Tuesday: Hili dialogue

October 27, 2026 • 6:45 am

Welcome to The Cruelest Day: Tuesday, October 27, 2026 and National American Beer Day. Here are the 10 top-rated American beers from the reliable Beer Advocate. The rankings are from the top down. You can go to the description of each beer by clicking on the links. (The taste of beer #1 is described as “Chocolate chip pancakes drenched with maple syrup served with espresso and a shot of bourbon, all in one sip. Our award-winning KBBS is decadence in a bottle.”   What do you think a bottle costs? Yep, around $700 for ONE BOTTLE OF BEER! (That’s in Europe; I can’t find an American price because there isn’t any left for sale.)

Note that nearly all are very high in alcohol. I haven’t had any of these.


Kentucky Brunch Brand Stout
Toppling Goliath Brewing Company
Imperial Pastry Stout | 12%

M.J.K.
Side Project Brewing
English Barleywine | 20%

Dark Lord – Marshmallow Handjee
3 Floyds Brewing Co.
Imperial Pastry Stout | 15.5%

Abraxas – Barrel-Aged
Perennial Artisan Ales
Imperial Pastry Stout | 12.8%


Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout – Double Barrel Aged
Cigar City Brewing
Imperial Pastry Stout | 11%

Blessed
Anchorage Brewing Company
Imperial Pastry Stout | 15.5%


Heady Topper
The Alchemist
Imperial IPA | 8%

A Deal With The Devil – Triple Oak-Aged
Anchorage Brewing Company
American Barleywine | 20.86%


Assassin – Double Barrel-Aged
Toppling Goliath Brewing Company
American Imperial Stout | 14.89%

Mornin’ Delight
Toppling Goliath Brewing Company
Imperial Pastry Stout | 12.8%

It’s also Boxer Shorts Day, National Black Cat Day (in the UK), National Parmigiano Reggiano Day, National Potato Day, and Sylvia Plath Day, celebrating the poet’s birthday. Here’s an interview with Plath in 1962 on her influences.  She killed herself the next year. It’s interesting that she seems to have a bit of a British accent (she lived in England for five years).  To me her finest work is “Daddy,” a superb poem.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the October 26 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The elections in Israel are taking place at this moment, but it may be weeks before we know who the Prime Minister will be (the voting is for the Knesset, not the PM, who is selected after discussion and coalition-forming.) From It’s Noon in Israel:

It’s Tuesday, October 27, and election day has finally arrived. As some five million Israelis enter the voting booth today and survey their three dozen options, they will be thinking about one thing: October 7.

Polls opened at 7 a.m., but, like so much of contemporary Israel, it began at 6:29 a.m. three years ago. Roughly half the country will cast its ballot on the conviction that such an event must never happen again, and they see the hawkish national camp as the best guarantor. The other half remembers who was in power on October 7 and cannot tolerate them staying in office. Those two approaches have defined the last three years of Israeli public discourse and are likely to continue to define the next four years as well.

From Umm al-Fahm in the north to Be’er Sheva in the south, from Tel Aviv to Bnei Brak, an energy has taken hold of the country. We are already seeing the highest turnout in 45 years: 16.68 percent as of 10 a.m. The last time the numbers were this high, the choice was Menachem Begin or Shimon Peres, and Israel still used the old shekel.

The closest comparison I can draw to this moment is the feeling of waiting for an Iranian retaliation: the calm before the storm, the sense that something momentous, terrible or miraculous is on the horizon.

Yet if Israelis weather attacks as one, they face this day nestled in their respective camps.

In all my years covering elections this millennium, I have never seen the center-left so organized or so energized. “The most important election in Israel’s history” is a recycled phrase, but for this camp it may well be true. After taking to the streets regularly for nearly four years to little effect, they finally have the opportunity to topple a coalition they despise. Yet if Gadi Eisenkot, falls short, one has to wonder whether the camp can easily bounce back, swap one general for another and rally behind him for 2030. Depending on the outcome, this may well be the last gasp of what was once Israel’s dominant political force.

It may take weeks before we know who the PM will be.

Below is the radiant Gal casting her ballot today, apparently taken from an Instagram video I can’t find. The caption at the Times of Israel is, “Gal Gadot posts a recording of herself as she casts a vote on Israel’s election day, October 27, 2026 (Courtesy).”.  h/t Bat

She’s apparently not a fan of the present government:

“I’m voting for change, and I hope that today, Tuesday, pa’amayim ki tov (Tuesdays are traditionally viewed in Jewish culture as a lucky day) that it will only be good for us all,” said Gadot, blowing a kiss at the camera.

*Incumbent left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva apparently beat his conservative opponent Flávio Bolsonaro in the new election, but Bolsonaro rejects the outcome (article archived here).

