 You just watched supporters of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro react to his defeat by Lula de Silva And I had to share that clip with you because it reminded me of this clip from our 2020 election The parallels here are striking, but that's not the only similarity to our election, so much like Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro is reportedly coping hard. As Washington Post correspondent Vincent Bevin's reports, after losing the election last night, Jair Bolsonaro apparently isolated himself in the presidential palace, refused to speak with ministers and went to bed. Haven't heard from him since. Now, at the time that I record this video, we still haven't heard from Jair Bolsonaro. He hasn't broken his silence yet, although he is expected to address the election later on today. So perhaps by the time that you see this video, that will already have happened. The problem is that a lot of people are expecting him to declare fraud in the same way that Trump claimed that the 2020 election was rigged because Jair Bolsonaro has already been conspiracy mongering about the election and for an ally to Bolsonaro, like Steve Bannon, are already claiming that the election was stolen and expecting this response. The White House put out a statement almost immediately after the election was called for Lula congratulating him, which as Ryan Grimm points out here is likely an effort to dissuade Brazilian elites from trying to stage a coup, which means that perhaps for the first time the United States is trying to prevent a right wing coup in Latin America, which is mind blowing to think about, but that's where we are. Bolsonaro is trying to replicate the style and tactics of Donald Trump. And as a result, it seems as if he may try to use the military to stay in power despite losing the election. Now, the election fraud claims are bogus, but that's not to say that there wasn't any shenanigans from this election. It's just that Bolsonaro, the person who was claiming fraud, is the individual who was trying to rig the election. As journalist Ben Norton reports, Bolsonaro's cronies were engaging in massive voter suppression campaigns across the country, particularly in pro-Lula strongholds by using the military and police to block voters, slowing down public transportation, and as Common Dreams adds, the campaign of Workers' Party PT challenger Luis Inácio Lula de Silva asked Brazil's Superior Electoral Corp. to subpoena Silvanay Vasquez, Director General of the Federal Highway Police, amid videos, photos, and reports, especially in the Northeast, a PT stronghold of officers blocking highways and stopping buses transporting voters to polling places. On Saturday, Alexandre de Morrez, who heads the TSC, banned PRF from conducting any operations related to public transport until after Sunday's election. However, according to PRF figures reviewed by the Brazilian report, routine vehicle searches soared by 80% Sunday, compared with October 2, the date of the first round vote. De Morrez said Sunday that none of the voter buzz surveillance operations, which according to PRF, involved traffic code violations, prevented people from voting, although he said there were delays in getting to the polls. And that is a typical voter suppression tactic. You don't block people from voting, but you just slow it down, make it more of a chore, make more obstacles for them to overcome. So hopefully they will be dissuaded from voting and give up. But despite all of that, Lula de Silva still won. Now it was close, mind you, but he won nonetheless. Despite efforts to suppress the vote, he won by less than two points. And I think that that is important because it proves that a strong pro-worker populist can still defeat fascists. As I've been saying on this program for years now, the antidote to fascism is not corporate neoliberalism. It's not more capitalism. It's a strong pro-worker candidate who can address the economic concerns of the people who are radicalized by fascist demagogues in the first place. And now because of Lula de Silva's victory, well, the Amazon rainforest has a chance of surviving because he is pledging to end deforestation, which means this is a gigantic victory, not just for Brazil, but for the entire planet. And this is massive because Lula de Silva created a blueprint, once again, for countries everywhere to follow. The rise of fascism is not happening in a vacuum. There are reasons why this is happening. There are reasons why people and populations across the country are more susceptible to radicalization. And we have to stop fascism by having the antidote to fascism, which is a populist pro-worker leftist to respond to fight back against these fascist populist demagogues who are rising up across the globe. So this is really just great news. And I know that Michael Brooks would be so happy about this because more than anyone, he elevated the importance of the worker party, particularly Lula de Silva's politics on his show. And he would be so happy to see this result. It's exactly what he anticipated would happen. It was the strategy that he promoted to be pro-worker. And now he was proven right. And I know he'd be happy to see this. So just some really good news. Although I've got to say, I'm still worried about Bolsonaro and whether or not he'll concede what he's going to do, possibly to try to stay in power. I hope that all of those concerns are invalid. And he just concedes and steps down willingly. But odds are he's going to emulate Trump's strategy and try to stay in power despite losing the election, despite that being legal. So we'll just have to wait and see. Otherwise, this is a huge electoral victory for the global left, not just the Brazilian left. And it's really, really important that leaders across the world start taking the threat of fascism seriously and doing what Lula de Silva did to defeat fascism, because it proves you can still be victorious despite attempts to suppress the vote, despite lies and conspiracy theories, you can still win if you have a pro-worker party who is pledging to deliver for people.