Wild

 

They're alive!

 Meanwhile, the House is stuck with Mike Ass Kisser Johnson as Speaker, and the Republicans are on indefinite vacation.

What else is happening besides the 24/7 coverage of Charlie Kirk's murder?

 

Brazil convicts Bolsonaro

 

And that's what you do when you have a leader who attempts a coup.

Your coffee is about to get truly expensive

 

All because Trump is a complete ignoramus.

Naked corruption

 

Market manipulation may be the actual reason.

Letter exchange

 

Response template:

Actual response:

UPDATE 07/10/2025:

May Brazil have better luck than the US

Brazil's democracy is more secure than ours

The political future of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has been cast into doubt after electoral judges banned him from running for office for eight years for abusing his powers and peddling “immoral” and “appalling lies” during last year’s acrimonious election.

Five of the superior electoral court’s seven judges voted to banish the far-right radical, who relentlessly vilified the South American country’s democratic institutions during his unsuccessful battle to win a second term in power. Two voted against the decision.

The verdict means Bolsonaro, who lost last year’s election to his leftist rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will only be able to seek elected office again in 2030, when he will be 75.

[...]

Bolsonaro made baseless claims against Brazil’s electronic voting system which caused a public outcry and were denounced by one supreme court judge as politically motivated disinformation.

  Guardian

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

George Santos: Wanted on two continents

At a federal courthouse Wednesday on Long Island, Santos relinquished his passports and was released on $500,000 bond. He will need permission for any travel beyond New York and Washington.

[...]

Rep. George Santos signed a deal with Brazilian prosecutors Thursday in which the New York Republican confessed to theft and agreed to pay restitution and fines if prosecutors agree to drop the criminal case against him, bringing a likely resolution in a case that has tailed the embattled politician for more than a decade.

[...]

“The case ended today,” Santos lawyer Jonymar Vasconcelos said in a brief interview. “My client is no longer facing any charges in Brazil.”

  WaPo

Well, not exactly.

[H]e was given 30 days to pay around $2,000 in fines and $2,800 to the victim. The case won’t be dismissed until the payments are made, court officials said.

[...]

According to authorities, Santos, then 19, entered a small clothing store in Niterói called the Salt in 2008 and wrote two bad checks worth $430 for clothing and shoes, court documents show. The merchant soon after went to the police and reported it, leading to a criminal embezzlement charge against Santos.

“I remember because I had to pay that value out of my own pocket,” merchant Carlos Bruno Simões told Folha de S.Paulo last year.

Simões attended the Thursday hearing, which lasted less than a half-hour. He said he was disappointed in how little Santos will be forced to pay him.

“He got off super cheap,” he said.

[...]

[Santos] was indicted Wednesday in the Eastern District of New York.

[...]

Wire fraud, the most serious charge, carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, though experts said a penalty that severe was unlikely.

[...]

At a federal courthouse Wednesday on Long Island, Santos relinquished his passports and was released on $500,000 bond. He will need permission for any travel beyond New York and Washington.

Well, there goes his chance to abscond back to Brazil.

In addition to his federal case in New York, Santos also faces a probe by the House Ethics Committee. The panel announced in March that it was investigating a host of claims about the Republican lawmaker involving his past business practices, campaign finance expenditures and an allegation of sexual misconduct.

But he's not resigning. If Trump can do it, so can he.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Empathy for Brazil

Bolsonaro was handily out of the country.  And where?  Why, Mar-A-Lago, of course.

Flashback to November...

UPDATE:

And Bannon is still online/on air fomenting uprisings.

UPDATE 1/9:  You wouldn't extradite a sick man, would you?

A defeat for autocracy in Brazil

Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has fallen silent after his chastening election defeat to his leftist rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

A stream of world leaders have stepped forward to recognize Lula’s stunning political comeback, including the US president, Joe Biden, the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, and China’s Communist party chief, Xi Jinping.

His last message on Twitter – an excerpt from the book of Ephesians – was posted at two minutes before midnight on the eve of an election he went on to lose by a margin of more than 2m votes.

  Guardian

Unsurprising that autocrats and dictators appeal to religious zealots the world over.

Lula secured 50.9% to Bolsonaro’s 49.10%. Lula received 60.3m votes while the rightwing incumbent had 58.2m.

[...]

Bolsonaro – a pro-dictatorship radical who has repeatedly hinted he might not accept defeat – has yet to concede.

I wouldn't call that being chastened.

