Democrat staff members who belong to a far-Left caucus wrote a letter to congressional leaders this week asking that they reduce the full-time work week to just 32 hours so that they do not get burned out. The Congressional Progressive Staff Association, which represents House and Senate employees across the country, claimed that their proposal was about “a more sustainable approach to work on a national level.” “By adopting a 32-hour workweek for staff on a rotating basis, you can accomplish these goals while retaining the productivity and quality of work you expect and deserve from your team,” they claimed. “We urge you to consider piloting the program in your own offices and encouraging your fellow Members across your conference or caucus to do the same.” They complained that their jobs working for members of Congress were “often demanding and intensive.” “Staffers routinely work long hours at a level of rigor that regularly leads to burnout,” the letter claimed. The proposal, which was widely mocked online, said that members should institute “a 32-hour workweek for D.C.-based staff during district work periods and a 32-hour workweek for district-based staff while in-session.” “Doing so — without a reduction in pay — would allow both D.C. and distinct staff to be fully available around the clock throughout more intensive periods when the Member is in town while allowing for a more sustainable schedule when workloads are more manageable,” they added. “If implemented, offices are not likely to see a drop in overall productivity.” CELEBRATE #47 WITH 47% OFF DAILYWIRE+ MEMBERSHIPS + A FREE $20 GIFT The staffers claimed that members who were skeptical should “engage in a six-month pilot” to see if the reduction in hours leads to increased outcomes. Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) responded to the letter: “Members of Congress are always looking to hire and retain the best staff—hard workers who you can count on to go above and beyond on behalf of constituents.” “My advice to these ‘progressive staffers’ is simple: find a new industry. Public service is clearly not meant for you,” he added. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) responded: “If progressive hill staffers worked 0 hours per week, it would probably do more to help the Democrats win than anything else they could do.” “You want to work 32 hours but get paid for 40? Nope,” said Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL). “The taxpayers aka your boss, deserve folks who hustle and work hard FULL TIME on their behalf. This is public service after all…”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) released a powerful new ad on Thursday promoting the Justice for Jocelyn Act. The legislation was named after Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old who was allegedly murdered by two illegal aliens Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26. The Justice for Jocelyn Act would require that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fill every detention bed before enrolling any illegal alines in the “alternative to detention” program. The bill would require that all illegal aliens released as part of this program be subject to GPS monitoring and they would have a curfew imposed on them. “Last year, I began the fight for justice for 12-year-old Jocelyn,” Cruz said. “The aliens responsible for her murder crossed the southern border illegally and should have been detained by ICE.” “Democrats’ reckless open-border policies prevented ICE and Border Patrol agents from acting, left thousands of detention center beds empty, and allowed these criminals to go free,” he continued. “Congress should act with urgency to ensure no other American family ever has to endure what Jocelyn’s mother, Alexis Nungaray, has been forced to face.” CELEBRATE #47 WITH 47% OFF DAILYWIRE+ MEMBERSHIPS + A FREE $20 GIFT “Standing alongside Alexis in this fight for justice has been an immense privilege, and I will not stop fighting until our communities are safe and justice is served,” he added. WATCH: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) releases a powerful ad promoting the Justice for Jocelyn Act which would require that ICE fill every detention bed before enrolling any illegal aliens in the “alternative to detention” program. Additionally, it would require that all illegal aliens released… pic.twitter.com/WNDscmrCPD — Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) January 17, 2025 Related: Ted Cruz: Illegal Aliens Who Murdered 12-Year-Old In Houston Should Be ‘Executed’ And ‘Burn In The Pits Of Hell’

