“In one of the most ridiculous moves made by our government in its history, over 60,000 Army National Guard and Reservists will be barred from service for refusing to get vaccinated against covid due to the clearly useless mandate issued by the Biden administration.
Roughly 40,000 National Guardsmen and 22,000 Reservists will be barred from service for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the US Army announced Friday.
The decision effectively cuts off pay and benefits to the combined 62,000 service members and prohibits them from participating in training.
“Soldiers who refuse the vaccination order without an approved or pending exemption request are subject to adverse administrative actions, including flags, bars to service, and official reprimands,” an Army spokesperson said in a statement to Military.com.
The Guardsmen and Reservists had until last Thursday to receive the vaccine. The deadline was the latest of all the armed services, which required members to get vaccinated last year, according to the outlet.
If the soldiers continue to refuse the vaccination requirement without a valid medical or religious exemption, they could face further action including “separation” or mandatory discharge.
Part-time service members who have pending exemption cases can continue to participate in training exercises and collect pay and benefits. However, the Army has approved very few medical exemptions and religious exemptions to date, Military.com reported.”
———–
This is also about ideologically purging those who disagree with the Biden admin.
“Army Suspends Retired Three-Star General for Snarky Reply to Jill Biden on Twitter
“Lt. Gen. Theodore Martin, commanding general of the Combined Arms Center, has suspended retired Lt. Gen. Gary Volesky from performing duties as a Highly Qualified Expert””
“The U.S. Army has suspended a long-serving general from a mentor position for offering a snarky reply to a tweet from First Lady Jill Biden on the subject of abortion.
Maybe this is part of the reason for the military’s current recruitment problem.
Axios reports:
Army suspends general after tweet appearing to mock Jill Biden
The Army has suspended a three-star general’s contract and placed him under investigation after he posted a tweet that appeared to mock first lady Jill Biden, USA Today reports.
The big picture: Retired Lt. Gen. Gary Volesky, the Army’s former top spokesman, responded to a tweet from Biden that said the rights of women had been stolen in the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“For nearly 50 years, women have had the right to make our own decisions about our bodies. Today, that right was stolen from us,” Biden tweeted.
“Glad to see you finally know what a woman is,” Volesky said.”
————
So a three-star who repeatedly risked his life for us gets punished for a comment protected by the First Amendment? If Jill and company are so sensitive, find a safe space with other birthing people https://t.co/p7JBmu3Y1j
“Now that the U.S. Military is focusing on issues like social justice, equity, white privilege, and LGBT concerns, they are having trouble meeting recruitment goals.
It turns out that many of the people who would normally volunteer to risk their lives for the country aren’t as interested in being lectured on their race or taught about pronouns.
NBC News reports:
Every branch of the military is struggling to make its 2022 recruiting goals, officials say
Every branch of the U.S. military is struggling to meet its fiscal year 2022 recruiting goals, say multiple U.S. military and defense officials, and numbers obtained by NBC News show both a record low percentage of young Americans eligible to serve and an even tinier fraction willing to consider it.
The officials said the Pentagon’s top leaders are now scrambling for ways to find new recruits to fill out the ranks of the all-volunteer force. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks consider the shortfall a serious issue, said the officials, and have been meeting on it frequently with other leaders.
“This is the start of a long drought for military recruiting,” said Ret. Lt. Gen. Thomas Spoehr of the Heritage Foundation, a think tank. He said the military has not had such a hard time signing recruits since 1973, the year the U.S. left Vietnam and the draft officially ended. Spoehr said he does not believe a revival of the draft is imminent, but “2022 is the year we question the sustainability of the all-volunteer force.”
The need for recruits has become so desperate that the army has even dropped its requirement for a high school diploma.
Tim Meads reports at the Daily Wire:
U.S. Army Drops High School Diploma Requirement As It Struggles To Find New Recruits”
——
And in times of conflict, who fills these holes?
Why National Guardsmen, who just saw 60K of their numbers purged.
“The contents of Hunter Biden’s iCloud account have allegedly been hacked by users of the 4chan community, who posted screenshots purported to be from his phone and computer on the website’s main political forum late Saturday night.
Administrators on the image board moved quickly in the hours after the content was posted to pull down threads that included materials from the alleged leak, leaving many on the site, which is known for featuring some of the most salacious subject matter on the internet, furious.
The content from the leak could not immediately be verified by the Washington Examiner, and a White House representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It was also not immediately clear if the contents of the 4chan leak included any materials from the younger Biden’s infamous laptop, of which the Washington Examiner verified the authenticity earlier this year. The infamous laptop, which emerged into the public view in the final weeks of the 2020 election, contains details about the first son’s financial dealings and personal matters.”
When discussing big scary guns, it’s good to at least have a basic understanding of the weapons you’re speaking on. If not, you will rightly be mocked mercilessly. 🙂
Actually that button activates the AR15's railgun feature allowing it to punch clean through tank armor like it isn't even there. The rail gun can be exchanged for a flame thrower, plasma, shotgun, volkite, and or orbital bombardment marking beam. No civilian needs to have it.
— President Nagatoro (@SonofAzathoth) July 8, 2022
——–
When I served in the Southland Mall Department of Loss Prevention (DLP) we called this the "Rittenhouse Manouver."
Civilians have no need of a this, full stop.
— …….this should end well (@Vakavcht) July 8, 2022
——–
That actually increases velocity by 300 every press. Similar to pumping a BB gun. I’ve heard 10 pumps can go through a tank.
