Posts Tagged ‘covid19’

Military says vaccine refusers can come back!

Posted: March 25, 2023 by navygrade36bureaucrat in opinion/news, Uncomfortable Truths, war
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But don’t worry, most won’t be coming back.

The military changed its rules on the COVID-19 vaccine because the science showed it didn’t actually work Congress passed a law requiring them to do so. Now that this has changed, the military wants the members that it kicked out to come on back…or at least, some people do. Others still cling to the “You disobeyed orders and should be punished!“

With the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccine order lifted, troops can refuse to take the shot without risking ending their careers. But those who refused it in the past could still be booted for “disobeying a lawful order,” Defense Department officials warned lawmakers Tuesday. “It’s very important that our service members follow orders when they are lawful, and there are thousands that did not,” Gilbert Cisneros Jr., Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel, told members of the House Armed Services Committee. “The services are going through a process to review those cases to make a determination what needs to be done.”

So, in other words

Remember, we aren’t talking small numbers either:

Defense Department leaders said about 16,000 individuals refused that order without making any requests for exemption or accommodation. About 8,400 were separated from the services as a result.

I’m sure they will be coming back in droves. Remember this?

And this?

I give the Navy credit, at least all the individuals kicked out received honorable discharges. The Army was not so nice. A general discharge can impact the benefits you receive from the VA. It’s a choice by the service, and as the majority got a General Discharge, it defnitely means the discharging authority was angry over the refusal to obey orders, despite the fact the science was questionable at best on the vaccine.

I said it before, and I’ll say it again, this was NOT a good hill to die on for the military. Encouraging vaccines is one thing, but until there was a few years of data, you were just going to piss people off with mandates. Add a few young people dying after the shot, whether it was vaccine related or not, and you have a massive PR crisis on your hands.

Lawmakers are hoping many of those discharged will come back:

They did note that the vaccine refusals make up a small fraction of the total force, and said they hope that most service members continue to get the COVID-19 vaccines even without the mandate. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers on the panel said they hope to reinstate all dismissed individuals to the armed forces with full benefits and back pay. Cisneros said officials are not looking into any such move at the present.

Fat chance. The emphasis on “small fraction” misses a key point: every single member kicked out is going to tell all their friends to not join. The military just created 16,000 influencers, a portion of whom will take to social media and create a recruiting nightmare for the military. Worse still, this doesn’t count the many members that chose to retire early or voluntarily separate rather than continue service. Remember that “unprecedented” rise in military retirements and separations noted in the Health of the Force survey? That’s not random. You can only beat down on people for so long before they start to vote with their feet. Even among people who took the COVID vaccine, there is a fairly large number that didn’t think the mandate was a good idea. I make plenty of choices that I think are smart, but I wouldn’t mandate them on others, and I’m not alone in this thinking.

The military created this mess, and its spilling over into recruitment and retention. Expect it to get worse, despite anything that Congress will do.

The post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. If you enjoyed this post, consider donating to DaTechGuy or purchasing one of the authors books.

Review: Van Morrison’s Moving on Skiffle

Posted: March 12, 2023 by John Ruberry in covid, culture, media, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Last Friday, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Van Morrison released his 44th studio album, the exuberant Moving on Skiffle. 

What is skiffle? Well, the first time I heard of it was in was in an unusual place–maybe not for an American–in the movie This Is Spinal Tap. Before joining the band that would become the heavy metal act Spinal Tap, David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) was a member of a skiffle group.

Wonderful observation, you might be saying, but once again, what is skiffle? In the late 1920s, it developed as an offshoot of jug music, a genre of the American South and performed mainly by African Americans. The original skiffle was a bit country, a bit folk, and a bit delta blues. Then skiffle died once the Great Depression hit. 

Only it didn’t completely perish. 

Like a sprout from an errant wildflower seed, skiffle surprisingly blossomed again a couple of decades later in Great Britan. The UK’s biggest skiffle star was a Scotsman, Lonnie Donegan. Another skiffle performer, Chris Barber, a British aficionado of New Orleans style jazz, often recorded with Donegan. 