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil surged to a remarkable re-election on Sunday, according to official preliminary results, but his opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, said he would not accept the results after a chaotic Election Day.

Mr. Lula’s victory, which ended a string of conservative wins in Latin America cheered on by President Trump, came after a judge ordered polls to remain open an additional two hours — a move requested by both campaigns after transportation delays and bad weather disrupted voting. At a news conference, Mr. Bolsonaro called for the election to be annulled, saying the decision to keep the polls open “changed the rules in the middle of the game.”

“There’s a lot that needs to be cleared up before Brazil simply accepts this foul play that took place in these elections,” he said.

Mr. Lula received 51.8 percent of the vote, versus 48.2 percent for Flávio Bolsonaro, with 99.9 percent of the ballots counted, according to official preliminary results.

The leftist’s margin of victory was wider than four years ago, and was predicted by few pollsters. Even more stunning was that he achieved the comeback after placing second in the first round of voting earlier this month, a first in Brazilian history.

“I would like to thank the Brazilian people for the generosity they have shown me for a long time,” Mr. Lula said in a victory speech in São Paulo.

Mr. Lula, 80, had framed his candidacy as a vote for democracy and the only way to bar the return of the Bolsonaro family to power. He has frequently and defiantly clashed with Mr. Trump, who attempted to use tariffs and sanctions to keep Mr. Bolsonaro’s father, Jair, out of prison for his attempted coup four years ago.

I’ve heard that both candidates are corrupt, but I can’t vouch for that. What puzzles me is that both candidates agreed to keep the polls open, but Bolsonaro subsequently beefed about the longer period of voting when he lost.  What is better known is the Lula is more anti-Israel then Bolsonaro—a connection to the Left that seems to hold most everywhere.

*María Corina Machado, Venezuelan opposition leader, Nobel Peace Laureate, and one of my heroes, has returned openly to her country after a long period of hiding followed by sneaking away to Europe to get her Prize, something she had to do lest she be killed.

Venezuela’s most popular opposition leader, María Corina Machado, returned home on Sunday after nearly a year in exile, increasing pressure on the country’s authoritarian government — and its new chief authority, the United States — to move quickly toward a democratic transition.

At 11:31 a.m. Venezuela time, Ms. Machado wrote on X: “I am here. With you all.”

Ms. Machado entered Venezuela from neighboring Colombia, according to two government officials who asked not to be named to be able to discuss sensitive matters.

In the past, the Trump administration had made clear in private exchanges to foreign officials that it did not support Ms. Machado’s return, according to U.S. officials, and her travel was blocked. But on this occasion U.S. officials decided not to intervene.

As critical U.S. midterm elections near, some voters in Florida have maintained that the United States is not pushing hard enough for democratic change in Venezuela.

Ms. Machado has called for elections in Venezuela by next July, and has expressed her interest in running for president. She would be an extremely competitive challenger to the interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, who is part of the repressive government that has run the country for a generation.

Here’s Machado’s tweet and

and a tweet from her party (English translation): “#NOW | @MariaCorinaYA arrives at the Church of Santa Rosa, in #Lara, to thank the Divine Shepherdess for her return to Venezuela, after ten months out of the country. With faith and hand in hand with God, she reunites with the Venezuelans and her land! Welcome, your place and your task is here, with your people.”

There’s too much God in there, but that doesn’t bother me too much. She’d be a much better leader than Rodriguez, who is basically a female equivalent for Maduro who was elevated to power by Trump in a deal for oil.

*It’s a movement among “progressives,” and even liberal Democrats, to call for a tax on billionaires (we have one on the Illinois ballot).  But Democrats are actually divided on this tax, at least in California.

The idea seemed simple at first: a one-time tax on California’s billionaires to counter looming cuts to Medicaid.

Instead, the proposed wealth tax has exposed deep divisions among Democrats and created strange bedfellows on both sides working to defeat or pass the proposal.

Drama surrounding the measure includes a fight among labor unions worried their own priorities will suffer, tech elites putting down hundreds of millions to defeat it and allegations of extortion and harassment by the tax’s architect.

The messy fight has gripped California for the past year and shows how enacting a long-heralded concept on the left—taxing billionaires’ stratospheric wealth—is far from easy, even in one of the nation’s bluest states. It has been one of the costliest ballot fights in California’s history.

Voters will decide on Nov. 3 whether to approve the nation’s first-ever wealth tax targeting billionaires. The latest independent polls show slightly more voters support than oppose the tax, with large numbers undecided. Democratic voters show much stronger support—despite opposition by many of their leaders.

. . .The one-time, 5% tax would apply to the net assets of California residents worth $1 billion or more at the end of 2026. Rather than income or real estate, it would be levied on assets such as publicly traded stocks, bonds, private business interests, intellectual property and art. A person taxed on $10 billion in assets would owe $500 million.