When I was LAPD airborne SWAT they told us that button could be depressed multiple times to increase the power of the hammer hitting the round, thereby increasing its velocity and giving us the capacity to penetrate light vehicle armor. We never used it because it was too deadly
— Ceci n'est pas une Doge (@dogeson_of_doge) July 7, 2022
——-
When I was in, they had that button reconfigured to allow us to switch back & forth between regular bullets and flame-thrower mode. The selector switch would allow for both, so you could shoot flaming bullets.
That’s actually the forward assist and it helps chamber 1 round into the chamber when your gun jams. Only one, not auto fire dummies. There’s a selector switch for semi or full auto on military models, which civilians can’t get. The selector switch is absent in a civilian model. Semi-auto only, one trigger pull, one bullet, one shot. You’d need to do a rebuild to get it to do what they allege, and the govt won’t let you buy the parts necessary without a permit that they don’t give out easily.
Now NBC is openly hoping for Trump to die. If Fox had guests on musing anything like this re Biden, they’d be raided or sued for billions of $. This is shameful & NBC should apologize for this immediately and discipline Chuck Todd for triggering this. https://t.co/yAcepJ5zrY
“”We’ve seen senior military commanders who are overruling independent physicians and putting them under duress to change their medical opinion,” the attorney said”
“Aformer Army JAG now in private practice told The Star News Network that he has seen senior military commanders overrule physicians, pressure them to reverse their opinions, and rescind COVID-19 vaccine exemptions from service members who had been granted them.
Sean Timmons, a military law expert at Tully Rinckey, said directives to take the shots are illegal, as is the use of pressure to bring doctors’ positions in line with the desires of military command.
“By just having a doctor rubber-stamp whatever action the command wants is not complying with his ethical duty to provide care independent of duress from unethical actors,” he told the network.
“That to me is wholly unlawful because you’re removing the patient and provider privilege and you’re removing the ethical concern the doctor has as a duty to treat a patient.”
Timmons said he personally knows an Army doctor who was punished for giving one soldier an exemption to the COVID vaccine.
“That physician was removed from his job and then overruled, and they made the soldier see another doctor who then complied with the mandate from higher command to deny medical waivers and medical exemptions,” he said.
Speaking just days after the Army National Guard vowed to begin punishing thousands of members for not receiving the COVID vaccine, Timmons stressed that such actions are illegal.”
J6 committee member Zoe Lofgren confirms the committee did *not* ask Pat Cipollone about Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony that Cipollone said 'We're going to get charged with every crime imaginable' if Trump went to Capitol on J6. 1/3
This also suggests J6 committee, after featuring Hutchinson's explosive Trump SUV attack testimony, will not attempt to get Secret Service corroboration for it. That way, they can continue to say no one has disputed the story. 3/3 End.
Because it’s a purge for those who dare disagree with the Biden admins idiotic rule.
"More than 24k members across the branches submitted religious-accommodation requests following Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s August 2021 vaccination order. Almost all have been rejected. These troops now face punishment and discharge." https://t.co/Vv7MZyrUEF via @WSJOpinion
“After months and months of bad news and metastasizing crises, who can blame President Joe Biden for seizing one glimmer of good economic news? Too bad the good news isn’t really that good at all.
On the surface, the economic news from Friday looked celebratory. The Labor Department reported that the economy had created 372,000 mobs in June, beating the consensus forecast (a rare thing under Biden). The unemployment rate held at 3.6%. And, to top it off, jobs in the private sector regained all the losses from the COVID lockdowns.
In response, Biden rushed out a statement bragging about how “this has been the fastest and strongest jobs recovery in American history,” and that it “would not have been possible without the decisive action my administration took last year to fix a broken COVID response, and pass the American Rescue Plan to get our economy back on track.”
He went on: “We have more Americans working in the private sector today than any day during Donald Trump’s Presidency – more people than any time in our history.”
Only the last claim has any truth to it.
The idea that Biden presided over the fastest job growth in history is meaningless since he took office after the biggest decline in jobs in history. From February 2020 to April 2020, the economy shed a stunning 22 million jobs – thanks to COVID lockdowns we now know were completely pointless.
In the nine months following that trough, the economy added back 12.5 million of those jobs. Then Biden took office. And in the 18 months since he’s been calling the shots, the economy recovered only 9 million more jobs, and even now hasn’t surpassed the previous peak in employment.
So how, exactly, does Biden come to the conclusion that his $2 trillion “rescue” plan should get credit? If anything, it slowed down what had been a mad rush of people returning to work.
It is true that private-sector employment hit a new peak in June, surpassing the previous peak set in February 2020. But just barely – by all of 140,000. Total employment, however, is still 524,000 below its Trump peak.
Worse, even that meager private sector gain hasn’t been nearly enough to keep pace with population growth over the past two-plus years.
Labor Department data show that the working-age population in America shot up by 4.2 million from February 2020 to June 2022.
But what about that low unemployment number? That’s certainly something to cheer about, isn’t it? For Biden and his media lapdogs, maybe.
In fact, the unemployment rate tracks only those who are looking for work or who have a job. Anyone who has dropped out of the labor force entirely – because they’ve retired or just gave up looking for work – doesn’t get counted as unemployed.
Well, guess what? The number of people who aren’t in the labor force has climbed by 4.8 million since February 2020. As a result, only 62.2% of working-age adults (those over 16) are in the labor force. That’s down from 63.4% at the pre-COVID peak.”
