Citing “jurisdictional issues“, the severe COVID compliance office of Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews has reversed a significant portion of the vaccine mandate.  Details are oddly sketchy to find; however, it appears Victoria State government workers and workers within the judiciary will no longer be mandated to accept the COVID-19 vaccination.

(Sky News) […] All Commonwealth employees as well as people who work in connection with court proceedings will be exempt with a government spokesperson saying the relaxation is an attempt to avoid “jurisdictional limitations”.  The change will apply to judges, lawyers, security guards and police officers. (read more).

It would appear this reversal is due to an issue in a similar vein to ‘separation of powers’.    This sets up an unusual dynamic.  The vaccine mandate still exists for everyone in the private sector; because of course it does.  However, a judge hearing a case that challenges the vaccine mandate would themselves not be subject to the same state-wide mandate argued in their court.

**I’ll keep looking, but if you find anything I’d be interested to see what the official reasoning is.

UPDATE: The mandate guideline is HERE in pdf Form.  But the reason for the distinction between Government and Judicial employees (page 5) is not outlined.

Steven Miller’s legal group, America-First Legal (AFL) has written a very interesting letter [pdf HERE] to the DOJ Office of Inspector General outlining insider information about a coordinated effort by outside education activists, White House officials and DOJ collaborators.

The basic outline is that left-wing activists, steeped in Critical Race Theory, were alarmed at how the grassroots parent groups were organizing so rapidly against the Marxist school curriculum they had spent so much time creating.  The group activists including allies within the NEA (National Education Association) and AFT (American Federation of Teachers) viewed the parent push back as a threat, and requested help from the White House.

Biden Domestic Policy Council officials and White House staff worked through September with the education activists to brainstorm a plan to stop the push back from parents.  According to the internal documents used as evidence by America First Legal, these groups then coordinated “discussions with senior DOJ officials, including at least one political appointee in the department’s Civil Rights Division.”

After a plan was developed, the group then enlisted the National School Boards Association to join the strategy.  According to AFL, “On or about September 29, citing legal authorities including the Patriot Act, the “National School Boards Association” made public a letter demanding federal action against parents citing authorities including the Patriot Act.”

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This is an interesting situation, because the elected Sheriff is the highest constitutional officer in Los Angeles County.  While city/county administrators can attempt to make life miserable for LA Sheriff Alex Villanueva, the dynamic of enforcement is another kettle of fish entirely.

According to CBS local, “In early August, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors unanimously ratified an executive order requiring all county employees, regardless of department, to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 1, with exemptions only for medical and religious purposes.”

Additionally, a county mandate went into effect midnight Thursday, requiring proof of at least one dose of the vaccine to enter bars, clubs, breweries, and attend events such as concerts, sporting events and theme parks. Proof of full vaccination will take effect Nov. 4, with enforcement mechanisms still not determined.

LA Sheriff Villanueva said, in a Facebook live post on Thursday, he will not enforce the mandate for his department with roughly 18,000 employees. WATCH:

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released the September jobs report [DATA HERE] showing a dismal 194,000 jobs added against a financial media and Wall Street expectation of 500,000 jobs.  [CNBC Apoplectic]   The labor participation rate in the worker economy overall has not moved since Biden’s inauguration, and stands at 61.6%.

Digging into the numbers, what is happening is exactly what we ¹should expect.  Outside the immediacy of private sector durable goods retailers seeing a pull back in consumer purchasing due to inflation (which we continue to point out is the critical issue); the local economies impacted by a declining tax base are key early indicators of contracting economic activity.  Wage gains are not keeping up with inflation.

Inside the data, you will note [Table B-1] a significant decline in Local Government Education of -144,000 jobs.  Obviously the collapse of in-school teaching leads to less jobs in this sector overall. However, the drop happened at the exact same time students were returning to a new school year, and this drop is also reflected year-over-year.  Schools were impacted by COVID in Sept 2020 more than schools are impacted by COVID in Sept 2021, yet this year the jobs are completely gone.  Something bigger is happening in this sector.

Additionally, healthcare services show a major drop in employment (-37k) specifically as it relates to elderly care and nursing homes.   All the sub-sectors of elder care are significantly lower in employment.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the JoeBama Administration and Presidency.

“This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won’t be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.”

“But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.”