The tax would apply to people who were California residents on Jan. 1, 2026, making it tougher for billionaires to skirt it by moving elsewhere. If the initiative passes, that retroactivity and other aspects of the law are expected to be tested in court.

Proponents estimate the tax will raise around $100 billion from between 200 and 300 California billionaires and argue it is necessary to prevent hospitals from closing, millions of residents from losing health coverage and insurance costs from spiking.

. . .The initiative set off a reordering of traditional political allies. A main concern: It might push wealthy people to leave the state, which over time could cause a painful hit to the state’s tax receipts. Gov. Gavin Newsom is against the measure, saying it could undermine California’s competitiveness.

Newsom has argued for a national wealth tax instead—the state’s top Democrat is finishing his final term in California and is discussing running for president in 2028. The Democratic candidate on the ballot to replace him as governor, Xavier Becerra, also opposes the measure.

But the state’s Democratic Party endorsed it—in a high-stakes weekend vote in August. Some progressives are in favor, including Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat representing Silicon Valley, as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, who has held rallies in Los Angeles and San Francisco backing the tax plan.

The tax will probably be instituted as there are more Democrats than billionaires in California, and it sounds like a no-brainer, though there could be long-term consequences.  All I can say is that taxing billionaires beats killing them, something that blogger P. Z. Myers and his acolytes apparently favor.

*Also at It’s Noon in Israel, Amit Segal recounts an altercation between PM Netanyahu and the head of the IDF.

It’s Monday, October 26, 18 hours before the election, and “history will not forget the role Zamir played in the last few days,” a senior security source told Channel 12’s Yaron Avraham, as an unprecedented confrontation between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir came to a head.

According to the report, Zamir received a directive from the political echelon. Rather than carry it out, he asked for an in-depth discussion first, along with legal authorization signed by the political leadership. “This is an action that could lead to a lightning confrontation with Iran at a sensitive and dramatic moment, and create a miscalculation,” a senior security official told the channel. Two sources described a discussion between the prime minister and the chief of staff on Sunday as very tense.

Sources familiar with the details said the military fears an attempt “to exploit the Iranian issue for political momentum.” That is how many will read the story: Zamir as Vasili Arkhipov, the Soviet officer refusing to sign off on firing a nuclear torpedo. The reality is closer to an officer demanding final confirmation before turning the final key.

The dispute does not appear to be over a yes-or-no decision on striking Iran. It is over the moves short of a strike, and how Tehran might read them. Israel is already taking actions that could easily spiral into war. Last week, dozens of Israeli fighter jets and refueling planes flew across Syrian and Iraqi airspace to the edge of Iran, some 1,300 kilometers from home, and turned back. Israel notified Washington in advance and called the flight a “power projection” exercise meant to deter Iran from attacking before the election. But it could easily have been mistaken for something else. Even American officials were suspicious, telling Axios that Israel may have hoped Iranian air defenses would open fire and hand it a pretext to strike.

*Reader Barry sent me the “Headline of the week from the Sunday Times,” which you can see below and read here (if you subcribe). The title is definitely clickbait. And yes, that’s subject Juliana Glasse, erstwhile Christian pop singer, in the photo.

A short excerpt:

Julianna Glasse had been caught red-handed.

Glasse and Ben Zobrist, then a professional baseball player, had three children together and were muscling through a difficult patch in their 13-year marriage. Zobrist gestured towards the piles of books that Glasse had hidden around the house: in the linen closet, beneath her hairdryer, under the kitchen sink with the cleaning supplies. The works of Plato, Simone de Beauvoir, Toni Morrison and Ralph Waldo Emerson all stared back at her.

“You see?” she recalled him saying. “This is what happens when you read!”

Glasse, originally from Iowa City, had grown up in an evangelical household and gone on to become a successful Christian pop star. Until that moment, at the age of 34, she had fully embraced her fundamentalist lifestyle. But the suggestion that books were making her unhappy and hurting her marriage stuck with her.

“This is what happens when women read”, Glasse typed into her phone’s notes app after the fight was over. For a long time, she had been able to keep up appearances as a “godly woman and submissive wife”, where she felt her voice, needs and desires were all secondary to her husband’s. “When he spoke those words … it was like the runway of my life lit up, and the exit sign of my life lit up at the same time,” Glasse, now 42, told The Times over Zoom recently.

The phrase became her personal mantra, a rallying cry, and the name of her eventual foundation, which aims to liberate women from fundamentalist backgrounds. From evangelical wife to chief executive and gay rights advocate, Glasse has shared her journey to fight back against the book-banning movement across the US: “Under a second Trump administration, as books are being pulled from shelves, Plato is policed in American classrooms, and religion is wielded around the world to control women’s bodies, minds, and votes.”

