A Texas health authority is warning against "measles parties" as the outbreak in West Texas grew to at least 146 cases, with 20 hospitalized and one unvaccinated school-age child dead. The outbreak continues to mainly be in unvaccinated children.

In a press briefing hosted by the city of Lubbock, Texas, on Friday, Ron Cook, chief health officer at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, offered the stark warning for Texans in his opening statements.

"What I want you to hear is: It's not good to go have measles parties because what may happen is—we can't predict who's going to do poorly with measles, be hospitalized, potentially get pneumonia or encephalitis and or pass away from this," Cook said. "So that's a foolish idea to go have a measles party. The best thing to do is make sure that you're well-vaccinated."

Lubbock sits about 90 miles northwest of the outbreak's epicenter in Gaines County, which is one of the state's least vaccinated counties. It has recorded 98 of the outbreak's 146 cases. While Lubbock has only reported two of the 146 cases, patients from elsewhere have been treated in Lubbock. That includes the first two cases in the outbreak as well as the child who died of the infection earlier this week, who was not a resident of Lubbock.

Authoritarians and tech CEOs now share the same goal: to keep us locked in an eternal doomscroll instead of organizing against them, Janus Rose writes.

If there’s one thing I’d hoped people had learned going into the next four years of Donald Trump as president, it’s that spending lots of time online posting about what people in power are saying and doing is not going to accomplish anything. If anything, it’s exactly what they want.

Trump’s second presidential term has arrived amidst a new golden age for internet grifters, propagandists, and bad-faith hucksters of all stripes. The contours of this era of untruth have been flashing like neon signs for the past decade, constantly enticing us to engage with its impenetrable nonsense. Whether it’s gaslighting everyone who saw Elon Musk give two Nazi salutes during the inauguration or blaming the Los Angeles wildfires on the racist dog whistle of “DEI,” lies and absurdities now regularly flood our senses, having long outpaced the media’s capacity to filter them.

Many of my journalist colleagues have attempted to beat back the tide under banners like “fighting disinformation” and “accountability.” While these efforts are admirable, the past few years have changed my own internal calculus. Thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Hannah Arendt warned us that the point of this deluge is not to persuade, but to overwhelm and paralyze our capacity to act. More recently, researchers have found that the viral outrage disseminated on social media in response to these ridiculous claims actually reduces the effectiveness of collective action. The result is a media environment that keeps us in a state of debilitating fear and anger, endlessly reacting to our oppressors instead of organizing against them.

Major anti-corruption protests in Serbia add to pressure on President Vučić - Tens of thousands rally against government and in memory of railway station roof collapse that killed 15

Serbia’s powerful populist leader Aleksandar Vučić was facing his biggest challenge yet as student-led demonstrations intensified at the weekend in what was being called the Balkan country’s greatest ever protest movement.

Three months to the day after a concrete canopy collapsed at the entrance of Novi Sad’s railway station, tens of thousands of protesters converged on the northern city, blockading its three bridges in commemoration of the 15 people killed in the accident. The tragedy has been blamed squarely on government ineptitude and graft.

“What we are seeing are the greatest street protests in the history of Serbia,” said Dejan Bagarić, a master’s student speaking from the city. “There’s never been anything like it, people are really animated because everybody has had enough of corruption and this government is very corrupt.”

Saturday’s outpouring of dissent – the culmination of sit-ins and protests that began in November – have focused on what demonstrators have described as the government’s striking unwillingness to accept any accountability for the tragedy. Reconstruction of the station was carried out in collaboration with a Chinese state consortium, as part of a large infrastructure project that critics contend paid little, if any, attention to safety regulations.

First abortion-related bill pushed in GOP-led Congress blocked by Senate Democrats
Source: Nebraska Examiner

By: Jennifer Shutt - January 22, 2025 6:59 pm

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats blocked legislation Wednesday that would have established penalties for health care professionals who don’t provide medical care for infants born following an attempted abortion, arguing the bill would have kept parents from making decisions about care for newborns delivered early following a fatal fetal diagnosis.

