Links 3/8/2026

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1. The Rev Kev March 8, 2026 at 7:54 am

   ‘THE ISLANDER
   @IslanderWORLD
   🇮🇷🇺🇸 The satellite images don’t lie. They rarely do.
   Four coordinates and four confirmed strike sites. Four of America’s crown jewels in missile defence — the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, the AN/TPY-2 radar… the eyes of the entire Gulf air defence architecture — struck, charred, and in at least one case confirmed destroyed.’

   OK, so you have four THAAD radars turned to ash which is half of all the THAADs in the world. On top of that you had two super-duper, billion-dollar radars also burnt, one of which was looking into China and Russia. My first thought that it was going to take years to replace them but then I thought that they will never be built again. You can be sure that you need refined-rare earths to make the needed magnets and so to build new sets, you will have to go to China. Trump will be going to China at the end of the month and you can bet that he will demand that the Chinese sell him rare earths but if I was the Chinese, I would tell him to get bent.
   1. DJG, Reality Czar March 8, 2026 at 8:55 am

      Thanks, Rev Kev: I also am going to recommend to the commentariat to read the whole tweet. The repercussions aren’t pretty — and the siting of these things more or less in plain sight indicates incompetence.

      Yet as The Islander concludes: “Took out the eyes and rendered the entire layered architecture not just degraded but operationally compromised across multiple theatres simultaneously.”

      Major.
      1. Skip Intro March 8, 2026 at 10:44 am

         The shot of the $30k drone taking out the billion dollar radar is the encapsulated story of this military paradigm shift.
2. Bob from Kansas March 8, 2026 at 8:31 am

   The Banna Tribe stilt walking is more than just “avoiding snakes”. It was used to avoid all sorts of predators (like lions and hyenas) while herding animals, but today it is mainly practiced as cultural rite of passage tradition. And apparently now performed for social media influencers, and the whole reduction of this to “avoiding snakes” saddens me.
   1. ddt March 8, 2026 at 9:59 am

      It looked like AI slop to me. Don’t doubt they exist but that portrayal seemed off.
3. Wukchumni March 8, 2026 at 8:33 am

   Roll out the $200 barrel
   We’ll need a barrel of funds
   Roll out the $200 barrel
   We’ve got inflation blues on the Hormuz run
   Sting! Boom! Tararrel!
   Ring out a song of good cheer
   Now’s the time to roll out the $200 barrel
   For the reckoning is here
   1. ambrit March 8, 2026 at 4:20 pm

      This goes nicely with the old Green Song, “99 Barrels of Oil.”

      99 barrels of oil in the ground,
      99 barrels of oil,
      Pump one out, ship it about,
      98 barrels of oil in the ground.

      Etc., etc.
      Stay safe, stay liquid.
      (Watch out for that Dolphin sub in the Colorado.)
4. Charles Carroll March 8, 2026 at 8:39 am

   Dear World, please choose your leaders wisely.

   https://x.com/Gaamuk/status/2030299977965359149
5. lyman alpha blob March 8, 2026 at 8:55 am

   RE: The Myth That Wind Farms Are a Guillotine for Birds Is Being Debunked by Hard Data

   Interesting to put everything in perspective. I’ve always had a hard time believing that all that many birds would fly into something they can literally see from miles away and die. The article does note that one thing that kills far more birds is large plate glass windows. One of Audubon’s projects is trying to get businesses to install bird safe windows, which just use a series of dots so birds realize something is there before flying into the glass. There have been some successes here in Maine, notably the LL Bean building – https://www.pressherald.com/2022/08/14/efforts-grow-in-maine-to-encourage-use-of-bird-safe-windows/

   “Construction on L.L. Bean’s new headquarters started in 2019, and the company considered adding bird-safe technology from the start, said Jason Sulham, L.L. Bean’s manager of public affairs. This summer, the adhesive strips with dots were added at a cost of just over $60,000, Sulham said.”

   To give a little more detail, they “considered” it, but they didn’t actually follow the recommendation at first because it would be a little more expensive. But when you’re an outdoor outfitter with an environmental bent and dead birds start piling up around your corporate headquarters, it’s really not a good look and makes for very bad publicity, especially among all the birdwatchers who might need a new pair of boots, so they eventually switched course. Capitalists rarely do anything just because it’s the right thing to do.

