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kek on such a fucked up level

First Two 'Flurona' Cases Detected In US: Officials

A Los Angeles County COVID testing site confirmed the first local case of “flurona,” or influenza combined with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus that causes COVID, coming after a teen in Texas confirmed he was diagnosed with the two viruses.

Authorities at the 911 COVID testing site in Brentwood, California, confirmed a child tested positive for COVID and influenza A. The boy’s mother also tested positive for COVID.

“It was a family visiting from Mexico, from Cabo San Lucas,” Steve Farzam, the head of 911 COVID Testing, told KNBC-TV. “Some very mild symptoms, almost could be easily confused with sinusitis."

The pair had recently returned from a vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, the company said.

Farzam said the child did not require hospitalization and went home with their parents after the testing was completed.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Los Angeles County Department of Health, which has not yet commented on the diagnosis.

COVID and the flu are two respiratory diseases caused by separate viruses.

In Houston, Texas, a 17-year-old boy told ABC13 that he was diagnosed with both COVID and the flu but said it was mild.

“I ended up getting tested the day before Christmas for strep throat, flu, and COVID,” said Alex Zierlein.

“I didn’t think I had any of the three. It felt like a mild cold."

Reports last week said a pregnant woman in Israel tested positive for COVID and the flu. The unidentified woman was diagnosed with the rare double infection when she arrived last week at the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikvah, officials told the Times of Israel.

“She was diagnosed with the flu and coronavirus as soon as she arrived,” said Arnon Vizhnitser, director of the hospital’s Gynecology Department, told the Hamodia news outlet.

“Both tests came back positive, even after we checked again,” he continued, adding that “the disease is the same disease. They’re viral and cause difficulty breathing since both attack the upper respiratory tract."

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/first-2-cases-flurona-virus-detected-us

Texas Gov. Abbott Sues Biden Over Military Vaccine Mandate, Tells His National Guard Biden is Not Their Commander-in-Chief

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday sued Joe Biden and the Pentagon over its military vaccine mandate.

Over 40% of the Texas National Guard are refusing to get the Covid vaccine.

On Tuesday Governor Abbott asked a federal judge to overturn Biden’s vax mandate citing his own authority as commander-in-chief as governor.

The Daily Mail reported:

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has sued President Biden over the administration’s military vaccine mandate, citing the governor’s authority ‘as commander-in-chief and on Texas’s sovereignty.’

Abbott filed suit Tuesday in Texas, asking a federal judge to overturn Biden’s vaccine requirement, in a filing that repeatedly invokes Abbott’s own authority as commander of chief of the guard, which is subject to complex jurisdiction.

Under overlapping statutes, state national guards remain under the command of governors except when they are called up for federal by the president. Title 10 of the U.S. Code applies to active duty military, while Title 32 applies to the Guard.

‘Defendants’ intrusion into the discretion and scope of Title 32 commanders is contrary to the balance of power between federal and state officials set out by the U.S. Constitution and federal law,’ Abbott argues in the suit, which names Biden in his professional capacity.

‘It is unlawful for Defendants to attempt to override the Governor’s authority to govern his troops, and then leave him to deal with the harms that they leave in their wake,’ according to the suit.

The suit cites the Texas state constitution, and claims the defendants’ actions ‘directly infringe on Governor Abbott’s authority as commander-in-chief and on Texas’s sovereignty, and so harm Governor Abbott and Texas.’

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/01/texas-gov-abbott-sues-biden-military-vaccine-mandate-tells-national-guard-biden-not-commander-chief/

Hayward: China Defends Twitter for Proving U.S. Has ‘No Freedom of Speech’ with Marjorie Taylor Greene Ban

China’s state-run Global Times on Monday gloated that Twitter’s ban of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) proves the Chinese Communist Party’s point that “freedom of speech” is an illusion, so Americans are hypocrites for criticizing China’s vast censorship apparatus.

Rep. Greene’s personal account was permanently suspended from Twitter on Sunday for “repeated violations of our [Chinese coronavirus] misinformation policy,” according to the company. The tweet that prompted Greene’s suspension included a chart of allegedly high “Covid vaccine deaths” that was based on “unverified data” and drawn in a misleading way. Facebook suspended Greene’s page soon after Twitter took action against her.

