From ThreadReaderApp (slightly adpated) - July 10, 2021


Melquíades

I'm a naval officer who's spent the last 15 years on active duty. I'm now potentially facing forcible discharge if I won't submit to taking the COVID vaccine. Here's a thread on just what a scandal that is. All data claims will be linked.

??
Last week the Army released an EXORD (execute order) telling its troops to prepare for mandatory vaccination in September. Though he has the authority, it's not likely the President will mandate vaccination without full FDA approval, so look out for that development.
Here's a link to the story: armytimes.com/news/pentagon-…

The directive came from an execute order sent to the force by Department of the Army Headquarters.

The Department of Defense (DoD) will assuredly move as a whole, meaning all branches will require vaccination on the same schedule.

I've spoken to two command chaplains regarding religious exemption (I'm a Christian abortion abolitionist and cells from aborted children were used in the vaccines' development), and am told exemptions won't likely be granted.

So, my choices are vaccination and forcible discharge.

We're just a few years removed from the military's mandatory anthrax vaccine debacle, and here's hoping the administration remembers what a disaster that was.

Numerous service members were harmed by a vaccine they didn't need; many more had their careers cut short, were dishonorably discharged, court martialed, and even imprisoned for their refusal to get the shot. Here's a good retrospective: Troops who refused anthrax vaccine paid a high price

So let's take a look at the rationale behind the forthcoming DoD mandate. By their own accounting (as of two days ago) 202,567 active duty service members have had COVID, of whom 26 have died.

Even allowing for the absurdist definition of a "COVID fatality" (death for whatever reason within 28 days of a positive RT-PCR test run to 40+ cycles), for military personnel, COVID has a better than 99.987% survival rate.

Here's the DoD's own statistics page: Coronavirus: DOD Response

Here's the plain truth: COVID-19 is utterly inconsequential to the military. Don't get me wrong: our response to it has been anything but inconsequential.

We've halted training, destroyed unit cohesion and morale, strapped worthless pieces of cloth over everyone's faces for the last year, and spectacularly destroyed our warfighting readiness in the name of COVID, but the pathogen itself is meaningless.

I defy you to find a group of 2 million US adults at lower risk from COVID. It doesn't exist. We are overwhelmingly young, fit, and free of comorbidities. Compared to other causes of death, COVID isn't even on the radar.

Between 2006 and 2021, roughly 400 service members died annually of accidents. 300 committed suicide. More than 200 died of random illnesses and injuries. Here are the DoD data: fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec…

Over 1,000 service members were killed on motorcycles between 1999 and 2012, yet we still permit their use. Here are the Army data: phc.amedd.army.mil/PHC%20Resource…

Beyond the laughably insignificant threat posed by COVID to the force, consider the aggressively unintelligent plan to expose the entire force to a drug with zero long-term safety data.

What if there are short-, mid-, and long-term negative effects? Who will defend the nation once the entire force is compromised?

There's a reason drug trials always contain a control group, yet the political appointees and Flag and General Officers running our military seem perfectly willing to potentially jeopardize 100% of the force in the name of political agreeability.

We do a lot of talking about "forceful backup" and "warrior toughness," but you won't hear a word from that cadre of esteemed "yes" men motivated by varying mixtures of a desire to get promoted and a fear of getting fired.

For those who'll respond with "But you've taken plenty of vaccines in the military." You're right. I have. And the FDA's multi-year safety data were available for each. Not so for this vaccine.

There's a reason we maintain Material Safety Data Sheets on all hazardous chemicals on ships. Or would you tell our Sailors, "You volunteered. Now shut up and stick your hand in that acid"? Sure hope not.

And for those who'll invariably respond with "George Washington forced all his troops to be inoculated against smallpox," that's cute. Be sure to follow it up with "For every 1 soldier lost to action with the British, 10 died of disease."

Offer me an experimental drug for a pathogen that kills 10x more soldiers than bullets during time of war and I might have a different reaction.

In sum, we've learned to live with countless threats infinitely more serious than COVID, and all without resorting to extreme measures. COVID, however, is different.

This thread until now has merely demonstrated how absurd the argument for mandatory vaccination is. From this point on, I'll explain why I think the argument is being made despite its absurdity.

Remember if you can the 2020 election. We haven't seen anything as contentious or as unusual in a lifetime. Whatever your politics (I genuinely don't care), the fact remains that roughly half the electorate is convinced that something fishy happened around November 3rd.

Whether you believe the theories around ballot manipulation, burst pipes in Atlanta, etc., the interference in elections by several state governors and subsequent top cover from various wings of the judiciary are matters of fact, not opinion.

