US, December 21st 2021: waiting in line for covid testing. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP, via ABC News)
The pandemic: the world remains sunk in the covid-19 pandemic that spread worldwide in early 2020. Some 5.4 million are now dead, over 800,000 in the US alone. There are vaccines now but not everyone can or will take them. The Delta variant swept over the world in the middle of the year and now it is Omicron. No end in sight.
January 6th in the US is now a day like July 4th or September 11th: it names an event in history: the Capitol Riot, President Trump’s failed coup attempt after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden. Trump was impeached but not found guilty: Republicans remained solidly behind him.
Voter suppression laws: 18 states passed stricter voting laws, Texas’s SB1 being the strictest. Without the Black vote, Trump would still be president.
Critical race theory: Republicans (and John McWhorter) have been painting critical race theory as a threat to the nation. Teachers in Texas are no longer allowed to use The 1619 Project. Like critical race theory, it sees the US as being built on slavery and racism.
Texas: The Deep Freeze of ’21 knocked out much of its power grid, killing over 200.
Found guilty: Derek Chauvin, Travis McMichael, Kim Potter, R. Kelly, Jussie Smollett, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Found not guilty: Kyle Rittenhouse, Bill Cosby, Donald Trump.
Afghanistan: The US ended its War in Afghanistan (2001-21), its longest war ever. Afghanistan quickly fell to the Taliban. ISIS-K wants to turn the region into the Khorasan of a future Caliphate.
Iceland has had repeated volcanic eruptions at Geldingadalir.
China landed Zhùróng (祝融) on Mars, the first rover ever to rove the red planet that is not from the US.
Betelgeuse still shines.
Space tourism is now starting to become common. William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk on “Star Trek” in the 1960s, was shocked to find how near and how dead outer space is.
Olympics: The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were delayed a year due to the pandemic. My favourites fizzled out one way or another: Sha’Carri Richardson, Caster Semenya, Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka.
The Doomsday Clock: is now 100 seconds to midnight.
Global temperature average: 14.49°C in April (NOAA), the ninth hottest since 1880. That is 0.79°C above the average for the 1900s (13.7°C).
Word of the Year: vax (Oxford), short for vaccine or vaccination.
Time’s Person of the Year: Elon Musk, an already overly hyped billionaire, now the richest man in the world at $280 billion (= 13 billion crowns or 15 million talents). He heads Tesla (electric cars) and SpaceX (space transport, laying the groundwork to colonize Mars).
Top US R&B song: Silk Sonic: Leave the Door Open
Top Hollywood film: in the US: “Spiderman: No Way Home”.
World map:
De facto world map for February 2021 from galacticpasta (click to enlarge).
Top images (on Google Images):
the most beautiful woman: Bella Hadid:
the most gorgeous man: Robert Pattinson:
car: 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray:
computer:
phone: Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max:
president: US President Joe Biden:
In memoriam: Daunte Wright, Andrew Brown, Jr, Bob Moses, bell hooks, Mary Wilson, Cicely Tyson, Biz Markie, Desmond Tutu, Hank Aaron, Michael Collins (Apollo 11), Walter Mondale, Paul Mooney, Michael K. Williams (The Wire), Melvin Van Peebles, Anne Rice (The Feast of All Saints), Joan Didion (Salvador), Ed Asner, Colin Powell.
– Abagond, 2021.
See also:
- AD
- Nobel Prize winners for 2021
- books I read in 2021
- billionaire
- crowns
- Attic units – talents, etc
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Abagond 
Bye, bye 2021!
Hello, hello, welcome 2022! Please, we wish that with you comes the end of the pandemic… and other bad global events!
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