not a holiday address from the President of a great democracy to its citizens. This was a desperate tin-pot leader yelling into a microphone while cornered in his palace redoubt. Trump has been unraveling for weeks, and his speech tonight, like Trump himself, was unworthy of America and its people."

—Tom Nichols, The Atlantic

A Very Tory Holiday

By Sniffles

Polls in Canada show the Liberal and Conservative Parties nearly tied in approval — within the margin of error, which after a brutal beat-down over the past year, you'd think the Tories would find encouraging.

Alas for them, their leader is in terrible shape. Pierre Poilievre polls 25 points behind Prime Minister Mark Carney, 51 to 26 percent. And the Conservative Party's leadership review is next month — eek.

That's insult added to injury for PP after Ontario MP Michael Ma crossed the floor last week. In the past few days, Poilievre has had to suffer through some combative interviews with Canadian media about why he's losing members to the Liberals. He's responded with Trumpian defensiveness and accusations, as you might expect. Sad!

With more floor crossings possible, and Pundit World smelling blood in the water, nobody really knows what the Conservatives will do. Personally, we cats hope they hold on to PP. Every time he opens his mouth, he reminds Canadians how much they dislike him.

Barring some unforeseen external event — Russia invading Finland, Trump talking annexation again — Carney's lead over Poilievre shouldn't budge much between now and January. And Conservative MPs in swing districts will spend Christmas asking themselves if they want to tie their political future to a guy sitting at 26 percent. We cats PURR.

At Long Last, Have You No Decency?

By Hubie and Bertie

Has Benedict Donald finally gone too far? Maybe.

His deranged (and ultimately ridiculous) tweet about the murders of Rob and Michele Reiner has attracted Republican denunciations, and they may not be done yet. Representative Thomas Massie said, "I challenge anyone to defend it." Marjorie Taylor Greene said the killings were "a family tragedy, not about politics or personal enemies." Even silly election fraudster Jenna Ellis said, "A man and his wife were murdered last night. This is NOT the appropriate response."

And then there's New York Congressman Mike Lawler, who must be shaking in his boots about his re-election chances next year: "This statement is wrong. Regardless of one's political views, no one should be subjected to violence, let alone at the hands of their own son."

Hey, New York Republicans, what do your 2026 gubernatorial candidates have to say about Donald's repellent drivel? Apparently, not much.

We expect Elise Stefanik and Bruce Blakeman will try to avoid this shitshow at all costs — not because Trump has crossed a line with them but because they fear any condemnation of Trump's decomposing psyche will cost them dearly in the primary endorsement sweepstakes.

We've all been warned that the absurd MAGA outpourings and accusations after the shooting of Charlie Kirk will pale in comparison to what the Trumpsters will do when Donald himself finally dies. But like Rick Wilson, the majority of Americans may very well find their better angels escaping them. Rob Reiner's films are loved by people on both sides of the aisle — just ask Ted Cruz. We cats HISS.

Well... Except for Ahmed al-Ahmed, A Pretty Terrible Weekend

Sometimes it's hard to take Eric Idle's advice and look on the bright side of life. Rest in peace, son of Carl Reiner.

The Tackle Seen Round The World

By Miss Kubelik

In the category of "Kids! Don't try this at home," here is the video from Sydney, Australia, that broke the interwebs this weekend. This brave passerby disarmed one of the Bondi Beach terrorists and gave us all a small bright spot in an otherwise horrific day.

Australia has had strict gun laws since 1996, but it's obvious that they still have work to do. A national registry would be a good first step, since the number of guns in the country has now hit four million-plus. There's also a growing sovereign citizens movement there, ugh. We Americans know all about that.

Meanwhile, let's celebrate this courageous dude. He may not be Batman, but since this was an attack on a Jewish festival on the first day of Hanukkah, it's gratifying to know that the hero of the day is a Muslim. We cats salute him, and we PURR.

Dick Van Dyke, 1925-???

By Zamboni

Tomorrow (Saturday, December 13) is Dick Van Dyke's 100th birthday. The excellent news is that he's here to celebrate it with us. We love him for many reasons, but mostly for The Dick Van Dyke Show, which aired on network television from 1961 to 1966.

