For those wondering about the bizarre Apache helicopter flyover of a No Kings rally and "spontaneous" visit to Kid Rock's mansion, whether it was intentionally orchestrated (seems likely to me) or not, the effect was to send a public signal to the military that acts of allegiance to Trump and his supporters will get rewarded and shielded with impunity, even if they're flagrant violations of military codes and procedures.
It's another step in the fascist playbook of getting the military in line to support tyrannical acts, so it's very much not a "no harm no foul" situation.
As for why I think it's more likely quite deliberate: those helicopters don't fly without thousands of dollars of fuel, air traffic control (or you're creating some *serious* danger going without), and other logistical support. There's no way that level of risk makes personal sense to some random army helicopter pilots, just for the benefit of pulling a public stunt? These aren't random rookies in basic training, it takes serious skill and many hours of training to successfully pilot a helicopter at all. Why risk your entire military career on a stunt, and how did you convince an entire ground crew and air traffic control tower to get in on it? Having some kind of orders/encouragement/guarantee of impunity from above makes the most sense. I'd be 0% surprised if Hegseth directly gave the orders/go-ahead and the show of an "investigation into insubordination" that gets publicly cancelled by Hegseth personally is an entirely intentional result if not the main objective.
Also buzzing the No Kings rally was 100% intentional.
#NoKings
@rberger@hachyderm.io
![Wordle results, forming a valley of green squares, gray in brackets
C [L A S] P
C [R E E] P
C H [O] M P
C H [I] M P
C H U M P
and a row of blanks at the bottom that could easily hold TRUMP](https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/116/314/775/157/483/120/original/edf115ee9a40ac56.png)
