Calls for asymptomatic COVID-19 testing to be introduced in schools

Regular asymptomatic COVID-19 testing could be re-introduced in schools for teachers and students under a controversial proposal by an education union.

The Australian Education Union (AEU) has proposed introducing testing again as it claims the government's mitigation measures in public schools are not "adequate" and the rate of infection will continue rising if there isn't an intervention.

"The AEU posits that the Committee should recommend that a regular asymptomatic testing program be reinstated in all educational settings," the union said in a submission to the parliamentary inquiry into long COVID-19.

"And that mandated isolation from the school or other educational setting is reintroduced for students or school staff who are infected with COVID.

"Current Government approaches to limiting COVID infection, repeat infection and long COVID demonstrates a lack of concern for the health and wellbeing of students, teachers and broader school communities."

The union claims the lack of appropriate preventative measures could lead to higher cases of long COVID-19 as many "infections in schools are going unrecorded".

"The risk of repeated COVID infections, and thus the risk of developing long COVID as a result of asymptomatic spread among students in a school setting is high," the submission said.

The union wants testing reinstated through the government providing rapid antigen tests to schools and families like there was earlier in the pandemic.

But former education minister Stuart Robert said the proposal is "nuts" and "ridiculous".

"It is a complete brain fade by the education union," he said.

"COVID is now endemic which means we treat it like any other endemic disease, that is the medical advice.

"Do we do random testing for chickenpox, measles, mumps, rubella? Do we do it for the flu and find another disease that comes along and shove things up young kids' noses because they have no choice?

"Bless the education union but now it is time for them to have a Christmas break."

Rapid antigen testing was introduced in schools in 2021 during the height of the Omicron wave but has been phased out.

COVID-19 cases have continued to climb in some states like Queensland but have stabilised in others like New South Wales, the latest surveillance data shows.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/australian-education-union-calls-for-regular-asymptomatic-covid19-testing-in-schools/0d5d18a0-3922-407d-84a1-79db3e497e40

‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Star: ‘F**k Family,’ ‘We Need to Reinvent It’

Miz Cracker, a contestant on two seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race, has put out a clarion call to “kick down traditional family values” this Christmas season.

Cracker, the stage name of drag queen performer Maxwell Eiias Heller, is starring in Who’s Holiday!, a new show that turns the Dr. Seuss character Cindy Lou Who into a “hard-drinking, pill-popping, very experienced woman” who hates family Christmas gatherings.

The sentiment in the anti-Christmas stage show — being presented in London, U.K., this December and January — mirrors how the radical drag queen feels.

“To say that Christmas is about traditional values or values of any kind anymore is pretty ridiculous,” Heller told PinkNews. “Christ is nowhere featured in this. In America, if you look at the way people knock down the doors of shopping centers, I think you can tell that we have separated Christmas from Christ.”

Aside from that bit of social commentary, Miz Cracker is not above knocking Christ out of Christmas himself, either, especially when it comes to holiday gatherings. The performer feels that Christmas gatherings should be a time to confront people over the LGBTQ agenda.

“I think any opportunity that we have to kick down traditional family values is welcomed,” he said. “The way of thinking about family is old and tired and we need to reinvent it,” Cracker continued.

“I think that Who’s Holiday! does that. It makes fun of family and I think it talks about chosen family and talks about the friends that really matter and what it means to have them in your life. So yeah, fuck family,” he added.

Cracker went on to tell the gay-centric website that he is really “worried” about the U.S.A. with the possible comeback of Donald Trump as well as the raft of legislation that would prevent transgender athletes from erasing women’s achievements in sports.

“I think [it] would be terrifying. Not just because he would be president, which is one thing, but because it would show that there is support for hatred and phobia in our country,” he said.

Cracker also insisted that the time to apply “logic” to the issues is over. Now it is time for radical confrontation, not discussion.

“What matters is not figuring out why it happened, but making sure that it gets crushed… because we’re talking about the lives of trans youth being crushed or not acknowledged by some of this legislation,” the performer said.

“We’re talking about, on the smallest level and on the national level, real persecution. So it doesn’t matter where it came from, it just has to be stopped,” he said, adding, “We can make it irrelevant that he’s running if we show up and vote. We have in the past, I know we can do it again.”

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2022/12/18/rupauls-drag-race-star-fk-family-we-need-to-reinvent-it/

TV Abortion Plotlines Skyrocket as Hollywood Doubles Down on Roe v. Wade Outrage

Hollywood put more abortion plotlines in its TV shows in 2022 than in any of the past five years, as the studios and networks ratcheted up the outrage machine following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.

There were at least 60 abortion plotlines or mentions of abortion in 52 distinct TV shows from January to December 2022 — more than any other year since 2016, according to the annual “Abortion Onscreen” report from the pro-abortion organization Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health.