It was a creation of brilliant people, mostly Jews, who were looking for a gentile everyman to make Rob Petrie relatable to American viewers in the early 1960s. Van Dyke understood the assignment, and added amazing physical comedy to make Rob Petrie his own. We own the shows on DVD, and we still watch them and laugh as if it's our first time.

"That's My Boy?" was not just a hilarious Dick Van Dyke episode, but a groundbreaking one. There are so many wonderful memories from this show, but maybe this one is the most important. We cats PURR.

Epstein Is Back

By Baxter

The Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed by Congress last month, sets the deadline for DOJ to release the full files as December 19. That's — whoops! — a week from today. Fun!

No doubt Pam Bondi and the Trumpsters have been frantically scrubbing Benedict Donald's name and redacting anything that involves him before they comply with the Act. But until then, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have been very wily, releasing selected items to remind the nation that yes, the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is a pedophile and sexual abuser. Good work, team.

The latest is today's unearthing of photos from Epstein's personal collection. Goodness gracious.

There's Donald with a bunch of unidentified Epstein trafficking victims. And Epstein with pal Steve Bannon (just a coupla guys taking selfies together, aren't they adorable?). There's also a photo of novelty condoms with Trump's picture on them — were they sold at Jeffrey's sex parties? (Was there also a cash bar?) And because we are equal opportunity pundits, we're sharing a picture of Bill Clinton with Jeffrey and Ghislaine Maxwell. 'Cause, see, unlike MAGAts and Republicans, we're willing to toss Bill overboard if anything terrible comes out.

Benedict Donald has had a pretty bad week. His poll numbers are tanking, his witch hunt against Letitia James crumbled for a third time, Indiana Republicans have told him to go to hell, his Homeland Security secretary was humiliated at a House hearing (and fled), and the press is starting to notice his dementia and bandaged hands. And now House Democrats have sprung these photos on him. We can't imagine what screeds he will post tonight. In the meantime, we cats PURR.

Top Of The World, Ma!

By Sniffles

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals are one seat away from a majority government tonight, thanks to Ontario MP Michael Ma crossing the floor (changing parties) from the Conservatives.

Liberals gave Ma a standing ovation at their Christmas party this evening. Fun factito: Ma went to the Conservatives' holiday bash last night, and posed for happy photos with Tory leader Pierre Poilievre.

That's positively gangsta. We cats PURR.

Cat Fight! Stefanik vs. Blakeman

By Hubie and Bertie

Republicans sure are starting to mix it up in the New York Governor's race, aren't they? Elise "Elsie" Stefanik and Bruce Blakeman must be giving State Party Chair Ed Cox serious indigestion. (Yes, that Ed Cox, believe it or not. The years have not been kind.)

Nassau County Executive Blakeman has jumped into the race for the GOP nomination, even though Cox swore up and down that a Republican primary would never, ever happen. Elsie was supposed to have it all sewn up so that she could train her fire from now to next fall on incumbent Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul. (She'd need to, because Hochul is leading her by 20 points in the polls.)

Welp, things haven't worked out that way. As The New York Times reported, Benedict Donald didn't put his thumb on the scale for poor Elsie, whose life he had already ruined by un-nominating her for UN Ambassador. Sad! So Blakeman went on a statewide listening tour, and wrapped it up convinced that he was the perfect candidate to lose to Hochul next November. All righty, then.

Is Elsie not pretty or sexy enough for Donald? (You know, like Kristi Noem or Lindsey Halligan?) Did Blakeman promise to direct more graft Trump's way from Nassau and Suffolk County interests than Stefanik could direct from podunk places like Plattsburgh, Potsdam and Watertown? Hochul's social media team will have a ball with this.

