While cats were born to be predators, chasing down mice and scaling trees for shelter, now they're soft. Not only are their pelts gloriously fluffy and soft to the touch, but the average house cat's demeanor has also simmered down significantly as they have grown accustomed to human servitude. Once cats learned that they could employ humans to do all the heavy work to survive, they started to enjoy the finer things in life. Now, they are basking in the sun of the windowsill, biting the leaves of Mom's favorite pothos plant, and awakening the human family at 2 AM for their nightly kitty meowscerade.
Life is good for a house cat.
Although every kitten is capable of surviving the outdoors, with their innate abilities only masked by chonk and floof, cats choose the indoor life because they enjoy the plushy luxuries. Who can blame them? Why would a cat struggle on the streets when they can install themselves instead in the lives of a couple of bald, bipedal giants? Exactly, cats are far too smart to pass up an oPURRtunity that good.
Woohoo! We're getting closer and closer to the end of the year, which means we're getting closer and closer to greeting Santa Claws on Christmas Eve! Well, we won't, but your feline probably will be. I mean, they'll be hiding in the Christmas tree, remaining incognito, until the big guy in red and white decides to snack on some cookies, and then, they'll pounce. Nobody gets to enjoy milk if the catto can't. Those are the rules our cats set for hoomans, and can you blame them? I, too, would feel slighted if I wasn't allowed to do so much as give a lick to a soft, warm, snickerdoodle cookie. We all have our vices, you know…
As we enter the thick of the holiday season, you may feel your Christmas spirit waning. Running around and trying to figure out the purrfect gift for your loved ones—fuzzy or not—is a grueling task. No generous amount of hot cocoa or Christmas cookies will give us the rest that we need, so we need to bring in the big guys: cat memes. I know, I know. You've likely heard this before. In fact, you've probably heard it from me, specifically. But hey, the proof is in the figgy pudding. Scroll below!
It's our busiest time of the week in the shop. A customer skips the line of people at my register.
Customer: "Look, I just want to buy these two things. Just check me out next."
Okay, well, it's not _done_ but my room is a damn sight _better_ and that's pretty cool.
And by "damn sight better" I actually mean "I got rid of two of the boxen that've just been sitting around taking up space all over my room since I moved in in 2020". Which is...fantastic. I'm not remotely done cleaning, either up or out, but progress is happening! That's quite grand! Someday maybe I will have everything tucked away in a place it belongs, having gotten rid of all the things that shouldn't actually be in here. What a good fantasy.
(I am being sharp and salty to cover up the fact that I am actually quite happy to have regained a little bit of space, and irritated at how long it takes me sometimes.)
I am nowhere near finished, of course. My desk is the biggest disaster area (although I've definitely made progress on it, we're like, eight inches deep of shit instead of sixteen). And there's an endless number of papers that want sorting, but that's like, a longterm plan. Not something I expect to get done anytime soon, not even if I'm procrastinating on my grading real good!
That being said, I had a point somewhere in the span of time I've lived in this room where I was trying to sort papers for about twenty minutes a day. Do that for two months and I'd have everything done, I expect. Just....you know. Consistency is hard.
The surface reason I am cleaning is that SamSam is visiting this weekend, but the real weekend is that having my room be a catastrophe is a pretty strong Blues Clue1, and also _definitely_ one of the ones that chickeneggs2 me. So, having latched onto the slight mania of "you have no idea how badly I do not want to do my grading" means actually trying to get my roomspace tolerable?
We're through the long dark November. I made a note in my calendar for November first, next year and all subsequents, telling me that my brain's about to turn into shit and I might want to do something about it. What should I do? No one knows the answer to that.
I mucked with my phone so that it goes into "focus mode" for two hours each afternoon. No games, no internet. Chat is okay, because I almost never am _mindless_ and stuck about chat. So far I haven't broken it, which means that it ~cannot be broken~. Unlike, say, the timers on my various phone games that theoretically say I can only play like 15 minutes unless I go make it longer which is very easy to do. Sigh.
And I'm trying to crawl myself out of the work hellhole --the above is theoretically helpful for this. Man though, I'm looking forward to it being solstice real bad. Arise fair sun, and slay the envious moon3
I hope you are finding the ability to do the things that bring you comfort and joy. I love you!
~Sor MOOP!
1: "what idiot called them depression symptoms instead of..."
2: Did you know that you can just say things? It's ridiculous that language works in any capacity whatsoever! I say so much entirely impenetrable nonsense, and yes, lots of the time it's partly that I'm quoting things, but sometimes it's that, like, I'm just making up weird things that maybe only make sense to me.
So, instead of finding the term "negative feedback loop" my brain decided to hand me "chickenegg", as in "which came first". Am I depressed because my room is a catastrophe or is my room a catastrophe because yadda yadda
3: Case in point, this is a reference! It's a Kate Nyx song lyric.
