$1.4B to deploy the National Guard into cities? On top of: -$1.5T for the Pentagon -$240B for ICE and CBP -$1B to refurbish Trump's Qatar jet -$300M for Trump's ballroom -$100M for Trump's golf outings But nothing for working people.

Warren Decries $1.4 Billion Cost of Trump's National Guard Deployment in DC | Common Dreams

Cost of National Guard deployment in DC under Trump projected to reach $1.4 billion by 2029. Sen. Warren criticizes spen

commondreams.org

“Even I can’t slow down the Red Sox.”

Tree Bingo 🌳🌲

A little bit of green can make a big change. Observe the contrast on the same street. The asphalt road registered 33 degrees Celsius, while the newly installed semi-hardened parking lots showed a considerably lower temperature of 21 degrees Celsius. 📸 Gina Kranendonk, Rotterdam 🇳🇱

Lovely New York Central System poster from 1946 by American illustrator Leslie Ragan (1897-1972). The feeling you must’ve gotten as a visitor to the US during the steam engine boom must’ve been one of looking into the future.

Is it theoretically possible to turn the whole world blue? Map source: buff.ly/cHOnklM

"The tragedy of the Internet is that it has promoted the village idiot to the level of bearer of truth” --Umberto Eco

Seven Sisters Oak - Mandeville, Louisiana A massive southern live oak older than the United States

Cypress Tree Tunnel (or a Trunnel) - Point Reyes, California

Think about everything Willson Contreras has gone through this season, the swings of emotion, and he’s got a guy with a .589 OPS showing him up for not tagging on a shallow fly ball? Tracy is players-first manager and that has obviously worked. But don’t make excuses. Say it’s not acceptable.

Morning Bluesky This is correct, by Paul Krugman: “1.2 million Americans died from Covid — a number that would have been much lower if MAGA misinformation hadn’t caused so many people to refuse vaccination” See: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... 1/2 paulkrugman.substack.com/p/reality-is...

Reality is a Communist Plot

Of MAGA and the totalitarian mindset

paulkrugman.substack.com

Well, of course they are. They're expecting the GOP to get steamrolled.

Bud Kennedy@budkennedy.bsky.social · 6d ago

Tarrant County Commissioners are considering severely cutting the number of Election Day voting locations nearly in half for the fall election. See maps here www.star-telegram.com/news/politic...

A feisty, smart, experienced Kennedy Center volunteer tour guide, an 87-year-old woman, was featured in a NYTimes story a few days ago. The Kennedy Center, now 100% controlled by Trump toadies, shut down the tour guide program. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/u...

Kennedy Center Halts Free Public Tours After Five Decades of Service

The decision to suspend tours indefinitely came after a volunteer tour guide was featured in a Times article detailing President Trump’s dramatic revamp of the Kennedy Center.

nytimes.com

If I were an American, this chart would piss me off. Since I’m not, I kinda don’t care. I am however afraid to see this kind of anti-democratic influence creep into Australia (and Germany) as well.

"The more I do these films, the more I realize that the children are the parents. Parents are the children. You are the enemy. The enemy is you." @clintworthing.bsky.social spoke with Mike Mills about the Criterion Collection release of BEGINNERS, 20TH CENTURY WOMEN, & C’MON C’MON:

Movies Aren't Therapy: "Mike Mills" on Parents, Children, and Filmmaking

Mike Mills looks back on the broader context of his career and to ponder whether the kids are truly all right.

rogerebert.com

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free Michelangelo

A remarkable public health statistic: the US has now surpassed its highest annual measles case count in more than 30 years. It’s only July.

@sulliview.bsky.social with a brutal critique of the WHCA dinner debacle & the failing coverage of Trump. "Because he's president" is no excuse for any of it. I'd add that 'rethinking' the dinner isn't the answer, rethinking the DC press corps is. A must read: open.substack.com/pub/margaret...

The predictable disgrace of the White House Correspondents Dinner

And why I reject every specious argument that encourages the media to keep normalizing Trump

open.substack.com

Ballparks, from field to park to stadium. In an oddity deriving from the Commissioner's 2020 decision to reclassify the Negro Leagues as majors, RickwoodField becomes the oldest MLB park--constructed before Fenway or Wrigley. ourgame.mlblogs.com/americas-nat...

America’s National Game: 1909

The ballpark, from the Elysian Fields to Shibe Park and beyond

ourgame.mlblogs.com

7/27/55: Night of the Hunter D Charles Laughton W James Agee DP Stanley Cortez w/Robert Mitchum/Shelley Winters/Lillian Gish More: Guillermo del Toro/ @realgdt.bsky.social: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ4x... @gemko.bsky.social: www.avclub.com/the-night-of... Rog: www.rogerebert.com/reviews/grea...

The Night of the Hunter movie review

Charles Laughton's "The Night of the Hunter” (1955) is one of the greatest of all American films, but has never received the attention it deserves because of

rogerebert.com

Have faith, world. We will be back. Sadder, poorer, but hopefully wiser. open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...

When One Door Closed on Canada, These Americans Shoved Another Open

Washington has spent a year and a half picking on our northern ally. But at one little library on the border, the friendship persisted in the face of it all.

open.substack.com

Sometimes Monet planted his art before he painted it. At Giverny, he redesigned nature like a canvas—diverting rivers, planting lilies, bamboo, and willows. “My finest masterpiece,” he said, “is my garden.”

After Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration fast tracked FEMA help to Alabama and rural Louisiana, which voted Republican, but dragged their feet with New Orleans, a Democratic area where the most severe damage was. Evil pattern of the GOP.. www.facingsouth.org/2005/12/how-...

Milan Paurich@milanpaurich.bsky.social · 2w ago

Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b... 😡

"One of the most expensive commodities in Massachusetts, land, is needed in enormous amounts for every single home that we built... A duplex shouldn't require an act of god or a miracle before the zoning board of appeals to get built." - State Senator @juliancyr.bsky.social

If you are familiar with the works of independent film director Sam Fuller, I highly recommend his memoir The Third Face. Reading this book is like sitting with him as he puffs his cigar and spins yarns about his richly eventful life. Don’t miss the experience. www.goodreads.com/book/show/51...

A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting and Filmmaki…

173 B/W PHOTOS

goodreads.com

7/25/65: Dylan plugs in. World, changed. Our take: midcenturycinema.org/node/35 Seek out the Scorsese doc More: Mr. Al Kooper: www.villagevoice.com/50-years-aft... @johnharris1969.bsky.social: www.theguardian.com/books/2015/j... @nickderiso.bsky.social: ultimateclassicrock.com/bob-dylan-fi...

60 Years Ago: Bob Dylan Continues to Divide Fans After Newport

Bob Dylan played his first concert on Aug. 28, 1965 at Forest Hills, N.Y., after a controversial stop at the Newport Folk Festival.

ultimateclassicrock.com

#Scotland - here’s one for all your excess energy. Brilliant solution. #sandbatteries.

Jan Rosenow@janrosenow.bsky.social · 2w ago

Pornainen, Finland (pop 5,000) is now heated by a silo of crushed soapstone. I spoke to CNBC about it. 100 MWh, charged when power is cheap, emissions down ~70%. Days to weeks of storage, no critical minerals. www.cnbc.com/2026/07/25/f...

Share of population that was born in the US state they currently live in.