~ Mike Vanderboegh

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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Joe Biden did it again today.  A month after the first announcement, the White House occupant claimed again a Dept of Labor rule (via OSHA) is forthcoming, yet no such process appears to be taking place.  This ploy now seems very purposeful, because without an actual policy or regulation visibly in place, state attorneys general cannot file a lawsuit or request an injunction.

As long as Biden keeps threatening a DOL worker vaccination rule sometime in the future, many employers will take action to require worker vaccination.   This seems to be the actual strategy; bolstered by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki caught off-guard last week when asked about it.

Psaki had no idea how to answer the question about any OSHA activity not taking place (link).  Obviously Psaki didn’t expect the question, but it was also obvious that no background conversation had ever taken place amid the White House communication team.

Perhaps responding to an awakening on that issue, Joe Biden gave a speech today begging people to get vaccinated and again warning that a federal vaccine mandate for all workers was coming:

TRANSCRIPT – […] The Labor Department is going to shortly issue an emergency rule — which I asked for several weeks ago, and they’re going through the process — to require all employees [employers] with more than 100 people, whether they work for the federal government or not — this is within a — in the purview of the Labor Department — to ensure their workers are fully vaccinated or face testing at least once a week.

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Raw material foodstuff price contracts are expiring, and the new purchasing prices will be significantly higher than current.  As these contracts refresh, the new higher prices immediately enter the food supply chain.  CTH has been warning readers to stock up on non-perishable items as this next wave of food price increases is going to be much bigger than even the prior 8%/avg jumps; and there is absolutely no end in sight.

Also, as more large municipal regions (megalopolis metropolitan areas like New York City and Los Angeles) begin enforcing a vaccine passport to eat in restaurants, the demand for meals at home will remain high.  Supermarkets again will fill the void in the diet of consumers who choose to remain at home instead of eating out.

The current demand on retail food products is likely visible to you in the form of bare shelves and minimal inventory.

Grocery retailers operate on paper thin gross profit margins and rely on fast turns of multiple penny profit items to add up to net profit income.  Technology has helped modern grocery supply chains to be very thin.

An inventory shortage arises when demand on the retail grocery industry spikes – which is what we have seen with COVID impacts as alternative food options were forcibly closed or pressured to reduced capacity.

Conagra is one of the large food conglomerates with control over products from field to fork.  Recently, Conagra executives announced they expect food prices to climb even higher due to all of the aforementioned impacts, along with large price increases in fuel and energy.

Wall Street Journal […] Conagra said Thursday it expects gross inflation—which doesn’t take into account hedging—to be about 11% for fiscal 2022, versus its earlier estimate of 9%. The company plans to continue adjusting prices and cutting costs, and said its prices likely will rise 4% or more during the current fiscal year.

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The Associated Press puts the number in the “hundreds.” However, when you look at the statistics within the article the number of workers being released by Massachusetts healthcare providers is actually in the thousands.

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts hospitals are preparing to fire hundreds of employees who fail to comply with COVID-19 vaccination requirements designed to protect patient safety.  Officials at hospitals across the state told The Boston Globe they don’t expect the number of employees who are fired because of vaccine mandates to result in cuts to patient services, but they are stepping up recruitment and retention efforts just in case.

At Mass General Brigham, the state’s largest hospital system, more than 95% of employees have been vaccinated, executives said, but about 4,000 have not yet received their shots or provided proof of vaccination ahead of the system’s Oct. 15 deadline. […] At Beth Israel Lahey Health, 91% of the 35,000-member workforce has been vaccinated, but about 3,000 employees have yet to comply with an Oct. 31 deadline.

[…] Worcester-based UMass Memorial Health Care is giving employees until Nov. 1 to get shots. So far, about 90% have been vaccinated, a spokesperson said. Terminations could affect patient care, Tony Berry said. The system has about 13,000 workers.  “We will do everything we can to not have to resort to program closures, but … we may have no other choice,” he said.  (read more)

It is important to note that many of the people mandated to be vaccinated within the healthcare system are not just nurses and doctors.

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Earlier today, during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the Arizona vote outcome, representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ) questioned Maricopa County officials about their deletion of 2020 election data in order to avoid a state senate subpoena for election records.

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers and the boards vice chairman, Bill Gates, admitted they intentionally deleted election data to route it onto an archive file.  The archives of the county records were not subpoenaed, that way the county could avoid sending the full 2020 election data to the auditors.

The admission takes place at 01:52 of the video testimony [Prompted, just hit play]:

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