While Bolsonaro remained mute, key allies did accept the result in a sign that the populist’s power was rapidly ebbing away after four tumultuous years in office.

Silas Malafaia, a prominent televangelist who was one of Bolsonaro’s most vocal cheerleaders, tweeted: “The sovereign will of the people has established itself.”

[...]

The newly elected pro-Bolsonaro governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, also recognized Lula’s win, telling journalists: “The election result is sovereign.”

Another key ally, the lower house leader, Arthur Lira, said: “The will of the majority, expressed at the polls, should never be challenged.”

Even Sergio Moro, the pro-Bolsonaro judge who controversially jailed Lula in the lead-up to the 2018 election before taking a job in Bolsonaro’s cabinet, recognized the leftist’s victory.

“Thus is democracy,” Moro tweeted.

So...not like US Republicans.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

1) Expect MAGAland to be screaming about a stolen election in Brazil.

2) Ali Alexander should be doing time.

OMG

I almost feel bad about making fun of Boris Yeltsin.

It's Sunday

Narco pentecostals.  Perfect.

When Rio’s drug conflict exploded in the 1980s, Brazil’s evangelical revolution was still gathering pace and many gangsters looked to Afro-Brazilian deities such as Ogum, the God of war, for protection. Drug bosses frequented Afro-Brazilian temples, built shrines to Orixás and wore necklaces to show their devotion to the Umbanda and Candomblé faiths.

Four decades later, many of those sanctuaries have been replaced with sculptures of Bibles and murals of the Last Supper, as a new generation of born-again criminals takes power, influenced by a brotherhood of pentecostal preachers.

The sway those pastors hold over Rio’s so-called “narco-pentecostals” is unmissable in the hundreds of favelas controlled by gunmen from its three main gangs: the Red Command (CV), the Friends of the Friends (ADA) and, perhaps the most evangelical of all, the Pure Third Command (TCP).

Drug lords, some regular churchgoers, have incorporated Christian symbols into their ultra-violent trade.

[...]

Nowhere is the evangelisation of Rio’s underworld more visible than the Complexo de Israel, a cluster of five favelas near the international airport governed by Peixão (“Big Fish”), a preacher turned drug peddler who takes his nickname from the ichthys “Jesus” fish. (The drug lord’s second-in-command is named after the Judaean prophet Jeremiah, while their troops are known as the Army of the Living God).

[...]

Police call Peixão, who is wanted for dozens of crimes including torture, murder and concealment of death, one of Rio’s most ambitious and iron-handed villains, whose fast-growing criminal empire makes a mockery of his purported Christian faith.

  Guardian

Oh, I don't know. Maybe we should talk about the Vatican.

Police call Peixão, who is wanted for dozens of crimes including torture, murder and concealment of death, one of Rio’s most ambitious and iron-handed villains, whose fast-growing criminal empire makes a mockery of his purported Christian faith.

There you go.

Rio’s narco-pentecostals admit their often brutal line of work clashes with the scripture they profess to follow. As one top trafficker in another gang-run part of town lounged on top of a Honda motorbike surrounded by bodyguards with automatic rifles, he acknowledged the drug trade was an “evil” business that sometimes entailed horrific violence.

But the gangster claimed his faith inspired him to minimise the barbarity, by trying to persuade fellow criminals to spare those who crossed them. “Those I can save, I save,” he said, remembering how he once persuaded a colleague not to murder a trafficker who stole a weapon and defected to a rival group.

Instead, the traitor was forced to clasp his hands together, as if in prayer, and shot at close range, shattering his metacarpal bones but preserving his life.

Christian tradition dating back as far as Christopher Columbus and beyond.

In another favela, a footsoldier with a Bible tattooed on to his chest spoke of how he enjoyed attending services at the God is Love pentecostal church, a fundamentalist congregation with temples across the US and Europe. “It makes me feel lighter,” he said, before racing away on his motorbike with an AR-15 slung over his shoulder.

Isn't that why most people go to church?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Incompetent despots stick together

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Who could have imagined the US would be involved in Brazil's dirty politics?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Tariff Man strikes again

President Trump on Monday announced plans to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum from Brazil and Argentina, opening a new front in his global trade war even as he seeks to resolve other trade disputes ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

Trump announced on Twitter that he would levy tariffs after imposing quotas on steel and aluminum from Brazil and Argentina in early 2018. While both the quotas and the tariffs they would replace were issued under national security powers, Trump said Monday he was acting in response to the sliding value of each country’s currency against the dollar.