These humanitarian rich feel just terrible about the sins of America, but not terrible enough to sacrifice any element of their privileged lifestyles—the just deserts they feel for being so righteous.”
“Marie Antoinette, the beheaded wife of the beheaded French Bourbon King Charles Louis XVI, did not really say “Let them cake.”
But in the short time that the French Revolution became utterly unhinged, toxic, and nihilistic, she became nonetheless iconic as an out-of-touch elite who had lived in a make-believe world at Versailles, without a clue (or care?) about the ordeal of the masses.
Rather than worry about the drudgery of the French peasant, Marie dressed up as one. And she roamed about in her idyllic faux peasant “farm” at the Hameau de la Reine, near the palace at Versailles.
Apparently, during these brief rustic interludes, Marie felt that the more she might act out a sort of aristocratic peasant life, the more she could find simplicity and escape the drama of court life, but without the real-life, crushing poverty of the poor.
The modern left-wing elite are becoming our version of Antoinettes. Thirty-eight-year-old Mark Zuckerberg is worth over $60 billion. But he enjoys T-shirts, jeans, and apparent simplicity in his many landed estates. He is so worried about the wrong voting tendencies of the clueless middle classes that he poured nearly $420 million of dark money from his vast fortune into the 2020 election—de facto absorbing the work of key precinct registrars—to ensure the “right” result for the unthinking multitudes.
Americans, almost uniquely among modern nations, mostly do not envy, much less despise the rich. But there is a certain sort of privilege that they do not like: the sanctimonious and hypercritical rich whose rhetoric is at odds with their own lifestyles and the methods by which they inherited or made vast sums. And they especially are turned off by those who exude open disdain for the clinger/deplorable/dregs class—to paraphrase the Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden nomenclature.
An especially grating habit of the left-wing wealthy is to lecture the middle class on their supposed illiberality. Often, those struggling are told they need to pay more for what White House economic advisor Brian Deese recently called the “liberal world order.”
Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, or George Soros, to take a few examples, are multibillionaires who live lives unlike any in the history of civilization. They also fund various agendas through multibillion-dollar foundations and their own personal riches.
Their causes are all deemed critical to the nation and planet, but unfortunately not fully appreciated as so vital by the peasant classes—whether they be global governance, massive restructuring of the economy to stop carbon releases, radical abortion on demand, or the sponsoring of critical legal theory prosecutors who feel crime is but a rich man’s construct.
Indeed, when various pollsters recently asked the public what their chief worries were, they found the culprits were the prohibitive price of gasoline, the ruinous effects of hyperinflation, supply chain shortages, the nonexistent southern border, or the escalating violent crime wave—all of which concerns are of apparent little interest to left-wing billionaires.
In other words, the worries of the Antoinette liberal elite—climate change, abortion on demand, transgenderism, strict gun-control—are not those that terrify the middle and lower classes. The latter, for some reason, first want to survive one more day with enough affordable food and energy and to be safe from criminals.”
What is interesting to me concerning the “investigation” of the general for his “tweet” is that we seem to be plunked right back to the McCarthy era….only in reverse! If you don’t align yourself with socialism/communism you are suspect. And have mercy if you speak opposite of this “administration”, Dems, leftist ideology….we are their target.
The military has a list of vaccinations you are required to take and they simply added the covid vaccine to the list. I’m not surprised there’s very few exemptions – if you took all the other vaccines when you enlisted, any argument against the covid vaccine is probably not legitimate. The military, like any other employer, is allowed to have specific job requirements. Although current employees are not always subject to new requirements until the contract is renewed, health and safety reasons can sometimes trump contractual reasons.
Unions can protect those who won’t get a vaccine or other new obligations introduced mid-contract but non-union shop employees have very little recourse when it comes to new health and safety measures. And given this is the armed forces, I’m not sure what these people were thinking – the most heirarchal career one can have. As for a former JAG officer telling second hand anecdotes – not worth the time. Personally, I don’t think vaccine mandates are necessary of adults especailly the yearly flu shot or something similar but employers including the armed forces have certain rights and obligations and health and safety is one of them.
Of course, the general was sanctioned. The amred forces are non-political. In a democracy, a member of the military must be non-political to minimize the influence of the military on the democratic process. Nothing to do with free speech – you signed that away when you enlisted. It’s an amusing tweet but not from an officer.
Not surprised the armed forces are struggling with recruit numbers – rural areas which supply a disportinate number of recruits are declining in numbers and aging.
4chan hacking of an individual’s iCloud account is not investigative journalism. In all likelihood, it’s illegal not much different than burgling a home and stealing confidential and personal papers.
The media is not turning on Biden. They are simply acting like the journalists they are and reporting.
The billionaires do not have a left wing agenda nor are they playing house like Marie Antoinette, although the image of Zuckerberg living like a minimum wage earner would make good television. The billionaires know to maintain a classical liberal capitalist economy, social liberalism must exist along with market liberalism and furthermore, the state must be functional and provide a structure for the market to exist. Most right wing populists regimes are unstable and too personal (corruption and political intervention are common), hence they prefer centre-right or centre-left eg Romney or Clinton; Pepsi or Coke.
The American job participation rate is about the OECD average — normal for a mature economy. The slight difference pre and post Covid is negligible and probably can be explained by several factors – early retirement increased during Covid, working at home as contractors also increased, etc. Other than inflation, the US economy isn’t much different than pre-Covid and that includes employment.
