"What many countries around the world are about to experience... is a period of rapid and involuntary decarbonisation. And that will necessarily mean rapid and involuntary degrowth.

Degrowth is a highly divisive term – and many will reject it. The main shortcoming of degrowth is the assumption that it will be in some way up to us to decide – a kind of lifestyle choice.

It won’t be; whether you like degrowth or hate it, the war on Iran makes it all but unavoidable"
https://open.substack.com/pub/reclaimedsystems/p/how-to-lose-an-empire-in-less-than

Open source isn't a tip jar – it's time to charge for access https://theregister.com/2026/03/25/open_source_bill_opinion/ via @theregister & @sjvn

#Opensource was never "free as in free beer." It's "free as in free speech." With companies making billions from open source, it's time we pay people a real wage.

What Happens When a Bad-Tempered, Distractible Doofus Runs an Empire? | The New Yorker

One of the few things that Kaiser Wilhelm II, who ruled Germany from 1888 to 1918, had a talent for was causing outrage. One of the many things that Wilhelm was convinced he was brilliant at, despite all evidence to the contrary, was “personal diplomacy,” fixing foreign policy through one-on-one meetings with other European monarchs and statesmen. In fact, Wilhelm could do neither the personal nor the diplomacy, and these meetings rarely went well. The Kaiser viewed other people in instrumental terms, was a compulsive liar, and seemed to have a limited understanding of cause and effect. He was susceptible but never truly controllable. He asserted his authority unpredictably, as if to prove he was still in charge, staging rogue interventions into his own advisers’ policies and sacking ministers without warning. Sound familiar? Revisit Miranda Carter on the lessons of Kaiser Wilhelm II:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/what-happens-when-a-bad-tempered-distractible-doofus-runs-an-empire

It turns out a DEA organized-crime task force was running a massive investigation of Epstein and 14 co-conspirators for drug trafficking and prostitution. That is, until Trump took office in 2016.

The investigation silently vanished.

Now the second Trump administration continues the cover-up.

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/march-18-2026?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web