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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 5, 2026

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The U.S. government is using the military to summarily execute people outside of a military conflict. That is illegal. The excuse is that they are alleged drug dealers. The correct and legal response to that is to present evidence for probable cause to a judge, get a warrant, and then arrest them, then to put them on trial, present evidence that proves them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and have a judge sentence them for some prison term.

They are not allowed to kill them at any point in this process. They are not allowed to do anything to them based on a mere suspicion of a crime being committed. They have presented no evidence, and the alleged crimes are not even within the jurisdiction of the United States. We know from experience that a quarter of suspected drug boats aren't even carrying drugs. Nonetheless, even proof that they are really drug boats or even proof that they are not only drug boats but smuggling drugs into the United States would not excuse what they've been doing.

If it is a military conflict, they need to get congressional approval. The only law that would give them the right to act unilaterally would be if they were attacking the United States, because the executive branch has the power to act in defence of the United States. Smuggling cocaine is not an act of war. So that is not sufficient.