Kid Rock had a message about respect for former first lady Michelle Obama after she announced she’s skipping the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. During the rocker’s appearance on Thursday on FOX News Channel’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” the host asked the 53-year-old singer about performing at Trump’s second inauguration and if this was his first one. Kid Rock said it wasn’t his first, reminding Watters that he first attended and performed for the inauguration of former President Barack Obama.  “I was actually listening to your show a little bit before I got in the truck here. And I heard Michelle Obama’s not attending,” Kid Rock said. “I would kindly remind her that years back, when Obama was first elected, I did not vote for him, but they asked me to play the inauguration, and I played it, and I went, had a good time.” .@KidRock joins Primetime with a message for @MichelleObama. pic.twitter.com/PzIF2MZAiE — Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) January 17, 2025 “I went for — out of respect to the presidency,” he added. “So I would kindly remind Ms. Michelle about that.” Watters then asked the singer why he thought the former first lady wouldn’t be attending “when all the other first ladies are.” CELEBRATE #47 WITH 47% OFF DAILYWIRE+ MEMBERSHIPS + A FREE $20 GIFT “I don’t know,” Kid Rock replied. “She seems a little angry. She might be — wow. I don’t know. If you can’t say something nice, let me hear it.” On Wednesday, the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee announced that superstars Carrie Underwood and Jason Aldean, along with the “Cowboy” hitmaker, will be just a few of the singers participating in the various inauguration events. At a rally before the inauguration, Kid Rock and country singer Billy Ray Cyrus will perform along with the American disco band the Village People, who will also sing at one of the inaugural balls. Speaking on Watters, Kid Rock said he was putting together something very special for the rally. “I mean, I have spent so much time on this, when I was first asked to do it, and it was kind of a thing where they’re like, can you show up and play the track, do a couple songs?” Ritchie said. “And I was like, respectfully, I’m not interested in that at all. I’d rather help you any way I can. I’m a supporter,” he added. “And so I came up and I put something together, put it all down on paper to the minute, everything choreographed — this, this, and this. They loved it.” “Of course, we get into it. And we’re going through the due diligence to get it done. And God bless them,” Kid Rock continued. “Here comes the Secret Service and they’re like, yes, we can’t — we can’t light off fireworks and have big pyrotechnics … but we still got something very special planned.” The breakdown of all the performances can be found here. Related: Kid Rock Announces Tour, Says If You Still ‘Believe In Woke, DEI Bulls***,’ Sit These Shows Out

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) announced on Thursday that he has tapped his chief of staff James Uthmeier to be the state’s next attorney general. DeSantis made the remarks after he announced that he had selected Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody to replace Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in the U.S. Senate after he was nominated to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s Secretary of State. “My Chief of Staff, James Uthmeier, is kind of like Ashley. He’s proven himself in these fights,” DeSantis said in Orlando. “I think he’s got big shoes to fill, but I think he’ll do a good job doing that.” “So you can anticipate that,” he continued. “I’m not going to make any appointment before it’s available, but I think that’s something that will happen.” While Uthmeier waits for the appointment to become official — which will happen after Rubio is confirmed by the U.S. Senate — he did release a statement thanking the governor. CELEBRATE #47 WITH 47% OFF DAILYWIRE+ MEMBERSHIPS + A FREE $20 GIFT “I’m honored and humbled to be appointed by @GovRonDeSantis as the next Attorney General of the Free State of Florida,” he wrote on X. “I’m excited to get to work, build on @AGAshleyMoody’s fine record, help enact the @realDonaldTrump agenda, and defend our people, our constitution, and our Florida way of life!” I’m honored and humbled to be appointed by @GovRonDeSantis as the next Attorney General of the Free State of Florida. I’m excited to get to work, build on @AGAshleyMoody’s fine record, help enact the @realDonaldTrump agenda, and defend our people, our constitution, and our… — James Uthmeier (@JamesUthmeierFL) January 16, 2025 Jeanette Nuñez, the Lieutenant Governor of Florida, praised the pick, saying that Uthmeier “will be a fantastic Attorney General.” “Floridians can count on you to protect our state, defend the rule of law, and uphold the Florida Constitution,” she added.

President-elect Donald Trump demanded on Thursday night that the FBI retain all records from the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) office that it closed last month. The Bureau quietly closed its Office of Diversity and Inclusion last month ahead of Trump’s inauguration as the president-elect has promised to gut DEI efforts throughout the federal government — a move that many corporations have started to do over the last year. “We demand that the FBI preserve and retain all records, documents, and information on the now closing DEI Office—Never should have been opened and, if it was, should have closed long ago,” Trump wrote on social media. “Why is it that they’re closing one day before the Inauguration of a new Administration? The reason is, CORRUPTION!” The FBI said in a statement that it closed the office last month, but it did not elaborate on why. The FBI’s DEI agenda recently came under fire from Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who warned that the ideological agenda is being elevated over the mission of ensuring the safety of Americans. “I am deeply concerned that—under your leadership—the Bureau has prioritized Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives over its core mission of protecting the American people,” Blackburn said in a letter earlier this month. One former FBI special agent Nicole Parker blasted the “constant push for social justice weaponization at the FBI whose top priorities are to protect the American people and uphold the constitution” in a statement of her own. CELEBRATE #47 WITH 47% OFF DAILYWIRE+ MEMBERSHIPS + A FREE $20 GIFT The FBI still lists the Office of Diversity and Inclusion on its website, explaining that the office’s mission is to “provide guidance and implement programs that promote a diverse and inclusive workplace that allows all employees to succeed and advance.” “The FBI’s efforts to diversify are crucial to creating an inclusive workforce and to being increasingly effective and efficient in our investigations and keeping the American public safe,” a quote from the FBI’s first Chief Diversity Officer Scott McMillion also reads on the site. It also encourages employees to join employee resource groups, identity-based associations that The Daily Wire found are used as activist nodes to push the leftwing agenda. It is unclear if these groups will be discontinued along with the agency’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Various different agencies across the federal government are still pursuing the DEI agenda, however, with agencies under the Biden administration taking an estimated 500 actions intended to embed and promote DEI. Upon being inaugurated next week, Trump and his administration will have the opportunity to fire woke bureaucrats who may attempt to stonewall his policy agenda and purge the DEI agenda from the bureaucracy and military.

