Bud Light finds themselves in the center of the WOKE debate

The controversy is about so much more than an American mediocre canned beer – it’s about identity politics

The American musician Kid Rock has posted a video that has been viewed by more than ten million people. In the video, he wears a MAGA cap with a semi-automatic weapon and shoots down Bud Light beer cans. Afterwards, he looks into the camera and hurls f-bombs at the viewers.

What is he so angry about? And what has made others on social platforms post videos where they destroy America’s best-selling beer?

It is, yet again, identity politics that is at the center. Bud Light is primarily enjoyed by people who crack open a beer after a long day at work and college students – people for whom the price of a beer means something.

The controversy is about the trans activist Dylan Mulvaney, who received a specially designed Bud Light can with her portrait on it at her one-year transition day.

Dylan Mulvaney has an extensive platform with ten million subscribers and more than a billion clicks on her videos. She is an actor and comedian and has documented her transition on social platforms. Additionally, she went to the White House to visit Joe Biden and talk about the legislation that has been introduced in some Republican states to limit the rights of transgender people.

Hence, the controversy is about much more than a mediocre cheap canned beer. It is about the American soul – and there is a vast difference in how that should be defined, depending on which side of the political spectrum one belongs to.

In this column, I am not addressing whether kids should be able to transition or which bathroom they can use – I am addressing the fact that adults should be allowed to be who they are. And in some states, transgender people are the target of legislation designed to limit their rights. Laws have been introduced to limit the access to medical care for trans people, changes have been made to change the ability to perform drag shows, and a whole host of other blitheringly hateful measures have made their way into legislation.

In recent years, there has been a great deal of focus on minorities and particularly vulnerable people. There was and is a need to put one’s own privilege and ‘blindness’ under the microscope. That is healthy and good for everyone. But, as with so much else in this country, certain elements have taken what could be a healthy debate to extremes – on both sides of the political aisle. In some schools caucasian children are taught that because of their skin color they are racist, in other schools they are not allowed to learn about other sexualities than heterosexualism. It should not come as a surprise that our kids are confused when even the adults cannot deal constructively with important subjects like these. Recess fights does not only take place in the schoolyard.

So now beer has become part of the WOKE war. Right-wingers boycott Bud Light under the slogan “go woke, go broke”. In the LGBTQIA+-community, Bud Light has been popular for decades, primarily as a response to another beer brand’s discriminatory hiring practices.

But there is hope. Nothing could be better for Bud Light than the massive attention they get these days. It’s win-win: while Anheuser-Bush is laughing all the way to the bank, the LGBTQIA+-community has received worldwide attention all over the world.

Ølreklame får amerikanere op i det regnbuefarvede felt

Det handler om mere end middelmådig dåseøl – det handler om identitetspolitik

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Time has run out for places like Noma

Showing our distain for the treatment, employees in the culinary world must endure can be done when being mindful of where we put our money.

The closest I’ve come to dining at the world-renowned Danish restaurant Noma was when I visited The Willows Inn on Lummi Island. The chef used to work at the famous Copenhagen restaurant.

Sipping on my sparkling bubbles at an outdoor patio overlooking the Puget Sound, the tranquil atmosphere was abruptly interrupted when an infernal noise erupted. A mixture of shrill shouts, chants, megaphones, and musical instruments handled so effectively that every note that was out of tune reached me and the other guests.

“I’ll go talk to them,” I told my husband. All he wanted was to enjoy an evening without kids, hold hands, and have a private conversation. But he knows me well enough, so he didn´t object.

“What are you protesting against?” I asked them.

The person in charge told me about unpaid wages, inhumane working conditions, non-existent overtime pay and sexual assaults.

We often talk about that night. Not because the food left an impression, it was rather boring and predictable – but because that night we got to talk about what gentrification does to a community and about, and I understand this may come across as a bit of a white woman´s privilege, that we as consumers have a choices to make when it comes showing our values by being mindful of what we decide to spend our money on.