Eileen Higgins wasn’t simply elected Miami’s first woman mayor on Tuesday: She will also be the first Democrat to hold the office since 1997, ending a nearly 30-year drought for the party. Higgins beat former city manager Emilio Gonzalez, her Donald Trump-backed opponent, by almost 20 points, 59-41.
It’s the kind of massive Democratic overperformance we’re seeing everywhere, and it’s a shot of energy for the city of Miami and Florida’s long-demoralized Democratic community.
Two major forces contributed to the dramatic Democratic victory, and both should terrify an already skittish Republican Party heading into 2026’s midterm elections.
Miami mayor candidate Emilio Gonzalez, a former city manager backed by President Donald Trump, talks with journalists and supporters at a watch party as he awaits the close of voting in Miami's mayoral runoff on Dec. 9.
Voter turnout for Miami’s mayoral races is always low, and for decades that played directly into Republican hands. Miami’s voter registration leans Democratic, but core GOP constituencies—especially the politically dominant Cuban community—have been masters of showing up. Venezuelan and Nicaraguan immigrants, animated by relentless Republican messaging that painted Democrats as “communists,” also became reliable GOP blocs.
And the system itself helped. Elections are held in off-years, with runoffs landing deep into the holiday season. The Republican-Cuban machine loved that setup. In 2021, Republicans won the mayoralty 79-12 with fewer than 25,000 votes cast despite a population of 442,000, per 2020 census stats.
This time, turnout was still anemic—just 36,000 ballots cast in a city of half a million—but something remarkable happened: Even in an election environment tailor-made to benefit Republicans, their vote collapsed. The GOP candidate’s vote total fell from 21,485 in 2021 to just 7,258 on Tuesday, despite the loud backing of both Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Republicans simply failed to get their voters to the polls, while Democrats turned theirs out. That alone is a recipe for more upsets in 2026.
But what if Republicans did turn out—and their votes flipped?
Higgins ran hard on Trump’s ongoing ICE raids and on DeSantis’ embrace of that cruelty, including his grotesque Alligator Alcatraz detention center.
“We are facing rhetoric from elected officials that is so dehumanizing and cruel, especially against immigrant populations,” Higgins told the Associated Press after her victory. “The residents of Miami were ready to be done with that.”
Miami voters certainly were, and it doesn’t look like a case of base turnout. All indications are that Republican voters flipped.
“If you thought the raw percentages looked bad for Republicans, this map is even more alarming,” tweeted Miami-based data scientist Raidel Nabut. “In the Miami mayoral race, Democrats erased the GOP’s gains from last year in Shenandoah, The Roads, and parts of Little Havana. Cuban precincts shifted 15–20 points to the left and Republicans were crushed in Anglo areas like Coconut Grove.”
Little Havana has long been a fortress of Cuban American Republicanism, rooted in decades of preferential immigration treatment and hardened by Cold War-era grievances. That preferential treatment ended in 2017 under President Barack Obama, yet Cuban immigrants still benefited from the Biden administration’s Humanitarian Parole Program for Cubans, Venezuelans, and Nicaraguans.
None of that Biden-era goodwill mattered in 2024, when all three groups voted heavily for Trump. He thanked them by ending the parole program and launching deportations of all three communities (see here, here, and here). Cubans, long accustomed to special treatment from the U.S. government, took particular offense.
Buyer’s remorse quickly followed. A May poll from Florida International University found deep discontent among the Sunshine State’s Venezuelan diaspora.
“[O]f the Venezuelans who voted for Trump in November—often referred to as MAGAzuelans—half in the FIU survey now say they regret or have mixed feelings about their choice,” reported WLRN. “Almost 40% of them said they will in the future vote for either a Democratic, independent or non-MAGA candidate.”
Many seemed embarrassed by their original vote. Only 32% of Venezuelan respondents who voted in November admitted they voted for Trump, despite his 61% showing in Doral. More than one-fifth refused to say whom they supported.
A July Suffolk University survey found broad Latino discontent as well. A majority of respondents—52% of whom identified as Hispanic or Latino—opposed Trump’s immigration policies. Sixty-one percent said ICE raids had gone too far. Fifty-nine percent opposed the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. And 52% said deportations of Venezuelans, Cubans, and Argentinians made them less likely to support Trump going forward.
And now we have an actual election showing a dramatic 15- to 20-point shift toward Democrats, less than a year into Trump’s presidency. With the economy wobbling, mass deportations underway, and Trump’s overall toxicity deepening, Republicans are staring at a worsening trajectory.
Amazingly, Higgins will be the first non-Latino elected mayor since 1993. She ran against a Latino who backed Trump’s MAGA agenda, and she won on the strength of the Latino vote. It’s absolute poetry.
