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Woke Military Tells GOP Congress That Eliminating Vaccine Mandate “Hurts Readiness”; House Passes $858 Billion Defense Bill That Reverses Military Vaccine Mandate

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By Military Times. Pentagon leaders on Wednesday voiced continued support for their decision to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for service members in the face of a proposed law that would force the Defense Department to repeal the policy.

During a briefing with reporters, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said vaccination is still a military readiness issue, and said a repeal could be harmful to the health of the armed forces.

“What is important to the readiness of the force is getting the vaccine,” she said.

“So, yes, it would impact the readiness of the force. You’re more prone to getting COVID-19 … and we certainly know that the vaccine will save your life.”

One day after congressional leaders approved a repeal of the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate in their final draft of the annual defense authorization bill, officials across the executive branch bashed Republicans for jeopardizing the health and welfare of service members by forcing the move. (Read more from “Woke Military Tells GOP Congress That Eliminating Vaccine Mandate “Hurts Readiness”” HERE)

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House Passes $858 Billion Defense Bill That Reverses Military Vaccine Mandate

By Military Times. The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday authorizing $858 billion in national defense funding, including reversing the U.S. military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Lawmakers approved a final version to repeal the mandate through the passage of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual defense bill.

The 4,000-page legislation advanced with a solid bipartisan majority, 350-80, which requires the Pentagon to rescind the Covid vaccine mandate for active duty service members within 30 days of its enactment.

The bill also includes several policy provisions, including a 4.6% pay raise for military service members, strengthening defense strategies using air force, land warfare, cybersecurity, and increasing U.S. support for Ukraine and NATO, as reported by CNN.

While the bill would remove the vaccine mandate for U.S. troops, it would not reinstate service members who were discharged or had their benefits slashed for refusing to be immunized against COVID. (Read more from “House Passes $858 Billion Defense Bill That Reverses Military Vaccine Mandate” HERE)

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White House: Rescinding Military Coronavirus Vaccine Mandate ‘a Mistake’

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The White House criticized House Republicans on Wednesday for working to rescind the coronavirus vaccine mandate for the military.

“We believe that it is a mistake,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said to reporters at the daily briefing.

House Democrats conceded to Republicans on Tuesday, allowing language rescinding the coronavirus vaccine mandate into National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

“Not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall rescind the mandate that members of the Armed Forces be vaccinated against COVID-19,” the bill reads.

Biden’s decision to mandate coronavirus vaccines for the military resulted in more than 8,000 troops getting kicked out of the military. (Read more from “White House: Rescinding Military Coronavirus Vaccine Mandate ‘a Mistake’” HERE)

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Is the U.S. Military Vaccine Mandate Going to Be Repealed?

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Congress and the White House are mulling proposals from top lawmakers to repeal the U.S. military’s vaccine mandate several months after President Joe Biden declared the COVID-19 pandemic to be “over,” according to recent media reports.

Congress’ annual defense bill, the text of which is set to be published next week, may include a compromise amendment scrapping the military vaccine requirement, Democratic Rep. Adam Smith of Washington told Politico on Saturday. Smith’s comments followed prospective House leader Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s claims on Friday that House and Senate leaders had come to an agreement, which the White House is considering, on overturning the Biden administration’s service-wide mandate, according to Reuters.

President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and McCarthy had negotiated a bipartisan agreement to end the mandate, McCarthy told Fox News on Friday evening.

“We’re going to see in the NDAA – lift the vaccination mandate on our military men and women,” McCarthy said, referring to Congress’ yearly funding bill for the U.S. military.

However, the White House denied any agreement to scrap the mandate was set in stone, according to Reuters. (Read more from “Is the U.S. Military Vaccine Mandate Going to Be Repealed?” HERE)

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GOP Governors Join Letter Opposing Military COVID Vaccine Mandate

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A group of 21 GOP governors joined a letter on Wednesday to congressional leaders in an effort to stop President Joe Biden from initiating a COVID vaccine mandate for military personnel.

The letter — sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Republican minority leaders in the House and Senate — called for immediate action concerning the military’s vaccine requirement.

“The Biden vaccine mandate on our military creates a national security risk that severely impacts our defense capabilities abroad and our state readiness here at home,” the Republican governors wrote.

“We face a two-front problem due to the Biden vaccine mandate: current servicemembers are leaving our ranks, and new recruits are not signing up to join. Implementation of the mandate has placed our nation’s military readiness at risk,” they added.

The letter cited concerns regarding National Guard recruiting efforts that had missed their mark as a major factor for the request. The Army National Guard missed its recruiting target by 10% and announced that 7,500 members left service in an October report cited in the letter. (Read more from “GOP Governors Join Letter Opposing Military COVID Vaccine Mandate” HERE)

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U.S. Military Is Creating Fake Facebook and Instagram Accounts to Try and Trick People, Meta Says

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The US military has been creating fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram in an attempt to trick people, parent company Meta has said.

Security experts at Meta found “several clusters” of fake accounts on the platform, which posed as apparently legitimate accounts.

The accounts were present not only on Meta’s own platforms but across a range of other networks, including Twitter, YouTube and Telegram, it said.

They were used to push pro-Western narratives across the world, over a series of years, according to an investigation into the campaign.