Had I known that the restaurant on Lummi Island with its 900 residents was at the center of a controversial case about pay, gender discrimination and physical and psychological abuse, I would never have set foot in that place – regardless if the food had been world class or not.

This weekend I watched the movie “The Menu” and couldn’t help but think of Noma and other high-ranking Michelin-aiming restaurants known for unacceptable working conditions.

The mood has changed, the winds are blowing in a different direction. It’s no longer cool to brag about having been to Noma – on the contrary, it’s almost considered a distasteful waste of money that could have been spent in so many other useful ways. The Menu points a finger, claiming that dining at a high-end Michelin restaurant is like a metafiction. The clown is the guest who leaves behind thousands of dollars on the restaurant table where he has been taken for a fool all night. Through a nonsense avantgarde description of food, the guest is tricked into believing that what he consumes is art – and so what ends up in the toilet is praised through a dance of words.

It is not benign things kitchen workers at Noma must put up with: odd working hours, being treated like brainless amoebas, physical and psychological abuse, poor pay, etc.

In the film “The Menu” it is clear that the emperor has no clothes in the sense that one of the guests, a woman who does not belong to the one percent of the population who can afford to eat at a fancy Michelin restaurant, lets the chef know that his food is boring and that she would rather have a cheeseburger.

Maybe it’s time to tear down restaurants instead of the people who work in them? And maybe it’s time for us as guests to make choices that don’t show what sophisticated avantgarde-ish we are. Maybe it´s time to stand up for people who´s working conditions we would never ourselves accept?

Tiden er løbet fra Noma

Med pengepungen kan vi vise vores modstand over for den behandling, medarbejdere i den kulinariske verden arbejder under.

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Er europæiske terrorister på mission i USA den nye trend?

Skal USA forberede sig på terrorangreb fra europæiske borgere?

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Will we see more European terrorists in the United States in the future?

Perhaps the United States needs to get used to Islamist terrorists making the trip from Europe to the United States to commit their atrocities.

School shootings, gang violence, violent acts of right-wing extremists. The United States has plenty of problems within its own borders.

On Saturday, 44-year-old Englishman Malik Faisal Akram, disguised as a homeless man, was invited in for tea at a synagogue in Texas. Here, the man from Blackburn in England pulled a gun and took four hostages.

Akram was mentally disturbed, his brother claims. But aren´t all terrorists? Apparently, Akram was not diagnosed. Any family member can claim that the perpetrator was mentally ill. After all, this claim is more convenient than having a terrorist in your midst.

“It makes sense that European Islamists would go to the United States. America has for years been proclaimed to be the Islamists’ enemy number one.

Everyone who would even think of murdering innocent people is mentally challenged. I would argue that Islamists per definition, because of their oppressive ideological views, are mentally deranged.

Islamists and mental issues go hand in hand, one does not exclude the other. Quite the opposite. Let me be clear, before I am accused of something I do not stand for, that I’m talking about extreme Islamist attitudes, not about ordinary Muslims.

Everyone knows it’s easy to get acquire a gun in the United States.

Malik Faisal Akram told the US authorities that he was staying at a hotel in New York, but in reality he spent time in a hostel in Texas, where he also bought a handgun.

The man demanded that Pakistani Aafia Siddiqui was released. She is serving an 86-year sentence for attempted manslaughter of U.S. military personnel.

Akram was shot by the FBI, after an 11 hour standoff with authorities. During these 11 hours, he kept his hostages captive.

Here in the United States, both children and adults receive training in how to react if there is an active shooter. According to the rabbi of the synagogue, this training was what enabled him to divert Akram by throwing a chair at him and flee with the other hostages.

On the news in the United States, journalists and commentators did not hesitate calling the incident Islamic terrorism.

In America, we live peacefully with the few Muslims who live here.

Religion plays a big role in Americans’ personal lives, but is kept private, far from public settings. This works. Politics, not religion, is deviding people here.

It makes sense that European Islamists would go the the United States. America has for years been proclaimed to be the Islamists’ enemy number one.

