Review: American Insurrection (2021)

The PBS investigative program Frontline has been investigating hate groups in American for the last few years and I linked to two earlier documentaries that they produced in 2018. One was Documenting Hate: Charlottesville and the other was Documenting Hate: New American Nazis. Hence they were well positioned to explore the roots of the insurrection that occurred on January 6th because its chief correspondent A. C. Thompson already knew many of the key players in those groups.
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And now we have Walgreens Karen

A woman in Florida (of course!) was asked by a Walgreens store employee to wear a mask but simply walked past. When another female customer, who happens to be a Muslim, told her that an employee was talking to her, she let loose an incredibly ugly and racist tirade. She then made the classic maneuver that identifies her as a Karen by calling the police and saying that she is the victim under threat. You should watch the video to the end when the tables are turned on her when the police do not take her side and her swagger disappears to be replaced by whimpering.

Police officer who prevented chokehold exonerated after 15 years

Derek Chauvin is currently on trial for the murder of George Floyd after restraining him with a form of chokehold by kneeling on his neck for nine minutes. Three other officers stood by, not only doing nothing to stop Chauvin but making sure that no member of the gathered crowd that was pleading for Floyd to be released were able to do anything either. Eric Garner also died in 2014 after being placed in a chokehold by a police officer.

It turns out that back in 2006, a Black police officer intervened when a white colleague placed a Black man in a chokehold, likely saving his life. So what happened to her? She was later fired and forfeited her pension. She sued but a court upheld her firing. But just this week, over a decade later, that ruling was reversed by a higher court that took what happened to Floyd and Garner into account.
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The US and its NATO allies to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan

Joe Biden has announced that the US and its NATO allies will withdraw all their troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021.

US president Joe Biden has declared it was time “to end America’s longest war” as he announced that nearly 10,000 US and Nato troops would return home from Afghanistan in the run-up to the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

Addressing the world from the White House, Biden said 2,500 US troops plus a further 7,000 from “Nato allies” including 750 from the UK would gradually leave the country starting on 1 May. “The plan has long been in together, out together,” he added.

“We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan, hoping to create ideal conditions for the withdrawal and expecting a different result,” Biden said in a late afternoon speech.

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The Johnson & Johnson vaccine and blood clots

The US is temporarily halting giving this vaccine, pending further study, because of the potential danger of blood clots. Six women developed a rare form of blood clots after receiving this vaccine and one died.

The acting FDA chief, Janet Woodcock, said: “We’re recommending this pause while we work together to full understand these events.” The decision was taken in coordination with the CDC.

US health agencies have recommended states pause the administration of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, after reports of rare and severe blood clots emerged in six women. More than 6.8m doses have been administered nationally.

The concerns mirror those of drugs agencies in Europe and Australia over the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has not been authorized in the US. There have been no significant safety concerns raised about the two other vaccines that make up the majority of US supply, from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

Woodcock said: “Right now, I’d like to stress these events appear to be extremely rare. However, Covid-19 vaccine safety is a top priority for the federal government. We take all reports of adverse events related to the vaccine very seriously.”

The FDA and CDC said in a joint statement: “People who have received the J&J vaccine who develop severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath within three weeks after vaccination should contact their healthcare provider.”

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Trevor Noah on police brutality

He uses the George Floyd trial and the shooting this week of Daunte Wright to make some very sharp points about how police behavior will never change as long as they keep getting away with things like this. The resignations of the police officer who shot Wright and her police chief and the firing of one of the police officers who pepper sprayed and threatened Caron Nazario is perhaps a sign that the wall of immunity is showing at least some cracks.

The strange story of Yuri Gagarin’s return to Earth

Yesterday April 12th 1961 was the 60th anniversary of when Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit the Earth.

Over the course of 108 minutes, Vostok 1 traveled around the Earth once, reaching a maximum height of 203 miles (327 kilometers). The spacecraft carried 10 days’ worth of provisions in case the engines failed and Gagarin was required to wait for the orbit to naturally decay. But the supplies were unnecessary. Gagarin re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, managing to maintain consciousness as he experienced forces up to eight times the pull of gravity during his descent.

Vostok 1 had no engines to slow its re-entry and no way to land safely. About 4 miles (7 km) up, Gagarin ejected from the spacecraft and parachuted to Earth. In order for the mission to be counted as an official spaceflight, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the governing body for aerospace records, had determined that the pilot must land with the spacecraft. Soviet leaders indicated that Gagarin had touched down with the Vostok 1, and they did not reveal that he had ejected until 1971.

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China pushes ahead on vaccine diplomacy

In the US, it is reported that we are almost at the point where there is going to be a surplus of vaccines. Now that vaccine programs are underway all over the world, the issue of inequality of access has started to loom large, with accusations that wealthy countries are hogging most of the supplies.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has criticised what it describes as a “shocking imbalance” in the distribution of coronavirus vaccines between rich and poor countries.

The group’s chief said a target of seeing vaccination programmes under way in every country by Saturday would be missed.

The WHO has long called for fairer distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

It is leading the Covax scheme which is designed to get jabs to poorer nations.

So far, more than 38 million doses have been delivered to around 100 countries under the scheme.

Covax hopes to deliver more than two billion doses to people in 190 countries in less than a year. In particular, it wants to ensure that 92 poorer countries will receive access to vaccines at the same time as wealthier countries.

“There remains a shocking imbalance in the global distribution of vaccines,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference on Friday.

“On average in high-income countries, almost one in four people have received a Covid-19 vaccine. In low-income countries, it’s one in more than 500,” he said.
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High-income countries currently hold a confirmed 4.6 billion doses, while low-middle income nations hold 670 million, according to research by the Duke Global Health Innovation Center.

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