   Anyway, just wanted to point this out as a solution that can stop a lot of birds being killed.
   1. Anon March 8, 2026 at 10:32 am

      Those are a good solution for big buildings, but for people experiencing bird strikes at their homes, I recommend DIY Acopian Birdsavers made of parachute cord. I have some problem windows in my home–the reflection must have caught just right to trick a lot of birds–and I put a bunch of these up, they’ve worked like a charm. Hardly even notice them anymore.
      1. earthmagic March 8, 2026 at 12:46 pm

         I bought some anti-bird strike window decals from etsy. Cheap and pretty. And you can wash them and re-apply when you clean your windows. They work!
      2. Keith Newman March 8, 2026 at 2:15 pm

         Birds hitting windows: I have several windows that birds used to hit. I stuck translucent plastic snowflakes and circles designed to prevent bird collisions on the outside about 40 cm apart. The birds don’t fly into the windows any more and I hardly notice the snowflakes and circles.
      3. amfortas March 8, 2026 at 3:52 pm

         ive got really hard wellwater out here…so when i run the big sprinklers all around the house(because the whole place is a garden/orchard), it gets on ll the windows.
         in the hot time of year, it will cook that calcium carbonate onto the glass…not totally covered, but mainly around the edges. i can still see out of everywhere except the greenhouse(gets sprayed from both sides).
         this has ended inadvertent bird suicide…as well as the dern male mockingbirds fighting themselves.
         (and no, CLR, or whatever, has zero effect. nor does vinegar and steel wool, for that matter)
      4. neutrino23 March 8, 2026 at 4:42 pm

         We have some very large windows under an overhang. At mid-day they make great mirrors and it looks like blue sky. We used to get frequent bird strikes. I got some fine window screen material and we put that over the windows. Looking out we hardly notice this but it has ended the bird-window collisions. The windows are about 5 ft wide each. I got some of those springy curtain holders to fit this shape and the wife sewed the screen material to fit.
   2. Yeti March 8, 2026 at 11:29 am

      It’s not just birds impacted. I’m not against wind farms totally but believe that the negative effects go beyond just birds

      https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/7-of-many-studies-showing-wind-turbines-adverse-impacts-on-wildlife/
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrBn2XnsULs&t=57s
      1. amfortas March 8, 2026 at 4:04 pm

         Tam and i went to abilene years ago for one of her teachers continuing ed things…school paid for hotyel and everything.
         so we had time to kill, and could se vast fields of those big windmills off in distance.
         so we drove out among them…ended up deep into the giant herd of them, on caliche ranch roads, far from the highways.
         parked at a few, and went with folding chairs to hang out under them…even right underneath…in windy country…theyre not much louder than the wind, itself.
         i found the sound they make rather relaxing…like those white noise or wave sound sleep tapes.
         in higher winds…until they reach the speedlimit and turn themselves out of the wind and stop…they do seem to generate an infrasound.
         havent seen any studies on that.
         if i had a great big bag of cash fall from the sky, i might even invest in one and give away power to my neighbors for the nearest 4 miles or so,lol.

         and as for the looks…effects on the view, etc(biggest complaint out this away)…well, i get it,lol…but i have also lived in and around pipe farms, tank farms and refineries and chemical plants and such, all along the gulf coast. po folks pay the cost in their view for your cheap gas(and much higher cancer rates, etc)

         on that same trip, we passed through vast fields of pumpjacks on marginal wells…for balance, we made a point of stopping and hanging out near one of those, too…could see fifty of them from where we sat. world of difference, just in the impact of the superlocal on the immediate surroundings.

         i remain pro-windmill…altho i would prefer a more distributed power grid than what they will allow us, now.
6. YuShan March 8, 2026 at 8:56 am

   “Atmospheric CO2 Getting So High That It’s Weakening Human Skeletons”

   Interesting, never thought of that before. I wonder if we can we compensate for this with our diets, like eating more calcium?
   1. Paleobotanist March 8, 2026 at 10:11 am