It is easier to get into the United States via Europe than it is to get to the United States from many Middle Eastern countries. So maybe the terrorist attempt was just the beginning of a new trend where Europe is exporting their terrorists to the United States?

Hvem deltog i kupforsøget i USA for et år siden? Et overraskende billede tegner sig

Helt almindelige amerikanere er villige til at ty til vold.

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Who participated in the insurrection a year ago? The answer might surprise you

Ordinary American citizens are willing to resort to violence.

“What the fuck is going on?” Those were the first words I heard when my Danish friend called me on January 6 last year. We were on opposite sides of the globe and were both watching, paralyzed by the images on our TV screens.

The images on the screen showed thousands of aggressive people, many with Trump flags and in military-like attire, hammering at police officers, smashing windows and doors and forcing their way in to the Capitol building, where the crowed went howling and screaming from corridor to corridor to find prominent politicians’ offices. That day, both civilians and police officers lost their lives.

“It will be ok. The American system is strong,” said my former colleague when I spoke to him a few minutes before the conversation with my friend in Denmark. He is an elderly gentleman, and he served at the University of Washington as a professor of history for more than 30 years. I had called him crying, hoping to hear some calming words from this experienced man – I needed him to say that America would be ok after this.

Who went to Washington DC that day when the situation went crazy and people stormed Congress?

Contrary to what one might think, many of the rioters were citizens without extreme right winged leanings. And that fact is scary.

It turns out that those who behaved most violently on January 6, 2020, were not people on the authorities list of threats. Most have never committed a crime before. They were our neighbors, active in their churches – ordinary Americans. In other words, they do not fit the profile of a typical extremist.

But they believed, were completely convinced, that Trump won the presidential election. Their sense of justice had suffered a setback. And so they felt violence was ok.

If ordinary people feel that they have the right to use and react with violent, anti-democratic methods when their sense of justice is violated, then we are potentially facing a huge problem in the future.

Despite the fact that this feeling of injustice and election fraud was rooted in conspiratorial beliefs, the events on that horrible day in January last year, show us that this or a similar attack on our democracy could happen again if an election result goes against some people´s preference.

How long do we have a democracy if various private individuals feel they have a right to violently oppose democracy – even when there is no, as in absolutely none, zip, zero, evidence for their claim of fraudulence?

Since the attack on democracy a year ago, conspiracy theories have not diminished. On various electronic platforms, multiple outrageous conspiracy theories thrives. In these lonely Corona times it might be understandable that some people can fall into a black hole and be trapped and sucked in to such a universe. After all, we all need a sense of community and on a certain level, these groups offer that – however sick they are in their mindsets. But who bears responsibility and who do we hold accountable for the threat to democracy?

In the United States, economic means create power. At the same time, political decision-making processes moves at a snail’s pace. Meanwhile, social platforms are making money, and the conspiracy theories people are willing to believe in are becoming more and more insane.

To put it mildly, it has been an uncommonly ugly sight to see politicians compromise on democratic principles instead of showing the people that they are working to make the democracy they claim to be fighting for stronger and make sure nothing like we saw last year will ever happen again.

Whether it’s a right-wing Trump extremist, a hard-working UPS worker, or a young man looking for an adrenaline rush that took part in the terrorist attack on Congress and US democracy last year, the fact is that they need to be prosecuted – every single one of them.

Because everyone has an individual responsibility, and one should be held accountable for one’s actions – even if one regrets or was caught in the moment and did things one would otherwise never have done.

The investigation process is underway, but it is moving far too slow, and it is important for the surrounding community’s belief in the system to get a feeling that the justice system and democracy work – preferably before the next presidential election.

We cannot forget, however, that the main culprit for the attack on the US election process is Donald Trump – and he must be held responsible for having used ordinary citizens as puppets in his attempt to overthrow democracy in God’s own country.

Hvor længe vil verden se på, at Rusland og Kina systematisk smadrer enhver demokratisk proces?

Ruslands og Kinas stormagtsintentioner bør få omverdenen til at reagere.