That outnumbers the 47 abortion plotlines in 42 shows in 2021, the report said. A third of abortion plotlines on TV portrayed barriers to access, compared to only two in 2021.

Shows that featured abortion this year include ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, NBC’s New Amsterdam, NBC’s Law & Order, MTV’s Teen Mom, Netflix’s The Hookup Plan, and Starz’s P-Valley.

Even the variety comedy series Saturday Night Live featured then-cast member Cecily Strong sharing the story of her own abortion — dressed up as a clown in an attempt to wring some laughs out of the grisly, life-terminating procedure.

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2022/12/18/tv-abortion-plotlines-skyrocket-as-hollywood-doubles-down-on-roe-v-wade-outrage/

'Teacher of the year' accused of sex with 14-year-old former student

A Georgia teacher is under investigation over allegations that he had sex with a 14-year-old former student. Before the accusations of child sex abuse, the middle school educator had been awarded this year's "teacher of the year" award.

On Thursday, police arrested Charles B. Jackson – a 54-year-old teacher at the Ballard-Hudson Middle School in Macon, Georgia. Jackson was charged with two counts of statutory rape and one count of aggravated child molestation, according to the Bibb County Sheriff's Office.

Jackson was transported to the Bibb County jail, where he is being held without bond. A magistrate judge ordered him to not have any contact with the alleged victim and the family of the victim, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

Deputies with the Bibb County Sheriff's Office Crimes Against Children subdivision opened an investigation into Jackson after reports that the middle school teacher was engaging in an "inappropriate relationship" with a former student. There were allegations that Jackson had sex with a 14-year-old ex-student.

Jackson was a teacher and a baseball coach at the Ballard-Hudson Middle School – where he was named the "teacher of the year."

On Thursday, the Bibb County school district announced that it had fired Jackson. School officials informed parents that it is cooperating with the investigation, and for anyone to report any concerns regarding their own children.

The investigation is still ongoing. Law enforcement is asking anyone with information on the potential sex crime case to contact the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office at 478-751-7500, or call the Macon Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-877-68-CRIME.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/teacher-of-the-year-arrested-sex-student

>>17978687 Calls for asymptomatic COVID-19 testing to be introduced in schools Australia

>>17978711 Pedos running amok ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Star: ‘F**k Family,’ ‘We Need to Reinvent It’

>>17978733 'Teacher of the year' accused of sex with 14-year-old former student

>>17978760 Pope Francis revealed in a new interview published on Sunday that after he was elected in 2013 he signed a letter of resignation to be used if someday severe and permanent health problems made it impossible to carry out his duties.

>>17978775 I see patterns

Who you protecting baker?

Foreign Minister Penny Wong to travel to China and meet with counterpart Wang Yi as frosty bilateral relations continue to thaw

Foreign Minister Penny Wong will make an historic visit to China on Tuesday in the latest sign of a significant thawing in the relations between Canberra and Beijing.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong will meet her counterpart in China on Wednesday marking the 50th anniversary of bilateral ties.

Senator Wong’s visit signifies another major step in the thawing of relations between the two countries and comes following Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s meeting with President Xi Jinping at the sidelines of the G20 in Bali in November.

The meeting with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing for the 6th Australia-China Foreign and Strategic Dialogue will mark the first time an Australian foreign minister has visited China since Marise Payne in 2018.

It will mark the 50th anniversary of formal ties between the two nations when Australia formally switched its recognition to the Communist government in the Peoples’ Republic of China on December 21, 1972.

In a joint statement, Mr Albanese and Senator Wong said the “bold decision” by then-prime minister Gough Whitlam to recognise China laid the groundwork for the significant relationship which developed over the coming decades.

“Trade between Australia and China, as well as strong people-to-people, cultural and business links have delivered significant benefits to both our countries,” the statement said.

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/foreign-minister-penny-wong-to-travel-to-china-and-meet-with-counterpart-wang-yi-as-frosty-bilateral-relations-continue-to-thaw/news-story/21b25b31336b8c3323aa51ad9613bb32

Now that the CCP handed Labour the country, time to pay your dues Aussie slaves

Censor or Else: Democratic Members Warn Facebook Not to “Backslide” on Censorship

With the restoration of free speech protections on Twitter, panic has grown on the left that its control over social media could come to an end. Now, some of the greatest advocates of censorship in Congress are specifically warning Facebook not to follow Twitter in restoring free speech to its platform.

In a chilling letter from Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), André Carson (D-Ind.), Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Facebook was given a not-so-subtle threat that reducing its infamous censorship system will invite congressional action. The letter to Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, is written on congressional stationery “as part of our ongoing oversight efforts.”