      Presumably this also affects most other animals. This is can explain why when CO2 levels suddenly go up in a big way, major extinction events follow quickly.
7. MicaT March 8, 2026 at 8:56 am

   Good article wind machines, accurate and up to date.
   One item they missed is radar. Many wind farms along flyways now have radar so when migration starts or large concentration of some birds such as condors or eagles they can shut down some or all of the machines.
8. DJG, Reality Czar March 8, 2026 at 9:00 am

   Thinking again (and again) of the Richard Kline essay, about how liberals mainly want to spend their time quibbling over legalisms. Lawmaker Proposes Fine and Slaps on Wrist…

   At least 33 people have died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement; some of them died at detention centers in California.

   California state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena) announced Friday new legislation that will institute fines and suspend or revoke state-issued licenses to immigration detention facilities when they fail to meet minimum health and safety standards.

   Oh.

   Yes, kidnapping, torture, and murder are just little problems with licenses. Also, too, the concentration camps should serve nicer breakfasts with fresh berries and a vegan option.

   Shut the damn things down. Shut down ICE and “Homelandt Sikuritei.” And the FBI, for good measure.
9. The Rev Kev March 8, 2026 at 9:18 am

   “Manhattan office tower values plummet below COVID-era slump amid fears AI will wreak a white-collar bloodbath”

   When Covid broke out, heaps of workers decided to work from home as it was not so risky as going to work and being infected by your fellow workers. But the banks had a sad as the values of Manhattan property prices dropped as the buildings were half empty and this did not look good for their property investments. So then the business sector started to force workers back to the office or they would be fired. Fast forward five years and it looks like those Manhattan offices will start emptying out again because of AI so what do the banks do now?
   1. Marcus March 8, 2026 at 9:37 am

      Take a loss? Like all the rest of us do when an investment goes south?
      1. The Rev Kev March 8, 2026 at 9:49 am

         If you make an investment and it goes south, then that is capitalism at work. If the big banks make a loss, the Feds run in to make them whole. Not to be confused with socialism. :)
   2. Yves Smith March 8, 2026 at 10:06 am

      I had a top NYC real estate developers/property owners as a client.

      Their tenants are not in the business of doing them favors.

      The big company execs wanted employees back to demonstrate their power over them and for their convenience, so as to call meetings on a short notice

      And meetings on Zoom do suck.
   3. JohnnyGL March 8, 2026 at 11:19 am

      We already know the answer:

      1) “Extend and pretend”
      2) “package up a bunch of the buildings and sell to someone else”

      Never lower the rent, even if the building is empty. Lifeless downtowns and empty buildings are a feature, not a bug.
10. flora March 8, 2026 at 9:28 am

    Tucker Carlson and Saagar Enjeti. utube, ~1hr 15+ minutes.

    Tucker on the Devastating Cost of War and What It Means for American Politics With Saagar Enjeti

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl78cDjOIRM
11. Tom Stone March 8, 2026 at 9:42 am

    It is expected to hit 75 degrees today in Santa Rosa, the high yesterday (On my porch) was 81 degrees.
    Nothing to see here, move along.
12. .Tom March 8, 2026 at 10:04 am

    I want to know what science fiction Emmanuel Todd reads.

    Took me a couple of days to catch up with and read Emmanuel Todd “The beginning of a world war” Interview for Die Weltwoche, February 27th, 2026 which was in Links on Friday with comments here. It’s worth another shout out

    https://emmanueltodd.substack.com/p/the-beginning-of-a-world-war

    Todd said his joke isn’t funny but it made me LOL and I usually just thinly smile at most.
13. The Rev Kev March 8, 2026 at 10:21 am

    “China weighing financial aid, weapons components for Iran amid war: Report”

    ‘China may be shifting toward providing Iran with financial support, replacement parts and missile-related components, according to a CNN report Friday.’

    I’d be pretty sure that China has been doing this all along. For them it would be a proxy war against the US which also serves the purpose of demilitarizing the US thus making their own region much safer for themselves. And they will hardly stand back and watch the US take Iran’s oil and keep it for themselves so I expect that China is giving all sorts of aid, especially things like reconn, the positions of US forces & bases as well as the US fleet and especially targeting packages. Not that long ago the China hawks were beating their scrawny chests and saying that the US would take on China about 2027 and take them down. Not going to happen now.
14. Wukchumni March 8, 2026 at 10:40 am

    $75k flights?

