Per Albin's Ghost 🌐

@ACC_National Do you feel the Trump administration deserves our trust and the benefit of the doubt on questions of conservation and public land use?

You've probably seen headlines this week about the Trump administration "dismantling" the U.S. Forest Service. There's a lot of noise, especially on social media, but let's look at what's actually happening: The reorganization moves USFS headquarters from D.C. to Salt Lake City and restructures from 9 regional offices to 15 state-based ones, while some staff remain in D.C. Governors from both parties, Cox (R-UT) and Polis (D-CO), have praised the move, and SLC is a well-connected city with the talent and infrastructure to support a major federal agency. The structural shift is also less dramatic than it sounds. The USFS already runs a decentralized operation. Going from 9 regional offices to 15 state-based ones is closer to a hybrid regional-state model. The "dismantling" framing all over social media doesn't hold up to scrutiny. That said, there are real concerns worth taking seriously, namely cuts to R&D, and broader budget pressure on an agency that manages 193 million acres of public land. There are still question marks about the implementation and extent of these cuts, but reducing the USFS’s capacity is real cause for concern. We are in one of the most severe drought years in recent memory. Underfunded, understaffed agencies don't operate better; this is not the moment to squeeze USFS capacity. There's also a concern that predates this reorganization entirely: the Forest Service already spends an enormous amount of time on paperwork. NEPA compliance alone can delay active forest management projects by years. Reorganizing the org chart doesn't touch that problem, and any reform effort that doesn't address it is leaving the biggest obstacle on the table. Getting rangers and foresters back out into the field and out from behind their desks is a worthy goal, but the Forest Service is struggling to keep up as it is. Fixing our forest service requires more than just redrawing the org chart; it requires fixing the underlying incentive structure tangling USFS in bureaucracy. Done strategically and with clear goals, a restructuring doesn't have to hurt the agency. Without those reforms though, it won't solve much either.

the type of shit the press asks Zohran at a press conference about street parking:

The way gamers talk about "hundreds of hours" stresses me out, don't you know about Death

If your social circle gets large enough and sufficiently robust you start developing institutions and state capacity by accident

Writers should not publish for free. They should not publish at all. The only acceptable form of publication for a true writer is posthumous, ideally against their own express wishes

You ever see yourself from the side and wonder how anyone could ever love you

1. We’re in the middle of The Return of the King in my speculative fiction class and one of my students pointed out the way Tolkien pairs his characters a foil or counterpart: Gandalf/Saruman, Boromir/Faramir, Frodo/Gollum, Éomer/Éowyn, Legolas/Gimli, Merry/Pippin, etc.

Called the babysitter to come watch the kids. My wife lit up with heart eyes. “Where are we going???” We’re not going anywhere. I just need to dedicate my full attention to monitoring the situation.

The Holocaust is the most well documented and researched event in history for a simple reason: it was perpetuated by meticulous record keepers (Germans) against excellent scholars (Jews). The result? An event that is carefully documented, and then painstakingly reconstructed.

@himbopresident Brother no one tells you this but when your infant child is sleeping on you for hours at a time…the bandwidth is still there

Somewhere in On Writing, Stephen King says you should always carry a book with you to read in doctor’s offices, waiting on line, etc. because “you must learn to read in small sips as well as great gulps”

Assuming an average of 2 school-age kids per family, that's enough money for NYC to instead hire 450,000 recent college graduates and give each family a full-time, in-home school tutor at an annual salary of $70,000 plus health care, school supplies, etc.

It is not enough for a close reading of a work of literature to eschew biographical and contextual details. You should also avoid understanding the text or even reading it, in order to focus purely on its form

he’s so real

Barack Obama, to 5M people on social media: “boy folks I sure do love my wife let me tell ya” Michelle Obama, to 24 people listening to her podcast: “my life isn’t what I wanted it to be, and a lot of it is because of Barack, who is very imperfect”

Nobody really talks about it but being Phantom Threaded is probably the ultimate heterosexual male fantasy

the average american has such a ravaged microbiome that the mere thought of eating a vegetable with dinner renders them impotent

Tom Holland is dating a 29 year old There is a 3 month age gap between them—over 90 days. they were not even born in the same fiscal quarter (June 1, 1996 vs. September 1, 1996) Hollywood normalizes this

información muy importante para la comunidad de lobos malos