NYT reporting that Brazilian election officials have called the race for Lula Brazil Elects Lula, a Leftist Former Leader, in a Rebuke of Bolsonaro
Speaking of attempted coups, I am currently reading this book about the 23 February 1981 attempted coup in Spain. Fascinating stuff 9781608194919: The Anatomy of a Moment: Thirty-Five Minutes in History and Imagination - Javier Cercas: 1608194914 - AbeBooks
Not taking a test by military rules. They used force to try to prevent the legally recognized mechanisms for assigning power. That's a coup in my book. Linguistics recognizes that definitions are not fixed or limited to a single arena. The military definition works in that context, but does not govern in other arenas. In fact, it's ironic to argue that a military definition should govern the civilian definition of when actions regarding transfers of power, or lack thereof, cross a definitional transfer. That's a linguistic coup.
All indications are that Lula has won, so the discussion is moot in any case. Unless Bolsonaro makes an overt move, there has been no “coup” or whatever else you want to call it, just a close election.
Attempted coup. Lack of ultimate success does not change that. Spain 23 February 1981. (In my head now)
We shall see how this plays out, as this nutjob has also previously said they’ll have to kill him to remove him. That he’d “attempt” something was unsurprising, what would be surprising is if that was his one move and now he goes quietly.
I would have lost a bet that this could happen. Dying to read a deep dive. Said many times pre-election, usually though not exclusively through proxies, that they would not accept a Lula victory because it would be fraudulent. Curious what happened throughout the mechanisms of power in the last month
I saw some speculation somewhere that it essentially depended on what the military would do after the election, maybe they told him they’d take him up on the “they’ll have to kill me” if he tried to retain power?
That makes sense. I just want to read a long form on it. He has been saying he would never accept a Lula victory. Glad to see that didn't happen, but I don't think he was bluffing or that he just had a change of heart. He had to believe he could pull it off, then decided he could not. Something changed, I think
Yet another gift of the orange one. Normalizing this idiocy. Bolsonaro supporters storm Brazilian Congress
The parallels are hard to miss. People using flags as weapons, breaking through police barriers as the police fire on them, the idiots breaking into the Capitol Building taking a bunch of selfie videos while doing it, etc.
Bolsonaro and his security minister are both in Florida. We will find out soon enough Bannon had a hand in this.
According to our resident bullshit artists, just normal political discourse and any attempt to stop them is a violation of their rights.
I’ve seen reporting that Jason Miller and Bannon have set up an Insurrection “think tank” that has been advising a number of despots including Bolosonaro. After Bannon gets out of jail hopefully the Brazilian govt will ask for his extradition.