But Trump doesn’t give a crap. He’s not on the ballot again, and the only reason he cares about Republicans at all is because they can help carry out his agenda in Congress and in state governments.
His racism is his prime directive, and he’ll act on it even if it punishes the very communities that foolishly backed him. And the rest of his party, perfectly happy to ride his coattails for years, will now face the consequences of tying themselves to his bigotry.
“When Cubans in Miami are shifting the same direction as Puerto Ricans and Dominicans in NYC, something significant is happening,” noted Latino GOP consultant Mike Madrid in a tweet on X.
He wrapped it up nicely: “Turns out Latinos are monolithic—they’re monolithically anti-Trump.”
Guest: "Excuse me, we were supposed to have a roll-away bed in our room!"
Me: "We don't have any roll-away beds."
Guest: "WHAT?! We reserved a roll-away bed! How could you have given it away?!"
Me: "Ah, I see the confusion. We do not have any roll-away beds at all. We have never had them. There are none anywhere on the property."
And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:38)
Mary is in an interesting spot. God has not asked for her consent, at least not directly. The angel has simply told her, “This is how it will be.” Does that sound unfair?
And yet, isn’t there a sense in which all of us who belong to God have given our consent to be used by Him long ago? My husband doesn’t need to ask me before he commits me to helping a friend who is in an emergency. He knows my heart already. Of course I’ll say yes!
And the Lord knows Mary’s heart as well. He knows she loves Him. He knows she will consider the Gift He is giving her to be exactly that—the best gift ever!—and a great honor and responsibility as well. And we can see that He is right—because when she visits Elizabeth, she bursts out in a great song of praise for the wonderful thing God is doing through her, sending our Savior Jesus into the world.
It’s the same for us. We know that serving Jesus is an honor and blessing, because He’s the One who loved us so much He died and rose for us. It doesn’t really matter whether we enjoy doing the particular thing He’s asked of us or not. We have the chance to love Him by our actions—and we are glad to take it.
WE PRAY: Dear Lord, I know how greatly You love me, and I love You back. Use me as You see best. Amen.
Reflection Questions:
Who loves and trusts you so much they wouldn’t even need to ask if they needed your help?
Why would you come through for those people?
What service has God trusted you with, knowing you’ll do it for love of Him?
What started as coworkers leaving for the night quickly turned into an accidental rescue. A tiny kitten appeared by the door, sending one coworker into full panic while another tried gently nudging it away. One outstretched hand later, the kitten marched straight over for pets, and within seconds, she was scooped up and purring in someone's arms. There was no plan. Just a very small, very trusting kitten and a rapidly escalating sense of responsibility.
Taking her home "just for the night" immediately turned into cuddles, lap naps, and a kitten who purred so loudly she practically vibrated. Every attempt to set boundaries was followed by, "Obviously, I'm not keeping the cat," even as she ate, snuggled, and fell asleep on her rescuer's chest. A vet visit revealed no microchip, no illnesses, and no evidence of a responsible owner. That ended the last shred of hesitation.
Named Cleo on the drive home, she settled in quickly, bonding with the resident pets and acting like she'd been there forever. Sometimes the Cat Distribution System works fast and absolutely gets it right.
My table has a $150 tab, but ends up only leaving me $120.
Me: "[Manager], what do I do? They shorted me $30."
Manager: "You can pay the difference to make the check whole, or we'll mark the shortage as a "walk out" and you'll get written up."
It's hard to believe the first Cubetown visit was like 800 friggin' comics ago, holy crap. Time does weird things when you draw a comic every day for 20-odd years. As I recall, at this point I was still trying to figure out if QC would switch solely to focus on Marten and Claire's Cubetown adventures, or if I'd split the focus between Cubetown and Northampton. I ended up doing the latter, which I think was the right choice. Too many fun characters to just leave behind like that! And of course then I immediately added like four new ones, and then Anh basically took over the comic for a year. Is Sam still going through her goth phase? IS it just a phase? ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND OUT (I will do whatever seems funniest at the time)
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that President Donald Trump's tariffs are leading to inflation, confirming what economists have been warning since he first announced his idiotic trade policies earlier this year.
"Inflation for goods has picked up, reflecting the effects of tariffs," Powell said after the Federal Reserve Board voted to cut interest rates to address what Powell described as a “challenging” problem as both inflation and unemployment increase in tandem.
President Donald Trump listens as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a visit to the Federal Reserve on July 24.
"Labor demand has clearly softened," Powell added, reflecting recent reports showing that the United States actually lost jobs in recent months. "The median projection of the unemployment rate is 4.5% at the end of this year.”
