Staying true to its Arbitrary Roots, Federal Employee Mandate takes December Off, mostly

As reported by the Federal Times, the White House is said to have delayed enforcement of the mandate until "after the holiday season" for most federal employees.

The move was announced by the partial release of an email sent from OPM/OMB/SFWTF leaders to agency heads. In the email,

“Given that tremendous progress, we encourage your agencies to continue with robust education and counseling efforts through this holiday season as the first step in an enforcement process, with no subsequent enforcement actions, beyond that education and counseling and, if warranted, a letter of reprimand, for most employees who have not yet complied with the vaccination requirement until the new calendar year begins in January,” Ahuja and Miller wrote.

“We understand that your agencies may need to act on enforcement sooner for a limited number of employees, such as where there are additional or compounding performance or workplace safety issues under consideration, but in general, consistency across government in further enforcement of the vaccine requirement after the start of the new calendar year is desired,” they added.

Who is that? Sounds like they are talking about probationary employees but don't want to say it. Possibly employees whose PIPs are running out. But would they really want to complicate a performance discharge with the mandate? Possibly. Or possibly they just don't want to admit that they have made a wholescale change to the mandate.

Whatever their intentions, by moving the deadline to January, the Administration has made the mandate even more arbitrary, if that is possible. Perhaps it is like multiplying against zero over and over again and it doesn't get "more arbitrary." I am not sure.

In any event, by January 2022, those employees who first became "fully vaccinated" in January 2021 will no longer have any claim to an immunity advantage over the rest of us. Pfizer and the FDA admitted that, whatever it does, the stuff wears off in six months. After a year, there is nothing left. We know this from Israel. We know this from Ireland. We know this from Gibraltar which has had serious outbreaks after achieving 100% "vaccination." 

So, the real question is when is the definition of "fully vaccinated" going to change to having your third, fourth, and fifth shots. That is where this is headed. My guess is that change will occur in January. Before they have even resolved the administration, let alone the litigation, of the first round of the mandate, they will be coaxing the good sheep to stay good and get their boosters. 

If you have taken your shots already, you need to ask yourself when you decided to continue taking tri-monthly mRNA treatments  for the rest of your life. It is not too late to get off this train. Before you take your next injection, do yourself a favor and read RFK Jr.'s book The Real Dr. Fauci and also seek out sources that attempt to debunk it. After all, your next shot could be your last. 

Omicron and the Spinning of Fear

It's like they aren't even trying anymore. Emergency declarations are made by states. Dire warnings given. But if you take the time to actually read about the big, bad Omicron...it is described as "mild."

From Reuters:

Coetzee, who is also on the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Vaccines, said unlike the Delta so far patients have not reported loss of smell or taste and there has been no major drop in oxygen levels with the new variant.

Her experience so far has been that the variant is affecting people who are 40 or younger. Almost half of the patients with Omicron symptoms that she treated were not vaccinated.

 The most predominant clinical complaint is severe fatigue for one or two days. With them, the headache and the body aches and pain.

That sounds exactly like what I had on 11/5. I had fatigue, low fever on the first night, and a bad headache for a couple of days. My back muscles felt like I had overdone it on a rock climbing wall or rowboat or something. Two days and two Motrin later, I was fine (I did confirm my positive Covid results through both over-the-counter and through-the-counter methods).

So, we should all be super scared because it is so mild or something.

Also, it is incredible how the spin factory never stops spinning.

Why would you possibly phrase a sentence this way?

Almost half of the patients with Omicron symptoms that she treated were not vaccinated.

They use syntax to try to confuse the issue at every turn. The better way to phrase that would be as follows:

More than half of the patients with Omicron symptoms that she has treated had been vaccinated.

But wait a minute, vaccines are supposed to make you not get the virus.  But this admission contradicts that and it should be concerning to vaxx hoax believers. It should be even more concerning if you consider that less than 30% of South Africans are "vaccinated." 

