Shin Fil

Lula's former defense lawyer extended Brazil's voting deadline on election day. Not for the whole country. Just for precincts that favored Lula. Everyone else got the normal cutoff. Lula won. Now he wants greater control over social media. Does any of this sound familiar? Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's former conservative president, received a prison sentence of 27 years and three months, basically for opposing Lula. His son Flávio ran against Lula this year, won the first round, and challenged the result of Sunday's runoff. So Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin -- Lula's former defense lawyer -- rigged the game. Lula's supporters got an extended opportunity to vote. No one else. Sounds pretty 3am ballot-y to me. And it gets worse. Immediately after the rigged election was called in Lula's favor, Flávio Bolsonaro's passport was cancelled. Lula intended to throw him in prison like his father, pretty much for having run against him. Then, if that weren't bad enough, Lula used his victory speech to announce that social media platforms must be censored. Alex Soros and other Democrats celebrated all this. Apparently, putting the opposition's former president behind bars and promising more control over political communication are how the Left defends "Our Democracy" now. But that's not "democracy". That's communism. If a Democrat tells you they're "defending democracy", they mean they're defending rule by Democrats. And you better not get in their way. Brazil demonstrates that you can have "elections" all you want and still lose the ability to change the outcome. A ruling faction can preserve the ceremony while using courts and censorship to make replacing it harder with every election. Let a government punish peaceful opposition, and even helping your neighbors replace it becomes a risk. Ask attorneys like John Eastman, disbarred by the overwhelmingly Democrat California Bar simply because he represented Donald Trump. They don't see you as a citizen. They see you as a subject, and one they barely tolerate. And yet some Republicans want to sit out the midterms because they're upset about gas prices? How short-sighted and stupid can you get? You're not going to have to worry about gas prices in prison, or even after Democrats fulfill their promise to ban internal combustion engines. And what do you think that will do to prices? Don't be a moron. Your disappointment won't restrain the Democrats who take power in your absence. It won't protect your speech, your business, or your children. It will give people who despise your convictions more authority over all three. Vote. Tell your friends what's at stake. Make the calls. Drive people to the polls. The Left can count on its committed supporters. It also counts on conservatives who decide that withholding their vote will teach Republicans a lesson. Any Democrat who won't condemn what just happened in Brazil is a totalitarian, and you will find their jackboot on your throat if you let them take power. Brazil is a warning. Take it seriously while you still can.