Powell’s comments are likely to enrage Trump, who has been falsely insisting that costs are going down and that the economy is doing well. He even said that people who are worried about costs should simply do with less.
“You can give up certain products. You can give up pencils. That’s under the China policy, you know every child can get 37 pencils—they only need one or two, you know they don’t need that many,” Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania Tuesday night. “You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter, two or three is nice, but you don’t need 37 dolls.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson is also trying to gaslight Americans into believing that Trump and the GOP are addressing the cost of living, telling Americans to simply “relax” and to wait for prices to magically go down.
Trump already loathes Powell, who he has threatened to fire multiple times, even though the Federal Reserve is meant to be an independent entity free from political pressure. So investors are likely watching Trump’s Truth Social account with bated breath to see how he responds to Powell’s latest criticism of Trump’s tariffs.
But ultimately, Powell's assertion that Trump's tariffs are spiking inflation is just confirmation of what voters already know to be true.
An Economist/YouGov poll released Tuesday found that just 37% of Americans approve of Trump's handling of the economy, while just 33% approve of how he's handling inflation. It also found that 34% of Americans view the economy as "fair,” 39% view it as “poor,” and 52% believe that it is getting worse.
Frustration with Trump's mishandling of the economy has led to Democrats overperforming in recent elections, even flipping seats in districts that Trump once carried by wide margins. And now Republicans are sounding the alarm, saying that the midterms could be an absolute bloodbath if the GOP doesn’t address affordability soon.
“For Republicans to mitigate a disastrous midterm election, it all starts with tariffs,” right-wing radio host Erick Erickson wrote on X.
Now we wait to see if that transpires into action or another of Trump’s pathetic hissy fits.
A stranded Siamese cat in the winter cold and a good hooman who saves him for the holidays. The protagonist in the story thought his roommate locked himself out of the home and was knocking, but it turns out it was an early Christmas present. The hooman opens the door to find not his roommate, but a little Siamese kitty, with singed whiskers and fur. The hooman has a dog already, but claims the cat and dog are getting along swimmingly. He brings the cutie to the vet, and decides that he's been bestowed a gift from the cat distribution service.
He figures the singed whiskers and fur was probably due to the cat trying to find a warm place to hide, like close to a fire or under a car. Imagine all the poor stray cats and dogs all alone outside for the holidays, just trying to find somewhere warm to be. If you have the opportunity to take in a stray this winter, or at least take it to the vet, then it's worth the investment for the good of animals everywhere. The cat distribution service works in mysterious ways, just like Santa does. Read the full story below.
I stand there, hands at the scanner, waiting. She never once meets my eyes.
She places the items on the counter, still mid-conversation.
Customer: "…No, I told him already. Well, if he doesn’t like it, he can…"
I don’t scan a single thing.
As it turns out, lawmakers and federal workers aren’t a fan of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services. Not only does the HHS secretary have a line of people calling for him to resign, including his own staffers, but he is also now facing impeachment as well.
Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens of Michigan, shown in May.
That said, it’s very unlikely the impeachment succeeds. Congress has a Republican majority in both chambers, making the likelihood of this coming to a vote on the House floor very slim.
As noted by The New York Times, Stevens’ actions may be more about getting some fire under herrun for Senate as next year’s primary approaches. She faces state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and progressive activist Abdul El-Sayed.
However, another politician also thinks enough is enough with Kennedy.
Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, scheduled a vote that would allow lawmakers to signal their concerns over Kennedy’s malfeasance thus far. In theory, this could open the door for both sides of the aisle to openly discuss the havoc Kennedy has wreaked on HHS.
But it’s hard to say whether Republican lawmakers will take that opportunity.
For example, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a medical doctor who somewhat reluctantly voted for Kennedy’s confirmation, has recently turned down opportunities to criticize the health secretary. That’s the case even after Kennedy reneged on pledges he made to Cassidy about not messing too much with vaccine policy.
Kennedy, who has a long history of pushing anti-vaccine lies, has fired scientists from a top vaccine advisory committee, ousted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, and removed vaccine mandates for young children and pregnant women, among other things.
Republican Rep. Randy Fine of Florida appeared on CNN Wednesday to defend President Donald Trump’s racist tirades against Somali immigrants—by launching into a wildly racist tirade of his own.
Fine: Well, I'm not comfortable with a hierarchy of racism. The president isn't either, but not all cultures are equal and not all countries are equal. There are some people who come to this country to add value, and there are some that come to this country to take value.
And when we've seen in Minneapolis that 50% of the people who are naturalized engaged in immigration fraud, and we're seeing the largest fraud in terms of welfare programs perhaps in the history of our country, we know there's a problem. And the president speaks in language that Americans understand. He is blunt. He's not a politician—neither am I. And so I support as he is making people understand the threats that we're under right now.
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