"Brazil and Argentina have been presiding over a massive devaluation of their currencies. which is not good for our farmers,” Trump tweeted.

  The Hill

So, steel and aluminum tariffs will help our farmers?

Trump in March 2018 levied tariffs of 25 percent and 10 percent on steel and aluminum, respectively, imported from Europe, Canada, Mexico, China and several other nations. The White House issued those tariffs under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, which empowers the president to impose duties on imports to protect U.S. national security.

Which was also bullshit.

The White House trade office has not yet published a formal notice to increase tariffs, even though Trump tweeted Monday the hikes would be effective immediately.

So maybe it didn't even happen.

Trump’s surprise move to penalize two ailing economies, including one of a close ally, surprised trade experts.

Trump’s targeting of Brazil stunned some trade watchers because of his apparently close relationship with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro, who has been frequently compared to Trump, has forged close ties with his U.S. counterpart and appeared stunned by the announcement, according to The Washington Post.

“If necessary, I’ll call Trump. I have an open channel with him,” Bolsonaro told reporters in Brasilia, according to the Post.

[...]

Trump has sought to downplay the blowback of his trade policies for farmers and manufacturers by pointing to the success of the broader economy under his watch, in particular the stock market. The president touted the steady rise of the stock market in his Monday announcement, but the move caught markets off guard, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 268 points despite strong Black Friday weekend sales.

[...]

Imposing new tariffs on other countries “could be a way” for Trump “to show that he's willing to keep being tough without actually hitting China directly, which could be politically unfeasible at the moment,” said Rachel Pierson, managing director and head of research at Beacon Policy Advisors.

“The [U.S.-China] relationship is fragile now, and there's been some talk that trade discussions between the two countries have stalled.”

[...]

Pierson also suggested that the tariffs could be an attempt to undercut Brazil and Argentina as the countries fill the void left by American farmers in the U.S.-China trade war.

[...]

The president temporarily hiked tariffs on steel and aluminum from Turkey in August 2018 as the Turkish lira plummeted amid a domestic financial crisis.

Trump reversed his decision in May after Turkey released a jailed American pastor, but the federal Court of International Trade ruled last month that the president violated his tariff authority by increasing those tariffs beyond the designated timeline in Section 232.

That ruling could raise questions about Trump's latest move.

Pierson said that the court ruling against Trump over tariffs on Turkish goods makes the president’s decision to target Brazil and Argentina “vulnerable” to a legal challenge.

[...]

The steel tariffs were not the only trade move Monday. After markets closed, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said it had determined that a French tax on digital services unfairly targeted American tech companies and proposed tariffs of up to 100 percent on $2.4 billion of French products.

Which is really just Trump asking for strikes at Macron.

Trade watchers sought to make sense of Monday's moves.

Why?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

He's Out!

He's not joking

As they sat for photographs at the start of their first formal meeting in nearly a year, the US president lightheartedly sought common ground with Putin at the expense of the journalists around them in Osaka.

“Get rid of them. Fake news is a great term, isn’t it? You don’t have this problem in Russia but we do,” Trump said.

To which Putin responded, in English: “We also have. It’s the same.”

Twenty-six journalists have been murdered in Russia since Putin first became president, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), many of them investigative reporters scrutinising governmental abuses.

[...]

It is a year to the day since five Capital Gazette employees were killed in their newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland. The shooting led to the organisation Reporters Without Borders adding the US to its list of the five deadliest countries for journalism.

  Guardian

As you can tell, however, he IS joking when he says, "Don't meddle in the election."

When journalists asked Trump just before he left for Japan what he would like to talk to Putin about, he told them it was “none of your business”. As they sat alongside each other, a reporter asked whether he was going to tell Putin not to meddle in the 2020 election.

Trump said: “Yes, of course I will,” drawing a laugh from Putin. Then, without looking at Putin, Trump said briskly: “Don’t meddle in the election, please,” and then repeated the phrase with a mock finger wag as Putin and the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, smiled broadly.

It's just so quaint, the idea of fair elections.

Trump later held talks with Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro. “He is a special man, doing very well, very much loved by the people of Brazil,” Trump said, smiling broadly. For his part, Bolsonaro told the US president: “I have been a great admirer of you for quite some time, even before your election. I support Trump, I support the United States, I support your re-election.”

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Meanwhile in South America

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.