Stefanik used to style herself as a reasonable, reach-across-the-aisle compromiser. Ten years later, she and her team have become Trumpy attack dogs, no substance and all insults. "Everyone knows that Bruce has no shot and is putting his raging ego first," her spokeswoman snapped. Really? It seems that Elsie's the one who's been raging lately. But fight on, kids. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

The Magic City Delivers

By Miss Kubelik

Tuesday was another red-letter day for Benedict Donald. By afternoon, The Atlantic had published new coverage about his physical and mental decline, just as he was about to hit the road for one of his "shows" in Pennsylvania. But Governor Josh Shapiro had pre-butted all of Trump's insane claims about how good the economy is. (As anyone who grocery shops or is looking for a job knows, it isn't.) Nice move, Josh.

Then, by evening, another electoral earthquake had shaken Donald and the GOP: Democrat Eileen Higgins won the Miami Mayor's race, beating the Trump-endorsed Republican by 60 to 40 percent. 

The race is officially nonpartisan, but figuring out the candidates' party ID is easy as pie. And it's panic-button time for the Trumpsters. Last time around, in 2021, the incumbent (Republican) mayor was re-elected with nearly 80 percent of the vote. Going from 80 percent to 40 means that yesterday, Republicans lost one out of every two Miami votes. 

Move along, nothing to see here, LOL.

So Miami gets its first Democratic mayor since 1997 — and that's after Democrats flipped the mayor's race in Jacksonville in 2023. Chef's kiss is that Higgins's margin of victory was even larger than the resounding wins we had in Virginia and New Jersey last month. Too big to rig means all the election-fraud winds go right out of the Trumpster's sails.

"Midterms will be a bloodbath," tweeted Trumpy nutcase Laura Loomer. Sounds great, Laura! We cats PURR.

(IMAGE: From Orson Welles's classic film Citizen Kane, which was not about Miami but is pretty timeless, 1941)

Spirit Of The Season, 2025

Randy Rainbow's new video just dropped. Feel free to fast-forward through the ad (but don't tell him we told you so). We cats PURR.

An Early Take On The Texas Senate Race

Looks like America's 36th President wants Texas Democrats to nominate a fighter. We cats PURR.

Who Did This?

 

We cats want one, and we PURR.

Lest We Furr-get: Pearl Harbor Day Plus One

 

By Zamboni

Neat! Here is a colorized version of Franklin Roosevelt's speech to Congress on December 8, 1941. Some notes as you watch:

Believe it or not, December 8 (Japan) and December 11 (Nazi Germany) were the last times the US Congress formally declared war. Since then, Presidents have gotten us "involved" in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and a zillion other places. It would be nice if the legislative branch got its mojo back someday, wouldn't it?

The correct FDR quote is "a date which will live in infamy." (Not "day." Lots of people — and, by the way, Google AI — get this wrong.)

Thanks to his polio, Roosevelt was wheelchair-bound, but he seems to be standing at the lectern. It's kind of interesting to note, because now we all know how he pulled that stuff off.

Finally, just look at all the men here. Not a woman to be seen. We've still got a long way to go — only 30 percent of today's Congress are female. But it sure beats nine women in the House and one in the Senate 84 years ago. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Mushroom Cloud For The GOP On The Horizon

By Baxter

There's a nuclear bomb waiting to go off in American politics. Maybe some Republicans realize it, but most of the true Trumpy believers are busy whistling past the graveyard. Allow us to explain.

First, let's recap: Things are already pretty dire for the GOP. Democrats have massively outperformed themselves on elections in 2025, including the gubernatorial races on November 4. Even in this past Tuesday's special election in a ruby-red Congressional district in Tennessee, Democrats moved the needle by 15 points. This is all wonderful. Grand Old Party, you in trouble, girl.

Meanwhile, and looking forward, healthcare looms large.

Although Preacher of the House Mikey Johnson swears he'll hold a vote on healthcare soon, we cats have our doubts. Mikey is barely in control of his caucus — how does he think that he's going to pull off a healthcare plan that Benedict Donald has been promising for 10 years, let alone bring the House together on the question of ACA subsidies? The Republicans are in complete disarray. We're not seeing serious policy taking center stage with them any time soon.

There are serious consequences to this GOP shitshow. People are going into 2026 not knowing how much their healthcare coverage will cost them. And they're mad. "Some voters may punish Congressional Republicans in next year’s midterm elections if expanded Obamacare insurance subsidies are allowed to expire at the end of this month, a new poll released Thursday suggests," The New York Times reports.

