I am sitting watching the BBC News Channel at 8.25 on Wednesday evening. And what is happening as I watch is an attempted coup in the USA. Incited by Trump, thousand have stormed the Capitol. Admittedly, most of them look pretty confused. But the reality is that they have deliberately sought to prevent the endorsement of the President-elect of the USA. If that is not a coup, led by Trump, then I am not sure what is.
For some years now I have talked about the threat to democracy from right wing politicians, like Trump. I have been suggesting the same risk exists here. Indeed, emulation is so common now that it now seems almost inevitable that copy cat actions will now happen in other parliaments when right wing politicians dislike results in the future.
What is happening tonight cannot be dismissed as a freak. This is what fascism looks like. And we should all be worried. What is at stake tonight is liberal democracy. And that matters. Our right to choose is under threat. And a President of the USA orchestrated this.
And you think this could not happen here? You should believe it could. Let me provide an example. There is now ample evidence that people in one country of our Union want to leave the UK. Their political leadership is asking for the democratic right to choose. And that is being denied to them. Is this very different from what Trump has been doing in defying and seeking to deny democratic choice? I see little difference. The contempt for the will of people is similar.
When politics ignores people's wishes for proper representation democracy is at threat. That is clearly happening in the US now. And it's also happening here. Johnson smirked with contempt when saying he would not allow a Scottish referendum on Sunday. We have a democratic crisis here too, led by our head of state.
Worry.
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That’s two attempted coup attempts in the USA within a month then.
Hitler failed in his coup attempt way back when.
It looks like fascism doesn’t get where it wants to get using this method thank goodness.
The ballot box is the way for obvious reasons.
I’d say a coup generally requires the military controlled by the DS to usurp the democratic legislature from functioning.
It is also usually supported by the equally controlled media.
I’d say there is zero chance of any success. There is more than a little pantomime theatre about this. I’d say it is part of the campaign for the midterms and 2023!
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On other issues Covid and Brexit here are two excellent tidbits from the papers that may be of interest.
First Aditya Chakrabortty
‘Each stage of this pandemic has revealed another British pathology. We were late to lock down because of an inept political class chronically unserious in the face of a serious threat. We handed over our vital test-and-trace system to a bunch of pirates in pinstripes because we think the private sector is magic and ignore the public realm’s expertise. And now we rely for our vaccine programme on an industry that has run down its manufacturing in this country. Such are the UK’s underlying conditions, ignored or accepted for so long, and they are being preyed upon by this killer virus.’
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/06/britain-covid-shot-industrial-base-uk-manufacturing-national-security
The Irish Times reports this (sorry for the lengthy quotes)
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/brexit/eu-share-trading-flees-london-on-first-day-after-full-brexit-1.4450561?mode=amp
“It’s been an extraordinary day. Shifting liquidity is one of the hardest things to do. It’s not ‘Big Bang’ – it’s ‘Bang and It’s Gone’. The City has lost its European share business,” said Alasdair Haynes, chief executive of Aquis Exchange.
Cboe Europe said 90 per cent of its EU flows, more than €3.3 billion worth of deals, were now in Amsterdam, compared with very little last year. Aquis said “virtually all” euro-denominated share trading had shifted to Paris overnight. Turquoise, controlled by London Stock Exchange Group, also had most of its EU business transition to Amsterdam. Very little business traded on the venues before the transition period ended.
. The volume amounted to a sixth of all business on exchanges in Europe on Monday.
Brussels has sought greater oversight of all euro-denominated assets and is keen to reduce its reliance on the City of London for finance, an economic activity it views as strategically important for the bloc.
Emphasising that the EU and UK were distinct jurisdictions, EU regulators on Monday also withdrew registration of six UK-based credit rating agencies and four trade repositories – data warehouses that provide authorities with information on derivatives and securities financing trades. EU companies and investors will now have to use EU-based entities.
I am pleased
The City needs deflation
“The City needs deflation”
Agree entirely
Surely the FT and The Independent are beginning to help?
http://www.progressivepulse.org/economics/money-we-owe-to-ourselves
Nicely put. I understand why people on the left see the tories as the enemy. As (basically) a conservative I see them as vile traitors and thieves.
