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.