Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh
Annexations
Fig. 1. Photograph by author, November 25, 2020.
If you’re gonna go to to a lot of trouble to get something on the ballot, against daunting legal odds, you should have some confidence you can get it to pass. I don’t think advocates of a Pittsburgh-Wilkinsburg annexation have even the barest beginning of reason for that confidence.
Hallie Lauer, “Supporters of Wilkinsburg annexation by Pittsburgh appeal to Pa. Supreme Court,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 16, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/local/east/2023/08/15/pittsburgh-wilkinsburg-merger-appeal-annexation-pa-supreme-court/stories/202308150106
Pollution
Fig. 1. Photographer unknown, circa 1940-1950, from Smoke Control Lantern Slide Collection, ca. 1940-1950, AIS.1978.22, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh, via Bloomberg,[1] fair use.
Marc Levy, “A Pennsylvania study suggests links between fracking and asthma, lymphoma in children,” Associated Press, August 16, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/fracking-pennsylvania-health-environment-research-79dd7cfb9b3799e628b0c3667f30dcc4
Illiberalism
Fig. 1. Photograph by Joachim F. Thurn, August 1991, Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F089030-0003, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE.
My presumed incomplete list of countries threatened by or under illiberal rule lengthens with the addition of Argentina.[2] What’s increasingly clear is that the phenomenon is far from limited to a single country or even a single continent. If there is a solution to illiberalism, it will need to take this into account.
Ishaan Tharoor, “In Argentina, a new Trump rises,” Washington Post, August 16, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/16/javier-milei-donald-trump-argentina/
- [1]Mark Byrnes, “What Pittsburgh Looked Like When It Decided It Had a Pollution Problem,” Bloomberg, June 5, 2012, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-06-05/what-pittsburgh-looked-like-when-it-decided-it-had-a-pollution-problem↩
- [2]Ishaan Tharoor, “In Argentina, a new Trump rises,” Washington Post, August 16, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/16/javier-milei-donald-trump-argentina/↩