The Constitution clearly states that state legislatures wield authority in conducting elections. Here's the Constitution: 
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI_S4_C1_1_1_1_1/

Still, governors in numerous key states appropriated this authority to themselves, mailing unsolicited ballots, extending deadlines, suspending or weakening signature verification, etc.

Various courts nearly universally permitted their usurpations, reasoning that, if everyone is sufficiently scared of a virus, the Constitution can be disregarded.

Why do I mention the election? Is it sour grapes over who won the White House? Not a chance. I've served under four Presidents, and I don't much care who's in the Oval Office.

Given the chance, I'll serve under a couple more, whoever they are. One of America's great marvels is the constancy of its military, no matter which party is in power.

I mention the 2020 election because it and COVID policy are inextricably intertwined. Despite the glaring unconstitutionality of what happened during the election, if enough of the populace are convinced that the situation really was dire enough to warrant suspending the Constitution (without actually saying so), then what happened during the election can be permitted.

This position, however, cannot withstand dissent. It requires absolute fealty, particularly from the Armed Forces. And how do you prove your allegiance to this narrative? By rolling up your sleeve.

You'd have to be genuinely convinced of the existential threat posed by this virus to volunteer for an experimental vaccine for which no one - not the pharmaceutical giants nor the government mandating its acceptance - is liable in case things go wrong. That's real faith.

Failure to volunteer for vaccination - to say nothing of refusal of mandated vaccination - is the sort of rebellion that cannot be tolerated. Those who question the reality of the COVID apocalypse are dangerous insider threats who must be purged from the ranks.

Consider that a great majority of those resistant to vaccination are Republicans. Mandating vaccination is an admittedly brilliant strategy for purging them from the force, all in the name of public health.

Rather than calling them what they really are (ideological threats), they can be removed on the grounds that they are biological threats. Here's reporting on the political disparity on vaccinations from a government-funded news organization: Poll Finds Startling Difference in Vaccinations Among US Republicans and Democrats

The rest of COVID policy, too, is tied to acceptance of the official narrative. That is, if COVID really wasn't the world-ending catastrophe it was made out to be, several of the highest-ranking public officials would have to answer for the effects of their edicts:

economic disaster, unemployment, spikes in suicides, increases in crime rates, domestic violence, substance abuse, etc. All can be forgiven if COVID was worse. If it wasn't, however, people have blood on their hands, and that's a conversation they'd rather not have.

In the end, I'm just a guy who wants to keep serving his nation, providing for his family, contributing to his community, and minding his own business.

I know a lot of people say this, but those who've worn the uniform know it to be true: it really is an honor to serve all of you.

For the last 15 years I've sacrificed or risked my comfort, my safety, and my life on a handful of oceans and in various sandy spots to support and defend the Constitution and ensure the welfare of people who'll retweet this and despise it alike.

Whichever you choose, it's why I put on the uniform everyday. Here's hoping I get to keep doing it so you get to keep doing it.

Here's this thread all in one place.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1413705439901069314.html

Obligatory disclaimer: I don't speak for the Navy, rather as a citizen who serves in the Navy. Views entirely mine.

It seems this thread is taking off. It also seems @TuckerCarlson is reading long Twitter threads on air. If there's any chance we can shine more light on this issue, feel free to tweet this at him. The careers of a lot of exceptional service members hang in the balance.

Perhaps @RealCandaceO might be interested given her concern for informed consent.

Quote:“As Our Lady spoke these last words, she opened Her hands once more, as she had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me.) The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals.”

Quote:“This vision only lasted a moment, thanks to our good Mother in heaven who, in the first apparition, had promised to take us to heaven. Were it not for that, I believe we would have died out of fright and fear. Terrified and as if to plead for succor, we looked up at Our Lady, who said to us, so kindly and so sadly" :

“You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end, but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the reign of Pius XI.

When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine and persecutions against the Church and the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.

If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions against the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated.

In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a certain period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved, etc. [This marks the third part of the secret, not yet not revealed] Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco, yes, you may tell him.

When you say the Rosary, say after each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need.“

Quote:The secret of the secret is that God wills to give us everything through the mediation of the Blessed Virgin, in response to our devotion to Her Immaculate Heart, not only spiritual goods but even temporal peace, and this for the whole world. Has anyone noticed that one of the words of Our Lady, faithfully reported by Lúcia to her parish priest the next day, has the same vigor, the same exclusivity? "Continue to pray the Rosary every day… to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, for only she can help you." It is equivalent to saying: there is no salvation for us except from Jesus through the Blessed Virgin; this was already the essential core of the secret of Fatima which was disclosed as early as July, 1917.