To the Global Times, these bans – plus Twitter’s suspension of Donald Trump’s account when he was the sitting president of the United States – were proof that America is hypocritical for objecting to China’s supposedly more rational and orderly system of state-imposed censorship:

“From Trump to Greene, the permanent ban on their personal Twitter account indicates that in the US, there is no absolute freedom of speech either. There are clear boundaries on freedom of speech. The voices must conform to laws and regulations and cannot impair national interests,” [China Foreign Affairs University professor Li Haidong] said.

But the US has played the old trick of double standards on freedom of speech. Chinese social media platforms’ suspension of some personal accounts, or the closure of some media outlets in Hong Kong such as the Apply Daily comes from the same considerations taken when Twitter banned Trump and Greene – their contents violated China’s law and regulations and posed potential threats to national security, social stability and normal order.

Ironically, when banning these personal accounts, the US defends its actions with a legitimate explanation; while China adopts similar practices, Washington portrays them as “suppressing speech freedom,” or committing “human rights violations.” Applying double standards in such a way is despicable.

https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2022/01/05/hayward-china-defends-twitter-for-proving-u-s-has-no-freedom-of-speech-with-marjorie-taylor-greene-ban/

Medical Ethics Prof on CNN: ‘Penalize’ Unvaccinated Americans—Deny Them Affordable Health Insurance

NYU professor of bioethics Arthur Caplan, a guest on CNN Wednesday, said it is time to “shame” and “blame” unvaccinated Americans, adding that society should “penalize” them in a variety of ways, including higher hospital bills and insurance premiums.

“By and large, if you’re vaccinated and boosted, even if you get infected, you’re going to be fine. You’re going to be fine here. It’s the unvaccinated who are going to be hurt so why should anyone who is boosted bother at this point to do anything that makes the unvaccinated more safe?” CNN’s John Berman asked.

“I want us to act as a community. I want us to act as a team. We’re fighting a war and need all hands on deck. I don’t want to reject those who still haven’t done the right thing. I’ll condemn them. I’ll shame them. I’ll blame them, but I don’t want to exclude them,” Caplan replied, before detailing his desire to “penalize” unvaccinated Americans and implement more coercive tactics to corner them into getting the shot.

Caplan continued (emphasis added):

They’ve got to come around. Were not going to win this war — we’re going to be talking about COVID this time next year if we don’t get more people to do the right thing. So we can’t write them off. We can penalize them more. We can say you will have to pay more on your hospital bill. You can’t get life insurance or disability insurance at affordable rates if you aren’t vaccinated. Those companies should not treat us as equals in terms of what the financial burdens are that that disease imposes.

Berman responded by scolding unvaccinated individuals, contending, “It’s the unvaccinated who aren’t wearing masks. It’s the unvaccinated who aren’t social distancing. It’s the unvaccinated going to crowded indoor events.

“So there’s this bizarre irony where the ones who are behaving are the ones being told to behave 10 times more so,” he added.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/01/05/cnn-medical-guest-says-penalize-unvaccinated-americans-deny-them-affordable-health-insurance/

Coles reintroduces purchasing limits as demand soars, includes rapid antigen test kits

Shoppers will be limited to purchasing just one rapid antigen kit per customer or transaction at Coles -in addition to other meat products- as demand skyrockets across the supermarket chain.

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/coles-reintroduces-purchasing-limits-as-demand-soars-includes-rapid-antigen-test-kits/news-story/8768db87f08c2480cee4d574ac2bf944

limits on meat

Austin, Blinken to Testify Before Private Senate Panel About Afghanistan Pullout Disaster

Two top Biden administration officials are set to testify in private before a Senate panel next week as lawmakers seek additional answers about the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer.

The Senate’s Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees have posted an event scheduled for 10 am on January 11 at which Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken will testify. The hearing is closed and will not be webcast, and no further details have been released about the event.

The two men, along with several other leading members of the administration and Pentagon, have already testified before the two Senate committees once, in the weeks after the US completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 31, 2021. Austin was excoriated for a no-show at a September 14 panel that Blinken also testified at, but appeared two weeks later at yet another hearing with the top diplomat.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) indicated at the time that he was willing to compel Austin to testify about the “fatally flawed” withdrawal, saying that “a full accounting of the US response to this crisis is not complete without the Pentagon - especially when it comes to understanding the complete collapse of the U.S. trained and funded Afghan military.”

“The fact that the Afghan army we and our partners trained simply melted away, in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise,” Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee on September 28. “It would be dishonest to claim otherwise.”