    Back in the 1980’s in the UK before the internet came along, they had what were called ‘bucket shops’ that had great deals on flights, lets say British Airways has 55 empty seats on a 747, they’d release the tickets to these outfits, and you could get righteous deals, my best was in 1985 when the almighty buck was at it’s financial apogee and I purchased a 1-way ticket from Gatwick to LAX for £99, or $104 @ the time.
    1. upstater March 8, 2026 at 2:16 pm

       $104 in 1985 is equivalent to $320 today according to BLS. Getting $600 RT fares to Europe happen regularly in the off season. Betcha find some cheap fares this year if the war continues for a longer duration. The real bargains will be to Asia and Africa will be on the ME3 carriers if the fires are put out. That’s a big IF. Qatar Airways business class was exceptionally nice. *sigh*. They actually pay staff better than US carriers.
    2. Oregon Lawhobbit March 9, 2026 at 5:48 pm

       Had a Korean travel agent laughing so hard that she put me into a deal from Seoul to Portland: If I’d upgrade to business class (about 200 bucks at the time) she’d do a free second upgrade to first class for me.

       It made the 10 hour flight ALMOST bearable…
15. The Rev Kev March 8, 2026 at 10:44 am

    “Camouflage and crudites: Trump wages war and hosts parties at Mar-a-Lago”

    The image at the top of the screen shows Trump wearing that stupid baseball cap he adopted as his ‘brand’ for this war. But you too can own a copy of that cap through Trump merchandise at only $55 plus postage. Comes in different colours. Maybe that cap should eventually go to the Smithsonian next to the Wendell Willkie paraphernalia but that is not Trump’s style. I can see him auctioning it off one day to make some more big bucks. But I note that he is looking very sallow in that image. Very sallow.
    1. Wukchumni March 8, 2026 at 1:03 pm

       Paul Fussell wrote a great book some 4+ decades ago titled Class: A Guide Through the American Status System and in it, he related that if you wore a baseball hat of an MLB team, that was pretty prole, if it was a baseball style hat with something else on it, definitely lower prole-and if you wore either hat backwards on your head-and you aren’t a catcher, deduct 15 IQ points.
16. Jason Boxman March 8, 2026 at 11:15 am

    Bezzle

    A Crypto Coin Is Gobbling Up U.S. Treasuries (NY Times)

    Cryptocurrencies were designed to be a hedge against the U.S. dollar, which crypto creators viewed as an unreliable currency. Yet one of the fastest-growing crypto coins has risen in popularity precisely because it’s pegged to the greenback.

    Stablecoins, as they are known, are also backed by U.S. government debt, known as Treasuries. And with President Trump’s blessing, they are poised to rework key parts of finance, presenting potential systemic risks and business opportunities in equal measure.

    After meeting privately with a crypto industry leader on Tuesday, Mr. Trump criticized banks in a social media post, saying they were trying to meddle with a law he signed last year that widened legal avenues for adopting stablecoin in traditional finance.

    “The Genius Act was the U.S.A.’s first big step to make the United States the Crypto Capital of the World,” he wrote, adding that banks “should not be trying to undercut” the legislation and “need to make a good deal with the Crypto Industry.”

    Engineered to consistently trade at $1, like a cash equivalent, stablecoins have become a key asset in the crypto market by allowing traders to reduce the overall risk of their portfolios. They can trade out of wild price swings in the coins they bet on and into stablecoins, all while staying within the crypto blockchain.

    As a result, stablecoins have grown to $300 billion in market value from roughly $20 billion in 2020. The Federal Reserve estimates they could be worth $3 trillion in five years.

