Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wins Brazil presidential election; still no concession from Jair Bolsonaro

benfell

Illiberalism


Fig. 1. Photograph by Joachim F. Thurn, August 1991, Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F089030-0003, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

With 99.9% of the votes tallied in the runoff vote, [Luiz Inácio Lula] da Silva had 50.9% and [Jair] Bolsonaro 49.1%, and the election authority said da Silva’s victory was a mathematical certainty. At about 10 p.m. local time, three hours after the results were in, the lights went out in the presidential palace and Bolsonaro had not conceded nor reacted in any way.[1]

But as with Donald Trump, this might not be over:

[Jair Bolsonaro] has for years sowed doubt over the integrity of Brazil’s electoral system, raged at high court judges impeding his will and voiced nostalgia for the days of the country’s right-wing military dictatorship.[2]

Mauricio Saverese and Diane Jeantet, “Lula defeats Bolsonaro to again become Brazil’s president,” Associated Press, October 30, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-religion-caribbean-voting-ed2130a095ca42ff1be324a3dea9f355

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

Unauthorized violence


Fig. 1. “A woman reacts at a makeshift memorial outside the Tree of Life synagogue following Saturday’s shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, Oct. 29, 2018,” photograph by Cathal McNaughton for Reuters, via ABC News, October 29, 2018,[3] fair use.

There is a new blog post, an open letter “To Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey.”

Julia Felton, “Pittsburgh Mayor asks for public’s help to get guns off streets amid Brighton Heights shooting,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 30, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-mayor-ed-gainey-asks-public-for-help-getting-guns-off-the-street-after-brighton-heights-shooting/

Twitter


Fig. 1. “Elon Musk shared a video of his entrance on his Twitter account.” Photograph attributed to Elon Musk, October 26, 2022, via the New York Post,[4] fair use.

William Cohan updates[5] his earlier analysis of Elon Musk’s Twitter financing[6] since capitulating[7] to a near-certain loss in court over his attempt to get out of the deal.[8]

In essence, though the banks have, for now, decided to hang on to the debt in the deal, hoping to avoid writing it down at least as far as a fire sale now would require, they’ll likely only be able to do that for so long, at which point Musk himself might buy the debt at a deep discount. Yes, you read that right. He borrowed $13 billion. He’ll pay it off for, maybe, $4 billion.[9] That’d be $9 billion in free money.

Thomas Barrabi, “Elon Musk barges into Twitter HQ as deal nears: ‘Let that sink in,’” New York Post, October 26, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/elon-musk-barges-into-twitter-headquarters-as-deal-nears/

Rebecca Bellan, “Now Elon Musk says he won’t fire 75% of Twitter’s staff,” TechCrunch, October 26, 2022, https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/26/now-elon-musk-says-he-wont-fire-75-of-twitters-staff/

Sheila Dang, “Exclusive: Twitter is losing its most active users, internal documents show,” Reuters, October 26, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-where-did-tweeters-go-twitter-is-losing-its-most-active-users-internal-2022-10-25/

Elon Musk, “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” Twitter, October 26, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1585341984679469056

Elon Musk, “the bird is freed,” Twitter, October 28, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1585841080431321088

Faiz Siddiqui and Elizabeth Dwoskin, “Top Twitter executives fired as Elon Musk takeover begins,” Washington Post, October 27, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/27/twitter-elon-musk/

Lauren Thomas and Alexa Corse, “Elon Musk Twitter Deal Completed, CEO and CFO Immediately Fired,” Wall Street Journal, October 27, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-completes-twitter-takeover-11666918031

Jake Johnson, “‘Dangerous for Us All’: Elon Musk, World’s Richest Man, Completes Twitter Takeover,” Common Dreams, October 28, 2022, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/10/28/dangerous-us-all-elon-musk-worlds-richest-man-completes-twitter-takeover

Jeremy C. Owens, “Elon Musk on the hook to pay more than $200 million to 3 fired Twitter execs,” MarketWatch, October 28, 2022, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/elon-musk-must-pay-more-than-200-million-to-3-fired-twitter-execs-11666927154

Greg Sargent, “The hidden danger lurking behind Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover,” Washington Post, October 28, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/28/elon-musk-twitter-takeover-russia-ukraine-war-big-tech/

Heather Kelly, “You’ve decided to quit Twitter. Here’s what you can use to replace it,” Washington Post, October 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/29/twitter-alternatives/

William D. Cohan, “Elon’s Clues and an M&A Hail Mary,” Puck News, October 30, 2022, https://puck.news/elons-clues-and-an-ma-hail-mary/

Alexa Corse, “Twitter Is Drafting Broad Job Cuts, Days After Elon Musk’s Takeover,” Wall Street Journal, October 30, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-is-drafting-broad-job-cuts-days-after-elon-musks-takeover-11667143301

  1. [1]Mauricio Saverese and Diane Jeantet, “Lula defeats Bolsonaro to again become Brazil’s president,” Associated Press, October 30, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-religion-caribbean-voting-ed2130a095ca42ff1be324a3dea9f355↩
  2. [2]Ishaan Tharoor, “Brazil’s election offers even more intense echo of U.S. culture war,” Washington Post, October 27, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2022/10/27/brazil-culture-war-election/↩
  3. [3]Bill Hutchinson et al., “Pittsburgh synagogue-shooting suspect wheeled into courtroom; Trump to visit city Tuesday,” ABC News, October 29, 2019, https://abcnews.go.com/US/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting-suspect-discharged-hospital-set-make/story?id=58825389↩
  4. [4]Thomas Barrabi, “Elon Musk barges into Twitter HQ as deal nears: ‘Let that sink in,’” New York Post, October 26, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/elon-musk-barges-into-twitter-headquarters-as-deal-nears/↩
  5. [5]William D. Cohan, “Elon’s Clues and an M&A Hail Mary,” Puck News, October 30, 2022, https://puck.news/elons-clues-and-an-ma-hail-mary/↩
  6. [6]William D. Cohan, “The Elon Financial Mindfuck,” Puck News, October 12, 2022, https://puck.news/the-elon-financial-mindfuck/↩
  7. [7]Emily Bary, “Twitter stock jumps after report says Elon Musk now wants to buy Twitter at original offer price,” MarketWatch, October 4, 2022, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/twitter-stock-jumps-after-report-says-elon-musk-proposed-to-buy-twitter-at-original-offer-price-11664900696↩
  8. [8]David Benfell, “Elon Musk’s Achilles’ heel,” Not Housebroken, October 30, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/07/10/elon-musks-achilles-heel/↩
  9. [9]William D. Cohan, “Elon’s Clues and an M&A Hail Mary,” Puck News, October 30, 2022, https://puck.news/elons-clues-and-an-ma-hail-mary/↩

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