Trump held another fascist rally yesterday.

President-elect Donald Trump continued his “Thank You” victory tour on Tuesday, making a stop in North Carolina to tout his national security agenda and formally introduce his pick for Defense Secretary, retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis.

Speaking in Fayetteville, N.C., Trump called Mattis the “living embodiment of the Marine Corps motto” — Semper Fidelis.

“Mad Dog plays no games, right?” Trump asked, invoking the general’s nickname, and added that the country was fortunate “that a man of this character and integrity will now be the civilian leader atop the Department of Defense.”

The “civilian” leader whose career was in the military, which is not really what is normally meant by civilian control of the military.

To do that though, Mattis will have to get a waiver from Congress to bypass a law that calls for a seven-year “cooling off” period before someone who served in uniform can take the civilian post; Mattis retired from the Marine Corps in 2013. Just before the rally began, GOP lawmakers announced that they would include a provision to fast-track such a waiver as part of the stop-gap funding bill they need to pass by Friday to keep the government open.

Yeah. Let’s streamline all this shit. Let’s mad dog it. Let’s arrange everything so that men at the top give orders, and everyone else obeys them. It’s fast, it’s efficient, it gets the job done. Semper fi.

Briefly taking the stage after the president-elect’s glowing praise, Mattis alluded to that necessary step, telling the crowd that, “I look forward to being the civilian leader as long as the Congress gives me the waiver and the Senate votes to consent.”

“If he didn’t get that waiver, there’d be a lot of angry people,” Trump warned. “Such a popular choice.”

Yep, that’s Trump – threatening, bullying, and illiterate.

The stop in the Tar Heel State to formally introduce Mattis wasn’t by accident — the state is home to a large military population and several military bases, including nearby Fort Bragg, one of the largest military installations in the world.

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“All men and women in uniform will have the supplies, support and equipment to get the job done incredibly well and perfectly,” the president-elect said.

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He couldn’t help but boast of his unlikely victories at times though, including his unexpected win in North Carolina and also in industrial Midwestern states like Michigan and Wisconsin.

“We don’t talk about numbers, we bring people together, but boy, were those numbers good,” Trump said.

Except of course for the popular vote, which keeps inexorably rising.

And he brought up flag-burning and possible consequences a few times during his speech, hearkening back to a tweet last month that dredged up the 1980’s-era controversy that the Supreme Court has ruled is protected speech.

“We love our flag, and we don’t like it when we see people ripping up our flag and burning it, and we’ll see what we’re going to do about that, ok?” Trump said.

Ok, sure. Tear up the Constitution, what the hell – you’re the boss.