“We need to consider some uncomfortable truths: that we did not fully comprehend the depth of corruption and poor leadership in their senior ranks, we didn’t grasp the damaging effect of frequent and unexplained rotations by [Afghan] President Ghani of his commanders, we did not anticipate the snowball effect caused by the deals that the Taliban* commanders struck with local leaders,” Austin also said.

However, Austin recently tested positive for COVID-19, and the 68-year-old former Army general has been experiencing “mild symptoms.” His quarantine period ends on Friday, according to new US Center for Disease Control and Prevention rules, although he has been participating in virtual meetings while working from home, as well.

https://sputniknews.com/20220105/austin-blinken-to-testify-before-private-senate-panel-about-afghanistan-pullout-disaster-1092048331.html

Trans Activists Refuse To Publish Unfavorable Data On Trans Youth In Sports Debate

A trio of left-wing organizations refused to publish their full data set on Americans’ opinions on trans youth in sports after admitting that women’s sports advocates “win the debate on trans youth in sports against any and all arguments we have tried,” according to a messaging guide from the organizations.

ASO Communications, a self-defined “progressive” communications firm, published a messaging guide in coordination with the Transgender Law Center and a Democratic research firm, Lake Research Partners. Activists are told to build on the existing “Race Class Narrative” — which dubs anything other than social justice activism as racist — to persuade American voters to favorably view biological men competing in women’s sports.

“This new approach builds on the Race Class Narrative to demand to tell a convincing story of how our opposition uses strategic racism and transphobia to harm us all,” the guide reads.

The guidebook is not available on the Lake Research Partners or Transgender Law Center’s website, though it was archived at a small blog and available on the ASO Communications website.

One portion of the messaging manual admits that transgender activists are losing the debate on trans youth in sports, even among their base, though the trio of organizations has refused to publish the full unfavorable data set.

“Our base and persuadables want to support transgender student athletes, but are extremely susceptible to our opposition’s argument that excluding trans youth is necessary to protect the fairness of women’s sports,” the guide reads.

The Transgender Law Center, ASO Communications, and Lake Research Partners did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.

Of the data that was published, the trio’s research found that the “most effective message” at swaying voters towards supporting trans student-athletes is comparing their struggles to the struggles of black women being asked to wear their hair differently.

https://dailycaller.com/2022/01/05/trans-activists-data-sports-debate/

GOP Slams Biden Decision To Ignore Mandate To Disclose How Iran Sanctions Relief Funds Terrorism

As nuclear deal negotiations advance, Biden won't account for every dollar Iran receives as a result of lifted sanctions

Congressional foreign policy leaders slammed the Biden administration's decision to not comply with a legal mandate to detail to Congress how sanctions relief for Iran will bolster the regime's ability to conduct terror attacks.

Republicans in Congress, in comments to the Washington Free Beacon, accused President Joe Biden of obstructing the legislative branch's constitutional oversight role. They say the Biden administration does not want Congress to know how much money sanctions relief provides to Iran's terrorist allies as negotiations with Tehran over a revamped nuclear deal drag into another year.

"President Biden thinks the rules don't apply to him. He thinks he can ignore a statute that mandates he tell Congress how much money he's sending to terrorists," Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee who helped spearhead the reporting mandates, told the Free Beacon. "Well, he better be ready in 2023. House conservatives will hold him accountable to the law."

Biden, in a statement issued during the Christmas holiday, said he would not fully obey a reporting provision included in the bipartisan spending bill that mandates the administration account for every dollar Iran receives as a result of lifted sanctions. The administration said providing that information would "include highly sensitive classified information, including information that could reveal critical intelligence sources or military operational plans."

The strenuous reporting requirement, written into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), is one of the first of its kind and would have forced the administration to provide an unprecedented look into how the easing of sanctions enriches Tehran's terrorist allies, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The noncompliance announcement comes as the Biden administration attempts to reenter a nuclear deal with Iran—using sanctions relief as a bargaining chip. The Biden administration waiver also applies to other NDAA provisions requiring a full accounting of the equipment and classified materials abandoned in Afghanistan when the United States left the country last year, as well as a detailed report on joint U.S.-Taliban intelligence-sharing operations.

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R., Texas), the primary author of the Iran reporting statute, told the Free Beacon that he and his colleagues will not allow the administration to obstruct congressional efforts to mandate transparency.

"Nobody is above the law, and Joe Biden must follow the NDAA that he just signed into law," Jackson said, adding that Biden is "refusing to comply with the law that he himself signed."

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/gop-slams-biden-decision-to-ignore-mandate-to-disclose-how-iran-sanctions-relief-funds-terrorism/