Most statistical agencies consider the working age to be 15-64. However, most 15 – 25 year olds are still in school or starting out in the work force working part time type jobs. At 25 – 64 labour participation rates are much higher. Western European participation rates are even higher than the US but that’s mostly due to better record keeping and the lack of early retirement options among civil servants in Europe (my cousin, also a teacher, has to work to 65 whereas I’ll retire at 56).
Yes, let’s do this so that there is no post-deposition editing. Nobody is buying their lies anymore except for the corrupt media and those who aren’t willing to seek the truth.
“Former White House adviser Steve Bannon agreed on July 10 to testify in front of the House Jan. 6 Committee after he received a letter from former President Donald Trump telling him that Trump will waive executive privilege.
Bannon, who’s slated to go on trial for criminal contempt charges in July for defying a previous subpoena by the panel, said he wanted to testify in public, according to a letter from his lawyer, Bob Costello.
“While Mr. Bannon has been steadfast in his convictions, circumstances have now changed,” Costello wrote in the letter, according to numerous media outlets. “Mr. Bannon is willing to, and indeed prefers, to testify at your public hearing.”
Trump told Bannon that he would waive his executive privilege. Previously, Bannon’s lawyers have said that he wouldn’t respond to the panel’s subpoenas because of the privilege.
“When you first received the Subpoena to testify and provide documents, I invoked Executive Privilege. However, I watched how unfairly you and others have been treated, having to spend vast amounts of money on legal fees, and all of the trauma you must be going through for the love of your Country, and out of respect for the Office of the President,” Trump wrote in his letter.
“Therefore, if you reach an agreement on a time and place for your testimony, I will waive Executive Privilege for you, which allows you to go in and testify truthfully and fairly.””
“Texas Republican Party delegates—who last month approved a resolution rejecting Joe Biden as a legitimately elected president—adopted a sweeping new platform with a big focus on election integrity.
The state’s GOP released the results of its 2022 platform vote this week. Two of the measures seek fair elections free of illegal voting practices and updated voter registration rolls to combat fraud.
Among provisions for fair elections, Republicans want to limit mail-in ballots to those who can’t physically appear in person, and prohibit internet voting for public office, mandate full signature verification for mail-in ballots, require voter photo ID, and deter counterfeiting by using sequential ballots.
On voter rolls, Republicans want voters to re-register if they haven’t voted in five years. Voter requirements include proof of residency, citizenship, and a photo ID. They also approved compiling a list of certified deaths so the Texas secretary of state’s office can remove deceased persons from voter rolls. They also want to repeal all motor voter laws.
The platform reflects concerns raised in the resolution rejecting the certified results of the 2020 presidential election. In June, nearly 5,000 delegates at the Texas Republican Convention voted on the resolution and platform.
The resolution declared that the 2020 election violated the Constitution by allowing secretaries of state to circumvent their state legislatures illegally. It asserted that “substantial election fraud” had occurred in key metropolitan areas, affecting the results in five states to Biden’s favor.”
On Bannon, just to round out the story (because, in fairness, there is always more info to consider from other sources … ) — from the WSJ:
__________________
Prosecutors Say Steve Bannon Should Still Face Trial
Government says former Trump adviser’s new willingness to testify to Jan. 6 committee has no bearing on his charges of criminal contempt for defying congressional subpoena
… WASHINGTON—The Justice Department told a federal judge that Steve Bannon’s last-minute offer to testify to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol is no reason for the former strategist for then-President Donald Trump to avoid trial for defying the committee’s subpoena seeking testimony and documents.
Mr. Bannon told the committee over the weekend that he was willing to testify, preferably at a public hearing. His trial is set to begin July 18 on two counts of criminal contempt.
Mr. Bannon initially refused to comply with the subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee in October.
“The Defendant’s last-minute efforts to testify, almost nine months after his default—he has still made no effort to produce records—are irrelevant to whether he willfully refused to comply in October 2021 with the Select Committee’s subpoena,” prosecutors said in a filing Monday. …
… Prosecutors said that Mr. Trump “never invoked executive privilege over any particular information or materials,” and that Mr. Bannon’s privilege claim never justified total noncompliance with the subpoena. …
Bannon should be treated like any other US citizen – you obey a subpoena.
Some of the rules proposed by Texas Republicans make sense others are pure voter suppression. Oregon votes by mail – why can’t Texans. You shouldn’t have to justify your choice of voting method — it’s your right to vote. Estonia votes by the internet; there’s nothing to say Texas couldn’t safely do the same. And why eliminate motor voter registration? Re-register every five years but will voters be notified when its time re-register? When deleting dead people from the rolls, make sure you only delete the dead. Sure one John Smith died this year but the other John Smiths are still alive.
Wandering Views 
The purge continues.
“U.S. Army Boots over 60,000 National Guard and Reservists Who Remain Unvaccinated from Covid
Former Secretary of Defense Mike Pompeo blasts Pentagon for this inane move.”
https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/07/u-s-army-boots-over-60000-national-guard-and-reservists-who-remain-unvaccinated-from-covid/
“In one of the most ridiculous moves made by our government in its history, over 60,000 Army National Guard and Reservists will be barred from service for refusing to get vaccinated against covid due to the clearly useless mandate issued by the Biden administration.
Roughly 40,000 National Guardsmen and 22,000 Reservists will be barred from service for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the US Army announced Friday.