Republicans said the issue should lend itself to common ground between the two political parties, citing a “loophole” in federal law that could potentially permit health care providers to allow an infant to die, instead of using medical interventions.

The 52-47 procedural vote needed the support of at least 60 senators to advance under the chamber’s legislative filibuster rules, but no Democrats voted to move the bill toward final passage. Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty didn’t cast a vote.

The vote marked the first time this year Republicans, who now control both the House and Senate, brought up an abortion bill for debate. The vote took place on the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that established a constitutional right to abortion in 1973, but was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022.

100 Day Plan

We have to start rebuilding our party immediately and to do so we need a Chair who has experience leading turnaround efforts and is ready to hit the ground running on Day One.
My plan for my first 100 Days is a starting point and is informed by conversations that I have had with so many of you over the past few months because we can’t learn or lead without first listening.

Day One

On my first day in office, we are going to reassert the Democratic Party’s commitment to the economic security of every man, woman, and child in America as our highest priority. I plan on also naming former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and former Congresswoman Marcia Fudge as the transition Chairwoman. Under Chairwoman Fudge’s leadership, we will recruit the most highly effective and diverse team in America for this challenge.

Immediately thereafter, we will begin the build-out of an Actionstat Room at the DNC HQ to drive collaboration and measure the tactics and strategies needed to rebuild our Party. This platform will become the connecting hub of pro-democracy actions and strategies across the U.S. At the same time, we will create a Center of Digital Excellence at the DNC focused on ensuring we meet voters where they are at, not just at the doors, but online as well. This entity will be led by the best and brightest in our party and will focus on reimagining and operationalizing where we communicate, how we communicate, and what we communicate.

Day Two

On my second day in office, I will announce a comprehensive plan for hosting county chair townhalls, organized and convened in collaboration with state party leaders and county Democratic Parties in every region of the country. These townhalls will take place within the first 30 days of my tenure. It’s time to reestablish strong lines of communication with our supporters at every level, guided by the insights and leadership of state and county party leaders, in every corner of our nation.

Day Five

Within the first five days of my tenure, we will create an After Action Commission that will conduct a comprehensive dive into what went wrong in 2024 and how we don’t make the same mistakes in 2025 and beyond. From conducting an internal audit of all finances to building out a data- based analysis of the Party, this Commission will be tasked with completing the investigation within the first 60 days of my tenure. We will not spend months trying to diagnose the problems of the past.

Day Ten

Within 10 days of my election, I will create a task force on open and transparent governance. The purpose of this task force will be to provide recommendations for changes needed to restore trust in our party. The task force will be empaneled for a period of 75 days, after which it will deliver its report and we will get to work to implement its findings.
Day Fifteen

Within the first 15 days of my tenure, I will empanel a task force focused on the Future of the Democratic Party. This task force will be tasked with outlining the changes necessary to engage, recruit, and train the next generations of Democrats. From recruiting candidates in local, state, and federal elections to ensuring that our campaigns are staffed with the best and the brightest, this task force will submit its findings to me within 80 days of creation.

Day Forty

By the 40th day of my tenure, we will hold our first rotation of regular and recurring Actionstat Meetings at DNC HQ (and live-streamed to all State and Territorial Chairs). The every two week cadence of timely, accurate information shared by all will focus for one hour each on these leading Initiatives: Candidate Recruitment Everywhere Across the Ballot, Voter Registration, Fundraising, Improving Digital Communications.

Day One Hundred

By my 100th day of my tenure, I will outline an action plan for the year — informed and built from ideas brought forward on County Chair Townhalls — submitted for nationwide Party comment. We are going to have an open and transparent party that is focused on reconnecting, reengaging, and rebuilding our party from the ground up. And, we are going to do it together through a coordinated campaign effort that includes grassroots leaders, state party chairs, and partner organizations.

Please let me know whether you have any questions and/ or suggestions for my first 100 days. This list is not exhaustive, and we have a lot of work on our hands to usher our party into a brighter future. I hope you will join me in this fight.

Always in service,
Martin O’Malley