It’s Egypt, it’s Friday, and that means there’s protests. Thousands of supporters of the elected government took to the streets of Cairo today despite orders from the new military junta and a public authorization for police to crush the demonstrations on grounds that the protesters are both terrorists and a traffic hazard.

Police attempted to block demonstrators from the sites of the major sit-ins, something which by evening appeared to have entirely failed. Dozens of protest marches were reported across Cairo after the end of prayers, and notably there were no reports of police massacring demonstrators as in previous weeks.

It’s now been an entire month since the Egyptian military took over the country and captured the civilian leadership. The US initially was mum on the matter, then smugly insisted they were simply never going to rule on whether or not it was a coup. At this point, Secretary of State John Kerry is just overtly backing the coup, declaring yesterday that the coup amounted to “restoring democracy” by ousting the elected government.

Kerry went on today to present the idea of the US as a mediator for Egypt today, but that seems unlikely. Spokesmen for the ousted government are convinced the US was “complicit” in the coup, and the Obama Administration’s positions certainly seem to support that. Recent official visits show the US with only nominal influence over the new junta, and absolutely no credibility with anyone else.