The Trump Presidency, Season 2

[Innula Zenovka]

Just one ticket has been sold for the first 3.10pm screening on Friday at its flagship Islington branch in London, while two have been booked for 6pm.

At the time of publication, all seats remained available for the 28 screenings of Melania at the Blackburn, Castleford and Hamilton branches.

The picture was slightly rosier at the Cineworld in Wandsworth, which had sold four tickets, while five backrow seats were also booked at the Cineworld in Broughton.

I can't imagine Farage wanting to visit anywhere in Islington.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

 

[Cindy Claveau]

TikTok blocks Epstein mentions and anti-Trump videos, users claim

TikTok users in the US have reported being unable to write the word ‘Epstein’ in messages amid accusations that the social media platform is suppressing content critical of President Donald Trump.

The issues come less than a week after TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, was forced to divest a majority stake in its US operations to a group of investors loyal to President Trump, who was a close associate with the late convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.


Since the takeover, TikTok users have also claimed that videos about US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and protests in Minneapolis have also been censored.

 

[Casey Pelous]

19.8 on the 21-point International Face Punchability Scale.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Time: Calls for a Boycott of the World Cup Grow

As the Trump Administration prepares for the U.S. to co-host the World Cup this summer, easing travel rules for sporting events amid otherwise tightening immigration policy, some members of the global soccer community are saying: “Stay away from the U.S.A.!”

That particular phrasing came from Mark Pieth, a Swiss attorney who chaired the Independent Governance Committee’s oversight of FIFA reform between 2011 and 2013, in an interview with Swiss newspaper Der Bund last week. But calls for a boycott of the world’s biggest international soccer competition have gained traction among other prominent soccer figures, lawmakers, and fans.

On Monday, former FIFA President Sepp Blatter posted Pieth’s comment on X, adding “I think Mark Pieth is right to question this World Cup.” Blatter was suspended by FIFA in 2015 for a controversial $2 million payment to former French soccer player and president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Michel Platini; both men were later acquitted by Swiss courts of criminal charges related to the payment.

Also The Guardian: Removing the US as World Cup host would be eminently sad – and entirely justified

Seems very unlikely that there will be a boycott, but who knows what's going to happen over the next few months.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

'Chaos': Behind the Scenes of Amazon's Melania Trump Doc

Crew members of the Amazon documentary "Melania: Twenty Days to History" detail a chaotic production process under Brett Ratner.

www.rollingstone.com

Evernote Link because paywall

 

[Free]

I think we could use a Melania documentary subforum.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

 

[Cindy Claveau]

ICE nodding to far-right extremists in recruitment posts, experts say

At first glance, there may not appear to be anything unusual about the social media posts that are part of the ongoing recruitment drive by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The posts, which encourage Americans to join ICE, use the same aggressively patriotic imagery that’s become a hallmark of the Trump administration’s online communications.

But to observers of the far-right, and to members of the far-right themselves, there is something else that is recognizable in the language of the posts.

"I would describe it as oddly very familiar as someone who has been looking at the white nationalist and neo-Nazi movement for nearly a decade now," said Hannah Gais, a senior research analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Centre, a non-profit that monitors right-wing extremism.

"It's disturbing to see that coming from a government agency."

 

[Free]

How many amendments is that now? 1st, 2nd, 4th and 14th. So at least 4.

 

[Sid]

The dollar got hit hard. 1.3% down in one day.
That is a punch in Trump's stomach I recon.
But not so good for the USA in the long run, it seems the dollar is loosing its position as historical save haven in troubled times.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/28/us-dollar-sinks-lowest-level-four-years

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Reuters: A year into Trump presidency, 'pivot to China' gathers pace

BEIJING/HONG KONG, Jan 28 (Reuters) - When U.S. President Donald Trump took office a year ago with an "America First" agenda, many saw trouble for China's sluggish economy, but Beijing has thawed frosty relationships with other trade partners to post a record trade surplus.

While Trump's policies have strained ties with traditional U.S. allies, China has turned its focus to fostering ties with key partners, including Canada and India, analysts say.

"I think China has done a good job and rightly so to position itself as the reliable and stable trade partner," said Derrick Irwin, co-head of intrinsic emerging markets equity at Allspring Global Investments.

"They basically said, look, you've got a massive trade partner in the U.S. that's become a little more uncertain. We can offer predictability and certainty. And I think that's very fair."

 

[Noodles]

How many amendments is that now? 1st, 2nd, 4th and 14th. So at least 4.

I don't have the list but the CBS Morning show had a.lawyer dude on promoting some book and they were talking about ICE and how many laws and amendments they were breaking and it was a lot more than 4.

 

[Beebo Brink]

"They basically said, look, you've got a massive trade partner in the U.S. that's become a little more uncertain. We can offer predictability and certainty. And I think that's very fair."

Before Trump's reign, the U.S. could take the moral high ground (more or less) as a preferred trading partner. Now, thanks to Trump's alignment with The Bad Guys and his abusive behavior, he's leveled the playing field where ethical choices are concerned. Option A: Authoritarian government that is unstable and could turn around and bite you at any moment, financially or militarily. Option B: Authoritarian government that is stable and offers mutually beneficial financial deals.

Pretty much a no-brainer.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Before Trump's reign, the U.S. could take the moral high ground (more or less) as a preferred trading partner. Now, thanks to Trump's alignment with The Bad Guys and his abusive behavior, he's leveled the playing field where ethical choices are concerned. Option A: Authoritarian government that is unstable and could turn around and bite you at any moment, financially or militarily. Option B: Authoritarian government that is stable and offers mutually beneficial financial deals.

Pretty much a no-brainer.

I think the view that other countries see the US as occupying any sort of moral high ground has always carried considerably more weight in the US than anywhere else.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

 

[Cindy Claveau]

 

[Casey Pelous]

I think the view that other countries see the US as occupying any sort of moral high ground has always carried considerably more weight in the US than anywhere else.

You make a depressingly good point.

 

[Khamon]

Fear not, Honeypot; they know. The Party members understand that you're only a woman doing as you're told. Do please try to maintain that sweet smile when standing near the windows.

edit: punctuation

 

[Innula Zenovka]

You make a depressingly good point.

I think the US is probably the only country that's ever bothered about being seen as occupying the moral high ground, though.

British politicians sometimes used to paid lip service to the idea we were some sort of moral exemplar, after we stopped being able to force other countries to do as we told them, but no one ever took the idea particularly seriously.