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How long will the world watch while Russia and China systematically crack down on any democratic process?

Russia and China’s aspirations for being superpowers ought to make the world react.

These are dark times for democracy in Russia and in China. Every day the systems use their tight grips to ensure that people are forced into a life without the right to think, believe, and express themselves freely.

Yesterday, it was announced that Russia is closing Memorial International, an organization that maps human rights violations. The organization has been seen as a key part of Russia’s development in a democratic process.

Russia takes down and poisons political opponents, but they do not refrain from attacking critics of their system within their own borders. We regularly hear that advocates of freedom of speech are poisoned in European countries, such as Germany and England.

China exposes its people to one monstrosity after another. Forced sterilization, labor camps for groups that believe and think something other than the communist regime wants them to, known and lesser known women and men who disappear from one day to the next, etc.

But China has also given the world a prime example of how to introduce totalitarianism in record time.

Developments in Hong Kong give a clear picture. In 11 months, more than 50 organizations, political parties, media groups, churches, youth organizations, pro-democracy movements, etc. have been dissolved. Even Amnesty International has had to close down.

What got to me was a story about an organization of lawyers who have been working to promote democracy since 2007 are among the groups that have had to close down this year. Why? Because this clearly shows that China’s methods are systematically aimed at groups that can provide support to those who work for democracy.

The formula works, China keeps on pushing their agenda. Russia does the same. If I was Taiwan or Ukraine, I would be very nervous – especially since there is no indication that the rest of the world intends to respond to either China’s or Russia’s aggressions.

The United States, the United Nations and several European countries have condemned the two countries behavior and imposed diplomatic boycotts. But is that enough? Diplomatic boycott is a clear symbolic tool, but it is far from enough when powerful nations use their anti-democratic muscles and hammer peaceful measures into the ground.

So is it not rather naive of the surrounding world to think that two huge nations with dreams of great power will stop and ´only´ force measures through, that is aimed at their own populations?

China and Russia have enormous economic and resource power. Is that why the world does not dare to react? Or do democracy and human rights not really mean much to us, as long as we ourselves enjoy living in free conditions? That is a dangerous attitude, because developments in China and Russia have shown that the rights we take for granted can disappear from one day to the next.

How long has the world been going to look at anything more than a shrug?

Betal for din egen behandling på hospitalet, hvis du ikke er vaccineret og får brug for behandling

Lev med konsekvenserne, hvis du har vist så lidt respekt for det omgivende samfund.

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You should pay for your own treatment at the hospital if you are not vaccinated and need Covid-related hopsptal care

Out of respect for your surrounding community, you should own up to your responsibility and live with the consequences of your choices if you decided not to get vaccinated.

Infection rates are rising in Denmark. The whole world is watching, while Denmark, as one of the first countries, is forced to deal with the new Covid variant. England and Norway also have high Omicron numbers.

These days, new infection rate records are regularly broken in Denmark. Experts predict that the variant will be the dominant one this week. In other words, Omicron is incredibly contagious.

I was starting to think we had turned a corner, especially after Denmark a few months ago declared Covid was no longer a critical disease to society in Denmark. Both the BBC and CNN had the story from the small country. A hope sprouted, was this the beginning of the end for this horrible virus?

But the country made the announcement too quickly. Danish politicians and experts are now nervous about whether the healthcare system can cope with the pressure in the coming months. The country is running out of beds in the intensive care units, and even if they could get more beds ready, they do not have enough staff to take care of the patients.

In Denmark everyone has had access to the vaccines. The vaccines are even free of charge. It has been incredible easy to roll up your sleeve and get the jab, something that is in stark contrast to the situation in many other parts of the world.

If you have not been vaccinated, you have made an active choice. And let me be clear: I am not talking about those citizens who, for health reasons, cannot be vaccinated. They are even more than those of us who are not immunity compromised dependent on the rest of us rolling up our sleeves.

