Category: News & Comment

U.S. Measles Cases Just Reached a 33-Year High

Buck Banks

Measles cases in the U.S. have reached a 33-year high, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Outbreak Response Innovation (CORI). The center reports that there are now 1,277 confirmed cases across 38 states and the District of Columbia, the highest annual tally since 1992. The U.S. had achieved measles-free status in 2000.

“It’s a harbinger of things to come,” Eric Ball, a leading pediatrician, told the Washington Post. “Once we see a resurgence of measles, we know that other diseases are going to come behind it.”

Even amid a flurry of vaccine disinformation, the rate of MMR (measles, mumps and rubella vaccine) jabs administered in 2019 was at 95% — the rate experts believe curtails outbreaks. It has now slid to below 93%, and outbreaks are occurring in dozens of states. Anti-vaccine messaging and distrust in federal health agencies have contributed to the decline.

Three people have died of measles-related complications this year, while 155 people have been hospitalized. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that just three people died of measles complications between 2001 and 2024.

Politics of Names

Buck Banks

Pensito Illustration
Elon Musk is now wholly committed to the political game.
But his “America Party” and “Democrat Party” are both grammatically lame:
See, “America” is a proper noun, but not an adjective,
Whereas “American” can be either one — it’s relative.
As with “Democrat Party,” Musk is about to find out what’s in a name.

Trump Says He Gave US Enemy Permission to Bomb US Military Base

This is not a drill

Pensito Editors
US Base in Qatar Hit by Iranian Bombs

TPM: The right-wing Washington Times reported that at a press conference at the NATO Summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday, Trump revealed that he had given Iran permission to bomb the U.S.’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in retaliation for the American bombing of their nuclear sites.

“They said, ‘We’re going to shoot them. Is one o’clock OK?’ I said it’s fine,” Trump said. “And everybody was emptied off the base so they couldn’t get hurt, except for the gunners.”