"Without the extension of larger subsidies, which lower the cost of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act for millions of Americans, many people will see their health expenses rise by about $1,000 next year," the Times said. "Among those facing a spike, most said they would blame President Trump or Republicans in Congress, according to the poll, which was conducted by KFF, a nonprofit health policy research group."

Hmm, this seems like a problem for them. We cats are not keen to see people suffer, but voters — especially white Trumpy voters — have to understand what the actions of Benedict Donald and his henchmen mean for them. If that translates to Democratic votes in November 2026, well, GOOD. We have to get the House back to save democracy — so if we can save healthcare for millions of Americans at the same time, big yay. That would make us cats PURR.

Another Harbinger Of A Blue Wave

By Sniffles

Gee, from the look of the coverage, Republicans didn't even get a moment to go "Yay!" about their victory last night in Tennessee Seven. All the headlines were gloom and doom. That's what a 15-point swing to Democrats in a deep-red, gerrymandered district will get you.

Preacher of the House Mikey Johnson had to fly out there and appear on Monday with candidate Matt Van Epps and a bunch of other GOP pooh-bahs, accepting a call from Benedict Donald, who is no longer capable of doing his many road "shows" and therefore literally had to phone it in. That was a lot of firepower for what should have been a slam-dunk win for them. Hence the hand-wringing this morning.

We Democrats, meanwhile, are feeling pretty good. Here's why:

Turnout was at eye-poppingly midterm levels — 179,634 (just shy of 181,822 in 2022). This is amazing for a "special" right after Thanksgiving. That means we got our vote out, bigly. Let's do it again in 2026.

What kind of money and resources were the Republicans forced to spend on TN-07 in a panic? We're guessing a lot. It could mean less for other elections down the road, since politics, like economics, is the allocation of scarce resources among competing choices.

Aftyn Behn was a terrific candidate with a great future, and she should run again. In fact, she's thinking about it. Yippee!

Finally, will Benedict Donald have the energy next year to campaign for every House Republican in a district that's less than plus-16 GOP? Will he even be alive then? Hmm! We cats PURR.

New Randy Rainbow!

That journey from cradle to tomb? Trump wants to make sure it isn't that long a stay. We cats HISS at him but PURR at Randy Rainbow.

JD Flunks The Test

By Hubie and Bertie

It's pretty amazing when one of the stupidest people around — RFK, Jr., who has said that he couldn't get decent grades unless he was doing heroin — stumps couch enthusiast JD Vance on the eight Presidents who hailed from (or had ties to) Ohio.

Kennedy was hosting a "Make America Healthy Again" confab that Vance attended, so the subject was unexpected. Still and all, Vance fell down on the job. In case you're wondering, the Buckeye Presidents were (in order of appearance): William Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Warren G. Harding. Vance could only come up with Grant and Hayes.

Several questions spring to mind:

Why wasn't Vance able to rattle off his home-state Presidents immediately? As a former Ohio Senator with White House ambitions, he should be able to do that at a moment's notice. Betcha Tim Kaine and Mark Warner know who the dudes from Virginia were.

Why did Vance feel he could get away with dissing the Presidents he wasn't able to name? He said they came from a "black hole" (jeez!). He slings insults like this pretty constantly — the last time was when he spoke to the troops on Thanksgiving and said nobody likes turkey.

Why wasn't Vance able to cite Big Bill Taft, whose name is storied in Ohio and who was the only President who also served as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court? For shame.

And why, oh why, since Benedict Donald has expressed such admiration for William "King of the Tariffs" McKinley, was Vance unable to ID him? Particularly since, um, McKinley's assassination elevated his Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt, to the White House? Double shame.

Just because you've written a book, that doesn't make you smart. What a fraud Vance is. We cats HISS.

Is Pete Sunk?

By Miss Kubelik

We cats sensed a hint of throw-Hegseth-overboard in Benedict Donald's comments to the press about the Venezuelan boat bombings today.

(These would be the same boat bombings that members of Congress from both parties say they want investigated, because despite what our cringeworthy Defense Secretary thinks, killing people like that is not part of a manly warrior ethos but just plain, unadulterated murder.)