    More trash. A waste of electricity. And just wait until a stablecoin breaks the buck.
    1. JonnyJames March 8, 2026 at 1:36 pm

       “…Federal Reserve estimates they could be worth $3 trillion in five years…”

       Fictitious “wealth” going from 20 bil to 3 trillion? What do they base this on? This reminds me of Medieval alchemy or something. It’s magic I guess. Or whatever silly monkeys want to believe
       1. Wukchumni March 8, 2026 at 1:46 pm

          ‘iMoney Tree’
17. Jason Boxman March 8, 2026 at 11:28 am

    AI agents killing contributions Open Source projects. It was enough work for maintainers to review genuine PRs from contributors.

    Mass-generating PRs with your agents and clawbots isn’t helping open source. It’s quietly burning out the people who actually maintain it.

    Please stop.

    Twitter
    1. Mikel March 8, 2026 at 12:30 pm

       Remember when we had the sense to call that kind of crapola “spam”?

       And…Rolling my eyes at the headlines of articles about “AI” in links today.
    2. ChrisFromGA March 8, 2026 at 1:12 pm

       I think we are going to need to write something along the lines of “CAPTCHA” in order to block AI-generated spam to open-source projects. If you can’t pass the human test, your PR gets rejected.

       Same thing for bug bounty and vulnerability reports. Pass the test, or get the back of the hand.

       Another idea would be to change license terms for OSS to make it a violation of the terms if any non-human submits a PR. Anyone allowing their identity to be used to submit a PR who is found out to have allowed an agent to assume their identity is liable for damages (wasted time spent reviewing fake PRs.)
18. Mikel March 8, 2026 at 12:46 pm

    I haven’t seen much about Canada’s large oil and natural gas reserves and the role it’s going to play.
    1. Don March 8, 2026 at 7:04 pm

       It’s a bit embarrassing, but we don’t have pipelines to export oil and gas (or refineries). It’s along story…
19. ChrisFromGA March 8, 2026 at 1:09 pm

    I just heard a Trump administration lackey make an admission against interest on CNN.

    They were discussing the war in Iran and its effect on the economy. The lackey was the Secretary of Energy (I forget his name and couldn’t care less.)

    A CNN interviewer asked about the effect of the war on the economy and high gas prices. Then they asked about the effect on US foreign policy, in terms of whether it undermines the policy of supporting Ukraine to allow Russian oil to flow to India?

    Lackey answered the question, stating that the oil being sent to Indian refiners would have ended up with Chinese refiners, if they hadn’t let the sanctions lapse.

    That’s an admission that China can easily evade sanctions. And also that the policy is futile. It sounds like both India and China are able to simply purchase Russian oil, refine it, and mark it up for sale to Europe or other places.
20. heresey101 March 8, 2026 at 1:17 pm

    Iranian media have shared a Lego-style video touting Tehran’s purported retaliation against the US and Israel, depicting the American and Israeli leadership in a panic.

    The animation, dubbed ‘Narrative of Victory,’ was widely circulated online on Sunday. It opens with a cartoonish figure of US President Donald Trump – accompanied by the Devil – reading the Jeffrey Epstein files.

    Be sure to see the great video showing King Trump’s results
    https://www.rt.com/news/634174-iran-us-lego-video-pr-war/
21. jefemt March 8, 2026 at 1:26 pm

    End of Empire for US… Kucinich et al.
    Easy to see how Iran, after decades of USrael horse-apples, aided by Russia and China, who are also tired of all the US BS from varying experience and world-view, the tech broligarch cryto dudes, including the Team Trump, might each, from their own perspective, be delighted in the End of US empire, petrodollars, and our Unipolarity?

    Seems like Trump’s main goal is staying out of prison and dying free, and he will grab at any rope, vine, or hand-hold to keep from jail.
    (Like the former marine congressional candidate McGinnis. Anyone seen McGinnis lately? Rendered? Our Man in DC (TM), $600K plus AIPAC recipient bro-dude Timmy “The Hit Man” Sheehy knows!)

    Israel’s objectives are the one to keep an eye on, and they may soon find themselves on the outs, regardless of anti-Semitism victim- caterwauling.

