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President Joe Biden---Day 1339---Fourth Year---Day 334---Evening Shade---Tuesday [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-12-31

THE PERSON who MAKES the FIRST COMMENT WILL GET TWO CRITTERS

EVERY PERSON WHO COMMENTS WILL GET A CRITTER

RULES IN THE DIARY

WHEN YOU FIND SOMETHING in the DIARY that you LIKE

YOU CAN REPOST IT AS COMMENT in the DIARY

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Listen up everyone. The GOP is waging a stealth attack on veterans’ healthcare. thehill.com/…

Fellow veterans: our healthcare is under attack. Republicans launched an unprecedented assault on the Department of Veterans Affairs’s healthcare system earlier this month with devastating bills that would gut it from the inside out. This isn’t reform: it’s demolition and privatization. And it is fiscally reckless. The architects of this attack are following the lead of Concerned Veterans for America, a Koch-backed outfit that has long plotted VA privatization. Feel-good buzzwords mask the ongoing takedown of the very system that millions of my fellow veterans and I rely on. Despite the slick marketing attempt, the proposals would strip the VA of its core functions, reducing it to little more than a checkbook for private-sector (and less accountable) providers.

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I hope he gets the mental health care he needs. Son of US senator jailed for 28 years over chase and crash that killed police officer. www.theguardian.com/...

The adult son of the Republican North Dakota US senator Kevin Cramer has been sentenced to serve 28 years in prison in connection with a wild chase in which he fled from a hospital and drove into a deputy’s vehicle, killing the deputy. Ian Cramer, 43, pleaded guilty in September to all of the charges against him, including homicide while fleeing a peace officer, preventing arrest, reckless endangerment, fleeing an officer and drug- and driving-related offenses. Those charges related to the chase and crash in December last year that killed the Mercer county sheriff’s deputy Paul Martin, 53.

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This guy is still in the running? Pete Hegseth Wants the U.S. Military to "Be the World's Sheriff." The Trump Defense nominee's rhetoric clashes with MAGA's "America First" movement. meidasnews.com/…

Pete Hegseth, a potential Defense nominee, has expressed views that conflict with the MAGA base and Donald Trump's "America First" foreign policy rhetoric. During a 2016 speech at the Heritage Foundation, Hegseth advocated for the U.S. military to "be the world's sheriff," signaling support for a more interventionist approach to global conflicts: "So as good patriots after 7 years of Obama, what do we need to do? We need to unapologetically lead, be willing to acknowledge that without America there is no leader of the free world. And, again, it doesn't mean we have to be the policeman in every corner, but we better be the world's sheriff with a big, shiny badge willing to say our security and our interests are important to us and when our word matters, and we will backup our allies and stand up to our enemies."

I don't think that will play well in Peoria Maga-land.

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This is a really good read. If you don't have a bowl of popcorn handy, I'd suggest popping a fresh batch before reading. You'll thank me later. Trump begins his lame duck term pre-hobbled. www.publicnotice.co/…

Just before Christmas, Donald Trump and his sidekick Elon Musk were so eager for Trump to start acting like an ineffective lame duck president that they blundered into a debacle over a temporary spending bill, thereby positioning Democrats to exploit GOP plans to cut essential government programs. The failed Trump and Musk show of “power” had no material impact on government spending and “succeeded” only in cutting funding for pediatric cancer research and nixing efforts to cut back on junk fees. (The cancer research spending was later revived by the Senate.) But the fiasco revealed the mendaciousness of Republicans’ supposed goal of increasing government “efficiency,” while confirming Trump/Musk’s actual plan to remake the federal government — not to make it spend less, but to make it provide less to those with less, and more to those with a lot.

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From Aaron Rupar bsky.app/...

Rep. Jeff Van Drew says that he supports Mike Johnson but if Trump tells him not to "that would change my mind," then in the next breath claims "I'm a very independent person." 🤔

No, what you are is an as shat.

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Hmm, preparing to throw a spanner in the works? Noblesville, IN – Today, Rep. Victoria Spartz released the following statement on her upcoming speaker vote on January 3, 2025: spartz.house.gov/…

“Congress has abandoned its constitutional duty to the American people to properly oversee the spending of their hard-earned money paid as taxes. Our next speaker must show courageous leadership to get our country back on track before this “Titanic” strikes an iceberg at any moment. Severe fiscal calamities often lead to unrest and more government control. If we are serious about governing, our next SPEAKER must COMMIT PUBLICLY to create at least temporary structures in the House for: 1) authorizations; 2) reconciliation offset policies, and 3) spending audits. We also need to engage competent, unbiased “non-swamp” professionals to help us to at least start getting us gradually out of this serious fiscal mess. The current STRUCTURES, with their perverse incentives, have not been working for decades and will not suddenly start working. We must have a vision and a concrete PLAN to deliver on President Trump’s agenda for the American people, which I have not seen from our current speaker despite countless discussions and public promises. The fate of our Republic is at stake and Congress, the ARTICLE 1 BRANCH, with its supreme powers of creating laws and managing our nation’s finances, must start fulfilling its CONSTITUTIONAL DUTIES – not selling out our Republic at the expense of our children.”

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Evening Shade Seekers! Happy Leap Second Time Adjustment Day!

Leap Second Time Adjustment Day is listed as an observance title only. Some years scientists do not make adjustments. But, if they do, then it’s done on either June 30 or December 31.

Leaping Lizards Lemurs!

Happy Make Up Your Mind Day!

Each year, Make Up Your Mind Day on December 31st encourages us to quit wavering, to take a side, and follow through with a decision and stick to it.

Happy Champagne Day!

And of course, Happy New Years Eve!

Tomorrow is New Years Day, National Hangover Day AND National Bloody Mary Day! I think you know what to do.

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