Anyhoo, Kegseth is now denying that he ordered our military to "kill them all," which means that someone has told him that his silly tweets could someday be Exhibit A in his upcoming war crimes trial.

And although Donald expressed support for Pete as he flew back from Florida this afternoon, he also told reporters he "wouldn't have wanted...a second strike." Translation: There is still a member of the White House staff who understands, and who has told Trump, that to take out survivors clinging to what was left of their bombed boat was an illegal act at best and a war crime at worst, and Donald is distancing himself. (Can't help wondering, though: Will that person's badge still work when he or she tries to clock in tomorrow?)

We agree with Senator Mark Kelly, whose profile the Trumpsters have raised by threatening to court-martial him. "We have a President who doesn’t understand the Constitution, who installed an unqualified Secretary of Defense," Kelly said. "I cannot think of a Secretary of Defense in the history of our country who is less qualified than Pete Hegseth. He should not be in this position. He should have been fired after Signalgate. Now, he should be fired for this." We cats PURR.

Thanksgiving 2025: Who Looks Better?

It's astounding that after all the uproar in the media last year about Joe Biden's health, reporters aren't asking more about Trump's obvious decline. We can all see it. What's going on, journalists? We cats HISS.

Want To Shop? Think Small.

 

Now that we've all had a lovely Thanksgiving, here's your handy reminder that we're in the thick of the We Ain't Buying It boycott of major retailers that are helping enable the Terrible Trumpsters.

From now through Cyber Monday (December 1), please don't buy any merchandise from:

Target — To punish them for caving to Benedict Donald's attacks on DEI,

Home Depot — Because they keep letting ICE kidnap innocent day laborers and others from their stores, and

Amazon — To protest Jeff Bezos's dollar contributions to Trump's outrages (not to mention Bezos's destruction of the once-respected Washington Post). 

Shop instead at your local small businesses, or support minority-owned businesses online or in your community. For more information and to sign the We Ain't Buying It pledge, click here. We cats PURR.

Republicans In Disarray

By Zamboni

A lot of Republican House members are heading home for Thanksgiving not knowing what the future holds. Will they still be in office come January 2027? If so, will they still be in the majority?

Will they even lose the majority before the midterms because so many members of their caucus are heading for the door?

That's the scuttlebutt that's been flying around ever since Marjorie Taylor Greene announced her January 5, 2026 resignation. GOP members of the House are fed up with Benedict Donald and the Trump staffers who have treated them "like garbage," one angry (and anonymous) Republican leader told Punchbowl News.  

"The arrogance of this White House team is off-putting to members who are run roughshod and threatened," the House leader said. "More explosive early resignations are coming. It’s a tinderbox. Morale has never been lower. Mike Johnson will be stripped of his gavel and they will lose the majority before this term is out." Wow! Pretty brutal.

If Republicans do step down early (or decline to run again), the only question is their timing. Will the results of the special election in TN-07 on December 2 be scary enough to make them quit right away? Or will they wait until after the holidays, and blame their decision on the beatings they received from their angry constituents? (Reminder that thanks to Republican malfeasance and incompetence, health insurance costs are set to explode on January 1, so voter anger will only rise.)

Long story short, if you're planning to ask Santa for some schadenfreude for Christmas, you could be in luck. We cats PURR.

Yes, Virginia GOP, That's What You Are

By Baxter

Things are not going great in Trump World. In New York, MAGAts are reeling from Benedict Donald's rapturous reception of NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Friday. And Elise "Elsie" Stefanik has been forced to double-down on her "jihadist" Mamdani comment after Trump brushed it aside. How simply frightful! How humiliating! How delightful!

Over the weekend, Trump even started dressing like Zohran. Or, as an interwebs wag tweeted, like an old gay man who owns an art gallery on the Upper West Side. (Don't tell Donald. He'll be furious.)

Meanwhile, down in Virginia, the Republicans are imploding.

It's been interesting to watch the repercussions from Election Day 2025 as they spread through the world of politics. After the initial big shock, the little shocks keep coming — mostly culminating in name-calling and paw-pointing (we cats don't have fingers).

