Sometimes you can just smell what's cooking inside the Department of Homeland Security and this week's flavor clearly seems to be politics. The presidential election is still almost two months away, but the Secret Service has just announced that the official certification of the electoral votes on Capitol Hill on January 6 of next year has been designated a "National Special Security Event." The designation was approved by DHS Secretary Alehandro Mayorkas, a fact that you'll want to keep in mind while we sort out what this all means. The upshot of this announcement is that law enforcement agencies in and around the Capitol will "dramatically beef up" security for what used to be taken for granted as a formality in the orderly transfer of power. While maintaining security around the Capitol is obviously a priority, this seems a bit over the top and there is surely more going on here than first meets the eye. (NY Post)

The federal government has designated Congress’ certification of electoral votes in the upcoming 2024 presidential election to be a “National Special Security Event,” the Secret Service announced Wednesday.

The special designation was approved by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and means law enforcement agencies will dramatically beef up security for the Jan. 6, 2025, tally – in an effort to prevent another riot at the Capitol Building. 

“National Special Security Events are events of the highest national significance,” Eric Ranaghan, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Dignitary Protective Division, said in a statement.

As noted above, there are many weeks to go before the election. We have no idea who is going to eventually be declared the winner. And yet DHS is ready to convert the Capitol into some sort of gulag surrounded by various law enforcement officers bristling with weapons and riot shields. If some credible threat has been discovered circulating on the dark web, I suppose that might be justified, but otherwise, why would you impose this sort of a lockdown this far in advance?

Not that they would ever admit it, but we can make one fairly likely guess. The Democrats have repeatedly telegraphed their punches and declared that they would be running against Donald Trump as some sort of clear and present danger to democracy. They will be flying the J-6 banner above their heads the entire time, particularly since that's about all they have to run on besides abortion. The "credit" for this announcement is being pinned on the Secret Service, but that makes little sense. Their primary responsibility on inauguration day will be the security of Kamala Harris or a combination of Harris and Donald Trump if she loses.

The real source for this decision obviously came from DHS and it was orchestrated by Alejandro Mayorkas, one of the most highly politicized and partisan actors to ever hold the office. We can no doubt look forward to regular updates from DHS detailing the number of officers and troops of various sorts that will be standing by, ready to defend our founding principles against the dangerous mob of MAGA extremists who will purportedly show up again as they did in 2021. In short, this will be little more than a two-month-long photo op intended to show just how "dangerous" Trump's supporters are.

It's worth asking just how many people would even consider trying to pull a stunt like that again even if Trump loses. Most of the participants from the previous riot are rotting in jail after receiving ridiculously overblown sentences. If our law enforcement and intelligence agencies have enough brain-power between them to light up a flashlight bulb, they are already monitoring everyone's online communications looking for hints of some sort of plot unfolding. So is all of this manpower and expense really worth the effort? Or is it all just for the show? Your mileage may vary, but it seems fairly obvious to me.