The furrigid temperatures are coming in hot (irony intended), and it's important to remember that there are other ways to keep warm without racing up your gas bill this winter! You can drink hot cocoa, look at some heartwarming cat memes, and bring your favorite feline as close as hoomanly pawssible to share in their toasty warmth.
If you're not a winter purrson, this season might be a little challenging for you. The winter lovers, on the other hand, especially those who are cat parents, are living for the cold weather. You can stay inside guilt-free, you don't have to walk your catto in the crisp cold air of a winter's morning, and most of all… your cat will be equally, if not more, lazy than you! Nothing is better than having a feline sidekick who makes you feel more purrductive than you actually are.
So, cat meowthers and pawthers, remember to bundle up, snuggle up, and warm yourself a toasty cup of hot cocoa this winter season. We're not even in winter yet. This means that the coldest is yet to come, and the best we can do is hunker down inside with a smile as our fuzzy felines give us the nice, warm hug we've been needing.
Back in the good ol’ days of the mid/late aughts (I think 2007) I worked in a movie theater that featured a full restaurant-style menu, beer and wine, and a coffee bar. It was a movie buff’s dream job, except for one thing: the late nights. Our final movie showings of the day started at […]
And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked on the humble estate of His servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His Name. …” And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home. (Luke 1:46-49, 56)
Mary is overjoyed, so much that she can’t help bursting into poetry, trying to describe what God has done for her. She has good reason!
For the next nine months, Mary will live more closely connected to God than anybody before or after her. While she carries Jesus, her body will provide everything He needs—oxygen, food, warmth, all physical needs. Her choices will influence His future—what she eats, the stresses she endures. Her voice will be the first that He hears; and He will feel her emotions through the effects they have on her body. He will be wholly dependent on her. What an honor, and what trust God shows in Mary!
And after Jesus is born, He will be almost as completely dependent on her and on Joseph for years to come. They will protect Him; they will feed, shelter, and teach Him. God set all of this up so that Jesus, in turn, would become the One we all depend on—our dear Savior, who rescued us at the cost of His own life, and who lives forever as our beloved Lord and the home of our hearts.
WE PRAY: Dear Jesus, I am glad to depend on You. You have never let me down, and You never will. Amen.
Reflection Questions:
What do you need in order to feel safe being close to someone?
Are you comfortable depending on someone other than yourself? Why or why not?
How about depending on the Lord—what has your experience been there?
We're in the middle of an ice storm, and all the main roads and highways are closed. Most businesses are also closed, so people are told to stay home. No buses are running.
Of course, this is America, and I am told I have to come into work, even though the highway that our store is on is also closed.
How is it pawssible that the winter is nearly here? If the frigid tempurratures and toasty hot chocolate wasn't enough for you, then you are probably aware that we're closing in on Christmas. Yup, that means Santa Claws will be swooping down our chimneys when we least expect it, and our cats are going to have a meltdown once they realize Santa has them on the naughty list this year. Why, you might ask. Well, why not? They climb our Christmas trees like they're an olympian, they slap us awake if we're two minutes late on breakfast, and they have a way about them akin to a cartoon supervillain…
But, sweet hoomans, you are on the nice list this year. You've spent the entire 12 months catering toward your fluffy fellas every desire and need, and now, you're humble help has paid off. You can finally kick back, relax, and watch some cheesy Christmas comedy movies and curl up under a blanket you won during a workplace White Elephant last year. Sounds like heaven, right? Except, one thing is missing: feline funnies and another catto in the flesh. Grab your precious pet, and lock in. The feel-good funnies aren't going to scroll through themselves!
Instead of answering, she pulls a razor blade out of her purse and starts slicing open the charger packages.
Me: "Whoa, okay, so you’re going to pay for those you’re opening, right? Since you know… you’re damaging the packages?"
Customer: "You’re an idiot."
When winter comes, we all have to find creative ways to stay warm during extremely cold days.