Right now the Virginia GOP is doing all of the above, skewering outgoing Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin for endorsing such a weak candidate to succeed him, and flattening fundraising by his ham-handed handling of the John Reid affair. Party chairs at the county level have issued blistering criticisms of campaign communications and the lack of logistical support at the grass roots. You love to see it.

You can try to say Virginia wasn't a true bellwether because of the large numbers of federal employees who live there. But the problem for the Republicans is that the Democratic wave happened everywhere else on November 4, too: in New Jersey, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and even Mississippi. Democrats captured a whole boatload of school-board seats across the country as well. People are not happy with Trump.

Donald and the GOP have only about 11 months to try to turn everything around. It doesn't look good for them. We cats PURR.

Checking In On Mikey Johnson Like...

MTG resigning? Well, it's not as if anything important is happening in the House of Representatives these days. We cats PURR.

Dick At Rest

By Sniffles

There was an interesting turnout at Dick Cheney's Washington Cathedral funeral today. By now, we all know that Benedict Donald and Couch Enthusiast JD Vance were pointedly not invited. (Yay, Cheney family.) The folks who did attend were a mix of Republicans and Democrats, former Presidents and Vice Presidents, and other blasts from the past. Here are a few observations from our corner of the litter box:

It's awfully good to know that George W. Bush (The Worst Person Who's Ever Lived, until Trump came along) is not suffering from any kind of laryngitis or dementia or other impairment, since he gave one of the eulogies. But that also means we can't figure out why he's been so mind-blowingly silent on the perfidies of Team Trump. Does his nephew's worthless political career really need that much protection?

Any reflection on Cheney's life and career must include a no-holds-barred indictment of his and Bush's prosecution of the unnecessary and stupid Iraq War. Simply put, we attacked a country that didn't attack us. (But yesterday in the tarted-up Oval Office, Trump proudly hosted the prince of the country that spawned 15 of the 19 September 11th hijackers. How big a hairball can we hack up?)

It was appropriate (and smart) that Democratic House leaders showed up, since Cheney once was a Congressman from Wyoming: Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Democratic caucus chair Pete Aguilar, plus Jamie Raskin and Bennie Thompson, who served with Liz Cheney on the January 6th Committee. And we hope that the Cheneys had an acceptable red wine for John Boehner at the post-funeral reception.

Oh, and Rachel Maddow was there, too.

So, should we join the party, and try to say something nice about Dick Cheney? After all, he endorsed Kamala Harris last year — but it's still a tough assignment. Perhaps the best thing we can come up with is that if he were still alive and hosting a podcast, he would choose not to platform Nick Fuentes. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Texas, Hold On

By Hubie and Bertie

The Epstein Files dominated the headlines today, but there was potentially bigger news for all of us who care about democracy — a three-judge panel blocked Texas Republicans' mid-decade Congressional district map, saying the state must use its 2021 map in 2026.

The judge who authored the ruling was, HAHAHAHA, a Trump appointee. He wrote, "To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 map, but it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map." The Trumpsters, as you'd expect, are screaming and crying to SCOTUS. But there could be snags.

The deadline for candidates to file for the 2026 Congressional primaries is Monday, December 8. Voters head for the polls on March 3.

Which means uncertainty abounds. Will the Supreme Court take up the Republicans' appeal? If so, will they rule quickly enough for this super-tight time frame? We're already 10 days into the filing period. 

"[Today's] ruling has set off a cascade of political maneuvering among members of both parties who had been operating under the notion that the Republican map would stick," The Texas Tribune explains. "Democrats, rather than facing retirement or primaries against fellow incumbents, are now freed up to run in their current districts. The bevy of Republican candidates who had signed up to run in districts newly drawn to favor them will now have to hope for an intervention from the Supreme Court or face far less favorable election prospects."

Kind of a mess, yes?

Republicans absolutely deserve all this. Instead of racing to obey Dear Leader and tearing up maps on their own, they should have asked the voters to approve their redistricting plan. Gee, who just did that very thing? California! Just imagine if the Texas map is blocked next year, but California's under Prop 50 isn't. We cats PURR.

