"President Donald Trump has posted what appears to be a doctored image of a large, golden eagle attached to the White House's Truman Balcony on social media—the latest in a series of altered or AI-generated images the president has shared in recent months...

According to CNN, the image has details in its metadata that indicate it was created with Google AI.

The outlet also noted that the image did not appear to be real because of differences between the railings in the picture and the real-life Truman Balcony.

The shield in the image also has 11 stars, whereas the traditional version has 13 to reflect the 13 states at the time the United States was founded."

The original digital artist may have used 11 stars to represent the 11 states in the Confederacy.

Another month come and gone. I don’t know about you, but for me it was sweaty and borderline icky (no klima here) and crazy busy. It’ll be months before I get a chance to write up all the wine activities I attended. Not that I’m complaining! It always surprises me when I get invited to things. I’m generally so flattered, I’d probably go to the opening of an envelope, as the saying goes. 

But, speaking of opening…what are we all drinking this month? Read on to find out. 

And remember, if you’re not somewhere with easy access to Turkish wine, don’t hesitate to reach out (to me, the universe doesn’t always respond to email) for alternative recommendations.

Aries (March 21 – April 19)

You develop a strangely competitive relationship with an inanimate object this month. Maybe it’s technology. Maybe it’s furniture. Maybe it’s a form that absolutely refuses to submit. Either way, July contains several moments where you’re locked in a silent battle against something that cannot technically fight back. The good news is you eventually win. The bad news is how personal it becomes.

Power Move: Refusing to let a minor inconvenience defeat you
Your Vibe: Petty, determined, and somehow victorious

The wine for you …

As a determined individual, you don’t let minor things like utter disaster get in your way. Pfft. That means nothing to you, you forge ahead. Much like Nazan Uzun did with her first vintage at Chateau Nuzun. A late season storm destroyed a huge percentage of her crop. There weren’t enough of any single grape left to make a varietal wine. Thus was her eponymous blend born. But that’s not your wine, that’s too much for July. Your wine comes from another place of determination…knowing there must be local grapes, finding them, and making fantastic wine with them: the Chateau Nuzun Selvi Karası – Çatal Karası blend. 

Rind used to be a pretty reliable source for this, but the last time I visited, there was a shocking dearth of Chateau Nuzun. Try looking for it at Casa Botti, Mahzen 26, Twin Coffee, Grand Cru, or Dekante. All else fails, Wayana usually has everything. 

Taurus (April 20 – May 20)

A craving for comfort sends you down a surprisingly expensive rabbit hole. Suddenly you’re researching mattresses, kitchen gadgets, luxury towels, or some other completely adult purchase with alarming intensity. July reminds you that happiness is sometimes just better lighting and a chair that supports your lower back.

Power Move: Upgrading your environment without apologizing for it
Your Vibe: Cozy, content, and impossible to lure outside

The wine for you …

This month, you’re drinking a wine from a winery that knows all about upgrading. Akberg started as one of those guilty of making fruit “wine” in Şirince. After the current owner got his hands on it, the winery took an abrupt shift into quality wine, and they’re doing it very well. For July, your wine is the Akberg Büyükbağ Öküzgözü. While red, the wine has no oak and drink very well slightly chilled, making it perfectly acceptable for July. 

Akberg’s wines could use larger distribution. You should definitely find it at Solera and Wayana, and possibly Grand Cru, Mensis Mahzen, Gözde Tekel, and Le Conte. 

Gemini (May 20 – June 20)

You become fascinated by something wildly specific. A niche hobby. A random historical event. A person whose social media you’ve accidentally studied like a graduate thesis. Nobody understands why you’re obsessed. That’s fine. You’re having a fantastic time connecting dots nobody else can even see.

Power Move: Following your curiosity wherever it wanders
Your Vibe: Delightfully distracted and deeply invested

The wine for you …

Curiosity is a key component to being a wine lover. As much as we might want to dismiss entire styles or grapes, doing so closes way too many doors. Make one of your fascinations this month following a wine rabbit hole to its delicious depths and explore something all new to you: Kayra Karkuş, the orange wine that’s not an orange wine. 

Get this from places like Carrefour, Comedus, Macro Center, Mensis Mahzen, Perest, Solera, likely La Cave, etc. 

Cancer (June 21 – July 22)

July turns you into an accidental trendsetter. You try something because you like it, and suddenly other people are doing the exact same thing. It’s not that you’re seeking influence. It’s that people have quietly been paying more attention to you than you realized. Slightly flattering. Mildly unsettling.