With House Republicans pledging to investigate social media censorship when they take control in January, these four Democratic members are trying to force Facebook to “recommit” to censoring opposing views and to make election censorship policies permanent. Otherwise, they suggest, they may be forced to exercise oversight into any move by Facebook to “alter or rollback certain misinformation policies.”

In addition to demanding that Facebook preserve its bans on figures like former president Donald Trump, they want Facebook to expand its censorship overall because “unlike other major social media platforms, Meta’s policies do not prohibit posts that make unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud.”

Clegg is given Schiff’s telephone number to discuss Facebook’s compliance — an ironic contact point for a letter on censoring “disinformation.” After all, Schiff was one of the members of Congress who, before the 2020 presidential election, pushed the false claim that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation, and he has been criticized for pushing false narratives on Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 election. (Schiff has previously pressured social media companies to expand the censorship of opposing views).

The letter to Clegg is reminiscent of another letter sent by several congressional Democrats to cable-TV carriers last year, demanding to know why they continue to carry Fox News. (For full disclosure, I appear as a legal analyst on Fox News.) As I later discussed in congressional testimony, it was an open effort by those Democrats to censor opposing views by proxy or by surrogate.

This is not the first time that some members of Congress have not-so-subtly warned social media companies to expand the censorship of political and scientific views which they consider to be wrong.

In a November 2020 Senate hearing, then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey apologized for censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story. But Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., warned that he and his Senate colleagues would not tolerate any “backsliding or retrenching” by “failing to take action against dangerous disinformation.”

Others, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have called on social media companies to use enlightened algorithms to “protect” people from their own “bad” choices. After all, as President Joe Biden asked, without censorship and wise editors, “How do people know the truth?”

Now, Democrats fear Facebook and other social media companies might “backslide” into free speech as Facebook, among others, is faced with declining revenues and ordering layoffs. Tellingly, these congressional Democrats specifically want assurances that those layoffs will not reduce the staff dedicated to censoring social media.

It is not hard to see the cause for alarm. This hold-the-line warning is meant to stop a cascading failure in the once insurmountable wall of social-media censorship. If Facebook were to restore free-speech protections, the control over social media could evaporate.

Despite an effort by the left to boycott Twitter and cut off advertising revenues, users are signing up in record numbers, according to Twitter owner Elon Musk, and a recent poll shows a majority of Americans “support Elon Musk’s ongoing efforts to change Twitter to a more free and transparent platform.”

The pressure on Facebook is ironic, given the company’s previous effort to get the public to accept — even welcome — censorship. The company ran a creepy ad campaign about how young people should accept censorship (or “content modification,” in today’s Orwellian parlance) as part of their evolution with technology. It did not work; most people are not eager to buy into censorship. Instead, many of them apparently are buying into Twitter.

The public response has led censorship advocates to look abroad for allies. Figures like Hillary Clinton have called upon European countries to force the censorship of American citizens.

https://jonathanturley.org/2022/12/18/censor-or-else-democratic-members-warn-facebook-not-to-backslide-on-censorship/

Supercar Maker McLaren Teams Up With Lockheed Martin Skunk Works

Luxury supercar and hypercar maker McLaren Automotive has teamed up with US defense contractor Lockheed Martin Skunk Works to incorporate the world of aviation into cutting-edge automotive supercar design.

Even though McLaren is facing financial pressures due to slumping sales and supply chain snarls, and a recent recapitalization of the business via the auto group's majority shareholder, Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat for $279 million, the British supercar maker's technology collaboration with Skunk Works allows for "futuristic design methods" to push these vehicles to even higher speeds.

McLaren said its interest is in Skunk Works' design software that "sets parameters for high-speed systems more accurately and swiftly than traditional design methods." If Skunk Works can build stealth fighter jets, McLaren engineers can learn more about aerodynamics from the partnership.

"McLaren is a pioneering company that has always pushed boundaries and sought out new innovative and disruptive solutions to making the ultimate supercars. Working alongside an iconic company such as Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, renowned for their visionary focus on the future, is a natural fit. We hope this is the start of a longer and deeper collaboration that will benefit our customers in the long-term," Darren Goddard, Chief Technical Officer, McLaren Automotive, wrote in a statement.

Skunk Works has designed some of America's most iconic warplanes, such as the U2 spy plane, the F-117 Nighthawk, the F-22 Raptor, the F-35 Lightning, and the SR-71 Blackbird. Over the summer, the group debuted a full-scale "structurally sound" model of the hypersonic "Darkstar" prototype for one of the most-watched movies of 2022, "Top Gun: Maverick."

Responding to the news is YouTuber Supercar Blondie, who said the partnership between McLaren and Skunk Works was certainly not on their radar.

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/supercar-maker-mclaren-teams-lockheed-martin-skunk-works

>>17979206

kek

but is there one for us unwashed masses folks?

>>17979045

>>17979305

Found it