The Proverbial Thousand Words

By Miss Kubelik

Every now and then, someone gets a photo that's symbolic beyond its immediate circumstances. The shot of Trump standing immobilized as his staff tended to a fainting person was a recent example.

Now we have this one. Here's Benedict Donald, looking like hell. (When will he learn to blend his makeup?) Here's the American flag touching the ground. Kind of says it all for the state of the nation these days.

Some Trump fan on social media furiously assured everyone that the White House grounds crew was taking the flag down as a safety precaution due to high winds. That's possible, but it's not the point.

For the photographer to have captured this very specific moment, with the sagging flag and the shambling Trump, was not just a journalistic coup. It's more evidence that Donald's luck — his ability to survive almost anything that's thrown at him — may have just run out. (Reminder: Epstein vote in the House today.) We cats PURR.

Epstein Vote Tomorrow

 

Everyone in politics and the media understands that a House vote on releasing the Epstein files is not needed, right? Benedict Donald could just tell Pam Bondi to do it. So his "turnaround" is merely performative (like everything else he does when he's in trouble). We cats HISS.

(IMAGE: Jesse Duquette)

Epstein Survivors' PSA

 

"Thomas Massie says Jeffrey Epstein would lure girls as young as 14 with quick-cash 'massage' offers, only for it to turn sexual, and then he’d use shame and fear to keep them coming back on command.

"Girls were pushed into recruiting another girl just to escape the abuse, locking them into a cycle that left them feeling guilty, responsible, and scared to ever speak. Once they hit the age of consent, Epstein handed them off to powerful, wealthy men, who could bury police reports, buy off judges, or pay families to keep quiet.

"And today, those same men can destroy anyone who speaks out with defamation lawsuits designed to bankrupt them.

"Massie says that’s the real reason the silence continues and why Epstein’s full network is still hidden."

The Fall Of Fetterman

By Zamboni

After the Epstein stuff came out last week, we cats wondered if Democrats had been clever enough to have purposefully engineered a shutdown resolution — via eight Senators who either weren't up for re-election until 2028, or who were already retiring — to pull off such a fabulous reveal. The jury's still out.

Still and all, it was quite a feat. It threw the GOP into a tizzy, put Preacher of the House Mikey Johnson on the defensive, and set up a vote this coming week on the release of the Epstein files. Nicely done, fellow Dems, whether you meant it or not. We'll take the win.

On the other hand, the end of the shutdown ginned up a whole lot of liberal screaming on social media about how Democrats who didn't sufficiently toe the line should be primaried. This, we do not love. It's not great to have our party split into generational factions, especially when we're in a national emergency. The enemy is Trump — so let's please not fight among ourselves. Our party has room for everybody.

In fact, there's a situation right now that shows how fruitless it is to hold our fellow Democrats to standards of purity that the Republicans would never dream of imposing upon themselves. It involves someone we cats supported in the 2022 general election: John Fetterman.

Fetterman won the Pennsylvania Senate primary and went on to defeat carpetbagger (and Republican idiot) Mehmet Oz in the general. Of course we were going to do everything we could to pull Fetterman over the finish line in November. But if we had been voting in Pennsylvania in the primary, we would have supported the so-called "establishment" candidate, Conor Lamb. Just our personal preference.

Since then, of course, we all know that Fetterman suffered a stroke, went on to win election to the Senate anyway, and has proven to be, um, not great on matters of party unity since then. People have been mad. And recently, he's had another medical incident that makes you wonder about his fitness for office going forward.

Fetterman was the anti-establishment candidate in the 2022 primary, but things haven't worked out so well since then. In addition to his medical issues, he's been a real disappointment to progressive supporters who have been aghast at his willingness to cozy up to the Trumpsters. We agree, but the election three years ago is now water under the bridge, right? So what can we do going forward?

We cats have a suggestion: In light of recent developments, Fetterman should resign his seat to take care of himself and his family, who surely must feel the strain of worrying about him. That would allow Governor Josh Shapiro to appoint someone to take his place — say, Conor Lamb.

