“Kind of lame”?

We didn’t have our service members proudly marching in lockstep. It was a bunch of old people that could barely keep formation, “marching” (and I use that term loosely) as if they just walked out of the bar and into their first day of basic training after being drafted.

Our “show of military strength” was a couple of old tanks creaking down the road, sounding like they were Ford Model Ts from the 1920s.

There was no music or marching band or anything for the parade to make its way through. There was no crowd to cheer them on; it was just dead silence. My daughter’s high school graduation had better attendance and a more enthusiastic crowd.

Not that this should be a surprise to anyone at this point, but we looked like a laughing stock on the world stage. If that parade showed off the best that the US military had to offer, our military will never be taken seriously again. Seriously. A bunch of old people and a couple of tanks that were older than they were. That’s what Trump gave. I’ve seen those carnivals that pop up from time to time in mall parking lots that had all the rigged games and unsafe rides, and they were still both cheaper than Trump’s parade and more entertaining.

I expected Trump’s parade to be a dud, but even he outdid himself with how bad that so-called parade was. Take out all the people that were forced to attend for whatever reason, and the people who attended could probably fit in a phone booth.

And this is logic that I have never, ever, ever understood.

If the only potential evidence that you have is that baggie of drugs that they could flush down the toilet, then you don’t have the evidence to support a full-on, no-knock raid of the guy’s house in the first place. You don’t need a dozen federal agents armed for war showing up in armored vans to arrest some dude selling a bit of weed to high school kids. If him flushing some drugs down the toilet would torpedo your case, you didn’t have a case to begin with. At the very least, certainly not a case that justifies bringing in the entire COD Squad to arrest him.

If you do have the evidence that the suspect is some high-end cartel member or something and the only safe way to arrest him is a raid, then the baggies of drugs that get flushed down the toilet are superfluous; even if he successfully flushes everything in the house down the toilet, the rest of the evidence that you used to justify the warrant in the first place should be enough to secure a conviction anyway.

This is the problem with police raids, no-knock warrants, etc. where the occupants of the home can be charged with crimes for shooting at the police. They have absolutely no idea if the people busting down the door at 3AM are actual police, enemies such as rival gang members, or local criminals. But they basically have to make a choice between, as the saying goes, being judged by 12 or carried by six.

All this leads to is unnecessary shootings and deaths, but the cops don’t care because they get to dress up like they’re playing a live action game of COD, arming themselves to the teeth, and driving military vehicles down the road while they gleefully anticipate how many brown people they get to shoot today, when the target is most often some low-level street dealer. And that’s assuming they even have the right person or address. They got the wrong guy or the wrong house? Too bad, so sad, sucks to be you because they’re immune. They still get to kill you, claim that it was in the heat of the moment, and the worst that will happen is that they’re put on paid leave, while you can still be charged with murder of a police officer if you happen to kill one of them in the process.

This is the next logical step in the process. It wasn’t going to take long before people started figuring out that as long as you dress up like the cops, you can easily get the jump on people who may be hesitant to fight or shoot back out of fear of criminal charges, knowing that by the time anyone realizes what’s going on (assuming they survive that long), it’s too late to matter.

I know that it’ll never, ever, ever happen in Trump’s dictatorship, but this is why police raids, no-knock warrants, civil forfeiture, etc. all need to be done away with. Police or no, if someone physically enters your home without permission, citizens should absolutely have the right to defend themselves. The police should not be allowed to enter a home until after they have repeatedly identified themselves from outside the home and given the suspect a chance to come out. I don’t care what kind of warrant they have. So what if they barricade themselves inside the house? Wait. They’ll run out of food eventually. And probably sooner rather than later.

Honestly, I wish these cases would just be filed with the Supreme Court. That’s where they’re going to end up anyway. Every ruling before that is literally pointless since any ruling against Trump just leads to Trump judge-shopping until he finds one willing to put the stay on hold and let Trump do what he wants while the case plays out.

Especially when it comes to election cases, where they’ve historically postponed any ruling until the last possible second, then say that “The GOP may be wrong, but it’s too close to an election to change the rules now so the GOP rules stand.”

“Donald Trump is the legitimately elected President of the United States. Our elections are safe and secure.”

Or

“Our elections are so insecure, they were hacked by a man who employs 20 year old script kiddies who still think “Big Balls” is funny, led by a man who stares directly into the sun and tells people to drink bleach.”

Pick one. Both cannot be true.

Going down this path is silly and self-destructive. We just went through four years of this “stolen election” bullshit and now we are going to claim the election was stolen the first time the results didn’t go our way? Good luck with that. Good luck even trying to sound credible. Good luck not sounding like whining hypocrites. And good luck getting anyone to believe in our election system again, if the only result is the loser screaming “Stolen election!” for the next four years.

This is very simple. Look at the number of people who showed up to vote in any given precinct. Now count the number of ballots actually cast. Those numbers should be exactly equal, down to the voter. If those numbers are equal and there are a whole bunch of people who voted blue downballot but either didn’t vote for President at all, voted third party, or voted for Trump, then it is what it is. Why is irrelevant. It’s not a conspiracy. It means Harris didn’t win.

Actually, they do understand it. They just don’t care, because they simultaneously profit off of it. CBS openly admitted it.

A few things to note.

Once again, the mass media are calling these “violent protests”, and tacitly giving cover for Trump despite no evidence that the protests have scaled to the point where the National Guard is even necessary. This will do little but embolden Trump to expand the use of these tactics to other cities, especially if he’s going to have majority support from the voting base.

2/3 of the voters are either “not sure” or are actively supporting ICE and the Trump administration. He is literally marching in authoritarianism to thunderous applause. Worse, only 58% of Democrats approve of the protests. Which means 42% are either indifferent or are actively supporting ICE.

The more Trump marches in authoritarianism, the more people on both sides of the aisle seem to be stepping aside and saying “Right this way, sir.”

Under review for what? Are they going to tell him he can’t sell it? That would require a spine.

What’s the point of this “review” if the only possible conclusion is to just retroactively endorse what he did? It’s not like Trump is going to allow them to rule against him, or abide by their findings if they do.