No, I’m thinking of you who, for no good reason, make the incredibly selfish choice that you do not want to be vaccinated – just because. Maybe you’re lost in the conspiracy fanatic world, maybe you have just not come around to getting it done. Regardless, at this point in the pandemic, your excuse is pretty bad and I think you ought to live with the consequences – and stay away from the hospital if you get sick with Covid and need treatment. And if you do not want to stay away but want treatment, it’s only fair that you pay for your Covid-related self-induced treatment yourself – a treatment that, when it comes down to it, could in all probability have been avoided if you had had a little respect for your fellow human beings.

I’m not just talking about the Danes. We have the same problem with people who do not want to get vaccinated here in the United States. In several places, surgeries have been postponed because the hospitals are full of unvaccinated Covid patients. My point of view applies to anyone who has had access to the vaccines but has not wanted to get the jab.

In the western part of the world, we should at least have the level of respect for our fellow citizens and for the people in other parts of the world who do not have the same free access to vaccinations as we do, that we dial down our reluctance and teenage rebellion attitude against authorities. You can protest and demonstrate all you want, but do it after you have been vaccinated. And why don´t you put on a mask while your are at it?

You can´t have it both ways. If you become ill with Covid, and you need hospital treatment, and you have made a conscious choice not to let yourself be vaccinated, then you have to pay for your treatment – or ideally stay away from the hospital.

You are dragging down the health care system which is already low on ressources. You basically fill up a hospital bed someone else needs. Other patients are at risk of dying from cancer, from the consequences of a traffic accident or something else, because they cannot access a hospital bed. All because of your foolish choice.

And yes, I have read that you reach people by trying to understand and reasoning with them and not by scolding – but two years into the pandemic’s horrific restrictive everyday life and rising death tolls, my patience is running thing.

Sure, it´s your right to choose not to get vaccinated. But if you make that choice you should have the decency then to live with the consequences when you experience the Covid symptoms and you start coughing and gasping for air.

Because, you could have chosen differently – for the good of your society and for your fellow human being. If you have no problem knowing how this disease have life threatening consequences for your fellow human being, then shouldn´t you should also be willing to live with life-threatening consequences for yourself?

Få nu bare en maske på jeres unger, Danmark

Hvis danske skolebørn bar masker, ville smittetallet falde i Danmark

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Make your youngest school kids wear a mask, Denmark

If Danish school children wore masks, the number of infections would fall in Denmark

“Does he practice with a mask on? Poor kid! ” That was one of the comments on one of my Facebook posts, where I had happily announced that my son could now attend soccer practice after 540 days at home from school and leisure activities. I was speechless over the heartlessness of the passive-aggressive provocation.

Since then, it has dawned on me that many Danes have a fierce aversion to children wearing masks. Why, I do not fully understand, because if you ask the kids here in the US what they think, they do not seem to have as much against it as the parents who are opposed to it. The kids just want to go to school, play with their friends, and go to their after school activities. If that means they have to wear a mask, then they will do it.

In fact, I think children are much more adaptable than many adults. At least my experience is that they do not see it as a problem at all, but have now become so used to wearing masks that they no longer think about it or mind it.

Denmark has navigated through the covid pandemic in a way that has spared the horrific death tolls we have seen in the United States, Brazil, and in many other countries. The schools have not been as badly affected as they have here in the US and the Danish health care system has been able to keep up. But the number of infections are rising, and now it is yet again necessary to reinstate restrictions. Danish health experts are nervous for what the next few months will look like.

When my kids came back to their schools, I was nervous about whether the infections would go crazy and how long it would take before the schools had to shut down again.

At my son’s elementary school, there are over 650 students. When the kids returned to school, vaccinations for those under 12 were not yet approved. It was a requirement that all students, staff, and teachers wear masks.

At my daughter’s middle school, 75% of students were vaccinated. The school has over 960 kids. Here, the requirement for students, staff and teachers to wear the mask was the same as at my son’s school.

Long story short, it seems that the mask requirement works. In my son’s class, which has more than 30 students, we have not yet had to keep him at home due to Covid in the class.

