Scrutable

Thanks Stephanie.

Yes, thanks Stephanie. I was on my phone and find it tricky posting links.

Exciting news about the new Melania Trump movie. I bet James Cameron is sh.tting himself.

https://takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/i-re ... -care-do-u

Stranger Mouse wrote: Tue Jan 27, 2026 5:13 pm Exciting news about the new Melania Trump movie. I bet James Cameron is sh.tting himself.

https://takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/i-re ... -care-do-u

It’s hilarious (and I apologise for taking out some emotion on you, you were not the target)

Stranger Mouse wrote: Tue Jan 27, 2026 5:13 pm Exciting news about the new Melania Trump movie. I bet James Cameron is sh.tting himself.

https://takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/i-re ... -care-do-u

James O’Malley is such a f.cking nerd… and I absolutely love him for that!

Grumble wrote: Tue Jan 27, 2026 8:42 pm

Stranger Mouse wrote: Tue Jan 27, 2026 5:13 pm Exciting news about the new Melania Trump movie. I bet James Cameron is sh.tting himself.

https://takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/i-re ... -care-do-u

It’s hilarious (and I apologise for taking out some emotion on you, you were not the target)

Thanks for that. It did catch me off guard!

Nice

Apparently nearly eight tickets have now been sold in the UK for this film

I'm not going to fact check this

Trigger warning for SA, but read this:

https://www.justice.gov/age-verify?dest ... 660679.pdf

While some of the accusations there seem pretty out there, quite a few others do not. Disturbing nonetheless.

bjn wrote: Sat Jan 31, 2026 9:56 am While some of the accusations there seem pretty out there, quite a few others do not. Disturbing nonetheless.

At least one was filed under oath. And subject to perjury laws.

And seemingly supporting a different victim's comment.

Also there's an email that again spoilerd for possible triggers.

Spoiler:


This is not a victim, so why is his(?) name redacted?

Also, again, the DOJ failed to properly redact the names of some victims.

jimbob wrote: Thu Jan 29, 2026 9:28 pm Apparently nearly eight tickets have now been sold in the UK for this film

I'm not going to fact check this

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 236489604/

Nice sarcastic review from New York

An astonishingly worded judgement in the case of the 5 year old and his dad abducted off the street by ICE

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap ... 92.9.0.pdf

FlammableFlower wrote: Sat Jan 31, 2026 10:37 pm
Nice sarcastic review from New York

An Australian journalist's take

https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/m ... 1ed5c4dc1f

Melania: 0.5/5 stars. A pointless film that achieves nothing, insults the person it is trying to celebrate, and bores you while doing it. I considered giving it zero.

Gfamily wrote: Sat Jan 31, 2026 11:48 pm An astonishingly worded judgement in the case of the 5 year old and his dad abducted off the street by ICE

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap ... 92.9.0.pdf

Shame about the date, really

Gfamily wrote: Sat Jan 31, 2026 11:48 pm An astonishingly worded judgement in the case of the 5 year old and his dad abducted off the street by ICE

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap ... 92.9.0.pdf

I can understand why the judge writes like that. But it saddens me that one should yield to the temptation to do so, in what is really quite an important ruling.

The judge can just make a clear and plain judicial ruling, firmly and comprehensively based in law. And as such it would be a devastating ruling. People will be able to read what it says, without the need for the judiciary to degrade itself in this way, and so visibly take sides.

Unfortunately it is the US judiciary increasingly takes sides, all the way to the top. The institutions facilitate it, and it is done quite shamelessly these days. I think the rest of the judiciary has the opportunity to show them how to do it properly, rather than yielding to the temptation to join the political battle so transparently. But the US system is increasingly broken, fixing it requires cooperation, and on most things cooperation is impossible to obtain.

IvanV wrote: Mon Feb 02, 2026 8:42 am

Gfamily wrote: Sat Jan 31, 2026 11:48 pm An astonishingly worded judgement in the case of the 5 year old and his dad abducted off the street by ICE

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap ... 92.9.0.pdf

I can understand why the judge writes like that. But it saddens me that one should yield to the temptation to do so, in what is really quite an important ruling.

The judge can just make a clear and plain judicial ruling, firmly and comprehensively based in law. And as such it would be a devastating ruling. People will be able to read what it says, without the need for the judiciary to degrade itself in this way, and so visibly take sides.