So, more than half of Omicron patients come from the minority of the South African population that has been injected....and the symptoms for both groups are mild. Therefore, everyone panic and get injected with everything available. If you have had two shots, get a third. If you have had all three of Pfizer, get a J&J as well. Get the Moderna too. Get them all again and again until you die. Only way to beat this mild threat is to be fully vaccinated.

via GIPHY

Federal Agency Vaccination Rates

You know that we are dealing with a smoke and mirrors operation when they play little tricks at every turn. On Wednesday (Nov. 24), the Administration selectively published vaccination rates for certain federal agencies or departments.  The numbers were posted amidst a very "rah, rah, this is going great" narrative. It is kind like if Andrew Jackson advocates had spun it as "Great news, 90% of federal officials are on board with pledging their loyalty to the new president," instead of shrugging at the purge of the 10% with the motto, "to the victor go the spoils."

Since the numbers release was a P.R. post (not an act of transparency to inform the public) they didn't mention the lowest vaccinated agencies or positions. For instance, I'd like to know the "vaccination" rate for federal prison guards. I assume they would have a particularly low rate because two prison guards locals are the only federal unions to have broken rank with the jab-scabs injection-pushing AFGE national. The thing about prison guards is that they have been doing their jobs since the pandemic began. They have witnessed Covid outbreaks and mass "vaccinations" on controlled populations. Go ahead and try to tell those guys the side effects aren't so bad.

But selective publication and lack of transparency is only part of the smoke and mirrors. The funnier part is that rather than just tell the public what they interested in--"vaccination" rates--they instead introduce the new concept of "compliance" which includes both those who have been injected with these toxin-creating products and those who have requested exceptions from them. The only employees not listed in the "compliance" column are those stoic souls who have simply refused to take this poison and not even requested an excuse. By this trick, the Administration groups most of those who are fighting its edict (those seeking exceptions) with those who have actually complied, conflates them as the same, and claims it is a success. This is like some weak sales trick to get you to look at a different number than the one you are interested in. "The car starts 92% of the time. 5% of the time it doesn't start for reasons that we know. Only 3% of the time does it fail to start for unknown reasons...So, the starts for this car are 97% understood, great car."   Hey, press, here is your headline, "99% are compliant!" Even the complaint press wasn't going to make that the headline, although they did go over the compliance rates in their coverage, and thus assisted the Administration in distracting from the issues.

*Edit, here is an outlet called the Federal New Network that really jumped the shark with this for the Administration: Headline Federal agencies close to 100% compliance with vaccine mandate as enforcement begins; and here is the Daily Caller taking the bait or carrying the water: Federal Government Has 96.5% Compliance Rate With Biden’s Vaccine Mandate, According To Administration (pathetic propaganda)*

In any regard, here are the "vaccination rates" released on Wednesday (I have reordered the columns so that "vaccination" appears before "compliance" and sorted them by "vaccination" rate) .

No surprise that the elephant in the room went unaddressed: how many have been given exceptions?

One surprise for me is the EPA which has 8% of employees unvaccinated and 5% out of compliance (i.e. the stoics who are not asking for an exceptions). After reflection, I should not have been surprised though. EPA scientists understand important things like statistics, toxins, and regulatory capture, and they are experts at sifting through scientific lies and obfuscations (Robert F. Kennedy Jr's excellent book The Real Anthony Fauci gets into the similarities in fields).  

On another note, I imagine that the 10% of NASA employees who are rejecting the injections have pretty firm grips on statistics and the scientific method and aren't going to be easily persuaded by the low level propaganda we see coming out of the CDC and news outlets.

 

I would really like to know the percentage of FDA employees who are not taking the Kool-Aid. Unfortunately, they are lumped in with HHS and unknown to we of the outer circles and FOIA is a very slow process.

The Dog that Doesn't Bark and the Defense that is not made - Exception Process is Ruse

As discussed in my last post, the military's record for approving religious exception requests is somewhat of a running joke. You can count the number of exceptions they have granted with a donut.

Per Judge Merryman: 

 "Whether characterized as a facial challenge or as a class of precisely similar as applied challenges, requiring only a single judicial determination, the plaintiffs’ contention is — based on current data — quite plausible that each branch’s procedure for requesting a religious exemption is a ruse that will result inevitably in the undifferentiated (and therefore unlawful under RFRA) denial of each service member’s request. Particularly, the data produced by the defendants show that more than 16,643 requests for a religious exemption pend. The military has granted no exemptions but has denied hundreds. This disparity, although susceptible to a benign explanation is, as well, susceptible to an explanation actionable and remediable under RFRA."

