Glad to breathe a sigh of relief after the Arbery decision lets us move more gracefully to a holiday that should rightfully be imbued with gratitude. Wishing everyone a very happy Thanksgiving!

Rivka Galchen writes well about the current state of research into functional, energy-positive fusion reactors in her article in The New Yorker, Can Nuclear Fusion Put the Brakes on Climate Change?  It’s a worthwhile read.

Derek Hawkins writes in today’s Washington Post Coronavirus Updates:

New research out of Texas offers a grim illustration of the risks of not getting vaccinated. The state health department found that unvaccinated people accounted for more than 85 percent of the Lone Star State’s 29,000 covid-linked fatalities between mid-January and October. Seven percent of the deaths were among partially vaccinated people, while about 8 percent were fully vaccinated. Put another way: the unvaccinated in Texas were 40 times more likely to die of the disease than those fully vaccinated.

And as David Leonhardt writes in his Nov. 8th NYT The Morning, the gap in the cumulative death rate from Covid-19 between heavily T**** supporting US counties and heavily Biden supporting counties: “In October, 25 out of every 100,000 residents of heavily Trump counties died from Covid, more than three times higher than the rate in heavily Biden counties (7.8 per 100,000). October was the fifth consecutive month that the percentage gap between the death rates in Trump counties and Biden counties widened.”

If you haven’t already, please get vaccinated — it may save your life.

From the always excellent Heather Cox Richardson’s November 5 post:

“At about 11:30 p.m., the House of Representatives passed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684) by a vote of 228–206. Biden promised to pass a bipartisan measure and after nine months of hard work, he did it: thirteen Republicans voted in favor of the bill; six progressive Democrats voted against it. The measure had already passed the Senate, so now it goes to his desk for a signature.

This bill is a huge investment in infrastructure. Axios lists just how huge: over the next 8 years, it will provide $110 billion for fixing roads and bridges, $73 billion for the electrical grid, $66 billion for railroads, $65 billion for broadband, $55 billion for water infrastructure, $47 billion for coastal adjustments to climate change, $39 billion for public transportation, and so on.

The Guardian’s congressional reporter, Hugo Lowell, noted: “Regardless of the politics, the passage of a $1.2T bipartisan infrastructure bill is a towering legislative achievement for Biden—and one that Trump never came close to matching.””

Remember—every single Republican voted against the Rescue Plan. If they had gotten their way:

-no checks in pockets
-no money for schools to reopen quickly and safely
-no quick recovery to 4.6% unemployment

— Bharat Ramamurti (@BharatRamamurti) November 5, 2021