Unfortunately it is the US judiciary increasingly takes sides, all the way to the top.

Restating the fundamental principles on which the law and existence of the government and courts is based is not taking sides. It's restating the underlying source of the authority claimed by the government to do anything.

headshot wrote: Sat Jan 31, 2026 9:45 am Trigger warning for SA, but read this:

https://www.justice.gov/age-verify?dest ... 660679.pdf

USDoJ wrote:Page not found

JQH wrote: Mon Feb 02, 2026 3:38 pm

headshot wrote: Sat Jan 31, 2026 9:45 am Trigger warning for SA, but read this:

https://www.justice.gov/age-verify?dest ... 660679.pdf

USDoJ wrote:Page not found

I believe this is a downloaded copy of the document (via a search for << EFTA01660679.pdf >> )
https://media-front.elmostrador.cl/2026 ... -Trump.pdf
These seem to be 'non credible' and 'not able to re-contact' reports, so may have been removed as not meeting the required standard of evidence.

Chris Preston wrote: Sun Feb 01, 2026 4:24 am

FlammableFlower wrote: Sat Jan 31, 2026 10:37 pm
Nice sarcastic review from New York

An Australian journalist's take

https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/m ... 1ed5c4dc1f

Melania: 0.5/5 stars. A pointless film that achieves nothing, insults the person it is trying to celebrate, and bores you while doing it. I considered giving it zero.

On the other hand, it's a chance for the MAGA faithful to do their bit, signal their virtue, and pretend the movie isn't a total flop by buying a ticket. So I expect there will be places where it gets a crowd at first, and their reviews will gush like a Trump cabinet meeting trying to outdo each other's flattery.

Martin Y wrote: Mon Feb 02, 2026 9:31 pm

Chris Preston wrote: Sun Feb 01, 2026 4:24 am

FlammableFlower wrote: Sat Jan 31, 2026 10:37 pm
Nice sarcastic review from New York

An Australian journalist's take

https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/m ... 1ed5c4dc1f

Melania: 0.5/5 stars. A pointless film that achieves nothing, insults the person it is trying to celebrate, and bores you while doing it. I considered giving it zero.

On the other hand, it's a chance for the MAGA faithful to do their bit, signal their virtue, and pretend the movie isn't a total flop by buying a ticket. So I expect there will be places where it gets a crowd at first, and their reviews will gush like a Trump cabinet meeting trying to outdo each other's flattery.

There's pretty good evidence that there's bots buying tickets for it - exactly the same pattern of seats sold in different showings and in different theaters with the same seating plan. And buying up the worst seats first.

Martin Y wrote: Mon Feb 02, 2026 9:31 pm On the other hand, it's a chance for the MAGA faithful to do their bit, signal their virtue, and pretend the movie isn't a total flop by buying a ticket. So I expect there will be places where it gets a crowd at first, and their reviews will gush like a Trump cabinet meeting trying to outdo each other's flattery.

The reviews on Rotten Tomatoes is bearing this out. Critics have panned it with only 5% of reviews being positive (unironically, the Epoch Times critic gives it 4 stars out of 5 for being "an ingenuous "soft" marketing masterstroke"). Audience reviews are at 99% positive.

I spent too much time and the edit window closed.

Melania has bombed even worse in Australia. Over its opening weekend it came in 32nd. Just over 900 tickets were sold for the movie across 33 theatres. Even Mamma Mia! outperformed it 18 years after its release and even though it was only on a 1 theatre.

The jmail project is a good piece of citizen journalism.

It presents the Epstein emails as though you are logged into his Gmail account.

With links to the original.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jmail

I've used it to verify whether specific emails are genuine

A perfectly normal night of Trump posting on social media has resulted in Trump for the first time dleting a social media post.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-07/ ... /106317296

The White House has lied twice about this.

First depicting it as an internet meme video about Trump being King of the Jungle and Democrats being depicted as other characters from the movie and complaining about "fake outrage". Barack and Michelle Obama were the only Democrats depicted in the video Trump posted.

Secondly, when the post was taken down, the White House blamed an un-named staffer. What staffer was going to have Trump's phone at 11.44 p.m. in the middle of Trump posting a large number of other videos?

Trump has more or less (in normal Trump fashion) admitted to posting the video, but says he did not watch it to the end. This may or may not be true. The video is only 1 minute long. Even by Trump's short attention span, not getting to the end of a 1 minute video is short.