Power Move: Trusting your own taste before the crowd catches up
Your Vibe: Effortlessly influential with zero interest in managing it

The wine for you …

You don’t follow trends, you make them. So you don’t need to worry about drinking the “right” wine, because that is whatever you’re drinking! Where are few people looking right now for wine? Konya. Grapes grow all across Turkey, so it shouldn’t come as surprise that there are old vineyards in Konya. Old vineyards with rare grapes no less. It took Konya native and wine lover Dursun Sevindi (of Meat & Meet and Kasap Dursun) to do something with them. He now has quite a few wines on the market, but your wine this month is from one of the rare, local grapes, the Mistia Puduhepa Ten Gönyek. 

Mistia’s wines are popping up everywhere now. If you can, go to his shop in Bomonti, Kav Mistia. But you can also get it from Bordo Şaraphane, İyi Sarap, Wayana, probably Mensis Mahzen, Mahzen 26, Gözde Tekel, Grand Cru seems a good bet, Perest maybe…

My review coming soon!

Leo (July 23 – August 22)

You’re in the mood to celebrate things that absolutely do not qualify as achievements. Finished the laundry? Incredible. Replied to an email? Outstanding work. July encourages an aggressively low threshold for rewarding yourself. Oddly enough, the more ridiculous the celebration, the more motivated you become.

Power Move: Creating your own reasons to enjoy life
Your Vibe: Cheerfully self-congratulatory and thriving

The wine for you …

If celebrating anything, big or small, the only natural wine option is the one usually reserved for celebrations…bubbles! There’s a rumor has it that Suvla has a new pét-nat, a Karasakız rosé. Hunt down a bottle, pry off the crown cap, and create a new reason to enjoy life. If you can’t find that one, pick up one of the winery’s other pét-nats.

Suvla wines are always available at Suvla’s various shops (Cihangir, Kanyon, Caddebostan, etc). Perest carries some of Suvla’s bubbles. Macro Center may also.

Virgo (August 23 – September 22)

Something you’ve been searching for finally appears the second you stop looking. A solution. An answer. A missing item that has apparently been mocking you from its hiding place for weeks. July contains multiple moments where effort accomplishes less than random chance, which you find deeply offensive.

Power Move: Allowing life to surprise you occasionally
Your Vibe: Skeptical but increasingly amused

The wine for you …

Depending on your drinking preferences, your wine for this month may present a challenge. If you’re an ABC (anything but Chardonnay) then you’ll be challenged, but possibly also pleasantly surprised. Look for a bottle of Kuzubağ Chardonnay. It’s a rare Chardonnay that the Universe (aka me) recommends. However, the multiple winemaking techniques that went into this make for such a delicious wine that even oak naysayers will love it! 

Even better, this is a women-made wine from a family winery where the daughters are heavily involved!

Kuzubağ wines are becoming increasingly easy to find. Look for this one at places like Bordo Şaraphane, Casa Botti, İyi Sarap, La Cave, La Commune, Macro Center, Mensis Mahzen, Wayana, likely Dekante, Solera, Grand Cru, and elsewhere. 

Libra (September 23 – October 22)

Your ability to talk yourself into unnecessary purchases reaches legendary levels. The logic becomes increasingly creative. By mid-month you’ve constructed a legal defense for owning something you absolutely did not need. The item itself isn’t the issue. The confidence of your reasoning is honestly impressive.

Power Move: Enjoying what you bought instead of justifying it
Your Vibe: Charming, indulgent, and completely unrepentant

The wine for you …

It’s all about being indulgent this month. One of the most indulgent grapes anywhere is the lush, plummy, sweet-tasting Malbec. But, you don’t want anything sickly or unbalanced with high alcohol and too much oak. No, indulgence can still be elegant. That’s why your wine is the Likya Malbec. 

I feel like Likya used to be more widely available than it is now…but look for this at places like La Cave, Macro Center, Mensis Mahzen, Casa Botti, Dekante, La Commune, Gözde Tekel, Wayana, maybe Rind, Solera…

Scorpio (October 23 – November 22)

People keep assuming you’re serious when you’re clearly joking, and joking when you’re completely serious. The communication breakdown becomes almost artistic. At some point you may decide to stop explaining yourself and simply enjoy the confusion. Not your fault if nobody can keep up.

Power Move: Letting people wonder what you really meant
Your Vibe: Dry humor wrapped in plausible deniability

The wine for you …

There is no wine in the country that more embodies joking/not joking as Heraki Akuarela Sultaniye. When Fulya and José traded in world-respected wine countries and Chardonnay for Çal and Sultaniye, their wine friends were convinced they were joking. Luckily for us, they were not. But they leaned hard into the assumption, embracing it for the fantastic label they use on their Akuarela series. 