Which got me to thinking about federal employees. About 10% of the federal workforce or 175,000 employees are said to have pending exception requests. How many have been approved? I know of none. I have  read most of the filings in the 12 cases that have been filed against the Government since the EO was issued. One thing that I have noticed is that the Government frequently argues that claims are not ripe because exceptions for plaintiffs might yet be granted, but it never points to the grants that it has made. There was a mention of one in Church v. Biden, but when you look at the complaint a little bit, it looks like the purported grant there is disputed. If there was a grant, the Government is apparently trying to take it back. See discussion of Special Agent Hallfrisch at page 14 of the complaint. I don't know quite what to make of the Special Agent Hallfrisch situation, but if the Government is "trying to take it back," I will not count it as an accommodation.

 In response to my own motion for preliminary injunction, On October 5, 2021, the Government noted that the NLRB had already received requests from other NLRB employees on September 25, 2021 and September 28, 2021. I replied that it would be more assuring if the Government could have written that those requests had been granted.

Here we are two months after the first NLRB employee put in his or her request. How long does it take for a group of federal managers to evaluate the sincerity of one's beliefs? 

Given that the Government never points to all of those employees to whom it has granted exceptions, I think we can see in this absence the "dog that doesn't bark" and deduce that, like the military, the civilian agencies have not given any exceptions.

"Watson, what would a ruse look like?"

US District Judge Merryday: "quite plausible that each branch’s procedure for requesting a religious exemption is a ruse that will result inevitably in...denial of each service member’s request"

Did you think you would live to see the day when a federal judge would think that it is quite possible that the military branches are engaging in ruse procedures to end-run the religious rights of servicemen? We are now at that point. And, unfortunately, the judge is not wrong.

In Judge Merryday's November 22 Order  in Navy Seal, et al v. Biden (8:21-cv-02429) a Liberty Counsel case (Middle District of Florida), we see evidence that the "exception process" at the federal government is just as fake as the "vaccines" from which citizens are seeking exception.  Like the "vaccines", exception requests at best provide some protection for a short period of time. They also come with side effects (like unfavorable assignments) and don't ultimately stop you from getting fired.  

Judge Merryday:

 "Whether characterized as a facial challenge or as a class of precisely similar as applied challenges, requiring only a single judicial determination, the plaintiffs’ contention is — based on current data — quite plausible that each branch’s procedure for requesting a religious exemption is a ruse that will result inevitably in the undifferentiated (and therefore unlawful under RFRA) denial of each service member’s request. Particularly, the data produced by the defendants show that more than 16,643 requests for a religious exemption pend. The military has granted no exemptions but has denied hundreds. This disparity, although susceptible to a benign explanation is, as well, susceptible to an explanation actionable and remediable under RFRA."

(emphasis supplied) 

Although I view them grimly, these numbers come as no surprise.  As I wrote in response to an agency solicitation for religious exception requests:

Wicked and Cruel Exercise  

It is my (nonreligious belief) that this whole inquiry is essentially a demeaning and cruel exercise where no matter how much groveling they do, very few employees will be granted an exception and roughly zero employees will be accommodated in a manner that involves them retaining their jobs. 

If you have any concrete guidance as to the idea of an accommodation being something that is possible for employees, please provide me with that assurance. If there is not really any chance of accommodation, please stop this demeaning inquiry. 

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver discussed Judge Merryday's order as follows:

 “Although the court withheld an injunction today, the military will now be under a microscope to report the status and disposition of all religious exemption requests. The military has not granted any of the 16,643 requests. The military now has a clear choice—voluntarily accommodate those with sincere religious beliefs or be ordered by the court to accommodate sincere religious beliefs. Federal employers and civilian contractor employers must hear the message from this court loud and clear—the federal executive orders expressly require religious exemption.”

From my point of view, federal mandate challengers should take heart that at least one federal court is raising its eyebrows about the lack of exemption approvals. As the days go on and the number of exemptions remains at about zero, more courts will be doubtlessly raise their eyebrows as well.

Pray for the members of our armed forces.

St. Michael the Archangel,

defend us in battle.

Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.

May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,

and do thou,

O Prince of the heavenly hosts,

by the power of God,

thrust into hell Satan,

and all the evil spirits,

who prowl about the world

seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.