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Author: TriSec    Date: 12/14/2021 11:27:13

Good Morning.

Yep, it's still about Covid. Remember back at the beginning of the crisis, the outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt?

Things have changed since then - but the people haven't.


Once the vaccine was developed, only some of us breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to do the right thing. Vast stretches of this country saw it as an affront to their rights, and started behaving like the petulant children that they are. Those in the military would have little choice, as orders are orders, but that turned out not to be true.

All new recruits to the services must have a broad spectrum of vaccines. Most are administered during the normal course of childhood, but for those you didn't get, the Army will be glad to give them to you. If you don't have them, you don't go in. It's that simple.

It wasn't quite that way with covid; many of those that are tasked with defending the Constitution took offence at being asked to be healthy while doing so. That "Band of Brothers" we've heard tell of apparently stops at the end of a needle. The military did waffle on this for months, but finally have started to take some action.


WASHINGTON (AP) — A Navy commander has been fired from his job as the executive officer of a warship because he refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine as required and refused to be tested for the virus, Navy officials said Friday.

Cmdr. Lucian Kins was relieved of his duties Friday as second in command of the USS Winston Churchill, a destroyer, by Navy Capt. Ken Anderson, commander of Naval Surface Squadron 14. Officials said Kins was the first naval officer to be fired as a result of a vaccine refusal.

Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Jason Fischer declined to give the precise reason why Kins was relieved of command, citing privacy concerns. Fischer, who is spokesman for the Naval Surface Force Atlantic, said the reason for the firing was that Anderson lost confidence in Kins' ability to perform his duties after he failed to obey a lawful order.

Other officials, however, said it was because Kins refused the order to get the vaccine, and refused testing to ensure he did not have the virus.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues. One official said Kins has requested a religious exemption, which was denied. Kins is appealing that denial.

The Pentagon has made the vaccine mandatory for all service members, and Navy personnel had until late November to get their shots or request exemptions. Thousands of service members have asked for religious exemptions, but so far none of the military services have approved one.


But the struggle continues. Back ashore in Oklahoma, it would seem that their National Guard is warning soldiers that there may be "Career Ending Action", but it's actually the commander siding with the anti-vaxxers. There is a curiosity in the Guard, having a split command. When it's under state control, they report to the local Governor, but when activated, they report to the President. Vaccination rules are different at both levels.


The leadership of the Oklahoma National Guard has acknowledged that its fight with the federal government over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate ultimately may lead to "career ending federal action" for troops.

Brig. Gen. Thomas Mancino, the top officer for Oklahoma's Guard, released a statement Thursday that opened with a forceful defense of service members under his charge exercising their "personal responsibility" and "the right to not take the vaccine."

However, the message quickly pivoted as Mancino began to note that his and Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt's authority is limited.

"Anyone exercising their personal responsibility and deciding not to take the vaccine must realize that the potential for career ending federal action, baring [sic] a favorable court ruling, legislative intervention, or a change in policy is present," Mancino wrote in the statement.

State National Guard formations are unique in the military in that they have dual obligations: to both the state and federal government. When under their governor's authority, the Guard is said to be operating under Title 32. However, when deployed by the federal government, they operate under so-called Title 10 orders and are commanded by the president.

"The Governor has used his authority under Title 32 to grant you a limited safe harbor within his authority to not be subject to Title 10 negative actions for not taking the vaccine," Mancino explained.

This distinction -- whom an individual Guard member ultimately takes orders from and when -- has been the crux of the fight between Oklahoma and the Pentagon. That fight now includes a lawsuit launched by Stitt and threats from the Pentagon to withhold pay.


I have referenced it before - Abraham Lincoln had some things to say about a house divided back on June 16, 1858. Of course with the necessary adjustments for today:


"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half vaccinated and half infected.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other.

Either the opponents of Covid, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or the anti-vaxxers will push it forward, till it shall become permanent in all the States, old as well as new -- Blue as well as Red.












 
 

1 comments (Latest Comment: 12/14/2021 14:25:52 by Will in Chicago)
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