Glasse said her ex-husband was right. “This is what happens when women read. We notice the systems that we’re in, we can begin to articulate what feels repressive or suppressive within those systems, we begin to challenge them … [and] we can actually leave them.”

This is why literacy and free availability of books is so important, as you can’t change oppressive systems unless you are literate. Glass, of course, was literate, but she was forbidden to read. The piece is an excerpt from her new book, This is What Happens When Women Read—also the title of her foundation to promote women’s literacy.

*The video below is an antisemitic ad for Abdul el-Sayed, though it wasn’t produced by the Michigan senatorial candidate but by, of all people, the odious Cenk Uygur. From JFeed (their bolding):

A new ad from a political action committee founded by Cenk Uygur, the host of The Young Turks, tells Michigan voters that their struggles to afford groceries and health care are Israel’s fault, days before the state’s tight Senate race.

The spot, paid for by Rebellion PAC, backs Democrat Abdul El-Sayed against Republican Mike Rogers. It shows a family in a grocery store worrying over food prices and denied health care, and ties their hardship to American support for Israel. Uygur promoted the ad on X on October 24, writing: “We have to suffer here at home, so Israel can get all its wars. That’s why they buy politicians like Mike Rogers.” He added that Rogers had promised to serve Israel “unconditionally,” but never made that promise to Michigan voters.

The ad is an independent expenditure, and its disclaimer states that it was not authorized by any candidate.

Critics say the ad repackages an old antisemitic trope for a modern campaign: ordinary people are suffering, and the Jews are to blame. Simone Rodan-Benzaquen said it was one of the most antisemitic political ads she had ever seen, summarizing its message as: your life is hard, groceries are expensive, and the Jewish state is why.

The ad’s economic claims also fall apart on inspection. US military aid to Israel can by law only be spent on American-made weapons, meaning the money flows back into the US defense industry rather than coming out of Michigan families’ grocery or health care budgets. Critics pointed out that Israel has also bought more than $1 billion in additional American arms since October 7.

Uygur responded to the backlash with derision. He dismissed the criticism as the reflexive “antisemite” charge, and claimed people were being called antisemites simply for refusing to fund Israel’s “genocide.” In another post, he asked supporters to donate so the ad could run more, writing that doing so would “drive the radical Zionists crazy.”

It is not the first time Uygur has framed the race around Israel. Appearing on Piers Morgan in September, he declared that Rogers “works for Israel” and urged voters: “Do not let Israel buy that seat.”

Here’s the commercial, straight from the Cenk’s mouth:

(If it disappears, you can see it here.)

I wonder if el-Sayed will disown this ad and call it what it is: antisemitic. For sure he’ll be asked.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili learns about the transitive in logic:

Hili: If A equals B…
Andrzej: That still tells us nothing about C.
Hili: You might be right.

In Polish:

Hili: Jeśli A równa się B…
Ja: To jeszcze nic nam nie mówi o C.
Hili: Możesz mieć rację.

*******************

From Stacy:

From My Cat is an Asshole:

From Darwin Awards Epics [sic] Fails.  It’s a true story!

In a 12-minute speech in Poland, Masih compares the victims of Islamist Iran to the victims of Auschwitz (which is in Poland).

From Luana; one of the French protestors gives his reasons for participating:

The Number Ten Cat compares game-bird shooting of the British aristocracy to Marie Antoinette’s dismissal of the French poor:

From Barry; things go south pretty quickly:

Thats the way it goes sometimes 🤷‍♀️

— Kristin Myrtle (@kristinmyrtle.bsky.social) 2026-10-25T20:58:53.902Z

Two from my feed. First, the rescue of Churchill, a very “spicy” kitten:

. . and then a d*g helps rescue a white kitten:

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial

And one from Dr. Cobb, getting more famous at Cold Spring Harbor. There are seven photos here, and also a followup thread on Bluehair:

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory at dawn. Prints from a family of raccoons, a heron, a squirrel with a nut, moonset and other things.

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2026-10-26T12:04:20.311Z

3 thoughts on “Tuesday: Hili dialogue”

  1. Let me see, … ca. 3 billion a year in aid for Israel is the reason you’re broke; a billion and a half of aid each for Egypt and Jordan is OK. Got it.

    Reply

  3. Taxing wealth (as opposed to income) would do way more damage to the economy than any benefit of the money raised, so would quickly be counterproductive. For example, growing businesses are the engine of economic growth. To suck money out of nascent, growing businesses (just because their notional capital value is increasing) would in effect switch off that engine.

    And nobody should kid themselves that it’d be a one-off, if politicians get to do it once then they’ll quickly scheme up reasons for why they need to keep repeating it.

    Reply

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