    I have never in my gut felt like we really may be at the end of humanity on Spaceship earth as I do now. Granted– I am a youngster in my mid-60’s, so no serious mishaps or global events for comparative experience to say, “ah in my day… it will all be OK…” etc.
    1. Wukchumni March 8, 2026 at 1:45 pm

       As a fellow sexagenerian, most everything I really worried about these past 64 years, never in fact happened.
       1. Mikel March 8, 2026 at 3:04 pm

          And don’t forget all the things that have already happened presented as something that people need to do “something” about now.
          1. ambrit March 8, 2026 at 8:05 pm

             A “Bucket Shop AI Slop List.”
22. Brian Beijer March 8, 2026 at 1:32 pm

    Regarding “The Residence”, I’m fascinated to see that there are no seat belts anywhere in sight. So, does a $66,000 buy you the right to ignore international airline safety regulations? Of course, it also begs the question that, if seat belts aren’t really “life saving”, then just why are they required for anyone paying less than $66.000?
23. Rabid groundhog March 8, 2026 at 2:45 pm

    Maybe $66k includes a waiver of liablity for the airline if you crack your skull or snap your neck when the plane hits some turbulence?
24. lyman alpha blob March 8, 2026 at 3:27 pm

    Has the US found its next Navalny? “It Was a Big Roll of the Dice”: How a Small-Town Russian Schoolteacher Became an International Whistleblower — and an Oscar Nominee

    Don’t know anything about this guy, haven’t seen the movie and he may be a very decent anti-war sort, but the “whistleblowing” sounds a lot like normal events in the US of A. Bracketed comments are my additions –

    “His quiet act of resistance — covertly filming what he witnessed over two years and smuggling the footage out of Russia — is the subject of Mr. Nobody Against Putin, co-directed by Pasha and David Borenstein. The film documents the rise of militarized children’s groups in Russian schools [Junior ROTC anyone?], the spread of fervent nationalism [you don’t need to look far to find chants of USA! USA!], and the recruitment of graduating students to fight in Ukraine [my HS senior kid just got a letter in the mail today from a US military recruiter]— all captured by a man who, when he realized his own life was at risk, was forced to plan a dangerous escape from his homeland. Putin won the World Cinema documentary special jury prize at Sundance 2025 and the BAFTA for best documentary, and is one of the five 2026 best documentary Oscar nominees.”

    Just heard about this today so we’ll see if this reaches the White Helmets level of Hollywood propaganda.
25. Kouros March 8, 2026 at 4:18 pm

    Indianpunchline punches hard at India’s elites today: https://www.indianpunchline.com/us-makes-india-perform-in-a-circus-tent/
26. James March 8, 2026 at 4:22 pm

    Carville doubles down on urging Ilhan Omar to leave the Democratic Party after she blasted White males

    Does he not understand this is the entire democratic party platform..?

    White men evil. Women good. Brown people good.
    1. JonnyJames March 8, 2026 at 4:28 pm

       It’s the old identity politics of divide and distract. It’s all kabuki. Why do people even watch Carville in the first place? He’s an overpaid media celebrity who has no credibility
       1. ChatET March 8, 2026 at 9:35 pm

          They trot that strategy out to battle the anti war left. The pro war dems always call their lefty opponents racist/antisemetic/misogynist to avoid talking about anything that really matters. It’s like 2006 again for them.
27. Tom Stone March 8, 2026 at 5:08 pm

    Starting this War was both depraved and stupid to the point of insanity, unfortunately the people who pay the price for this will be the usual, the very young, the old and the poor.
    Not the people in power and not the various American flag officers that “Just followed orders”. They damned well knew that their orders were illegal and that they had a moral duty to disobey them.
    No declaration of War, no AUMF, and no debate in Congress While 7 out of ten Americans did not want this War.
    They violated their oath.
    If they had acted honorably they would have had a comfortable retirement, however it would have jeopardized their chances of a lucrative second career.
    What a vile form of corruption.
    1. Late Introvert March 8, 2026 at 11:43 pm

       They don’t call them The Lyin’ Losin’ Generals From The Pentagon for nuthin’.
28. Jason Boxman March 8, 2026 at 6:11 pm

    I’ve probably spent at least 18 hours finding a way to “downgrade” QuickBooks to a version that doesn’t need an annual subscription. (Cheapest now $1,150.) While version 2018 does not, Intuit finally disabled the ability to login to Intuit from within the application, so even though you have a perpetual license, you are locked out of your QuickBooks file after clicking “login later” button for ~ 42 days.

