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Fusion Power May Be 30 Years Away, But We Will Reap Its Benefits Well Before (Maria)
The author writes, “When James Watt’s first commercial steam engine was installed in March 1776 at Bloomfield Colliery, Tipton, in the West Midlands, it was hailed as a mechanical marvel. Yet few could have anticipated the way steam engines would change the world. Developed initially to pump water from mines, the technology was adapted across so many industries and applications that it sparked the Industrial Revolution. Now, according to those working on the development of fusion energy power plants, we are on the cusp of a similar transformation.”
Get Ready Now: Republicans Will Refuse to Certify a Harris Win (Al and Sean)
From The Bulwark: “The last two weeks — the unveiling of the Harris-Walz ticket, and Kamala Harris’s surge in the polls — feels like some surreal dream state. Everything has changed. Have you noticed Harris has pushed Donald Trump right out of the comfy lead he’s held for an entire year? He’s noticed. From FiveThirtyEight to RealClearPolitics — pick your polling average — they all now show Harris out in front after only two and a half weeks. … It looks now like Trump could easily lose. But that won’t happen, because Trump doesn’t lose. He beat Joe Biden in 2020 — remember? So if he’s not the rightful victor on November 5, an entire army of Republicans is ready to block certification of the election at the local level.”
Trump’s Dangerous Campaign of Hatred Against Migrant ‘Invaders’ (Dana)
From Mother Jones: “On the morning of August 3, 2019, a 21-year-old man walked into a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle. He murdered 23 people and injured 22 others. Most who died were Latino, including eight people from Mexico. The gunman had driven to the border city from 650 miles away. In custody, he told police he’d come to kill Mexicans. … He also knew some of [his beliefs] were being championed at the time by President Donald Trump. With help from Fox News pundits, Trump was whipping up fear and hatred of an alleged ‘invasion’ coming across America’s southern border — the message was central to Trump’s reelection campaign in 2019. … Today, Trump is running again using the same potent demagoguery he wielded during his presidency and prior campaigns.”
A Win for the Harris-Walz Ticket Would Also Mean the Country’s First Native American Female Governor (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “If Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are elected this fall, not only would a woman of color lead the country for the first time, but a Native woman would govern a state for the first time in U.S. history too. Peggy Flanagan, the lieutenant governor of Minnesota and a citizen of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, is poised to serve as the state’s next governor should Walz step down to accept the role of vice president of the United States. Her rise to power has been watched closely by Indigenous peoples in Minnesota and across the country who see her as a champion of policies that positively affect Native Americans.”
The Right-Wing Campaign to Purge Women From Women’s Sports (Laura)
From The Intercept: “The Far Right and its fellow gender fascists typically focus their attacks on trans people. When it comes to women’s and girls’ sports — a terrain cherished by anti-trans crusaders — the exclusion of trans women has been a Republican legislative priority, leading even to proposals for abusive genital testing requirements on girls whose assigned sex at birth is questioned. The fact that the latest high-profile case of gender policing is aimed at athletes who were indeed assigned female at birth should, however, come as no surprise.”
The Politics Holding Back Medicaid Expansion in Some Southern States (Mili)
From KFF Health News: “This spring, the Mississippi Legislature considered but ultimately failed to expand Medicaid, which would have extended coverage to around 200,000 low-income residents. Mississippi is one of 10 states that haven’t expanded Medicaid, the state and federal health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities. Seven of those states are in the South. But as more conservative-leaning states like North Carolina adopt it, the drumbeat of support, as one Southern state lawmaker put it, grows louder. Advocates for expanding Medicaid say opposition is largely being driven by political polarization, rather than cost concerns.”
My Beloved Italian City Has Turned Into Tourist Hell. Must We Really Travel Like This? (Russ)
The author writes, “A little more than 10 years ago, Bologna, my Italian hometown, was not really considered a big tourist destination. Group tours would come, but the city was primarily known for being the place with one of the oldest universities in Europe. Its cuisine — dishes like tortellini and tagliatelle — was an attraction, too, but in a subdued way. Budget airlines, short-term rentals and social media changed everything. These days Bologna is on its way to becoming a full-blown, must-avoid-the-main-roads kind of tourist city. Some of the effects of this have been typical, like the landlords who have converted apartments to short-term rentals, which has raised rents and sent students farther from the university and into the smaller towns on the periphery. But one result has been very particular to Bologna: the consumption of mind-numbing, heart-stopping amounts of mortadella.”