The decision effectively cuts off pay and benefits to the combined 62,000 service members and prohibits them from participating in training.
“Soldiers who refuse the vaccination order without an approved or pending exemption request are subject to adverse administrative actions, including flags, bars to service, and official reprimands,” an Army spokesperson said in a statement to Military.com.
The Guardsmen and Reservists had until last Thursday to receive the vaccine. The deadline was the latest of all the armed services, which required members to get vaccinated last year, according to the outlet.
If the soldiers continue to refuse the vaccination requirement without a valid medical or religious exemption, they could face further action including “separation” or mandatory discharge.
Part-time service members who have pending exemption cases can continue to participate in training exercises and collect pay and benefits. However, the Army has approved very few medical exemptions and religious exemptions to date, Military.com reported.”
———–
This is also about ideologically purging those who disagree with the Biden admin.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Like I said…. it’s ideological too.
“Army Suspends Retired Three-Star General for Snarky Reply to Jill Biden on Twitter
“Lt. Gen. Theodore Martin, commanding general of the Combined Arms Center, has suspended retired Lt. Gen. Gary Volesky from performing duties as a Highly Qualified Expert””
https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/07/army-suspends-retired-three-star-general-for-snarky-reply-to-jill-biden-on-twitter/
“The U.S. Army has suspended a long-serving general from a mentor position for offering a snarky reply to a tweet from First Lady Jill Biden on the subject of abortion.
Maybe this is part of the reason for the military’s current recruitment problem.
Axios reports:
Army suspends general after tweet appearing to mock Jill Biden
The Army has suspended a three-star general’s contract and placed him under investigation after he posted a tweet that appeared to mock first lady Jill Biden, USA Today reports.
The big picture: Retired Lt. Gen. Gary Volesky, the Army’s former top spokesman, responded to a tweet from Biden that said the rights of women had been stolen in the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“For nearly 50 years, women have had the right to make our own decisions about our bodies. Today, that right was stolen from us,” Biden tweeted.
“Glad to see you finally know what a woman is,” Volesky said.”
————
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sure, keep purging the few good men they have to make room for the woke.
It’s working so well for us. Everything they touch turns to crap.
“Woke Military Struggling to Reach Recruitment Goals
“Every branch of the U.S. military is struggling to meet its fiscal year 2022 recruiting goals, say multiple U.S. military and defense officials””
https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/06/woke-miliary-struggling-to-reach-recruitment-goals/
“Now that the U.S. Military is focusing on issues like social justice, equity, white privilege, and LGBT concerns, they are having trouble meeting recruitment goals.
It turns out that many of the people who would normally volunteer to risk their lives for the country aren’t as interested in being lectured on their race or taught about pronouns.
NBC News reports:
Every branch of the military is struggling to make its 2022 recruiting goals, officials say
Every branch of the U.S. military is struggling to meet its fiscal year 2022 recruiting goals, say multiple U.S. military and defense officials, and numbers obtained by NBC News show both a record low percentage of young Americans eligible to serve and an even tinier fraction willing to consider it.
The officials said the Pentagon’s top leaders are now scrambling for ways to find new recruits to fill out the ranks of the all-volunteer force. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks consider the shortfall a serious issue, said the officials, and have been meeting on it frequently with other leaders.
“This is the start of a long drought for military recruiting,” said Ret. Lt. Gen. Thomas Spoehr of the Heritage Foundation, a think tank. He said the military has not had such a hard time signing recruits since 1973, the year the U.S. left Vietnam and the draft officially ended. Spoehr said he does not believe a revival of the draft is imminent, but “2022 is the year we question the sustainability of the all-volunteer force.”
The need for recruits has become so desperate that the army has even dropped its requirement for a high school diploma.
Tim Meads reports at the Daily Wire:
U.S. Army Drops High School Diploma Requirement As It Struggles To Find New Recruits”
——
And in times of conflict, who fills these holes?
Why National Guardsmen, who just saw 60K of their numbers purged.
Genius!
LikeLike
4Chan wackos are doing the job the media used to do.
It’s called investigative journalism, and I’m told it used to be a real thing in the media.
Allegedly….
———-
But as always, Big Tech runs in to rescue Democrats.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/4chan-hunter-biden-icloud-hack
“The contents of Hunter Biden’s iCloud account have allegedly been hacked by users of the 4chan community, who posted screenshots purported to be from his phone and computer on the website’s main political forum late Saturday night.
Administrators on the image board moved quickly in the hours after the content was posted to pull down threads that included materials from the alleged leak, leaving many on the site, which is known for featuring some of the most salacious subject matter on the internet, furious.
The content from the leak could not immediately be verified by the Washington Examiner, and a White House representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It was also not immediately clear if the contents of the 4chan leak included any materials from the younger Biden’s infamous laptop, of which the Washington Examiner verified the authenticity earlier this year. The infamous laptop, which emerged into the public view in the final weeks of the 2020 election, contains details about the first son’s financial dealings and personal matters.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
When discussing big scary guns, it’s good to at least have a basic understanding of the weapons you’re speaking on. If not, you will rightly be mocked mercilessly. 🙂
——–
——–
——
——-
——–
That’s actually the forward assist and it helps chamber 1 round into the chamber when your gun jams. Only one, not auto fire dummies. There’s a selector switch for semi or full auto on military models, which civilians can’t get. The selector switch is absent in a civilian model. Semi-auto only, one trigger pull, one bullet, one shot. You’d need to do a rebuild to get it to do what they allege, and the govt won’t let you buy the parts necessary without a permit that they don’t give out easily.
https://i2.wp.com/roamgun.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/AR15-Parts-Diagram-1024×410.jpg?resize=750%2C300
See that. You’re already in possession of more knowledge than the original poster, and the supposed Coast Guard guy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
While the media continues to look away…..