There are several different approaches one may try when fighting the cold. First, the clothes. While we would all love to stay in our PJs all day long and never leave our bed, most people actually have to leave their home, which means they have to wrap themselves in the warmest clothes possible. A cosy sweater, a big pair of boots, a fussy hat, and a coat are a must during the coldest days of the year, and they can ensure you arrive where you were headed in one piece.
Then, one can also indulge in a nice, warm beverage. It can be coffee, tea, or even hot chocolate, as long as it has steam coming out of the top, and it makes your throat and belly warm. You can even go as far as taking soup with you if it helps you weather the storm.
While the cat memes below don't exactly help us physically fight the cold, they do warm our hearts a great deal, so we consider that a win. If you agree, go ahead and scroll down to enjoy this heartwarming collection. Then, check out even more of these hisstercial cat memes.
Aw, I kinda like the art in this one! It took literally over a decade for me to get to the point where looking at my own drawings didn't make me want to gag, so it's super wild to see these older comics and think "actually my art had some good points back then too." I used to tell people "if you don't like the comic's art, give it a couple weeks and it'll look different." That isn't really the case anymore- my style has solidified pretty well the last several years. There are still changes, but they're more subtle most of the time and I suspect 90% of my readers don't even notice them. Every now and then I still get a wild hair and go "agh I hate how I draw my comic!!!" and change things up, and while it usually doesn't produce permanent, radical change, it often forces me to learn how to do something different, or better than I used to. I'll never be a Great Artist but I at least enjoy drawing now, and as long as it's fun and conveying the actions I'm trying to convey, that's really all I could ask for.
Me: "We did a deal on cameras, where you got an accessory pack for free when you bought a certain brand of camera. Of course, we received one fewer accessory pack than cameras, so at some point, we had to tell a customer that we didn't have the pack at that time and that we'd call him as soon as it was in."
I queue at the office and as soon as I present the paperwork to the young front office employee, he quickly scans it and tells me, "these must be checked by him", pointing to a senior employee whose sight immediately makes my Vogon detecting senses tingle.
Another day, another grand jury refusing to reindict New York Attorney General Letitia James on the laughably thin mortgage fraud allegations manufactured by the Trump administration.
If you’re feeling like you’ve heard this one before, that’s because you have—last week, when a different grand jury also declined to reindict James.
All of this flailing, hoping to find some grand jury somewhere in Virginia that will bite at this rancid apple, is the fallout from President Donald Trump’s pet insurance lawyer, Lindsey Halligan, being tossed from her role as acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Lindsey Halligan
Since Halligan was the only person to present the cases against James and against former FBI Director James Comey to the grand jury—and the only person to sign the indictments—they went out the door right along with Halligan.
Ever since then, the Trump administration has been trying to recapture that Halligan magic. How hard could it be to get an indictment, really?
Unfortunately for the administration, what this seems to reveal is that Halligan likely did not get those indictments in an entirely kosher fashion.
To be fair, even Halligan needed a few grand juries to truly get her mojo working. She initially put James’ niece before a Norfolk grand jury, where the niece promptly explained that she had lived in the house for years and did not pay rent. Unfortunately for Halligan, that seriously undercut any allegation that James was fraudulently using the home as an investment property.
Never one to be deterred, Halligan then went to a different grand jury in Alexandria and somehow just plumb forgot to have the niece provide testimony, but she did manage to net an indictment. Neat how that works.
But Halligan is nothing if not resourceful. In her attempt to indict Comey, she employed a cool move called “not having the full grand jury review the indictment you presented to the court”—a move that lawyers who value their bar license typically don’t attempt.
Still, Trump has another trick up his sleeve: putting Halligan before the Senate to be confirmed.
On Wednesday, Halligan sent her 28-page questionnaire to the Senate, which seems like a very long document for someone with literally zero relevant experience for the job she thinks she deserves.
To make this happen, Trump has to get GOP senators to agree to kill the tradition of home-state senators having the courtesy of approving a nominee to the federal bench in their state. And if they don’t approve it, the nomination doesn’t move forward.