Quote:THE OBSESSIVE FEAR FOR THE SALVATION OF SOULS - which is the other key of the secret, with its terrible first part, the gripping vision of hell, was clearly manifested at the very moment of the apparition, inscribed on the faces of the seers. All the witnesses in fact noticed the great sorrow which suddenly overwhelmed them. Those who were very near were very much moved by the sudden cry which fell from the lips of Lúcia. "At this moment", says Ti Marto, "Lúcia took a deep breath, went as pale as death, and we heard her cry out in terror to Our Lady, calling her by name."

Photograph after the Vision of Hell

Quote:AN URGENT SUPPLICATION FOR THE SALVATION OF SOULS

Right after the end of the secret, Our Lady continued:

“When you say the Rosary, say after each mystery: ‘O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of hell; lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need.”

O MY JESUS

The two prayers taught by Our Lady are addressed to Her Son, to Jesus Christ our Savior. This alone suffices to destroy the calumnies of the reformists opposed to Fatima under the fallacious pretext that her message is not Christo-centric enough! What an error! At Fatima, Our Lady willed to add to the Rosary, the great prayer in her honor this short invocation addressed to Jesus the Savior. Inserted between the Gloria Patri to the Holy Trinity, the Our Fathers and the Aves, which supplicate God our Father and our Blessed Mother in heaven, this little prayer enlarges the divine horizon of our Rosary.


FORGIVE US

The thought of our sin, this sin so profoundly rooted in us and which threatens to cause our ruin, is present everywhere in the message of Fatima. There is not one of the nine apparitions of the Angel and the most Blessed Virgin which does not make some allusion to sin. Each of the four prayers taught to us, brief as they are, all make some mention of it. This prayer, which is no exception, echoes the litany of Paters and Aves: Forgive us our trespasses (the Our Father), and pray for us sinners (the Hail Mary).


DELIVER US FROM THE FIRE OF HELL

This supplication, the most urgent, refers of course to the vision of hell. The concrete evocation of its terrifying fire was willed expressly to call to mind the description of hell sketched by Lúcia. Yes, it is willed by Our Lady, who is the sovereign teacher, that this word hell will always remind us of this devouring fire, which most exactly expresses its terrible reality. [Editor’s note: this was also a warning against the heretical notion that hell is empty that is so prevalent today.]

‘Livrai nos do fogo do inferno!’ The expression is strong and vigorous, and deliberately so. Not only ‘preserve us’, but more exactly, ‘deliver us’! It makes explicit the last request of the Our Father, with the same verb, but ‘deliver us from evil’. This is to say that hell is not for us an imaginary and far off danger, from which we can escape by ourselves.

No, it is the just and certain culmination of rebellions against God and hardening of hearts, where we would go without the pardon of Jesus, our Savior, and without the help of His grace full of mercy. Without Him, without His Passion and His redeeming Blood we are already lost. We owe our salvation to Him alone, and He desires that we ask Him: ‘O my Jesus, deliver us from the fire of hell!’

The prayer of Fatima is very close to what the liturgy says: ‘From eternal death, deliver us, O Jesus!’ implore the litanies. And the prayer of the Roman Canon, stating clearly the intention of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, says: ‘Deliver us from eternal damnation - ab aeterna damnatione nos eripi - and number us in the flock of Thine elect.’

The same vigorous expression is found in the Litany of the Saints, and this time it makes quite clear who is meant by the ‘us’: it is we ourselves and all our dear ones who have the faith, and we implore pardon for ourselves: ‘That You would deliver our souls and the souls of our brethren, relations and benefactors, from eternal damnation, we beseech You, hear us! Ut animas nostras ...ab aeterna damnatione eripias, te rogamus audi nos.’

It is an urgent supplication, but it is also full of an immense trust. For in hope we are already sure of obtaining the forgiveness of Our Savior, and eventually reaching the happiness of heaven… Thus, our horizons are enlarged, leading us to the second part of the prayer:


LEAD ALL SOULS TO HEAVEN

Our ardent desire to be saved, ourselves and our dear ones, is necessarily extended to all souls. Christ offered His life for all men, without exception, and God His Father wishes to save all men; so why shouldn’t all souls go to heaven? The little prayer becomes… a universal prayer. It is mystical, and it expresses a true and ardent charity.

‘Lord’, Father de Foucauld loved to repeat, ‘if it could be possible, make all men go to heaven!’ [Ed: Indeed, that is true, Christ our Savior made salvation possible for all, but few there are who choose it. However, we are called by charity to pray for all poor sinners, for we may not judge; that is for Christ alone to do.]