LikeLiked by 2 people
It’s their only hope. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed.
———-
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
Suckers.
I regret nothing. I voted for Trump. If you didn’t, then you own this debacle.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lawyers are doing this, not doctors or medical experts. It’s all part of Biden’s purge of the military.
——–
“”We’ve seen senior military commanders who are overruling independent physicians and putting them under duress to change their medical opinion,” the attorney said”
https://justthenews.com/government/security/army-doctor-fired-covid-vaccine-exemption-military-leaders-overruling?utm_source=sf&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=twjs
“Aformer Army JAG now in private practice told The Star News Network that he has seen senior military commanders overrule physicians, pressure them to reverse their opinions, and rescind COVID-19 vaccine exemptions from service members who had been granted them.
Sean Timmons, a military law expert at Tully Rinckey, said directives to take the shots are illegal, as is the use of pressure to bring doctors’ positions in line with the desires of military command.
“By just having a doctor rubber-stamp whatever action the command wants is not complying with his ethical duty to provide care independent of duress from unethical actors,” he told the network.
“That to me is wholly unlawful because you’re removing the patient and provider privilege and you’re removing the ethical concern the doctor has as a duty to treat a patient.”
Timmons said he personally knows an Army doctor who was punished for giving one soldier an exemption to the COVID vaccine.
“That physician was removed from his job and then overruled, and they made the soldier see another doctor who then complied with the mandate from higher command to deny medical waivers and medical exemptions,” he said.
Speaking just days after the Army National Guard vowed to begin punishing thousands of members for not receiving the COVID vaccine, Timmons stressed that such actions are illegal.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
🤡🤡🤡🤡 Alert!
———
LikeLiked by 1 person
The media is finally starting to gather their pitchforks and torches and going out after the monster they created.
——-
——
——–
LikeLiked by 1 person
Because it’s a purge for those who dare disagree with the Biden admins idiotic rule.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Of course it does. Anyone paying attention knows this and why.
“Look Deeper, And The Jobs News Under Biden Sucks”
https://issuesinsights.com/2022/07/11/look-deeper-and-the-jobs-news-under-biden-sucks/
“After months and months of bad news and metastasizing crises, who can blame President Joe Biden for seizing one glimmer of good economic news? Too bad the good news isn’t really that good at all.
On the surface, the economic news from Friday looked celebratory. The Labor Department reported that the economy had created 372,000 mobs in June, beating the consensus forecast (a rare thing under Biden). The unemployment rate held at 3.6%. And, to top it off, jobs in the private sector regained all the losses from the COVID lockdowns.
In response, Biden rushed out a statement bragging about how “this has been the fastest and strongest jobs recovery in American history,” and that it “would not have been possible without the decisive action my administration took last year to fix a broken COVID response, and pass the American Rescue Plan to get our economy back on track.”
He went on: “We have more Americans working in the private sector today than any day during Donald Trump’s Presidency – more people than any time in our history.”
Only the last claim has any truth to it.
The idea that Biden presided over the fastest job growth in history is meaningless since he took office after the biggest decline in jobs in history. From February 2020 to April 2020, the economy shed a stunning 22 million jobs – thanks to COVID lockdowns we now know were completely pointless.
In the nine months following that trough, the economy added back 12.5 million of those jobs. Then Biden took office. And in the 18 months since he’s been calling the shots, the economy recovered only 9 million more jobs, and even now hasn’t surpassed the previous peak in employment.
So how, exactly, does Biden come to the conclusion that his $2 trillion “rescue” plan should get credit? If anything, it slowed down what had been a mad rush of people returning to work.
It is true that private-sector employment hit a new peak in June, surpassing the previous peak set in February 2020. But just barely – by all of 140,000. Total employment, however, is still 524,000 below its Trump peak.
Worse, even that meager private sector gain hasn’t been nearly enough to keep pace with population growth over the past two-plus years.
Labor Department data show that the working-age population in America shot up by 4.2 million from February 2020 to June 2022.
But what about that low unemployment number? That’s certainly something to cheer about, isn’t it? For Biden and his media lapdogs, maybe.
In fact, the unemployment rate tracks only those who are looking for work or who have a job. Anyone who has dropped out of the labor force entirely – because they’ve retired or just gave up looking for work – doesn’t get counted as unemployed.
Well, guess what? The number of people who aren’t in the labor force has climbed by 4.8 million since February 2020. As a result, only 62.2% of working-age adults (those over 16) are in the labor force. That’s down from 63.4% at the pre-COVID peak.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hanson nails it again.
“Our New Antoinettes
These humanitarian rich feel just terrible about the sins of America, but not terrible enough to sacrifice any element of their privileged lifestyles—the just deserts they feel for being so righteous.”
https://amgreatness.com/2022/07/10/our-new-antoinettes/
“Marie Antoinette, the beheaded wife of the beheaded French Bourbon King Charles Louis XVI, did not really say “Let them cake.”