New York Attorney General Letitia James
But even those GOP senators otherwise willing to cede their power to Trump don’t seem inclined to go along with that. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that the majority of his GOP colleagues oppose ending the tradition. And since Virginia has two Democratic senators, the chance of getting Halligan through is pretty slim.
Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi can kick and scream about Democratic senators being obstructionist all they want, but both Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner approved of Halligan’s predecessor, Erik Siebert, who was also nominated by Trump.
But Siebert proved unwilling to turn his office into a stop on the Trump Retribution Tour, which is how we got Halligan.
Just as a thought exercise, let’s say that the GOP upends the tradition and Halligan gets through the Senate. Let’s say that, somehow, she even manages to indict James on these incredibly thin charges. That just gets Halligan and the DOJ right back to the beginning, needing to get through an absolute blizzard of pretrial motions while preparing for trial.
And if they make it out of that alive, they’ve still got a trial. But since juries—grand and otherwise—are proving themselves remarkably resilient in the face of Trump’s lies, good luck ever getting a conviction.
Senate Republicans blocked a bill Thursday that would have extended enhanced tax credits to help Americans afford health insurance, virtually guaranteeing that they will expire at the end of the year and cause premiums to more than double for millions of hardworking families.
The Democratic proposal included a three-year extension for the premium tax credits implemented during the Biden administration, giving Congress time to come up with a more permanent solution to lower health care costs.
Protesters stand outside of the U.S. Supreme Court to support the Affordable Care Act in March 2012.
But the bill was ultimately filibustered by a vote of 51-48, with four Republicans—Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska—joining Democrats in voting for the bill. But that was far short of the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster, causing the legislation to fail.
Now it's essentially guaranteed that the Affordable Care Act subsidies will expire on Dec. 31, as both chambers of Congress are set to head out on a holiday recess next week.
That means that premiums will, on average, spike by 114% for millions of people—leaving them with the horrible choice of paying thousands more for their coverage or going uninsured.
"Senate Republicans just blocked our bill to stop health care premiums from skyrocketing," Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington wrote on X. "This vote was Republicans' last chance to do something before costs jump on January 1—once again, they refused. This is health care sabotage & we will hold Republicans accountable."
Polling shows that voters overwhelmingly want Congress to extend the subsidies, and that they will blame Republicans if they expire. Now, it’s causing a number of Republicans to worry it could cost them next November.
“I don't think I'm at risk... But I am worried about all these other folks that won by 1 point, 2 pts, 3 pts," GOP Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey reportedly said. "We’ve had a lot of close elections, and that can make the difference for them.”
And GOP Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia said that health care providers in his state are facing the risk of rising costs. Still, he did not vote to extend the ACA subsidies.
A cartoon by Clay Bennett.
"If you're not concerned, then you're living in a cave. If you're not watching the elections that are happening all the time, then you're living in a cave," Justice said.
In fact, some House Republicans in competitive districts are seeking to force a vote on extending ACA subsidies out of fear that not acting will lead them to electoral doom next November.
“If we fumble this health care ball, nothing else is going to matter,” GOP Rep. John Rutherford of Florida told Politico. “If we don’t win the majority in the midterms, then none of this matters. We can’t do anything good then. I think everybody understands that.”
But House Speaker Mike Johnson is not supportive. Instead, he said that Republicans plan to spend the first six months of 2026 on fixing health care.
"We're gonna have a vote before the end of the year for sure, and then we're going to continue to do improvements along the way. In the first quarter, second quarter, there's a lot to fix in health care, we've all acknowledged that," Johnson told Punchbowl News Tuesday.
But given that Republicans lack a consensus on how to proceed, their effort might end up being political suicide in a critical election year.
The season finale of “South Park,” which premiered Wednesday night, delivered a beautifully crass takedown of President Donald Trump and his cabal of Cabinet members. Now in its 28th season, the show is enjoying its strongest ratings in years, thanks in no small part to its ruthless satire of the deeply unpopular Trump administration.