Growing up in 1950s Belfast, Morrsion was one of many UK youths listening to skiffle on the radio. Soon Morrison joined a skiffle band, but by the mid-1960s he was fronting Them, a blues-rock act best known for “Gloria,” before going solo in 1967. Well, you probably know the rest of his story.

Just as skiffle quickly reemerged in Britain, it all but vanished as a popular music phenomenon in the early 1960s. Only its disappearance wasn’t mysterious. The tsunami of the Beat Groups–known as the British Invasion in the United States–which included Them, was the culprit. 

The Belfast Cowboy maintained his love for skiffle thru the decades. Morrison recorded a live album with Donegan and Barber, The Skiffle Sessions – Live in Belfast 1998.

For Moving on Skiffle, Morrison issues a double album of additional classic skiffle songs–there are no repeats from the live collection.

Morrison, who turns 78 this summer, has been newsworthy of late because of his fervent opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns.

In 2021, Morrison released Latest Record Project, Volume 1, a double album. Many of the tracks, including “Stop Bitching, Do Something” and “Why Are You on Facebook?” pushed back on government and Big Tech power. Last year, on What’s It Gonna Take?, Van the Man more directly challenged the lockdowns and creeping totalitarianism, in such tracks as “Dangerous,” which was in response to comments made by Northern Ireland’s health minister, Robin Swann, about Morrison’s anti-lockdown stance. Swann has since sued Van the Man, Morrison has counter-sued. 

On what will likely be remembered as his”COVID albums,” Morrison penned all of the tracks. Moving on Skiffle is a covers collection.

Morrison, who is not a doctor or a scientist, has been proven, in my firm opinion at least, to be correct that lockdowns would not be an effective defense against COVID-19. The harm of lockdowns, such as an overall increase in mental illness and declining school test scores, is apparent.

Yes, COVID, along with pre-exisiting conditions, killed millions, despite lockdowns, masking, and vaccine mandates. But Florida, which didn’t pursue an aggressive lockdown and masking policy, didn’t see a higher COVID death rate compared to lockdown states like New York.

Moving back to Moving on Skiffle, this sparkling collection stays away from politics, except for the strongest track on the collection, “Gov Don’t Allow,” a reworking of the 1920s folk standard “Momma Don’t Allow,” with new lyrics authored by Morrison.

“Gov don’t allow any freedom of speech in here,” he sings, “but I think it’s going overreach–gov don’t allow any freedom of speech in here.”

Now that I have politics out of the way, let’s discuss the rest of Moving on Skiffle.

Other highlights of this ninety-minute collection include another musical reworking, “This Little Light of Mine” becomes “This Loving Light of Mine,” where Morrison adds “Amen” verses. “Gypsy Davy” has a Celtic feel, and there are two Hank Williams songs, “Cold Cold Heart” and “I’m So Lonely I Could Cry.” 

Overall, the collection has a Creedence Clearwater Revival flavor, partly because of the inclusion of Lead Belly’s “Cotton Fields,” which CCR covered on Willy and the Poor Boys. Their hit from that album, “Down on the Corner” has a classic has a jug band feel. 

If you are a Van and Man enthusiast from way back, you’ll adore the final cut on Moving on Skiffle, “Green Rocky Road,” a nine-minute-long track that echoes Morrison stream-of-consciousness gems such as “And The Healing Has Begun” and “Listen to the Lion.”

Skiffle has many definitions. So if you’d prefer you can define Morrison’s latest work possibly as an Americana collection, albeit one with gospel music overtones. 

Oh, I nearly forgot. As with all Van Morrison albums, the singing here, including the work of the backup vocalists, as well as the musicianship–down to the washboard–are spectacular. 

Moving on Skiffle can be downloaded from iTunes or purchased at Van Morrison.com.

Related post:

As Van Morrison turns 77, here are his ten best albums

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

The Wuhan Flu pandemic nonsense has polarized the American people in a rather loathsome manner

Posted: February 16, 2023 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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It is far more difficult now, after three years of the Wuhan Flu Pandemic, for me to have a normal conversation with family, friends, and especially strangers.  During just about every conversation the Wuhan Flu pandemic comes up.  About 95 percent of the time the person I’m chatting with reiterates the standard progressive talking points.  I am faced with three choices; I pretend to agree, I remain silent, or I set them straight with the truth. 