‘All souls’, ‘as almas todas’, or in the version most often quoted by Sister Lucia, ‘as alminhas todas’, with this diminutive of commiseration, ‘all these poor souls’, just as we would say, ‘poor sinners’. ‘Levai para o Ceu!’ ‘Lead them to heaven!’ The word can hardly be translated: take them, carry them, and lift them right up to heaven!

And perhaps even better, as Father Simonin and Dom Jean-Nesmy translates: ‘Draw all souls to heaven.’ It reminds us of the words of Jesus on the evening of Palm Sunday, just before entering into the work of His redemptive Sacrifice: ‘Now is the prince of this world cast out; and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.’ He said this to show by what death He was going to die. ‘Omnia traham ad me ipsum.’


ESPECIALLY THOSE MOST IN NEED

These last words bewildered Canon Formigao. Indeed they are surprising: How can we ask Jesus to lead all souls to heaven, and thus all without exception, and then immediately add a formula which on the contrary is partial and restrictive? The words, ‘all… especially’ seem to defy simple logic.

And yet the formula is surely authentic, and the difficulty disappears when we consider that it concerns the salvation of souls, which is always a pure and infinite mercy of God. The logic here is one of love, full of implications which cause the too narrow framework of the exact relation of the concepts to explode.

The suppliant soul, in the zeal of its love, would like to obtain from the Sacred Heart the salvation of all souls… but it knows that its request cannot be heard in all its extension… it does not merit it. In this case, it immediately clarifies its request, and says to God: ‘I ask You to have mercy at least on some souls, and most especially, as a priority, on the souls of the greatest sinners, who most surely risk being lost!’ Such is the logic of the saints…

This is how the three seers understood this prayer, in the light of its immediate context, the vision of hell. A striking passage from Lucia's Memoirs shows us how the little prayer of Our Lady often returned to the lips of Blessed Jacinta, and not only between decades of the Rosary, but to implore often the salvation of souls:

“Jacinta often sat thoughtfully on the ground or on a rock, and exclaimed: ‘Oh, hell! hell! How sorry I am for the souls who go to hell! And the people down there, burning alive, like wood in the fire!’ Then, shuddering, she knelt down with her hands joined, and recited the prayer Our Lady had taught us: ‘O my Jesus! Pardon us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need.“

‘Now’, Sr. Lucia continues, ‘Your Excellency will understand how my own impression was that the final words of this prayer refer to souls in greatest danger of damnation, or those who are nearest to it.’

These last words turn our attention towards those in their last agony. In all the myriads of Ave Marias we shall have prayed all during our life, we ask the Mother of Mercy to pray for us ‘at the hour of our death’. But all these hardened souls who outraged her unceasingly and never invoked her? It is for them, in their place that Our Lady has us pray during our Rosary.

This priority accorded the greatest sinners, was not understood, and was the principal reason why the original version of the prayer was abandoned for so long in favor of another, more classical one. Yet this prayer brings us to the full reality of the Gospel. It is the priority given to the erring sheep for the twofold reason that it is lost, and that its salvation will show more strikingly the untiring Love of its Good Shepherd!

It was St. Therese of the Child Jesus who, ‘devoured by a thirst for souls, burned with the desire to snatch from the eternal flames the souls of the greatest sinners’. Hence her decision ‘to prevent at any price from going to hell’ the horrible criminal whose three murders had monopolized the news. On him also, ‘this poor unfortunate Pranzini’, did she wish to pour out the salvific and ‘divine dew’ of the Blood of Jesus.

We will see that this concern for the salvation of the greatest sinners is a frequent theme in later revelations granted to Sr. Lúcia. It was equally the constant thought of Jacinta:

“Jacinta remained on her knees like this for long periods of time, saying the same prayers over and over again. From time to time, like someone waking from sleep, she called out to her brother or myself: ‘Francisco! Francisco! Are you praying with me? We must pray very much, to save souls from hell! So many go there! So many!“

THE LITTLE PRAYER OF REPARATORY OFFERING

Sr. Lúcia humbly confesses in her second Memoir: ‘During this month (June 13th – July 13th), I lost all enthusiasm for making sacrifices and acts of mortification… To reawaken my fervor which had grown cold, Our Lady told us:

‘Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say often to Jesus, especially each time you make a sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary."

Here is a very simple prayer, whose significance is immediately grasped. Again it is to Jesus our Savior that our offering is addressed, but in addition to the desire to please Him through love, in accomplishing the action we offer Him, two other intentions are added. And the whole richness of this prayer consists precisely in their indissoluble bond of reciprocal implication, which causes each of these intentions to remind us of the other two.