“Although the people behind this operation attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation found links to individuals associated with the US military,” Meta said in its latest ‘Adversarial Threat Report’, which details the efforts of its security teams to stop such deceptive campaigns. (Read more from “U.S. Military Is Creating Fake Facebook and Instagram Accounts to Try and Trick People, Meta Says” HERE)

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US Military Rated as ‘Weak’ With Worries It May Not Be Able to Win a War

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The US military may not be able to win one war — let alone two — as the Pentagon struggles to keep its forces equipped against potential threats from China and Russia, according a new report on American military strength.

Years of underfunding and “poorly defined priorities” has led the military to become “weak relative to the force needed to defend national interests on the global stage,” the conservative Heritage Foundation said in its annual “Index of U.S. Military Strength.”

“[T]he current U.S. military force is at significant risk of not being able to meet the demands of a single major regional conflict,” the report said. “The force would probably not be able to do more and is certainly ill-equipped to handle two nearly simultaneous [major conflicts.]”

At the same time, the possibility of two-front fighting has increased as Russia continues to wage war on Ukraine and China grows increasingly aggressive in the Pacific, according to the report.

“In the aggregate, the United States’ military posture can only be rated as ‘weak,’” the report said. (Read more from “US Military Rated as ‘Weak’ With Worries It May Not Be Able to Win a War” HERE)

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US Military Base Schools Indoctrinating Children in Left-Wing Ideology: Report

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U.S. troops serving overseas may find that government schools are indoctrinating their children and teaching them to keep secrets from their parents.

According to a report from the Claremont Institute, classes from the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) teach children radical activism, gender ideology, and hiding gender questions from families.

The lesson plans aren’t about teachers helping children learn the basics; instead, they’re about teachers helping children hide facts from their parents.

“Maybe that student is not ‘out’ to other students in their gender identity,” said seventh-grade humanities teacher Genevieve Chavez in a video provided to Claremont by a whistleblower. “They may be out at school; but they may not be out at home.”

The video was part of a 2021 summit talk titled “Ally 101—Creating an Inclusive Classroom for LGBTQ+ Students.” (Read more from “US Military Base Schools Indoctrinating Children in Left-Wing Ideology: Report” HERE)

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DOD Fast-Tracked Vaccine Religious Exemption Denials, Civil Liberties Law Firm Says

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American military leaders may have violated federal law in apparent rapid-fire denials of religious exemptions to the Defense Department’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate, a national religious civil liberties law firm said late Friday.

Memos obtained by Liberty Counsel written by acting DOD Inspector General Sean O’Donnell said the official warned Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin of “deliberate violation[s] of federal law” within the agency over the way denial requests were processed and turndowns were issued, the group said.

Of court-ordered reports from each branch of the armed forces on Feb. 4, 2022 — apparently the latest date for which figures are available — the group reported that “out of 24,818 religious exemption requests received, only four were granted,” as opposed to 4,146 medical exemptions given.

The contentious issue of religious exemptions to vaccine mandates has rippled through the military. In May, four cadets at the Air Force Academy were threatened with expulsion and lawsuits to recover six-figure tuition costs should they not get the mandated shots before graduation.

In a June 2, 2022 memo, Mr. O’Donnell told Mr. Austin the DOD may not have complied “with standards for reviewing and documenting the denial of religious accommodation requests” for the exemptions. (Read more from “DOD Fast-Tracked Vaccine Religious Exemption Denials, Civil Liberties Law Firm Says” HERE)

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Tens of Thousands of Soldiers Barred From Service Due to Biden Vaccine Mandate

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Sixty-two thousand Army National Guard and Reserve soldiers are being deprived of pay and benefits, due to noncompliance with the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate.

The military service members who are not vaccinated, or do not have a pending or approved exemption, will no longer be allowed to drill or train, Army officials said last week. If noncompliance continues, officials say they will discharge them. The move to bar soldiers from service, pay, and benefits comes as the armed forces have struggled with recruitment. The Army cited “maintaining readiness” as the branch’s rationale for enforcing the vaccine mandate, according to a statement.

Army officials point out their “policy affords every Soldier the opportunity to request an exemption, such as for medical or religious concerns.” Previous reporting by the Washington Free Beacon, however, found that military leadership has granted few. In the Marine Corps, just three service members were granted religious exemptions. Congressional Republicans have pressured the Pentagon for more information about the armed forces vaccine mandate, but their calls have gone unanswered. (Read more from “Tens of Thousands of Soldiers Barred From Service Due to Biden Vaccine Mandate” HERE)

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The US Military Is Almost Completely Dependent on China for Key Mineral Used in Ammunition: Report

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The U.S. military depends almost completely on China for a mineral essential to the production of ammunition and other defense products, Defense News reported Wednesday.

The House Armed Services Committee released draft legislation on Wednesday, which would require a briefing on the antimony supply by October and a five-year outlook on supply chain vulnerabilities, Defense News reported. The U.S. has no domestic mine for the mineral antimony, which is reportedly used in the production of night vision goggles, armor-piercing bullets, explosives and nuclear weapons.

“China in particular does a remarkably good job of hoarding these materials,” Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told Defense News. “China clearly has a comprehensive global strategy to corner the market on these materials and we’re behind and we’re playing catch-up.”

In 2020, approximately half of the antimony mined originated in China, Russia and Tajikistan, according to Britannica.

Moulton and seven Republicans wrote to the defense appropriations subcommittee in April asking for an additional $264 million in funding for the National Defense Stockpile (NDS), a reserve of critical materials used in national emergencies. The letter claimed that in the last 30 years Congress had “authorized the sell-off” of the majority of the stockpiled materials. (Read more from “The US Military Is Almost Completely Dependent on China for Key Mineral Used in Ammunition: Report” HERE)

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