[Boiler]

With his picture on the front?

And the back.

And the watermark. Twice.

Best watermark ever.

Everyone tells me so.

[Yug]

Looking at Trump's history, are you sure that's a water mark?

[Tubby Isaacs]

He's provoked a big statement of support for Jerome Powell from other major central bankers, including Andrew Bailey and Christine Lagarde.

But to be fair to him, he's got Liz Truss in his corner.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ha ha ha. I really hope this is true.

Trump may have to disclose details about assets as part of BBC lawsuit
US president is suing for defamation over documentary that joined two parts of speech he made on 6 January 2021

President Trump is expected to come under pressure to make rare disclosures about his properties and business interests as part of his $10bn lawsuit against the BBC, the Guardian understands.

He'll probably just make shit up, or leave it out.

[Boiler]

This is what the BBC plans to do.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c394x4z8kpdo

The corporation will also argue that Panorama programme was not aired in the US and did not defame the US president.

It will also assert that the president has not demonstrated that the documentary caused any actual damage to him, noting that he was re-elected after the programme aired and carried Florida with a commanding majority.

Trump claims that the documentary aired on Britbox, which the BBC said is not correct.

The BBC will add that Trump cannot plausibly allege that the documentary was published with "actual malice".

It points out that the clip is some 15 seconds of an hour-long programme containing extensive coverage of his supporters and balanced coverage of his path to re-election.

During Trump's speech on 6 January 2021, before a riot at the US Capitol, he told a crowd: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women."

More than 50 minutes later in the speech, (my emphasis) he said: "And we fight. We fight like hell."

In the Panorama programme, a clip showed him as saying: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell."

[Tubby Isaacs]

Lawyers seem to agree the claim is bollocks.

And in political terms, it's to say the least jarring to claim all this money when Republicans are the biggest champions of restricting non-economic damages. There's no way that he lost $10bn dollars.

[Youngian]

Its hard to see Trump's claims even meeting the English criterea for libel which is far easier than the US.
American networks fold as Trump can make life tricky for them but what's Trump going to do to move in on the BBC, watch nature docs on PBS and call David Attenborough childish names on X?

[AOB]

Trump gives heckler the middle finger during Michigan Ford plant visit

White House communications director, Steven Cheung, didn’t confirm whether Trump flashed his middle finger....

He did.

....but said in a statement issued to the Guardian that he gave an “appropriate and unambiguous response” when “a lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage”.

There was no fit of rage. The bloke shouted over to him "Paedophile protector". Like with the ICE agent shooter, the TEMU Third Reich even lie when blatant video evidence to the contrary is available for all to see.

[Killer Whale]

Like with the ICE agent shooter, the TEMU Third Reich even lie when blatant video evidence to the contrary is available for all to see.

It's completely normalised.

Is there something in American culture that makes it easy for otherwise normal Americans, having obtained a job on the fringes of government, to just repeat any lie that is coming from the top? I find it genuinely difficult to understand. How do they go home to their families and tell their kids that they told three blatant, straight-faced lies today in public and that they're proud to have done so?

[Boiler]

Trump gives heckler the middle finger during Michigan Ford plant visit

Was this the visit where he was gurgling and spluttering at the start?

[RedSparrows]

Like with the ICE agent shooter, the TEMU Third Reich even lie when blatant video evidence to the contrary is available for all to see.

It's completely normalised.

Is there something in American culture that makes it easy for otherwise normal Americans, having obtained a job on the fringes of government, to just repeat any lie that is coming from the top? I find it genuinely difficult to understand. How do they go home to their families and tell their kids that they told three blatant, straight-faced lies today in public and that they're proud to have done so?

Ends justify means, They are the enemy and They know no mercy and They are unsaved/irredeemable/Commie/radical/bla bla bla OR lol having no restrictions is fun finally I can be the bully I always wanted to be fuck everyone lol, and thus...

They're terribly unfree, really.

[Bones McCoy]

I can only report on my family members from over there.
Not MAGA types, but live in Texas and watch more sport than news.

Major Influences:
* Reciting the pledge every day at school 5 days a week for 14 years).
* Church every Sunday.
* Zero exposure or interest in matters beyond their borders - across state is exotic, out of state is near unthinkable.

Roll it all up: Constantly being told what to think; losing interest in thinking.

[Boiler]

When my sister and her husband last visited the US, it was a topic of conversation with the locals that they'd visited more states than any of the people they spoke to.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Is there something in American culture that makes it easy for otherwise normal Americans, having obtained a job on the fringes of government, to just repeat any lie that is coming from the top? I find it genuinely difficult to understand. How do they go home to their families and tell their kids that they told three blatant, straight-faced lies today in public and that they're proud to have done so?

Yes. There has always been a trait in American society to believe feelings rather than facts, flimflam rather than logic - that is why snake-oil salesmen were so successful in the West. They are 'open-minded' to an extreme degree, and as Carl Sagan noted, being open-minded is a good thing, but not so open that your brains fall out. This has been fed by the mythology of the Great Frontier and rugged individualism (further reinforced by Hollywood and TV), of the kind of equality where my ignorance is somehow equal to your knowledge and where education is considered somehow suspect and effete. The strong man looking after himself when the world is out to get him, just him and his guns. And maybe a dog.

[Abernathy]

Way back in 1997, when t’internet were knee-high to a grasshopper, I used to frequent a political website (not unlike Mailwatch), called “GE97”, that had been set up in advance of that year’s general election.

One of the topics discussed was controlling gun ownership, which was also cursed by the input of an American former serviceman (I think he’d been a marine) who went by the name of “Gunslinger”. You can probably imagine what his views were. Suffice it to say he was a fucking nutter, and not at all nice. No rational argument could sway him - a full-fat, Charlton Heston idolising blockhead.

[Youngian]

Interestingly the least religious and most secular region of the US is New England which was settled by the Puritans.
The reason given was they were industrious and valued education for their off spring who clung to those values more than piety. Hence the oldest and most prestigious colleges are in Massachusetts. As well pioneering the earliest factories. I assume these weren't people who saw their destiny wandering off West into the wilderness. But don't know as US culture so rarely celebrates and portrays its early urban development.