Heres another image of that
mentally ill lone wolf patriot terrorist carrying plastic handcuffs:
The gallows that was erected outside the Capitol:
You don't turn up in combat gear and bullet-proof vests carrying a baseball bat if you're not expecting violence:
These people had prepared for violence and I am thankful that the security staff managed to secure the people doing their jobs in Congress before the mob got their hands on them. I saw one livestream from the invaders where someone was shouting that he wasn't going to be satisfied with Pelosi's hair, he wanted her head.
In my mind there is no doubt that this was an attempted coup, based on the evidence that the Capitol was invaded to prevent the process which declared Trump's successor from proceeding. This attempt didn't succeed, mainly because (as the last four years have shown) Trump hasn't the ability to plan one successfully. The next Republican attempt will be smarter and better prepared.
Here's a small warning from history. Some years ago the British National Party managed to get some people elected to council seats. Their leader, Nick Griffin, was hosted on a political debate show on TV. He was rapidly exposed as little more than a back street fascist espousing deplorable beliefs:
A couple of years later a smarter, better dressed, more eloquent snake-in-a-suit turned up. He had absorbed a huge amout of the BNP supporters and other nationalistic scum, as well as not only infiltrating the Tory party but actually threatening to form a split. Same ideals as the BNP, just better dressed and a lot more clever about how he used dog-whistle politics without implicating himself as a far-right extremist. This is that man in discussions with Steve Bannon:
Wind forward to today and we have a nationalistic Prime Minister who's totally incapable of fulfilling that role. A PM who brazenly announced that he was intending to break international law by reversing an agreement that he signed only a few months earlier. We are outside the EU. We have inflicted enormous damage on our country, politically, economically and to our standing on the world stage.
The coup attempt and the Trump presidency is nothing more than a trial run. The next version will be much better prepared. And the US, like the UK, will probably vote those people into power and vote their democracy-destroying into law.