'They lie to the American people'

'A lot of Hispanics like Donald Trump'

Departing President Joe Biden offered a farewell brag this week to his State Department about how his tenure had improved America’s stature abroad. In his now accustomed weird mix of whispering and fiery shouting, Biden apparently felt he had to lie or mislead about almost every one of his “achievements.” Yet to the extent that anything improved abroad on his watch—the weakening of Iran or the near destruction of Hamas and Hezbollah—it was due despite, not because of, Biden. Biden, bowing to election year political pressure, did all he could to restrain and block Israeli retaliations to the Oct. 7 massacres. Only after he was repeatedly proven wrong does he now shamelessly take credit for what Israel ironically achieved by ignoring his own threats directed at Israel. Biden is correct only that Iran is “weaker than it’s been in decades.” But Tehran was aided, not hurt, by Biden’s nonstop efforts to lift sanctions, to allow Iran to make billions in oil revenues, to pay the theocracy billions of dollars in hostage ransom, and to beg the mullahs to reenter the ill-starred Iran deal. Everything Biden did makes it much harder for Israel to survive. So, Iran is now weakened only because Israel ignored Biden’s nonstop ankle-biting and finger-shaking not to retaliate to Iranian aggression. Instead, the Netanyahu government systematically destroyed Iranian air defenses after killing most of Iran’s foreign terrorist operatives. Biden referenced the end of the Assad regime in Syria, but it imploded not due to any effort by Biden. It was overwhelmed instead only after the Israeli decimation of Hezbollah and humiliation of Iran—coupled with the election victory of Donald Trump—that encouraged Assad’s enemies to attack a now isolated and weakened regime. Biden is also taking credit for rumors that Hamas might release its hostages, who have been held in a subterranean labyrinth since Oct. 7. But why, with less than a week left in his tenure, did Biden believe Hamas might begin releasing the hostages when even his own secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has criticized the administration for spending 16 months pressuring Israel, which only emboldened Hamas’ stonewalling? Much more likely, the election of Trump and his threat to unleash terrible retribution on Hamas (and implicitly on Iran) had prompted the terrorists’ tardy willingness to negotiate a release. Of the horrific scramble from Afghanistan—the greatest humiliation of the U.S. military in a half-century that cost the lives of 13 Marines—Biden boasted: “[I am] the first president in decades who’s not leaving a war in Afghanistan to his successor.” Think of his warped logic: Biden does not leave a war to his successor only because he fled in humiliation and lost it. Biden also took credit for saving Ukraine from Russia. But he conveniently omitted why Russia invaded in the first place. Had Biden not destroyed American deterrence by fleeing Kabul and leaving behind billions of dollars in abandoned U.S. military equipment, had he not claimed, prior to the Russian invasion, that his reaction to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s likely aggression would hinge on whether it was “a minor incursion,” then the Russians might never have invaded at all. Putin grabbed Crimea and the Donbas in 2014 during the Obama-Biden administration. He later sought to swallow the entire country with an attack on Kyiv in 2022 on Biden’s watch. However, Putin stayed within his borders only during one of the last four administrations—Trump’s. Biden crowed that he accomplished all these misadventures without the use of force—”We have not gone to war to make these things happen.” But Biden did more than any other recent president to weaken the U.S. military. Under his tenure, the Pentagon suffered a real reduction in its budget. And it never quite recovered from the Afghanistan debacle. Annually, the military now comes up 40,000 recruits short due to Biden’s draconian vaccination requirements, its new woke mandates, and its constant false accusations of “white rage” and “white privilege” in the ranks—libels that prompted a Pentagon internal investigation that found no such racism. China was never more bellicose than during Biden’s presidency. It serially threatened Taiwan, used cyber warfare to bully the U.S., brazenly expropriated U.S. military technology, and without worry sent a spy balloon to traverse the U.S. with impunity.Biden’s open border saw more than 10 million illegal entries, among them thousands of Chinese nationals. Meanwhile, Chinese investors were freed to systematically buy up thousands of acres of America’s farmland adjacent to sensitive U.S. military bases and installations. Add it all up, and Biden would have done better to have just kept quiet and departed his failed presidency in shame. (C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Biden’s Bizarro World of Foreign Policy ‘Achievements’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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