@taiwan_girl said in The Never-ending Grift: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/28/melania-trump-documentary-amazon-release Re: Melania documentary But no one paid $40m to acquire Am I Racist? – or an additional $35m to market it. That’s how much Amazon has poured into Melania – remarkably, the most the deep-pocketed company has ever paid to secure distribution of a single film. This is seemingly the result of a post-election bidding war when corporate panic over matching a seeming rightward turn in the populace was at its peak. Technically, paying the president-elect’s wife this much money – Melania reportedly pocketed nearly $30m of Amazon’s initial $40m outlay – was legal, because the first lady isn’t part of the government. She’s just a private citizen who happens to be married to the president and happened to receive a multimillion-dollar check from a company with many government contracts through its web services and other divisions. Apparently Melania has been nominated for a FIFA film award.

Looks like the ground was prepped in advance for the truth-seeking to begin. https://x.com/etuckerap/status/2016599535267479938?s=46

I like turbulence. The rocking puts me to sleep.

@taiwan_girl The spring on that clock was wound then immediately seized up last May when Trump’s Special Dummkopf arrived at the Kremlin without a US vetted interpreter to meet with Putin.

Maybe you guys should get this https://www.freep.com/story/tech/2026/01/27/homeowner-clears-snowy-driveway-with-robot-viral-video/88381454007/ https://x.com/tommolog/status/2015422666849529957?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^2015422666849529957|twgr^11ac9e35d8f48b48765e4d0f8282f3d480d2735a|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fstory%2Ftech%2F2026%2F01%2F27%2Fhomeowner-clears-snowy-driveway-with-robot-viral-video%2F88381454007%2F

https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/a-secret-fbi-bust-nabbed-an-alleged-drug-lordand-rocked-relations-with-mexico-a19d4dd6 Mexican security forces were closing in on the 44-year-old Canadian—a snowboarder who once competed for Canada in the Olympics but has since landed on America’s most-wanted list for allegedly running a vast cocaine-trafficking network—said Mexican and U.S. officials familiar with the operation. Long protected by Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, Wedding suddenly had no options. By the time security forces caught up with him in Mexico last week, the officials said, members of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team were also involved. Weeks earlier, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s elite, combat-trained unit participated in the capture of Venezuelan autocrat Nicolás Maduro in his heavily fortified Caracas compound. Law-enforcement officials made contact with Wedding—presumed to be armed and dangerous—and, in an intense negotiation, reminded him that his associates had been captured and millions of dollars of his assets had been seized, some of the officials said. Eventually, said his lawyer, Anthony Colombo, FBI agents handcuffed Wedding, who was then transported to California and pleaded not guilty in federal court to 17 felony charges, including murder. The FBI’s involvement in the Jan. 22 operation was intended to be a closely guarded secret, a U.S. official said. Mexico’s laws ban foreign agents from being physically present in law-enforcement operations on its soil and taking part in detentions or raids. The nationalist ruling party in Mexico is particularly sensitive to foreign interference. But on Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel dropped a bombshell on X. “Our FBI HRT teams executed with precision, discipline, and total professionalism alongside our Mexican partners to bring Ryan James Wedding back to face justice,” he said, using his elite squad’s initials.

https://qz.com/federal-reserve-fomc-january-2026-interest-rate-decision-powell-trump The Federal Reserve decided Wednesday to keep interest rates steady. The decision followed three consecutive rate cuts in 2025, with the Fed cutting rates by 25 basis points at its September meeting, again at its October meeting, and one more time at its December meeting. Inflation has held relatively steady in recent weeks, even appearing to trend down, while labor market numbers have also come in within targets that officials widely regard as acceptable. Prediction markets, as well as traders and analysts, widely expected Wednesday’s pause. Yet it came even as White House pressure on the Fed has reached into unprecedented territory that, Fed Chair Jerome Powell himself has said, “should be seen in the broader context of the administration's threats and ongoing pressure.”

[image: 1769642745769-c4e96ec5-d09b-4f1e-8978-9a5973f78623-image.jpeg]

@jon-nyc said in The Womanosphere Movement: @Axtremus said in The Womanosphere Movement: “Now comes the ‘womanosphere’: the anti-feminist media telling women to be thin... And yet... [image: 20161105_USP508.jpg] To be fair, they are pretty thin when compared to their lord and saviour.

Seems that Bessent finds Carney’s superior competence as statesman and candid remarks at Davos need to be checked by employing an extortionist response: "I would just encourage Prime Minister Carney to do what he thinks is best for the Canadian people, not his own virtue signalling, because we do have a USMCA negotiation coming up," Bessent said, using the American acronym for the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/us-treasury-secretary-scott-bessent-mark-carney-9.7064976 Everyday the Trump Adminstration marvellously confirms the essential truth behind Carney’s remarks at Davos. No wonder it garnered a standing ovation. Bessent again makes an ass of himself.

Trade schools were already covered by Pell. This is covering very short term training programs (8 weeks instead of 15 week). I’ve been advocating for this for years, and if you truly want the Pell Grant to have an impact on poverty, remove 4 year colleges eligibility for Freshmen. MAKE the recipients have a vocational training degree in hand before exploring 4 year colleges eligibility degrees.

Cutie!

@Mik LOL

The Ambre is not terrible in price, but that's a really good house. I used to buy it. Probably still could if I went to Kentucky. Yep - still about $50. Very close to an XO but much cheaper.

Canada in second place? Who ever complied that list has not travelled public transit in Edmonton in the past five years. Edit. I see now that it is about technical safety standards.

Sad. Obviously, government acceptance (and probably cooperation) in places like Laos. Like in teh picture above, having this big casino and random office blocks in the middle of what is basically jungle makes no "rational" sense. Obviously something bad is going on there, yet, the police are bought off, etc. As the article says, (in so many words), "the workers are relatively free to move around, because there is no place for them to go, and if they do leave the compound, the police would quickly track them down."

Seems fair enough. If the seat could have been filled by a paying passenger I see no justification for a refund.

Light weight.

Link to video Classical at its core, pleasantly and accessibly intellectual in its approach, retro and fresh at the same time. If you want original classical-sounding chamber music that (1) is not boring, not too predictable, and (2) won't leave you questioning WTF has contemporary classical music become, this fits the bill. The composer is still living.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/tiktok-claimed-bugs-blocked-anti-ice-videos-epstein-mentions-experts-call-bs/ TikTok wants users to believe that errors blocking uploads of anti-ICE videos or direct messages mentioning Jeffrey Epstein are due to technical errors—not the platform seemingly shifting to censor content critical of Donald Trump after he hand-picked the US owners who took over the app last week. However, experts say that TikTok users’ censorship fears are justified, whether the bugs are to blame or not. Ioana Literat, an associate professor of technology, media, and learning at Teachers College, Columbia University, has studied TikTok’s politics since the app first shot to popularity in the US in 2018. She told Ars that “users’ fears are absolutely justified” and explained why the “bugs” explanation is “insufficient.”