A jet carrying the Brazilian far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro has landed in Miami, Florida, where the losing candidate in Sunday’s presidential election runoff is expected to hold a press conference.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Speaking of Extradition Treaties
Definitely one for President AOC.
Extradition Treaties
President AOC, this will be fun for you.
Yes I also realize nothing like that will happen. We can have some fun imagining, occasionally.
A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Tuesday ordered a police investigation into alleged ties between a donor network co-founded by Vice President JD Vance and the presidential campaign of Flávio Bolsonaro in the run-up to Sunday’s election.I realize this is unlikely to get JD, but other countries indicting our faves could be a way around Trump's pardons.
Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino directed the Brazilian federal police to investigate the “nature” of the contacts between the Rockbridge Network, which was founded in 2019, and any Brazilian companies or political operatives to aid or finance Bolsonaro’s run.
It’s a crime in Brazil for a political candidate to accept funding or other campaign assistance from a foreign source.
Yes I also realize nothing like that will happen. We can have some fun imagining, occasionally.
And Then The Good Guys Won And We Lived Happily Ever After
I don't know anything about Israeli politics other than the mostly obvious, but I am pretty well acquainted with the long-running serialized fantasy series, Israel, that appears almost daily in our finer periodicals, even as its writers often express anger that anyone is interested in it.
This election was supposed to be a repudiation of Netanyahu, who had polluted the realm with his vile nastiness, and a restoration of the good kingdom.
It does not look like that at all, even if it is somewhat of setback for him, though I expect the writers of Israel will continue on as if it was.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Run Away
I guess he's coded white enough for asylum in Trumpland.
The far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro has reportedly fled Brazil and is on his way to the United States after losing Sunday’s presidential election to the leftwing incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Youthful Indiscretions
I was young, too, one year ago, at 53.
State Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) has sent unsolicited nude photos as recently as 2021. He dismisses his past sexual advances as “youthful indiscretions” that marked his 30-year marriage.The main issue is not infidelity, which is, aside from gross hypocrisy issues, between him and his wife. It's the unsolicited part:
Multiple sources say they had received or seen nude photos from Taylor, who is running for U.S. Congress in Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District. Taylor acknowledged to the Scene that he had sent nude photos in the past but dismissed them as mistakes that have since been forgiven by his wife Kimberly.
“As I near 60 years old, the expiration date has come and gone on any of my youthful indiscretions,” Taylor tells the Scene when asked about a history of texting nude pictures. “Whatever story you think you’ve got, my wife is well aware of and we’ve worked through it a long time ago. My god and my wife have forgiven me, and I would consider everyone else doing the same.”
One individual — who requested anonymity, citing fear of retaliation — says they received an unsolicited nude picture from Taylor as recently as 2021, before he was elected to the state Senate. A second eyewitness source independently confirmed the nude photos sent by Taylor. At that time, Taylor was 53.We kids remember Henry Hyde's youthful indiscretions. Hyde was a youngster for that! 41-45!
Flávio
Never bet on Trump sticking by you. Why does nobody learn this.
Brazil’s leading right-wing politician, Flávio Bolsonaro, effectively conceded defeat to the incumbent left-wing president Monday, minutes after President Donald Trump indicated he would not intervene on his behalf despite saying that Sunday’s vote “looked like another rigged election.”
...
“Flávio has given up,” said an adviser to the Bolsonaro family who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive details. “He’s terrified. He is worried his father will die in jail, that he himself will be jailed this week and that he may have a long prison term ahead.”
And you have to be able to pay the price, which is a subscription, not a fee. What did Flávio have to offer?
Without defending, I get that there are people who think the Trumpers have made them an offer they can't refuse. I do not understand the people who are eager to make deals with President Deals.
There aren't many people that Trump puts above himself, and fewer and fewer as he gets more and more demented. If he puts you below him, then you are nothing but someone to extract from.
...rumor is he fled to Argentina then the US, though Argentina is denying he entered the country.
Le Pédophile Raciste
The focus of this story is largely about how out of power Dems are impotent, instead of the substance of the committee's report.
Basically, we journalists might treat this more seriously when you win the House.
I've seen this dynamic since the early aughts. Journalists then were openly mocking minority Dems when Henry Waxman was trying to do some oversight of our glorious adventure in Iraq. He held hearings in the basement!!! lol!!!
Basically, we journalists might treat this more seriously when you win the House.
I've seen this dynamic since the early aughts. Journalists then were openly mocking minority Dems when Henry Waxman was trying to do some oversight of our glorious adventure in Iraq. He held hearings in the basement!!! lol!!!
Somehow Republicans in the minority aren't treated this way.
Everybody knows the reality of Trump and Epstein, yet somehow being a supporter of Trump isn't itself scandalous.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Happy Hour
I bet many journalists were pissed they had to chuck out their "Bolsonaro wins/global rejection of the dastardly Left continues" prewrites.
...Ooops, double happy hour posts. Pick your favorite.
Better Things Are Possible
Pedestrianization of major streets isn't without difficulties, though the main one with this stretch of Oxford St. is about diverting buses, but generally once places are fully pedestrianized, it is quickly difficult to imagine they were otherwise before.
Much of Britain’s most famous shopping street will be closed to traffic from Monday as the long-awaited pedestrianisation of London’s Oxford Street begins.
About half of the 1.2 mile street will initially be vehicle-free, after decades of planning and dispute over how to best use the street, an important transport thoroughfare and the home for flagship stores for big shopping chains.
London's odd, for Britain, in that most British cities have long had large pedestrianized chunks in the core and London barely does.
Not that everywhere is a car free utopia, but places for pedestrians aren't alien.
Not The Onion
There is room for disagreements in all subjects, but I really have no interest in people who fail to acknowledge the reality of the state of Israel.
800 Palestinians in Gaza displaced after Israel destroys displacement camp
800 Palestinians have been displaced after Israeli forces set fire to a displacement camp in Shujayea, Gaza City, according to the Palestinian Public Works Ministry.
I don't care whether people personally use the word "genocide," but people who are focused on arguing about the use of such words are prioritizing nitpicking pedantry (correct or not) over, well, genocide.
And if you are discomfited yourself, spend some time looking at the past coverage of Milosevic, and remind yourself what that was all about.
Translating Elon
- Elon's orbital data centers are, unsurprisingly, a joke.
- He will instead muscle out all the potential competitors by buying up everything and using his status as a special boy to ignore all laws and regulations here on planet Earth.
America's Worst Humans
Amy Griffin:
tl;dr a NYT reporter threw some shade on this billionaire and her memoir, and Griffin responded by trying (though she denies) to get a university to deny her daughter's admission application.
Bolsonaro Down
I don't claim to know anything about Brazilian politics other than the obvious stuff, but Lula winning is enraging all the usual horrible people, so that's good.
My guide to ignoring most commentary on foreign elections from US commenters:
My guide to ignoring most commentary on foreign elections from US commenters:
- With very occasional exceptions (Carney getting elected in Canada comes to mind), most foreign voters aren't thinking about the US or Donald Fucking Trump when they vote.
- While Left and Right are, generally, useful heuristics for understanding political parties, other countries also have their "swing voters," critical to close elections, who are just as inscrutable as American swing voters. Moreso, if you are an outsider.
- You can't understand American politics without understanding the role of the American press, and the equivalent is true for every other country. So if you don't know much about the daily media of other countries (generally true of people who don't speak the local language), you don't know much about the daily politics there.
You can of course know a lot of things about Brazil without knowing the daily bullshit that is politics, but you are unlikely to have much to say about how an election swung this way or that.
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