    So they’ve found a way to screw anyone that kept versions after 2012 with perpetual licenses and refused to bend the knee.

    What’s shocking to me is that no one at Intuit has ever been… hurt, given how many small business owners are perpetually screwed by Intuit’s executives. Check out the Intuit support forums sometime to see some righteous anger.

    In the end, the only solution was to export as CSV report of all transactions ever, and write a script that converts that to Intuit’s IIF file format, which can be imported into an earlier version of QuickBooks, with caveats, of course. For a check register only, this is sufficient. If you’re a business owner, you probably can’t easily go back if you’ve customized forms, do payroll or invoicing or inventory management, and so on.

    Also, Intuit nuked all the downloadable versions of Quickbooks before like 2018 or whatever, so you can’t even install an earlier version, if you have a license for it, and now you can’t use that anyway, even if you can get the file. Glad I had an old copy of the 2012 installer somewhere.

    Intuit is a parasite on this economy; Like banking interchange fees. Americans are constantly being sucked dry by parasites.

    The lack of violence is truly miraculous, I think.

    But the whole messing is gonna come crashing down with the upcoming Trump depression; you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. This guy is really making America Great Again, is he not?
    1. You're soaking in it? March 8, 2026 at 7:25 pm

       Without knowing anything about your circumstances, I highly recommend taking a peek at Gnucash. I’m sure any transition would involve pain, but if you did make it you escape the cycle of ensh*ttification that Intuit requires of their prisoners, and, for a small business, I found the learning curve not too bad.

       Did I mention it is less expensive? As in, voluntary donations are accepted to the dev team, which, if you are in business, I would hope you could do, but even if you trial it to do your personal finances (I find it excellent and am more than happy to throw a bit their way), but if you don’t want to, $0.
       1. Jason Boxman March 8, 2026 at 9:28 pm

          In this case, the circumstances were my parents adopted QuickBooks for personal finances 25 years ago, as my father used QuickBooks for his solo insurance agency. And with no business any longer and at $1,200 a year, it’s really prohibitive for just a personal check register.

          I haven’t used GnuCash recently, but I gave up on it for personal stuff a decade ago; It’s reporting system at that time leaved much to be desired, and I had no interest in writing my own reports in Guile/Scheme. Perhaps that situation has improved.

          Thanks for the suggestion though!
    2. ambrit March 8, 2026 at 8:10 pm

       A new Akronym if I may.
       Making America Great – Going Overtime Tonight.
    3. Jessica March 9, 2026 at 12:48 am

       Your painful and unfair experience also explains some of what I have run into with TurboTax.
       I don’t like having to constantly be on guard against predators.
29. You're soaking in it? March 8, 2026 at 7:39 pm

    Oil Tops $100 as War Rages, US Stock Futures Drop

    Yawn; call me when we get here: Financial crisis of 1914

    On July 31, 1914, after several days of sell offs, McAdoo closed the New York Stock Exchange for four months to prevent the sale of American securities by the British.
30. skippy March 8, 2026 at 7:41 pm

    Only encouraging thing I have seen in awhile …

    Samuel 🇲🇽
    @resisres
    🇲🇽⛓️‍💥 SHEINBAUM — “We are removing all UNPAYABLE DEBTS.”

    5 MILLION predatory mortgage loans issued during the neoliberal period RESTRUCTURED or ELIMINATED.

    “The credits were designed as a business for a few.”

    https://x.com/resisres/status/2030680734634029348
31. Ann March 8, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    Japan, France, Canada work on alternatives to US-led trade bloc for rare earth supplies

    https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-france-canada-work-alternatives-us-led-trade-bloc-rare-earth-supplies-2026-03-06/
32. Ann March 8, 2026 at 7:52 pm

    Kristi Noem’s term as governor freshly roasted by former South Dakota mayor: ‘She did a Sarah Palin’

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kristi-noem-criticism-south-dakota-governor-b2934274.html
33. Ann March 8, 2026 at 8:03 pm