Here’s a not-safe-for-work snippet of some of the melodrama leading up to the finale.
The finale ties together a multi-episode arc—major spoilers ahead—in which Jesus becomes a MAGA supporter and Satan gives birth to a “butt baby” Antichrist that Trump impregnated him with. Tech bro Peter Thiel, who is featured in the season due to his real-life obsessions with the Antichrist, is also briefly in jail alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Yes, you read that right.
One of the positive takeaways from the renewed success of “South Park” is that its satire has outshined the ethical failures of parent company Paramount, which has cut odious deals with Trump.
Cats in the library act like they're running a very exclusive, very fluffy academic institution. They stroll between the shelves with full professor energy, inspecting titles like they're preparing for their next big purrsentation. Sit down to read, and suddenly there's a cat planted right on your open book, clearly attempting to paws your progress. It's impossible to be mad when they look so proud of their work.
Some cats take their "job" very seriously, curling up in cozy reading nooks like tiny scholars lost in literature (even though they're definitely asleep). Others sit proudly on top of book stacks, giving off strong "I amthe catalog now" energy. And then there are the roamers. Those confident little librarians who wander around greeting everyone with a head bump, as if checking who needs emotional support.
The charm of a library cat is how they turn a quiet room into a cozy little world. A soft purr next to a pile of books, a tail flick brushing past a mystery novel, a tiny loaf sitting on a dictionary… it all makes the place feel warmer.
The rent is too damn high, and two New York Democrats are trying to fight back.
First, New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing Michael Lohan Jr.—brother of actor Lindsay Lohan—alongside his business partners at Peak Capital Advisors for allegedly deregulating 159 rent-stabilized housing units across 31 buildings through illegal means.
“It is no secret that New York City is already battling an affordable housing crisis, and yet Peak and its operators still chose to line their own pockets at New Yorkers’ expense,” James said in a statement from Dec. 1. “Let this lawsuit be a warning: When corporate developers and bad landlords try to cheat housing laws, my office will always take aggressive action to stop them.”
According to James, the law says landlords can end rent stabilization on an apartment if it requires “substantial rehabilitation,” but her office, in conjunction with New York State Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas, claims that “none of Peak’s properties met these strict legal requirements.”
Peak also allegedly misled tenants into signing leases that misconstrued the units’ rent-stabilization status.
This kind of alleged behavior highlights an ongoing struggle for New Yorkers. Rent is climbing—even for rent-stabilized apartments—and little has been done recently to slow it.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, shown in November.
Enter Democrat No. 2: New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. In less than a month, he will move into Gracie Mansion, and he is already working on fulfilling his campaign promise to freeze rent for stabilized tenants.
On Tuesday, in a closed-door meeting, Mamdani met with real estate executives and members of two industry groups. After the meeting, Mamdani told reporters that he was open to hearing the real estate world’s concerns and finding “areas of collaboration” between them. He was also scheduled to meet with advocacy groups for unhoused people.
Daily Kos reached out to Mamdani’s press team for comment on the Peak Capital Advisors case as it relates to his housing efforts, but we did not receive a response by time of publication.
Outside of his closed-door meetings, Mamdani has given a glimpse into how he plans to stop the rent hikes for stabilized housing. As members of the city’s Rent Guidelines Board approach the end of their terms, Mamdani will replace them with people “who understand that landlords are doing just fine,” according to a video on his campaign website.
“Last March, the board found that landlord incomes rose by nearly twice the increase of their expenses. The median income for a rent-stabilized household is $60,000 a year. Any rent hike could push them out of this city," he added.
Mamdani seems to know the appeal of rent stabilization in the city that never sleeps. After all, he’s giving up his own pad in Queens to live in Gracie Mansion once he takes office in January.
It remains to be seen if Mamdani will have what it takes to truly help middle- and low-income New Yorkers in their battle to remain New Yorkers for years to come—but he and James seem to be making serious moves.
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