The Daily Populous

Friday December 17th, 2021 morning edition

image for 103 Marines booted for refusing COVID vaccine as services begin discharges

In late August, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered mandatory COVID vaccines for all U.S. military personnel.

Earlier this week, the Air Force became the first to make public that it had followed through on the warning, announcing that 27 airmen had received administrative discharges.

The Marine Corps said Thursday that 95% of its active-duty force of 182,500 Marines had received at least one COVID vaccine shot, the lowest percentage among the military services.

The Army said 3,864 soldiers have refused the vaccine outright while an additional 6,263 are awaiting the processing of their requests for an exemption.

The majority of service members who remain unvaccinated have sought religious exemptions, but none of the services has yet to approve an exemption on religious grounds.

Unlike the other services, the Army has decided that it will not discharge soldiers who refuse to be vaccinated.

Flagged soldiers who have refused to get the vaccine will have to submit to regular COVID testing, Lt. Col. Terence Kelley, an Army spokesman told ABC News. »

Claudette Colvin's juvenile record has been expunged, 66 years after she was arrested for refusing to give her bus seat to a White person

Authored by edition.cnn.com
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Colvin, now 82, was arrested when she was 15 for refusing to give up her seat to a White person on a bus in Montgomery.

An Alabama family court judge in November granted Colvin's petition the prior month to expunge her record .

Colvin was charged with two counts of violating Montgomery's segregation ordinance and one felony count of assaulting a police officer. »

F.D.A. Will Permanently Allow Abortion Pills by Mail

Authored by nytimes.com
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The federal government on Thursday permanently lifted a major restriction on access to abortion pills.

It will allow patients to receive the medication by mail instead of requiring them to obtain the pills in person from specially certified health providers.

The decision to make this change permanent is likely to deepen the already polarizing divisions between conservative and liberal states on abortion. »

The Attempted Republican Coup Should Be the Democrats’ Leading Message

Authored by thebulwark.com
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That dissecting the plot of an attempted coup in the United States of America, and fending off another one, which we can see on the horizon, is a compelling message.

And if aiding and abetting a coup doesn’t prove to be a political liability, then such attacks will be incentivized in the future.

There is no need for Democrats to wait until then to describe the Republican party as manifestly unfit to control Congress. »