Two incredible upsets -- Sawant and Boudin

Lula da Silva walked out of prison Friday in Brazil, after a ruling by the Supreme Court that could lead to as many as 5,000 people being freed. The political conditions for this turn of events were set, to a large degree, by my colleagues at our sister publication, Intercept Brasil. Here’s the Guardian’s story on it. 

On Tuesday night in Seattle, bosses at Amazon were feeling good, leading in a number of races where they’d poured millions to unseat city councilmembers they felt were treating them a bit too roughly. The most high-profile effort was against socialist Kshama Sawant, the city’s leading Amazon critic. She was down 8 points on election night, but Sawant has jumped into the lead by 1,115 votes Friday evening. It’s a major rebuke to Amazon, and a sign that big money can’t always buy an election.

I’ve been critical of Bernie Sanders for not getting more involved in down-ballot races, but credit where it’s due: He stepped in big time for Sawant. 

A stunning comeback is underway in San Francisco, too. Chesa Boudin, running for district attorney on a radical decarceration platform, jumped into a 156 vote lead. Provisional ballots still need to be counted, but those lean left in San Francisco, so he might have this. Dean Preston, a leftist supervisor candidate, is also well positioned. 

I have a story out on how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s call for Facebook to ban political ads is actually not wise at all. This is an issue that seems obvious at first — of course Facebook shouldn’t spread misinformation, and Facebook is awful — but it’s not that simple. 

Here’s my story on why the left should oppose efforts to ban political ads on social media.