Get it from La Commune (generally best price), Bordo Şaraphane, La Cave, Mensis Mahzen, İyi Sarap, Comedus, Grand Cru, Vina Wine & More, Solera, Santé Wine & More, Casa Botti, Le Conte, and Wayana.

Sagittarius (November 23 – December 22)

July gives you an unusual appreciation for boring things. Reliable transportation. Functional appliances. Plans that happen exactly as scheduled. You’re not becoming dull. You’re discovering the profound joy of situations that don’t require an emergency backup plan.

Power Move: Appreciating stability when it shows up
Your Vibe: Surprisingly practical with traces of rebellion

 The wine for you …

There’s nothing wrong with appreciating stability. Stability doesn’t have to mean boring. Kayra winery is a tower of stability, since even before its transformation from Mey to Kayra. Not all the wines are fabulous, but they’re reliable. But of course the universe would never recommend something that’s not fabulous! This month, enjoy a chilled bottle of Kayra Allure Rosé (or blanc de noir Kalecik Karası as they like to bill it). Stability and deliciousness all in one bottle. 

Being a Kayra wine, it’s also pretty widely available. Carrefour, Macro Center, Migros, Mensis Mahzen, Solera, Wayana, various tekels, all carry it, and likely other places do as well.

Capricorn (December 23 – January 19)

You stumble into a conversation that changes your opinion about something you’d already decided. Annoying, honestly. You were perfectly comfortable being correct. Yet new information arrives, and now you’re forced to revise your position like some kind of reasonable adult. Personal growth strikes again.

Power Move: Updating your perspective without clinging to your pride
Your Vibe: Thoughtful, adaptable, mildly irritated about it

The wine for you …

If you know any Virgos, the two of your should get together this month. You’re on very similar paths. For you, this month is about personal growth and changing your mind, even if only grudgingly. Therefore your wine also is a Chardonnay. This is one of the most love to hate grapes, largely because too many people have encountered only clumsily and overly oak versions of it and feel forever put off by it. 

I’m not going to do you dirty like that though. This month, look for a bottle of Büyülübağ Chardonnay. It’ll be the first step towards changing any negative opinions you have about this grape. 

Büyülübağ wines does have as wide a distribution as they deserve. Hunt down a bottle of this at places like İyi Sarap, Mensis Mahzen, possibly Gözde Tekel, Vinus, and Wayana…

Aquarius (January 20 – February 18)

This is the old label, the new one is less interesting.

A completely random skill suddenly becomes useful. Something you learned years ago for no practical reason finally gets its moment. July feels like the universe digging through old files and saying, “Actually, we’re going to need this.” Your weird knowledge pays off in the most satisfying way possible.

Power Move: Trusting that no experience is truly wasted
Your Vibe: Unexpectedly prepared and slightly smug

 The wine for you …

No education or experience are ever wasted. Maybe you never use something you learned, but it still lives in your mind and muscle memory, possibly shaping something that you do do. Over at Kuzeybağ, they were growers before they were winemakers. Hayrı amca used to grow and sell Öküzgözü to Kayra and other wineries until, one day, he decided he was going to use that experience to become a winemaker himself. 

Not only did that lead to Turkey gaining another winery, but another grape. For years, Kuzeybağ thought all the grapes in its vineyard were Öküzgözü. They certainly all looked like they were Öküzgözü. But no! The very similar looking Kösetevek was hidden among the other grapes. This month, drink the Kuzeybağ Kösetevek and learn a little from Hayrı amca’s experience.

Get this from places like Bordo Şaraphane, Mensis Mahzen, Casa Botti, Rind, Santé Wine & More, Solera, Wayana, and elsewhere (although with a different label now).

 Pisces (February 19 – March 20)

You keep ending up in the right place at the exact right time. Nothing dramatic. Just a series of oddly fortunate moments that make life easier than expected. July operates on lucky timing rather than grand miracles. Your job is to notice it instead of immediately convincing yourself it’s a coincidence.

Photo by Emma Başer Rose of Emma’s Baked Goods

Power Move: Following opportunities when they appear
Your Vibe: Quietly lucky with excellent timing

The wine for you …

Talent, sadly, doesn’t get you everything or everywhere. It should, but luck plays a much larger role than is fair. However, if you combine the two, then magic happens, like with the Paşaeli Çakal rosé. The story goes that winery founder Seyit Karagözoğlu found this grape while visiting some vineyards he works with. He noticed some pinkish-red grapes growing near his white Sıdalan grapes. His asking what they were led Seyit down a road to discovering Çakal and introducing it to the rest of us.  

If you can’t find the rosé specifically, try one of the other to Çakal wines from Paşaeli. 

