Firsk.bsky.social

@firsk.bsky.social

745 Followers 680 Following

Sailor, entrepreneur (electronic instrumentation), designer, woodworker, boat builder, potter. Pacific Northwest resident, outdoorsy, classical liberal. Parent of an adult trans child. Date from the final days of the Truman administration.

Put differently: Inner Europe and the Viking Alliance would not stop Trump from wanting to align with Putin. What they would is make that desire: More visible (because Europe is visibly fighting on the “right” side), More politically costly (because he has to actively undercut allies who are finally doing what he claimed to want), and More damaging to the American myth of itself (because the role reversal—Europe as hard power, U.S. as shirker—is terrible PR). That narrows the corridor in which a pro‑Putin Trump can move without triggering a domestic and allied backlash that even he would find hard to ride out.
As you can see in the chart above, there was an epic decline in coal employment between 1950 and the 2000s, from half a million miners to around 80,000. But this employment decline didn’t reflect an economy turning away from coal. In fact, use of coal to generate electricity rose steadily over the whole period, peaking in 2008:
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else." — Theodore Roosevelt, in the Kansas City Star, May 7, 1918
Now, though, under the current administration, public health data and lab infrastructure are eroding, making Americans less prepared for all health threats. With the United States separating from the World Health Organization, flu sample submissions from abroad have decreased by more than 70 percent — meaning we don’t know which viruses should be targeted in the next flu shot. Data about covid-19 has decreased by over 60 percent — so we might not know if a threatening new variant is emerging. Polio lab submissions have completely stopped: We will not be able to stop polio at its source before it lands on American soil. We are not ready for emerging health threats, and it’s only getting worse.