A coup by any other name.....

I keep forgetting I have this journal. I used to write on LJ and then fell out of the habit, partly moved on to other things, partly started to avoid LJ when the Russians took it over. I don't want them to have my information to datamine; after all they helped put Donald Trump into office.

Earlier today I ran into an article from Business Insider, coincidentally while I'm arguing with a friend that the actions of the mob a couple days ago was a failed attempt at a coup d'état. And she really is a friend, and intelligent, and no fan of the president, but she thinks because this was doomed to fail that it can't be called a coup. I and a couple others still hold it can be called at least an attempt at one by the Trump supporters who rioted,

I'm also not so sure it was doomed to fail. Or rather I think it would have failed in the long run, but I also think it could have delayed the certification of the vote enough to throw things into chaos, and as more info is coming out, that it's possible it might have done worse. There are reports of people in the Capitol who were looking for Mike Pence to kill him, and there is suspicion that the people with zip strips (which aren't actually zip strips, they're the plastic Flexcuffs that law enforcement uses in place of handcuffs when arresting people) were possibly looking to kidnap senators and representatives and hold them hostage to force the vote to go their way. (see slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/was-there-a-plan-for-hostages-or-killings-at-the-capitol.html)

The Business Insider article states that if this had been a developing nation, not the US, we'd easily be calling this a failed coup; off the record there are a handful of people among our allies in Europe who are pointing this out. (www.businessinsider.com/trump-attempted-coup-federal-law-enforcement-capitol-police-2021-1)

Especially damning is this quote from a NATO official:

One NATO source set the stage, using terms more commonly used to describe unrest in developing countries.

"The defeated president gives a speech to a group of supporters where he tells them he was robbed of the election, denounces his own administration's members and party as traitors, and tells his supporters to storm the building where the voting is being held," the NATO intelligence official said.

"The supporters, many dressed in military attire and waving revolutionary-style flags, then storm the building where the federal law-enforcement agencies controlled by the current president do not establish a security cordon, and the protesters quickly overwhelm the last line of police." 

"The president then makes a public statement to the supporters attacking the Capitol that he loves them but doesn't really tell them to stop," the official said. "Today I am briefing my government that we believe with a reasonable level of certainty that Donald Trump attempted a coup that failed when the system did not buckle."
 

That certainly sounds exactly like what played out the day of the riot, to the letter, especially the part about the president making a public statement telling his supporters that he loves them but not telling them to quit and go home.