Look for it at La Cave, Mensis Mahzen, Solera, Wayana, Dekante, maybe Casa Botti, Grand Cru, Macro Center…

The post Your July 2026 Turkish Wine Horoscope appeared first on The Quirky Cork.

Thanks to Nora, Rozi and Steve for sending:

“It looks like the lining in the Barbie Fountain is peeling off. Sad. #AlgaeBTQ+”

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Which is it is: (gift link)

President Trump and Congress are neither investing in long-term solutions nor offering short-term relief. If they paid attention to different indicators of Americans’ financial health, beyond top-line growth and other traditional measures of economic success, they might feel more urgency.

So we developed one: a model budget for a family of two parents and two children under 8. We set their annual income at $130,000 — well above the roughly $83,500 national median for all U.S. households, and right in the middle of the income distribution for a family of four.

According to our calculations, the math has stopped adding up for this family over the past 18 months. They had a small cushion in 2024. Now they are in the red after covering just the basics, such as housing, an Affordable Care Act marketplace health care plan and day care. The family has over $1,000 less than it did a year and a half ago. Rising costs have more than wiped out any gains from higher wages and recent tax cuts.

This family would have trouble paying for anything beyond the basics — say, a car breaking down or a kid breaking an arm. It could not budget for any of the things that a typical family might hope for: buying a new car, taking a summer vacation or welcoming a third child.

To mount an effective response, it helps to know what stresses Americans feel most sharply and what action they expect from their elected officials. So we asked people.

By almost four to one, Americans told us that rising prices, rather than paychecks that haven’t kept up, are driving a cost-of-living squeeze. Two-thirds say they are struggling today and need relief they can feel right away. And the most cited concern is grocery costs. Some 35 percent of Americans in our survey, which we conducted last month, identified food as the single biggest source of financial pressure — approximately 15 percentage points higher than the share who named housing, the second-most-chosen option.

Several things are going on here:

First, kids, and in particular small children, are incredibly expensive in this country, because the Bible says that it’s wrong to take money from the rich to help pay the child care costs of ordinary people.

Only slightly less facetiously, I read a piece somewhere recently in which a partner at a big law firm told a woman associate that he considered choosing to have a child like choosing to go on a round the world sailing trip, that is, an act of extraordinarily extravagant consumption. It’s a real mystery why birth rates are now well below replacement level in any country where women have any economic and social freedom.

Second, it’s really hard psychologically to adjust for inflation, especially for older people as I know from experience. $130,000 per year sounds like a really big income to me because 30 years ago it WAS a really big income (equivalent to $282,000 today). But now it’s only the median income for families of four. We’ve discussed the psychology of inflation quite a bit at LGM, and it’s a difficult political issue for all sorts of reasons.

Third, a bunch of expenses that are very heavily subsidized or socialized altogether in the developed world — child care especially, but also health care and higher education — aren’t in the US, because of the Bible and Confederate Jesus and Elon Musk.

Fourth, and related, even people with moderate to quite high incomes in the US are laboring under the constant and growing pressures of economic precarity, because of the Bible etc.

Fifth, housing costs vary wildly across the country, so $130K per year for a family with two young kids might be plenty of money in Ashtabula, but barely middle class in Pasadena (of course you’re living in Pasadena rather than Ashtabula but this is in many cases not really anything like an actual choice given where the jobs that pay that kind of money are).

Sixth, the Bible.

There’s also some interesting discussion in the piece about how the price of meat in particular is a huge burden for many people, which is a problem that has at least a superficially obvious solution, but I’m pretty sure the right to bear cheeseburgers is somewhere in the Constitution so maybe not.

The post Why is it so hard to get by on $130,000 per year? appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money.

libraford:

libraford:

libraford:

libraford:

libraford:

Googled something about quick hydration and it suggested big jug of water, couple tbsp pickle juice, dash of lime juice.

Its surprisingly tasty????

Pleased to report that after a day of this i am not longer craving caper brine and my mouth is not dry as usual. There’s some good suggestions in the notes too that I want to try.

-ancient roman posca: water, red or white wine vinegar, honey, salt, herbs (coriander, mint, thyme)

-switchel: water, ginger, vinegar, sweetener, lemon, salt

-ayran: yogurt, water, salt, mint

-Agua pepino: water, cucumbers, lime, sugar, optional mint.

I have been reminded of:

-shrub: vinegar, sida water, elderberry (or other berry), sugar.

I have now been informed of

-sekanjabin: honey, vinegar, mint, water.

“Wow, I wonder why this post was popular this week.”

-sees the reports of the heatwave in Europe-

“… ah.”