But in the short time that the French Revolution became utterly unhinged, toxic, and nihilistic, she became nonetheless iconic as an out-of-touch elite who had lived in a make-believe world at Versailles, without a clue (or care?) about the ordeal of the masses.
Rather than worry about the drudgery of the French peasant, Marie dressed up as one. And she roamed about in her idyllic faux peasant “farm” at the Hameau de la Reine, near the palace at Versailles.
Apparently, during these brief rustic interludes, Marie felt that the more she might act out a sort of aristocratic peasant life, the more she could find simplicity and escape the drama of court life, but without the real-life, crushing poverty of the poor.
The modern left-wing elite are becoming our version of Antoinettes. Thirty-eight-year-old Mark Zuckerberg is worth over $60 billion. But he enjoys T-shirts, jeans, and apparent simplicity in his many landed estates. He is so worried about the wrong voting tendencies of the clueless middle classes that he poured nearly $420 million of dark money from his vast fortune into the 2020 election—de facto absorbing the work of key precinct registrars—to ensure the “right” result for the unthinking multitudes.
Americans, almost uniquely among modern nations, mostly do not envy, much less despise the rich. But there is a certain sort of privilege that they do not like: the sanctimonious and hypercritical rich whose rhetoric is at odds with their own lifestyles and the methods by which they inherited or made vast sums. And they especially are turned off by those who exude open disdain for the clinger/deplorable/dregs class—to paraphrase the Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden nomenclature.
An especially grating habit of the left-wing wealthy is to lecture the middle class on their supposed illiberality. Often, those struggling are told they need to pay more for what White House economic advisor Brian Deese recently called the “liberal world order.”
Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, or George Soros, to take a few examples, are multibillionaires who live lives unlike any in the history of civilization. They also fund various agendas through multibillion-dollar foundations and their own personal riches.
Their causes are all deemed critical to the nation and planet, but unfortunately not fully appreciated as so vital by the peasant classes—whether they be global governance, massive restructuring of the economy to stop carbon releases, radical abortion on demand, or the sponsoring of critical legal theory prosecutors who feel crime is but a rich man’s construct.
Indeed, when various pollsters recently asked the public what their chief worries were, they found the culprits were the prohibitive price of gasoline, the ruinous effects of hyperinflation, supply chain shortages, the nonexistent southern border, or the escalating violent crime wave—all of which concerns are of apparent little interest to left-wing billionaires.
In other words, the worries of the Antoinette liberal elite—climate change, abortion on demand, transgenderism, strict gun-control—are not those that terrify the middle and lower classes. The latter, for some reason, first want to survive one more day with enough affordable food and energy and to be safe from criminals.”
LikeLiked by 3 people
What is interesting to me concerning the “investigation” of the general for his “tweet” is that we seem to be plunked right back to the McCarthy era….only in reverse! If you don’t align yourself with socialism/communism you are suspect. And have mercy if you speak opposite of this “administration”, Dems, leftist ideology….we are their target.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The military has a list of vaccinations you are required to take and they simply added the covid vaccine to the list. I’m not surprised there’s very few exemptions – if you took all the other vaccines when you enlisted, any argument against the covid vaccine is probably not legitimate. The military, like any other employer, is allowed to have specific job requirements. Although current employees are not always subject to new requirements until the contract is renewed, health and safety reasons can sometimes trump contractual reasons.
Unions can protect those who won’t get a vaccine or other new obligations introduced mid-contract but non-union shop employees have very little recourse when it comes to new health and safety measures. And given this is the armed forces, I’m not sure what these people were thinking – the most heirarchal career one can have. As for a former JAG officer telling second hand anecdotes – not worth the time. Personally, I don’t think vaccine mandates are necessary of adults especailly the yearly flu shot or something similar but employers including the armed forces have certain rights and obligations and health and safety is one of them.
Of course, the general was sanctioned. The amred forces are non-political. In a democracy, a member of the military must be non-political to minimize the influence of the military on the democratic process. Nothing to do with free speech – you signed that away when you enlisted. It’s an amusing tweet but not from an officer.
LikeLike
Not surprised the armed forces are struggling with recruit numbers – rural areas which supply a disportinate number of recruits are declining in numbers and aging.
4chan hacking of an individual’s iCloud account is not investigative journalism. In all likelihood, it’s illegal not much different than burgling a home and stealing confidential and personal papers.
The media is not turning on Biden. They are simply acting like the journalists they are and reporting.
The billionaires do not have a left wing agenda nor are they playing house like Marie Antoinette, although the image of Zuckerberg living like a minimum wage earner would make good television. The billionaires know to maintain a classical liberal capitalist economy, social liberalism must exist along with market liberalism and furthermore, the state must be functional and provide a structure for the market to exist. Most right wing populists regimes are unstable and too personal (corruption and political intervention are common), hence they prefer centre-right or centre-left eg Romney or Clinton; Pepsi or Coke.
LikeLike
The American job participation rate is about the OECD average — normal for a mature economy. The slight difference pre and post Covid is negligible and probably can be explained by several factors – early retirement increased during Covid, working at home as contractors also increased, etc. Other than inflation, the US economy isn’t much different than pre-Covid and that includes employment.
Most statistical agencies consider the working age to be 15-64. However, most 15 – 25 year olds are still in school or starting out in the work force working part time type jobs. At 25 – 64 labour participation rates are much higher. Western European participation rates are even higher than the US but that’s mostly due to better record keeping and the lack of early retirement options among civil servants in Europe (my cousin, also a teacher, has to work to 65 whereas I’ll retire at 56).
