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Sorry, I’ll keep trying new things.

In the meantime, please read this account of the Jan 6 rally,
from a poster on Instapundit:

flatland_onlooker • 24 minutes ago
Two acquaintances and one their friends joined me for a trip to the January 6, 2021 Trump Rally in
Washington, DC.

We drove from west of the Mississippi to a town west of DC [many hours, many conversations], spent the
night in a hotel, and drove to a west Metro DC train station, and commuted in to the National Mall with dozens of other Rally goers.

We walked to the Ellipse to hear the speeches. I am not a crowd size specialist, but imagine a dozen big
playoff stadiums emptying into one open area. If someone estimates near a million, that’s a believable number. Another number was the quantity of news helicopters: Zero. Supposedly the Iranians threatened to crash an airliner into the Mall, so no air traffic allowed until the Trumpers go home.

One aspect of the crowd was startling: the diversity. Young and old, every subgroup you can name, were there in droves. It was not ‘oh look, an [African American/Hispanic/Asian American/rich person/poor person/plumber/lawyer/mail boy/retiree/minority/majority] – it was wow, look at all the [see above] people. Yes, even dyed-hair Goth, ancient hippies, and other apparent outliers. What did they have in common? Being polite even when the crowd density was so tight you had to bump your way through. Talking about how to ensure valid elections, about where did you travel from and why did you come, how are things where you are from... These are people you’d want working with you, living next to you, going to church with you, and doing business with you.

Getting near the stage, or even near one of the big screens, was not possible, those folks came really early. Getting near a speaker just to hear the audio was a win, and we heard Don Jr., Rudy, and Donald Trump.

There was not one word in any of the speeches I heard that could be construed as an incitement to do harm to property or people. Claims of incitement are patently false. Don’t believe it? Go find a true transcript of the speeches. Do not take as truth the media’s assertions of what they think speakers said or meant or ‘dog-whistled’.

After the Ellipse speeches, we walked to the Capitol. As the crowd passed the Department of Justice, the chant was, “Do Your Job! Do Your Job! Do Your Job!”. - no bricks or Molotov cocktails thrown, no graffiti sprayed on the walls, no flags burned, no effigies, in spite of their sins of omission and commission.

At the Capitol Reflecting Pool we watched as the many came. Numerous people were at the Capitol Building already, and around in the stands that were set up for the coming inauguration festivities. There were yellow-vest uniforms, we assumed were Capitol Police, on the south side, but not on the West Front approaches. As we watched, we heard fireworks – the kind of big boom from the mortars that throw the spectacular boomers up – except there were no aerial fireworks. No one in the near crowd was concerned enough to depart. I saw one bright/boom behind the curtain on the north of the front, and commented that it looked to this amateur like a flashbang – but again, no one near it was motivated to move away.

Several times there was smoke, which our neighbors thought was tear gas... but again, no one bothered to move away, so I think it was just smoke. However, it looked like a war zone for the TV cameras.

We were urged by a couple of, what, ‘cheerleaders’?, to move up close, saying, ‘we need more people’, so we walked to the building. It as the same diverse crowd of Trump supporters as we have seen at the Ellipse and across the country. We weren’t teargassed... we weren’t even asked to leave. We did the Pledge of Allegiance, sang the National Anthem, asked our neighbors where they were from. It was a garden party. A discordant note – there was someone on a bullhorn leading chants. They were not just the spontaneous USA!, We Love You!, Lock Her Up series, but also ‘Whose House? [Our House]’ and similar aggressive motivators in a cadence more like, say, a BLM rally. Odd...

At some point the bad actors started their work, not near enough to us to hear or see what was going on. Nancy Pelosi’s office with some clown in her chair. Hmm. How is it the office of Speaker of the House has no one there, and no security in the area? The door is not locked? How does a “rioter” get directions to Nancy’s office? Is there an app for that?

But trouble reports circulated among the crowd, and police cars kept arriving on nearby streets. As we got more reports of what Pence and Congress were doing, and talk of troops being called out for the rioters [what rioters? We were at the building, and there was no mayhem], we could see no good coming of staying around, so we walked away, watching parades of black SUVs with lights and sirens coming from several directions.

We went back to the Metro, rode back to the car, and headed back to the motel, listening to news reports and getting social media feeds from friends. What was being reported did not match what we saw.

Sidebar:

We stopped at Uno’s Pizzeria and Grill in Manassas, VA for dinner on the way home from the rally. We got there a few minutes before 7, and were told they were closing. There were people dining casually and undisturbed. No chairs being put on tables. nobody collecting salt shakers, sweeping,,, Suspicious, we called from the parking lot. We were told closing time is 10pm, but the manager was closing early just tonight.

We went across the parking lot to Roy Evans, were served promptly and cordially. People in the next booth also had just been refused at Uno’s - they were in Trump garb, and were told the place was closing so the restaurant wouldn’t be available to exiting Trumpers (we had been walking or standing from 9:30 am to 5 pm, with only the food and water we carried with us, and precious few portapotties, none where we needed them). Welcome to Tomorrowland.

We are glad we made the trip, our objective of demonstrating support for Donald Trump was accomplished.
We are disappointed that our government is so corrupt and defensive that it won’t address the obvious failings like the election fraud and corrupt officials. This rally, this moment in time, evokes some names from history classes and polisci fiction: Reichstag fire, Ft. Sumter, dizinformation, gaslighting, false flag...

The answer is not obvious, but there will be one.