Somewhere far from home, in the danger zone

My thoughts for the next 7 minutes:

Critics interpret president’s attack on journalist as attempt to divert attention from spiralling scandal involving son Flávio

Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has launched a homophobic attack on a journalist from one of the country’s top newspapers in an apparent bid to divert attention from a spiraling corruption scandal involving his son.

“You look terribly like a homosexual,” Bolsonaro – who has previously boasted of being “proudly” homophobic – told the reporter, when asked about the politically explosive money-laundering inquiry that saw investigators raid a series of addresses linked to his family on Thursday.

Many observers interpreted the outburst – which came as a new poll showed Bolsonaro’s approval ratings hitting record lows – as a deliberate attempt to draw the media’s gaze away from the investigation into his senator son Flávio.

But Bolsonaro’s homophobic comment served only to further highlight the inquiry into whether Flávio Bolsonaro oversaw a corruption racket during his time as a lawmaker in Rio de Janeiro. Part of the investigation focuses on suspicions Flávio laundered money through a chocolate shop registered with authorities under the name Bolsotini.

Particularly compromising are the apparent connections, suggested by the investigation, between members of Rio’s mafia and the Bolsonaro family.

“I VIOLATE ARTICLE 27, SEC. 553-4 OF THE MARYLAND ANNOTATED CODE SAFELY, OFTEN, AND EXTREMELY WELL”

[ID: black & white photo of a man wearing a t-shirt printed with the above text]

Sections 553 and 554 of Article 27 of the Maryland Code prohibited sodomy (punishable with a sentence of “not less than one year nor more than ten years”), oral sex, and “any other unnatural or perverted sexual practice with any other person.”