Opinion

Undaunted, the pandemic can’t stop the Pan African Film Festival and in that immortal show biz tradition, the show must go on! Albeit virtually, as this year in order to stay cinematically safe, America’s largest and best yearly Black-themed filmfest since 1992 is moving online and starting later than usual, kicking off on the last day of Black History Month. 2021’s 29th annual Pan African Virtual Film + Arts Festival is taking place from Feb. 28 – March 14.

Director/co-writer Lazaro Ramos’ award winning Executive Order exemplifies what I love most about PAFF: This festival gives movie buffs the opportunity to see films – often from far-flung destinations around the globe – that we might otherwise never have the chance to watch. Often these are worthy, well-made productions that PAFF is also giving access and a foothold to at Los Angeles, arguably the world’s capital of cinema (although not necessarily the capital of “world cinema” per se).

Collated by Gary G. Kohls, MD for Research Purposes – February 17, 2021 (1917 words)

1.  Safety and Efficacy of the BNY162b2 Covid-19 Vaccine (hizer-BioNTech's mRNA vaccine)

N Engl J MedDecember 20, 2020; 383:2603-2615

By Fernando P. Polack, M.D., Stephen J. Thomas, M.D., Nicholas Kitchin, M.D., Judith Absalon, M.D., Alejandra Gurtman, M.D., Stephen Lockhart, D.M., John L. Perez, M.D., 

Gonzalo Pérez Marc, M.D., Edson D. Moreira, M.D., Cristiano Zerbini, M.D., Ruth Bailey, B.Sc., Kena A. Swanson, Ph.D., et al., for the C4591001 Clinical Trial Group*

This column was published as a Duty to Warn column in the Duluth Reader on April 17, 2014. I came across a copy of it recently and thought, given the impeachment trial of the demagogue Donald J. Trump and the frequent mention of Big Lies in the press, that it should be re-published.

The information has a lot to say about America’s on-going right-wing extremism and the repeated attempts of these groups to usurp American democracy. Examples include the Ku Klux Klan and the related White Supremacist groups that include Anti-Semitic, Racist, Anti-immigrant and Homophobic groups, all entities that have never really disappeared from the scene.

Pardon me while I break the fourth wall.

I’m in the human stew right now, you might say: drowning in politics, technology, the weather and my own crazy ego. I’m trying to write a column.

What makes this one different . . .well, I’ve been forced today to set aside my certainties, norms and expectations — virtually all of them. Certainty number one: that my computer will keep functioning as I write.

This morning — a dozen or so hours ago — I sat at my machine and it was working fine except for one thing: letters didn’t appear on my screen when I hit the keys. This is called writing. I’m an excellent writer, or so I tell myself, but my computer pointed out to me that if I can’t create letters and form them into words, then I can’t write. This was certainly an infuriating mystery, but I still had a few possibilities I could access to maintain situation normal. Well, I had one possibility. Call Geek Squad.

Undaunted, the pandemic can’t stop the Pan African Film Festival and in that immortal show biz tradition, the show must go on! Albeit virtually, as this year in order to stay cinematically safe, America’s largest and best annual Black-themed filmfest since 1992 is moving online and starting later than usual, kicking off on the last day of Black History Month. 2021’s Pan African Virtual Film + Arts Festival is taking place from Feb. 28 – March 14.

Undaunted, the pandemic can’t stop the Pan African Film Festival and in that immortal show biz tradition, the show must go on! Albeit virtually, as this year in order to stay cinematically safe, America’s largest and best annual Black-themed filmfest since 1992 is moving online and starting later than usual, kicking off on the last day of Black History Month. 2021’s Pan African Virtual Film + Arts Festival is taking place from Feb. 28 – March 14.

Abby Ginzberg’s Truth to Power: Barbara Lee Speaks for Me is a star-studded nonfiction biopic about the title character, who was the only member of Congress to have the courage and foresight to vote against the post-9/11 Authorization for Use of Military Force bill granting Pres. George W. Bush and all future presidents what Lee criticized as war-making powers that were “too broad… crazy.”

As was foreseen, last week the Senate voted to acquit former President Donald Trump for the crime of inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Now, there are millions of Americans who have a choice to make. Republicans, conservativesand even some libertarianshave stretched their usual political norms to make excuses for Trump’s erratic behavior for years, but while the Congress and Vice-President counted the 2020 Electoral College votes on January 6, we finally saw in plain sight how far Trump and his rabid supporters would go. The riots at the Capitol were a direct attempt to usurp the democratic processes of our constitutional republic and any attempts by anyone to defend those actions are fundamentally flawed.

The United States of America was redefined on January 5th and 6th, 2021. Never underestimate the pivotal power of these two dates in our nation’s history. And do not believe that a likely Senate failure to convict Donald Trump will change any of it.

On January 5th, the voters of Georgia chose a black preacher and a Jewish filmmaker to successfully flip the empowered majority of the United States Senate. No one died. But the vote merged an epic demographic shift with a massive grassroots election protection movement to remake our nation.

The next day, Donald Trump incited an armed, violent mob to invade the US Capitol and kill his Republican Vice President, Mike Pence, before Pence could certify the nation’s choice for a new president. Five people died. The mission failed.

And it left intact nationwide what we had won in Georgia the day before … a demographically remade America, the real enemy of the Trump mob.

The recent wave of corruption among both Republicans and Democrats in Ohio – House Speaker Larry Householder and Cincinnati City Councilmembers being charged with bribery – along with the pandemic’s mishandling, could be the final straw for voters.

While the GOP might split and form a new right-wing populist party, the Democrats are already divided among the centrists and progressives with most progressives being endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

And with so many Trump voters from 2016 saying they would’ve voted for Bernie Sanders, can Democratic Socialists fill the populist void left by Trump with a party that represents working class interests?

Many on the left, especially those disenchanted with President Biden and the bulk of the Democratic Party, are taking a good look at the Democratic Socialists of America, which has grown to over 90,000 members with 71 members holding office (33 of those elected in 2020).

The recent wave of corruption among both Republicans and Democrats in Ohio – House Speaker Larry Householder and Cincinnati City Councilmembers being charged with bribery – along with the pandemic’s mishandling, could be the final straw for voters.

While the GOP might split and form a new right-wing populist party, the Democrats are already divided among the centrists and progressives with most progressives being endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

And with so many Trump voters from 2016 saying they would’ve voted for Bernie Sanders, can Democratic Socialists fill the populist void left by Trump with a party that represents working class interests?

Many on the left, especially those disenchanted with President Biden and the bulk of the Democratic Party, are taking a good look at the Democratic Socialists of America, which has grown to over 90,000 members with 71 members holding office (33 of those elected in 2020).