Sociopathic vile traitors and thieves, no less.
This attempted coup has been long in the making. One only has to read a few books about Trump to realise this was very much on the cards. The former US Secretaries of Defense who wrote to the Washington Post, effectively warned against Trump using the military to support his forthcoming actions. I suggest that a small number of senior military officers may have been supportive of Trump.
As for Scotland’s likely future request for an independence referendum, let’s not forget that it was England (and I suspect English voters in Wales) that is taking Scotland where it does not want to go. As far as I am concerned, Scotland seeking its sovereignty only to share it with others is a noble quest.
Trump’s speech encouraging his followers to disrupt the democratic process of transition to the new presidency can surely be construed as incitement to insurrection. It sounded like the the talk of a gangster and indeed, how else to explain how a man, who has walked away from business bankruptcy 6 times in 18 years (according to Wikipedia), has somehow managed to avoid opprobrium and revenge by creditors?
I know little of US law, but he was surely risking prosecution for his encouragement of his followers. Can a president be so prosecuted during his term of office or after he has demitted office? As a result of his incitement one of his followers has lost her life. Does that make Trump liable to personal prosecution by her family? America is a famously litigious society, so I imagine there must be a host of charges which could be brought against him by any number of litigants. I fear for the outcome in terms of civil unrest, but suspect we may be about to witness the implosion of Trump.
I lived in Nigeria for three years in the 90’s. This is/was a coup attempt.
Very scary stuff happening over there, in my ‘old country.’ (I’ve renounced my US citizenship and am now a UK citizen, thank goodness.)
I think the most important thing to grasp (besides the role of openly carried firearms, which fortunately isn’t a problem here in the UK) is HOW this pretty pass came to be. We can’t ignore the role of media in this development …both social media and MSM.
MOST of what these terrorists are ‘outraged’ about doesn’t actually exist. They are stirring up outrage over ‘facts’ that are not actually true. So how did we get here? Why are people convinced that these facts are true, when they’re not? Who/what has been disseminating this false, biased information–and who has been receiving it?
And yes, that can easily happen here. It already has done. Or we wouldn’t have Brexit. And Scotland would probably have voted YES back in 2014.
“Trump privately admits it’s over, but wants to brawl for attention” https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/05/donald-trump-election-challenge-455233
It’s not a coup, it’s theatre. Calling it a coup diminishes the thousands of actual coups in hundreds of countries that my worthless garbage country has inflicted on the rest of the world. Always in the name of keeping rich and powerful people rich and powerful while maximizing the slaughter of poor people at home and abroad.
I disagree
This was a coup – an attempt to overthrow democracy
Indeed. In both context and reality it is over egging the pudding somewhat to label this as a coup. A point ably made here :
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/01/08/stop-trivializing-the-term-coup-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/
Which nails the kettle and pot nature of this false narrative in the single phrase:
“Modern liberalism is just QAnon for people with diplomas on their walls.”
No backing or involvement from the military. No support from the elites etc.
But we should not worry. The Neo-liberal Democrats, owned as they are by Wall Street and the Pentagon complexes will restore business as usual when it comes to instigating proper Colour Revolutions. Just not in their back yard.
Respectfully, I disagree with that
Nor do I fund it a very helpful contribution
Confused might be the right term
Why were they in there at all? It appears the guards/police let them in. Were they all Trumpsters too? Or were they acting under orders, and if so, from whom? Until questions like these are satisfactorily answered we can only guess at what we were really seeing.
2021 is the year of reckoning. Will Boris & Co keep on harping about making Britain ‘Great’ via bilateral trade deals with countries in so called ‘Commonwealth’ starting with ‘Jewel in the Crown’ aka India under the sway of Modi. Scotland will become Independent and there will be United Ireland in the next decade and the reality of Little England will know itself.
Yes, we really do need to be worried.