LikeLike
Yes, let’s do this so that there is no post-deposition editing. Nobody is buying their lies anymore except for the corrupt media and those who aren’t willing to seek the truth.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/steve-bannon-tells-jan-6-committee-he-wants-to-testify-in-public_4588861.html
“Former White House adviser Steve Bannon agreed on July 10 to testify in front of the House Jan. 6 Committee after he received a letter from former President Donald Trump telling him that Trump will waive executive privilege.
Bannon, who’s slated to go on trial for criminal contempt charges in July for defying a previous subpoena by the panel, said he wanted to testify in public, according to a letter from his lawyer, Bob Costello.
“While Mr. Bannon has been steadfast in his convictions, circumstances have now changed,” Costello wrote in the letter, according to numerous media outlets. “Mr. Bannon is willing to, and indeed prefers, to testify at your public hearing.”
Trump told Bannon that he would waive his executive privilege. Previously, Bannon’s lawyers have said that he wouldn’t respond to the panel’s subpoenas because of the privilege.
“When you first received the Subpoena to testify and provide documents, I invoked Executive Privilege. However, I watched how unfairly you and others have been treated, having to spend vast amounts of money on legal fees, and all of the trauma you must be going through for the love of your Country, and out of respect for the Office of the President,” Trump wrote in his letter.
“Therefore, if you reach an agreement on a time and place for your testimony, I will waive Executive Privilege for you, which allows you to go in and testify truthfully and fairly.””
LikeLiked by 1 person
Go Texas! However, every state needs to get their voting house in order and re-establish voting integrity… and quickly!
https://www.theepochtimes.com/texas-republicans-focus-on-election-integrity-after-rejecting-joe-biden-as-president_4586666.html
“Texas Republican Party delegates—who last month approved a resolution rejecting Joe Biden as a legitimately elected president—adopted a sweeping new platform with a big focus on election integrity.
The state’s GOP released the results of its 2022 platform vote this week. Two of the measures seek fair elections free of illegal voting practices and updated voter registration rolls to combat fraud.
Among provisions for fair elections, Republicans want to limit mail-in ballots to those who can’t physically appear in person, and prohibit internet voting for public office, mandate full signature verification for mail-in ballots, require voter photo ID, and deter counterfeiting by using sequential ballots.
On voter rolls, Republicans want voters to re-register if they haven’t voted in five years. Voter requirements include proof of residency, citizenship, and a photo ID. They also approved compiling a list of certified deaths so the Texas secretary of state’s office can remove deceased persons from voter rolls. They also want to repeal all motor voter laws.
The platform reflects concerns raised in the resolution rejecting the certified results of the 2020 presidential election. In June, nearly 5,000 delegates at the Texas Republican Convention voted on the resolution and platform.
The resolution declared that the 2020 election violated the Constitution by allowing secretaries of state to circumvent their state legislatures illegally. It asserted that “substantial election fraud” had occurred in key metropolitan areas, affecting the results in five states to Biden’s favor.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
On Bannon, just to round out the story (because, in fairness, there is always more info to consider from other sources … ) — from the WSJ:
__________________
Prosecutors Say Steve Bannon Should Still Face Trial
Government says former Trump adviser’s new willingness to testify to Jan. 6 committee has no bearing on his charges of criminal contempt for defying congressional subpoena
… WASHINGTON—The Justice Department told a federal judge that Steve Bannon’s last-minute offer to testify to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol is no reason for the former strategist for then-President Donald Trump to avoid trial for defying the committee’s subpoena seeking testimony and documents.
Mr. Bannon told the committee over the weekend that he was willing to testify, preferably at a public hearing. His trial is set to begin July 18 on two counts of criminal contempt.
Mr. Bannon initially refused to comply with the subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee in October.
“The Defendant’s last-minute efforts to testify, almost nine months after his default—he has still made no effort to produce records—are irrelevant to whether he willfully refused to comply in October 2021 with the Select Committee’s subpoena,” prosecutors said in a filing Monday. …
… Prosecutors said that Mr. Trump “never invoked executive privilege over any particular information or materials,” and that Mr. Bannon’s privilege claim never justified total noncompliance with the subpoena. …
https://www.wsj.com/articles/prosecutors-say-steve-bannon-should-still-face-trial-11657544368?st=8chm1w7v7zq9q7v&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
LikeLike
Bannon should be treated like any other US citizen – you obey a subpoena.
Some of the rules proposed by Texas Republicans make sense others are pure voter suppression. Oregon votes by mail – why can’t Texans. You shouldn’t have to justify your choice of voting method — it’s your right to vote. Estonia votes by the internet; there’s nothing to say Texas couldn’t safely do the same. And why eliminate motor voter registration? Re-register every five years but will voters be notified when its time re-register? When deleting dead people from the rolls, make sure you only delete the dead. Sure one John Smith died this year but the other John Smiths are still alive.
LikeLike
Sure… just like Hillary and Holder, right …?
Oh wait…. they ignored subpoenas and court orders not to destroy evidence and nothing was done about it.
So same for Bannon, right?
LikeLiked by 2 people
The Benghazi committee questioned Clinton under oath for two days. I’m looking at the Trump admin to do the same to the Jan 6th cmttee
LikeLike
As seen in Newsweek:
https://www.newsweek.com/putin-ally-vyacheslav-volodin-warns-us-russia-reclaim-alaska-1722342
LikeLike