The children would rather go to school, see their friends and have as normal a child and youth life as possible than sit at home in front of their screens and go to school virtually. I know this for a fact after talking to many of the kids who stayed at home for over 1½ years. If the chance of having a normal childhood means that they have to wear masks in schools, then they would rather do that than stay at home.

It is the adults who have to pull themselves together – for the sake of the well-being of their kids and for the infection rates to be curbed. Sending the kids to school with a mask on is a small price to pay for the mental and physical health of the Danish children and the prospect of keeping the country open.

(partly, Google translate)

»Jeg bliver en broccoliborgmester,« siger New Yorks nyvalgte leder

Nye tider i New York varsler måske nye tider i USA.

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“I’m going to be a broccoli mayor,” says New York’s newly elected leader

New times in New York may herald new times in the United States.

“I’m going to be a broccoli mayor,” newly elected Eric Adams, New York’s new mayor, told city citizens. “You´re not going to like it when you eat it, but long term, you’re going to see the benefits of it.”

The newly elected mayor is a good example of what Americans want. And if you look at who Adams is, there is hope for America.

The election across the United States on Tuesday was focused on issues around crime and police work.

Tuesday’s election showed that Americans do not shy away from debating. But ordinary citizens want the police to ensure a safe community. Americans do things their own way and can think for themselves.

Across the United States, mid-leaning police force-supporting politicians won over more extreme candidates. The reason is that the vast majority of Americans want peace, security, and safety on their streets in the city center and in their neighborhoods.

Adams has told the press that when he faces an obstacle or needs to pause and think, he plays Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” Because that’s how he and the United States do things.

New York’s new mayor, Eric Adams, is the American dream. He worked as a dishwasher, had a learning difficulty as a student in grade school, was arrested as a young man and beaten by the police.

The same night the police beat him up, Adams’ life changed. He decided to turn his life around, started going to school at night while working during the day. He became a police officer and for the past +20 years he has focused on becoming the mayor of New York.

Adams is African American. He rose up from a challenged socio economic challenged life and being on the wrong side of the law. As a former police officer, he has spend time on both sides of the interrogation table. He emphasizes that safety and security are the most important parameters for making an urban area thrive. If these fundamental civil rights are not in place, nothing else will work.

As in the rest of the United States, there are plenty of problems to deal with in New York, where violence and shootings and abuse of police force have spiked after the corona pandemic.

Adams and the United States do things their way. And that is sometimes just as healthy as broccoli.

Nej, det er ikke uamerikansk at gøre vaccinationer lovpligtige

At tvinge amerikanerne til at blive vaccineret ved lov er temmelig amerikansk – og en patriotisk løsning. I sin tid tvangsvaccinerede George Washington hæren for at redde nationens fremtid.

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No, it is not “un-American” to make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory – on the contrary, it is American and rather patriotic

George Washington forcibly vaccinated the Army – to save the nation’s future.

If more soldiers died from a preventable disease than from the enemy´s sword and you could save your men from dying by a single shot of vaccine, what would you do as Commander in Chief? – you would of course get your army vaccinated as fast as possible. That’s exactly what George Washington did in his day. I will get back to him.

Recently, the Ohio Republican Jim Jordan stated that it is “un-American” to make Covid vaccinations mandatory. But maybe Jordan should reconsider his words before lecturing poeople on what is American and what is “un-American.”

Before, during, and after the insurrection on January 6, Jim Jordan had several phone calls with Trump. That day, hordes of terrorists attacked the very symbol on what is American, namely democracy.

In the heated debate in the United States, the reference to “the founding fathers” is always slapped on the table as a debate stopper. In particular, it is Republicans who like to patent what they think these gentlemen would have thought about today’s issues. Currently, they pull out the founding father´s in the debate over Corona vaccinations.

Especially the always high-pitched Republican Jim Jordan has received media attention by saying Biden’s new vaccination mandate is “unamerican.”

But before he and other Republican politicians claim to own the right to know what is and especially is not “American”, they might want to readdress American history before lecturing the rest of us.