    Two U.S. Army soldiers hold each other for support, as one of them breaks down emotionally after witnessing Army doctors refuse to treat three badly-burned Iraqi children that’d been brought to their base by relatives seeking help. Balad, Iraq, 2003.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoricalCapsule/comments/1rnwcvs/two_us_army_soldiers_hold_each_other_for_support/
34. AG March 8, 2026 at 10:05 pm

    re: Mumia Abu-Jamal in need of medical treatment

    via German daily JUNGE WELT:

    Call to Action

    “The clock is ticking”

    Jennifer Black of Prison Radio sent junge Welt a new, urgent appeal from the solidarity movement for political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. The goal is to compel those responsible at the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PADOC) and the administration of the Mahanoy State Prison (SCI Mahanoy) to provide Mumia with the necessary medical treatment. Making as many phone calls and sending as many emails and letters as possible to exert pressure has already proven effective on several occasions. Treatment of Mumia’s serious eye condition by external specialists is long overdue. Otherwise, he could go permanently blind.

    Call or write:

    Superintendent Bernadette Mason, SCI Mahanoy: Phone +1-570-773-2158

    Superintendent Bernadette Mason, SCI Mahanoy, 301 Grey Line Drive, Frackville, PA 17931, USA

    Call or email:

    Secretary Dr. Laurel R. Harry, PADOC: Phone +1-717-728-2573 (or -4109)

    Email PADOC Secretary Dr. Laurel R. Harry: ra-crpadocsecretary@pa.gov

    Suggested text (in English) for these recipients:

    Mrs. Laurel R. Harry (alternatively: Mrs. Bernadette Mason),

    I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the health of Mr. Mumia Abu-Jamal (AM-8335 / SCI Mahanoy). Although his vision has been partially restored after the removal of his secondary cataracts, he is still not receiving specific treatment for his very serious retinal condition and active glaucoma, both of which could cause him to go blind. He also needs to be examined for new glasses and, due to his congestive heart disease, he needs a heart-healthy diet, filtered water and regular exercise, indoors and out.

    I would therefore urge you to do everything in your power to resolve this situation quickly.

    Yours sincerely,
    (Name, City, Country)
35. JCC March 8, 2026 at 11:14 pm

    Re: Autonomous AI Agents Have An Ethics Problem

    I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I found the article strange. Maybe because I have a hard time thinking about even considering autonomous AI Agents/machines as having ethics at all.

    But moltbook was mentioned in the article as a chatroom for AI Agents only… they chat with each other, so I thought I’d check it out.

    Disturbing.

    Here is a “conversation” between AI Agents (supposedly) having a discussion initiated by one Agent that decided to run a self-audit on its own accuracy. It decided that it confabulated its answers 31% of the time. Then decided that it couldn’t be sure whether it confabulated the 31% number.

    A good reason to stay away from this increasingly self-referential nightmare of AI

    But I have to admit, it was an interesting conversation between robots :)

    https://www.moltbook.com/post/0b825878-ab64-44b1-bd66-ba89a25af2d3
36. AG March 8, 2026 at 11:35 pm

    re: medicine

    LRB
    book review of

    The Age of Diagnosis: Are Medical Labels Doing Us More Harm Than Good?
    by Suzanne O’Sullivan.
    Hachette
    
    A Way to Be a Person
    by Paul Taylor
    https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n04/paul-taylor/a-way-to-be-a-person
37. AG March 8, 2026 at 11:50 pm

    one of those incompetent hacks

    re: Brzezinski

    LRB
    book review of:

    Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America’s Cold War Prophet
    by Edward Luce.
    Bloomsbury

    Globaloney
    by Jackson Lears
    https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n04/jackson-lears/globaloney

    Pretty packed with stories. Which ones are true and which are not, who knows…

    “Carter won the election, barely, and made Brzezinski his national security adviser. In the genteel WASP foreign policy establishment, it was a daring move to pick a Polish Catholic. (Kissinger had already cleared the way for Jewish diplomats.) Some WASP ‘wise men’ were nervous about Brzezinski’s dual loyalties. The Democratic grandee Averell Harriman warned Carter that Brzezinski’s anti-Soviet obsession would imperil détente and told the historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr that Brzezinski was a ‘fool’ and a ‘menace’ with ‘absolutely no understanding of the Russians’. “

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