munteanua.bsky.social

I have been trying to think of what Trump’s hideous “ballroom” project reminds me of — and I finally have it — it is Nicolai Ceausescu’s infamous and unfinished House of the People in communist Romania, which also brought awfulness to a lovely downtown.

Oct. 18, 1926: Queen Marie of Romania begins the first-ever visit to the U.S. by a reigning European monarch. The beaming sovereign is greeted on the steps of New York City Hall by Mayor Jimmy Walker (second photo) after riding up Broadway in a parade glimpsed by thousands of spectators.

I fucking hate Flock cameras but in this instance I hope they had cameras covering every inch of space for a radius of 10 miles around where this happened. This is so awful. They need to catch the rapists.

The failure of the Iraq War has made me into a chastened hawk acutely conscious of the limits of American power. I hope our leaders have learned the same lessons, but as I read news that Trump is sending a third aircraft carrier to the Middle East, I fear that they have not. wapo.st/4ziR9xC

Five data centers have opened in Rockland County on Mike Lawler’s watch, with three more on the way. Why? Because he’s raked in hundreds of thousands from the Big Tech industry that finances data centers. That’s also why he voted to give these data center developers $80 billion in tax breaks, AND

Lots of finger pointing in this article. If you're not monitoring your backup and you only find out the backup is broken when you try to failover from the primary to it, then you don't really have a backup. www.nbcnewyork.com/new-jersey/n...

The richest man owns X. The second and fourth richest men control Google. The third richest man owns The Washington Post. The sixth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. And now the seventh richest could soon take over both Paramount and Warner Bros. See the problem here?

Local man suggests jailing own boss.

On the night of 2–3 August 1944, nearly 3,000 Roma men, women and children were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Today, on European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, we honour the victims of the Roma genocide and reaffirm our duty to preserve their memory.

Incredible story: With the help of AI, U.S. officials created a map that mislabeled every country in Africa. www.reuters.com/world/africa...

Global sea-surface temperatures just reached their 50th consecutive record hot day and are expected to continue to rise for another month. This is so far beyond 'bonkers' (technical climate science term) that the Climate 8-ball has decided to start drinking early today.

"Some website operators are crying fowl." Some. Like, f'rinstance The New York Times? Google Is Building an A.I. Fence Around the Internet It Once Championed www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/t...

Great to see my senator @andykimnj.bsky.social at the Ridgewood 4th of July parade!

Incredible chart from @propublica.org. If you don’t follow enviro stuff closely, your instinct might be that the hold-your-nose solution (carbon capture from fossil fuels) would be the “pragmatic” one versus covering Earth in solar panels, which seems utopian. In fact it’s the opposite

One thing that has happened at this world cup is that I learned about and started to love the Dutch royal family.

“Balogun is an American by virtue of.. wait for it… birthright citizenship.” I wrote about the USMNT & how, despite Trump & Miller’s racist ranting & the DHS/groyper tweet yesterday, at this World Cup, immigration is a blessing & diversity is strength.

"What the Wounds Tell" just won this year’s European Press Prize. "Doctors in Gaza observed a disturbing pattern: children with a single gunshot wound to the head or chest, a sign that they had been deliberately targeted." www.volkskrant.nl/kijkverder/v...

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Fantastic depiction of AI 😂

Cristian Mungiu has had five films play in Competition at Cannes in a row. During that time, he's won two Palme d'Ors, a Best Screenplay prize and a Best Director prize. That's a hell of a run.

* WHITE HOUSE HAS CANCELLED ITS PLANNED CEREMONY FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP TO SIGN A NEW EXECUTIVE ORDER ON AI AND CYBERSECURITY -- AXIOS @reuters.com

this honestly sounds like an excited six-year-old showing off his crayon drawing of the cool new building he just thought up "it has triangles!" "drones bounce off it, but they also launch from it!" "the soldier men can stand on the roof and protect us all!"

Trump on Iran War: Reporter: What extent are Americans’ financial situation motivating you to make a deal? Trump: Not even a little bit. I don't think about Americans’ financial situation

When medical oncologist Stephen Kornfeld set sail aboard a cruise ship, he didn’t expect that he would end up taking care of three people thought to be sick with hantavirus, @katherinejwu.com reports. She spoke with him about his experience: theatln.tc/mJ05veKz

They let a three-year-old fire a shotgun at a turkey. He wounded two people. gearjunkie.com/hunting/3-ye...

I hate to say it, but they're right. The way to solve this nation's epidemic of gun violence is to construct more ballrooms.

Conservative social media personality Debra Lea says security was lax at the event

I’m at the combination Comedy Central Roast of Adolf Hitler / Reichstag Fire

Can't believe the mentalist didn't see the shooting coming...

Good job google

Texas' only licensed Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu legal interpreter is now languishing in a Raymondville detention center. She’s lived in America for 35 years: www.texasobserver.org/immigration-...

This is real

BREAKING: Pope Leo XIV declares the Iran War is “unjust” and “is not resolving anything.” After suggesting Trump is committing war crimes by targeting civilian infrastructure, he called on Americans to contact Congress to help end the war.

It would only have taken a handful of Republicans in Congress to have stopped this train wreck long ago. Not one stood up. Not one.

Israel interdicts Cardinal Pizzaballa en route to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday. www.custodia.org/it/news/join...

Brilliant:

My own take on Joe Kent is that he's a despicable Nazi who reached the right conclusion on Iran but did so partly because of his vile antisemitism, yet it's still a good development because it shows how Trump's base is further fracturing, which could hasten Trump's downfall Does that make sense?

If he's going to get a national profile on the strength of a younger woman's campaign, I'm going to come out and say it: during his short-lived tenure as a math professor, Biss had an inappropriate romantic relationship with one of his undergraduate students. I was that student.

This might be the greatest split-screen ever broadcast. They’ll play this in museums in future. (🎥 LCI 🇫🇷)

Our government keeps telling us America can't afford universal health care or expanding Medicare for ALL. There's a reason for that.🗽

The brutal, despicable, and grim side of war. The burial of the 150 elementary school girls killed in American-Israeli strikes on #Iran was today.