And here we return to George Washington, arguably one of the most “American” Americans. Back in his days, Washington soldiers died like flies, 90% of deaths in the army was due to illness. So what does a wise leader do in such circumstances? – he makes sure, of course, that he has people who can fight at his disposal who are not sick or dying. Therefore, in 1777, he mandated mass inoculation requiring all soldiers to be vaccinated for smallpox.

Let’s see Biden’s vaccination mandates rolled out, so society and schools can stay open. That way, we also ensure that school students learn their country’s history so they are able to refute blatant falls statements about our founding fathers and what is “unamerican” and what is in fact pretty patriotic.

(some Google Translate)

Danmark løfter alle Corona-restriktioner, imens USA strammer reglerne

Den danske vaccinations-succeshistorie trækker i dag overskrifter i amerikanske medier.

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Denmark lifts all Corona restrictions, while the US introduces new rules

The Danish vaccination success story makes headlines all over American media today.

Denmark was the first country in Europe to introduce Corona passport. The passports made it possible for Danes to maintain a semi-normal life. During the time passports were required for dining, attending schools, etc. more and more Danes got vaccinated. Thanks to the Danes’ sense of community, all Corona restrictions have now been lifted. On Saturday, a concert will take place in Copenhagen, more than 50,000 people have bought tickets.

Meanwhile, the conditions are, to say the least, somewhat different here in the United States.

I got my Moderna Covid-19 vaccine long before my Danish friends. But then the vaccination misinformation started in this cowboy country, and Denmark has long since overtaken the United States in terms of percentage numbers for how many in the Danish population who has received the vaccine.

Yesterday, we were informed that a family at a middle school here in the area had sent their child to school for five days after learning that child had tested positive without informing the school.

The students have been home from school for 540 days and have just been back for a week. What a mockery of the sacrifices it has cost the children, the families, the teachers and the schools, when they first had to deal with online teaching and now finally – with a sea of restrictions – are back in the classrooms!

Is it any wonder that the country’s second largest school district, located in California, now requires students ages 12 and up to be vaccinated if they want to be allowed to go to school?

Last week, 250,000 American children tested positive. We have gone from being at a level where 10,000 Americans tested positive a day to the figure now being 150,000 every single day. Every day, 1,500 Americans die from Covid-19.

Yet, many ordinary Americans will not take the vaccine. The hospitals are full of them. In several places the morgues have been filled up and refrigerated trucks have been called in. Cancer treatment is paused, non-life-threatening surgeries are postponed. It didn´t have to be like this.

Finally, Uncle Joe responds. He normally chies away from conflict. But not now. No more begging and enticing, no more carrots. Now he swings the whip.

On Thursday, Biden held a press conference, where he said, “What more do you need to know? The vaccinations are free, safe and easy to obtain. They are FDA approved. We have been patient, but our patience is running out.”

Politicians have tried to reach the skeptical vaccine opponents with carrots in the form of cash dollars, free education, beer and hot dogs. It has not worked, now the whip must come out, and it is about time.

If you do not want to be vaccinated for personal reasons, then you can not expect to be able to strut around either at work, in the supermarket or at school and spread your virus.

The grip has been tightened, and Biden now makes it mandatory for all public employees, contractors and health professionals to be vaccinated. In addition, employees of companies with 100 or more employees must be vaccinated or provide a negative Corona test weekly.

But Americans are a stubborn people who cherish their individual freedom as a fundamental principle even in situations where it is headlessly stupid. Even Trump was recently booed when he called on the audience to get vaccinated.

Opposition to the authorities telling people what to do has always been a part of this country. But it is insanity, when people are willing to risk their own and others’ lives for a principle they only understand the seriousness of when they lie in a hospital bed with tubes in their nostrils and gasp for air.

In the meantime, I hope that America turns her attention to tiny Denmark, which seems to have found the balance between respect for the individual’s needs and rights and a responsible health policy – now with freedoms we can only dream of in this Covid restricted freedom-loving country.

(mostly Google Translate)