Need we state the obvious? Conor turns out to have been the better choice. The "establishment" candidate is not always awful, and the "progressive" candidate is not always right. Let's be mindful of this going into 2026, please. That would make us cats PURR.

Trump's Latest Epstein Gambit Won't Work

Trump and Bondi can try to "open an investigation" into a matter that just months ago they said didn't exist and didn't matter. But everyone can see this is a desperate maneuver. And when is it ever appropriate for the DOJ to pursue an investigation at the President's order anyway? They're stuck, and they know it. We cats HISS.

But His Emails

By Baxter

It was pretty shocking yesterday how quickly the Trumpsters leaped to identify the girl with whom Jeffrey Epstein said Benedict Donald "spent hours at my house" as Virginia Giuffre. Presumably they named her because she had previously said she hadn't seen Trump doing anything inappropriate — a statement one assumes she made under duress. (She wrote in her book that she was worried if she named names, the Epstein cabal would wreak vengeance on her family.)

Do we need any more proof that Preacher of the House Mikey Johnson's pious claim that Republicans are trying to "protect Epstein's victims" is bullshit? You can't say you won't release the Epstein files because you want to shield these young women, and then throw the most prominent of them under the bus when it suits you. Conveniently for them, Giuffre is not around to argue. She killed herself in April.

The other tidbit that got our attention in the Epstein tsunami was Epstein's skullduggery in the run-up to Trump's disastrous 2018 meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. "I think you might suggest to Putin that [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov can get insight on talking to me," L'il Jeffy wrote to the then-head of the Council of Europe. In other words, if the Russians wanted to know Trump's weak spots, Jeffy could help. Wow, who is the bigger shithead here — the über-compromised Donald, or the sex-trafficker-turned-fink-for-Russia Epstein?

The Epstein revelations are far from over, of course. You can tell, because Republicans are racing around like headless chickens, trying to figure out how to get ahead of the awfulness that's to come. And it's not just them — because Epstein's reach into the worlds of business, law, banking, media, and tech are eye-popping and jaw-dropping. How many powerful men are panicking right now behind closed doors? 

We have no idea, but one thing's for certain: That sound you hear is the Founders who owned enslaved people, breathing a sigh of relief in the afterlife that maybe Trump has surpassed their many sins. That's how big we cats think this scandal is, and we HISS.

(IMAGE: The Globe & Mail)

Venezuela Must Be On High Alert Tonight

 

"It's worth repeating today that Trump's single greatest fear, [which is the] same for every malignant narcissist, is not just losing, not just accountability, it's humiliation. It's the unraveling of his lifelong false constructs revealing embarrassing truths to the world that, once exposed, renders him forever false, creating a House of Cards.

"This has always explained his fixation on the Epstein files, his frantic effort to continue their concealment, and his flailing behavior to distract and deflect from them."

—The Shallow State, on Twitter

Barack Boldly Goes Where Donald Fears To Tread

 

Surprise! — 44 greeted a planeload of veterans arriving in Washington, DC on an Honor Flight for Veterans Day. Funny... he didn't call any of them "suckers" or "losers." That's the difference between a real President and what we've sadly got today. Since Trump won't say it, we will: Thank you, vets, for your service. We cats PURR.

Hate Sure Makes You Ugly

By Sniffles

Excellent news from the Supreme Court today. Wait, did we really just write that, and about this court?

But miracles do happen. Without comment, SCOTUS refused former county clerk Kim Davis's request to revisit its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision that legalized marriage equality across the country. Yay!

Davis is a truly awful person who, despite Obergefell, continued to deny marriage licenses to gay couples in Kentucky. Now she owes about $350,000 in damages and legal fees, which she's desperate not to pay. But even Amy Coney Barrett and Samuel Alito are apparently not interested in disrupting a million families just because Clarence Thomas wants them to. So it looks like Kim is stuck with her bills.

The haters and the homophobes will no doubt try again. They must be searching right now for a plaintiff who isn't as off-putting as Davis — say, someone who doesn't commit a "fashion don't" each time they walk out the door. But for now, Obergefell is safe. We cats PURR.