Note how the thought of the salvation of sinners is found inserted there like a wedge between the two acts of love for Jesus and Mary. This shows to what extent the missionary intention is at the very heart of the message of Fatima, as necessarily flowing from the true love of the Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

Since many have erroneously commented on their aversion for the Fatima Decade Prayer, this commentary by Frère Michel seemed most opportune to share. The two Fatima Prayers recommended by Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima urge us to reparation for the conversion of sinners, and it cannot be stressed enough the importance of this at this particular time. Our Lady of Fatima has promised that there is nothing, nothing at all, which we cannot accomplish by means of her Rosary.

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

Quote:Anacletus, an Athenian by birth, governed the Church in the days of the Emperor Trajan. He decreed that a bishop should be consecrated by no fewer than three bishops; that clerics should be publicly admitted to Holy Orders, by their own bishop; and that at Mass all should communicate after the Consecration. He adorned the tomb of blessed Peter, and set aside a place for the burial of the Pontiffs. He held two ordinations in the month of December, and made five priests, three deacons, and six bishops. Having sat in St. Peter’s Chair nine years, three months, and ten days, he was crowned with martyrdom and buried on the Vatican.

Quote:“But people need to understand that the amount of data right now that shows a high degree of effectiveness and a high degree of safety is more than we’ve ever seen with the emergency use authorization, so these vaccines are as good as officially approved with all the I’s dotted and T’s crossed. It hasn’t been done yet because the FDA has to do certain things. But it’s as good as done. So people should really understand that. But they are waiting now until you get an official approval before. And I think when you do see the official approval, you’ll see a lot more mandates.”

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

Quote:John Gualbert was born at Florence of a noble family. While, in compliance with his father’s wishes, he was following the career of arms, it happened that his only brother Hugh was slain by a kinsman. On Good Friday, John, at the head of an armed band, met the murderer alone and unarmed, in a spot where they could not avoid each other. Seeing death imminent, the murderer, with arms outstretched in the form of a cross, begged for mercy, and John, through reverence for the sacred sign, graciously spared him. Having thus changed his enemy into a brother, he went to pray in the church of San Miniato, which was near at hand; and as he was adoring the image of Christ crucified, he saw it bend its head towards him. John was deeply touched by this miracle, and determined thenceforward to fight for God alone, even against his father’s wish; so, on the spot he cut off his own hair and put on the monastic habit. Very soon his pious and religious manner of life shed abroad so great a luster that he became to many a living rule and pattern of perfection. Hence on the death of the Abbot of the place he was unanimously chosen superior. But the servant of God, preferring obedience to superiority, and moreover being reserved by the divine Will for greater things, betook himself to Romuald who was then living in the desert of Camaldoli, and who, inspired by heaven, announced to him the institute he was to form; whereupon he laid the foundations of his Order under the Rule of St. Benedict at Vallombrosa.

Soon afterwards many, attracted by the renown of his sanctity, flocked to him from all sides. He received them into his society, and together with them he zealously devoted himself to rooting out heresy and simony, and propagating the Apostolic faith; on account of which devotedness both he and his disciples suffered innumerable injuries. Thus, his enemies in their eagerness to destroy him and his brethren, suddenly attacked the monastery of San Salvi by night, burned the church, demolished the building, and mortally wounded all the monks. The man of God, however, restored them all forthwith to health by a single sign of the Cross. Peter, one of his monks, miraculously walked unhurt through a huge blazing fire, and thus John obtained for himself and his sons the peace they so much desired. From that time forward every stain of simony disappeared from Tuscany; and faith, throughout all Italy, was restored to its former purity.

John built many entirely new monasteries, and restored many others both as to their material buildings and as to regular observance, strengthening them all with the bulwark of holy regulations. In order to feed the poor he sold the sacred vessels of the Altar. The elements were obedient to his will when he sought to check evil-doers; and the sign of the Cross was the sword he used whereby to conquer the devils. At length worn out by abstinence, watchings, fasting, prayer, maceration of the flesh and finally old age, he fell into a grievous malady, during which he repeated unceasingly the words of David: “My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God: when shall I come and appear before the face of God?” When death drew near, calling together his disciples, he exhorted them to preserve fraternal union. Then he caused these words to be written on a paper which he wished should be buried with him: “I, John, believe and confess the faith which the holy Apostles preached, and the holy Fathers in the four Councils have confirmed.” At length having been honored during three days with the gracious presence of Angels, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, he departed to the Lord at Passignano, where he is honored with the highest veneration. He died in the year of salvation 1073 on the 4th of the Ides of July; and having become celebrated by innumerable miracles, was enrolled by Celestine III in the number of Saints.