Parliament allowing the Brexit bill to give unscrutinised permission for Ministers to change law was jaw-droppingly insane.
Already there are calls to reduce worker’s rights.
Here come dictatorship.
Hello Richard
Happy new year
I watched this on the BBC website, last night, after reading your post.
I can see how Trump and his supporters would have liked this incident to become a coup. However, the execution of it seemed more of a farce.
The security of the Capitol building seemed very lax, considering that this is the seat of two of the three sections of government of the most powerful country in the world. Indeed, some reports were of police allowing the anti-democracy insurgents into the building.
However, without the support of high ranking military, and further the ordering of the military to take over government buildings, this was never going to be a successful coup.
So, yes it can be called a coup attempt, but one which any banana republic dictator would be embarrassed by.
I think fascism in the west attempts to take power more subtly, with a smiling face and empty promises.
Further down the BBC website was an article about opening up Alaskan wilderness to oil exploration and extraction. This seems more of a concern for the world, to me.
As you say in another post, the Democratic Party in the USA now controls the three sections of government. Can they change America’s addiction to oil, and general over-consumption, or shall they carry on with only tinkering with neoliberalism?
I’ve watched this absolutely fascinated last night.
I think that I slightly disagree on this one.
Trump has been absolutely up front about his contempt for democracy – in fact you could call him either more honest or just tactless – either way, the result is the same. It’s all been in plain sight (except the Russian bit – maybe).
However, our fascists in the Establishment are more canny, surreptitious and subtle. They also have more support in the media. And a much more informal constitution to play with than the United States. And as a parliamentary committee recently concluded, a political system that is not fit for purpose for delivering democracy. And our fascists are therefore harder to deal with.
The U.S also has a decent opposition party in play – unlike here where – well – I mean what exactly? And a recent election has helped (maybe)?
So I don’t think it will happen here like that, even though I would have loved to have seen people opposed to welfare reform invading parliament like the Trump fans did on Capitol Hill.
Fat chance.
Our Establishment rulers know how to divide and conquer better than anyone else. Because basically it is based on our age old class system. And our ‘working class’ have been encouraged to look for fault in their neighbours, and not their ‘social betters’ who are actually responsible.
So, I can’t see what has happened in the USA ( a country that kicked us out once) ever happening here.
It won’t happen in the same way – the outcome will be the same, or worse
Hmmmmm…………….I think that they will endure – mostly to do with the lack of effective opposition.
I’d actually like you to be right to be honest.
Don’t forget an MP was murdered in broad daylight in 2016. It’s already happened
What exactly has happened?
The MP’s death changed nothing.
It was evidence of fascism here
Not only that, when a Labour MP was arguing that the kind of dog whistle language and hate speech being used by Brexiters and Tory MPs was a contributor to Jo Cox’s murder, Johnson dismissed it as ‘hogwash’.
They are neither aware, nor do they care
I agree
That was callous by him and caused massive offence
Anne Applebaum’s recent Twilight of Democracy is excellent as she draws the links between Trump, UK and Brexit, Orbans Hungary and Poland. She writes as a traditional Republican, with roots in Poland, the US and the UK. The US at least has the Lincoln project trying to drag the Republicans back. The Conservatives have gone completely feral with no sign of a pushback from within the party.
Recall that there have been two attacks on the Michigan state building and governor. There was plenty of warning of whats was to come and what we have just seen. The language and actions of Johnson and his government are not so very different
Agreed
Good article by her in The Atlantic today
Deplorables’ deplorable behaviour.
Firstly, I agree that it was an attempted coup and Trump dumped (on) his supporters only because it failed.
Secondly, I am Scottish and an SNP activist and I agree with your assessment of the UK situation, but I will go further. I think Boris Johnson is playing a game of brinkmanship with us, diliberately goading us with his ever lengthening definition of a generation in the hope that we will explode (metaphorically) and provide him with the excuse to scrap the Devolution Settlement that he has has so publicly criticised.
He is a poor shadow of Trump (as if we needed a Tump Minimee) but a despot in the making nevertheless.
I agree with your goading argument