I am not the type of person who pretends to go along with a lie, especially a dangerous lie.  I am also not one who remains silent.  Engaging in polite, yet passionate debate is something I excel at, having learned this skill from my dad, who is an absolute master.  I never lose my cool.

The moment I begin educating my conversation partners about the truth concerning the Wuhan Flu pandemic, I am greeted with anger and hostility.  Very seldom does the conversation turn into a peaceful and respectful exchange of ideas.  Science denier is an epithet that is most often hurled at me.  The others are far less polite. 

The media, social media companies, school indoctrination, and progressive politicians are to blame. 

The vast majority of media coverage is based on the progressive junk science that is crammed down our throats by the CDC. 

Social media censors the truth and places those who spread it end up in their version of jail. 

School indoctrination has brainwashed most of the last generation into believing anyone who questions the progressive orthodoxy are evil and must be shouted down and silenced. 

Progressive politicians are milking this pandemic for everything its worth.  They have ratcheted up the fear to such an unconscionable level in order to convince the American people to give up their most sacred God-given natural rights.  They want power and absolute control over each and every individual.

We must all keep up the good fight. We must keep spreading the truth even though we are greeted with hostility and lose friends.  The stakes are too high.

Under the Fedora, Not Python, Wen in School, Stacy finds Perry, Honor Satisfied and a Simple Pleasure

Posted: August 24, 2022 by datechguy in under the fedora
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I’ve been a Monty Python fan since I was about 9 years old and discovered them on PBS and later the Holy Grail on the CBS Late Movie, and I also deplore the FBI raid on Donald Trump as one of the most egregious things this administration and justice department have done, so far.

All that being said I don’t see why everyone seems to consider this video so funny.

Bereft of any context and meh dialogue does not comedy make.

There is an old saying that everyone is conservative about their own situations, to Wit.

Once it’s a question of your kids future development the math changes quickly and of course unexpectedly.

Stacy McCain has discovered Louise Perry

Perry has taken a bold step, for a young woman who dares call herself a feminist, because modern feminism originated with just such a utopian ambition, as delineated by the schizophrenic radical Shulamith Firestone and others. Insofar as Perry rejects “ideology premised on . . . false belief,” she must question whether she is actually a feminist in any meaningful sense of that word.

The significance of Perry is not that she has figured it out, it’s that people who would not be caught dead publicly conceding that either Stacy or I have been right about this from day one might now decide they have the cover needed to summon up enough courage to publicly agree with things I suspect many of them already know.

One must walk before one runs.

One of the last people i had bet with on the result of the 2020 election who had never contacted me for payment of said be suddenly popped out of the woodwork.

In fairness to him while publicly noting he had not been paid (I had no name or account to send payment to and none had been provided) privately he was willing to excuse me from the debt. I declined his kind offer as the bet was made in good faith and I do not suspect him of being the person who fixed said election.

Some of you might wonder way I bothered to pay those bets given the fact that I still maintain not only was the election stolen but that this fact will be eventually be exposed and conceded as too many people were involved. The answer is simple. In the end like the Astros in 2017 who got a title by violating the rules and the 1985 Royals who won game seven after the most significant blown call in sports history those titles stand. Likewise the authorities who at the time could have done something choose, for whatever reason ( I suspect cowardice) to not act when they could and thus Joe Biden, rightly or wrongly was sworn in and is in fact for

I will leave it to him and the others who I paid my best to after Biden was sworn in to decide what to do when history shows the truth of the steal but that’s on them. As for me my honor is satisfied.

Finally later this year my wife will be traveling without me. She had been having hip pains when sleeping in bed so for the last two to three years she has been sleeping in a recliner and because of this I’ve been sleeping on the couch to be in the same room.

As she will not have a recliner to sleep in during her trip In preparation for she slept in our bed for the first time in years so when I came home I did the same.

I can not adequately describe the pleasure of being able to share a bed with my wife again, even if it was only for sleep. It reminds one of how fragile the simple pleasures of life can be.

Enjoy those pleasures and do not take them for granted because the day will come when they are gone forever

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