January 6th was Predictable

[bats]

Note: dogwalker, this will be too long for you.

Someone I follow on Twitter linked to an article published the morning of January 6th, 2021, on the sports news website deadspin.com. (Note that the article was published before the events of January 6th.)

Some of you will recall Trump's mishandling of the USFL nearly 4 decades ago. It was that episode in Trump's history that gave the author a strong inkling that something bad would happen in the aftermath of Trump's personal defeat.

Anyway, here are some excerpts, lightly edited by me for brevity:

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The USFL was Trump's dress rehearsal for the American carnage we're witnessing today

In 1983, the USFL was an upstart spring alternative to the NFL. Though that first season had highs (quality football, breakout stars like Sam Mills, Bobby Hebert and Anthony Carter) and lows (lots of money losses, the realization that metal bleachers in Arizona get quite hot in May) it was widely regarded as a success.

Then, leading into the 1984 season, Donald Trump purchased the New Jersey Generals. He paid $10 million — $1.5 million more than the seller was asking for — and proceeded to offer a "How To Fuck Everything Up While Screwing Over All Your Peers" blueprint that, all these years later, is downright haunting.

Remember when Trump was accused of colluding with Russia? Well, back when he owned the Generals, Trump arranged for a private meeting with Pete Rozelle, the longtime NFL commissioner. The rendezvous was held inside a suite at Manhattan's Pierre Hotel, and Trump said to Rozelle — unambiguously, enthusiastically — that he would help bury the USFL if it would land him a New York-based NFL franchise. Rozelle's response:

Mr. Trump, as long as I or my heirs are involved in the NFL, you will never be a franchise owner in the league.

Remember when Trump insisted he would build a border wall that Mexico would pay for? In 1985, he signed Doug Flutie, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback out of Boston College, to a six-year, $8.3 million deal — the largest contract in pro football history. When asked by Generals colleagues whether Flutie was worth the dough, Trump replied, "Don't worry — I signed him, but the other owners will take care of it for me." He then wrote a letter to Harry Usher, the league's commissioner, demanding that every team chip in. "I would appreciate your putting on the next agenda the allocation of Doug Flutie's costs to each team," he wrote on March 11, 1985. "The money will be returned when he plays at away games and fills additional seats." Usher and Trump's fellow owners ignored the request — just as Mexico never paid a dime for the wall.

Remember when Trump stomped all over John McCain as he was dying of brain cancer? In 1984, Trump stomped all over John Bassett, the Tampa Bay Bandits owner and his most vocal critic, as he died of brain cancer. Remember when Trump began his assault on the "fake news"? From 1984-86, Trump would pick up the phone, disguise his voice and call sports reporters as "John Barron — Mr. Trump's assistant." Remember when Trump lied about, oh, everything? Inauguration crowd. A call from the Boy Scouts leader. Conversations with Vladimir Putin. In 1985, Trump told the other USFL owners that the league needed to move its season from the spring to the fall and directly face off against the NFL. He then said he had met with all three major network executives, and they were in agreement that fall USFL games would make "terrific" TV. "Lots of interest!" he boasted in a league meeting. "They all want the USFL in fall!" Lie — two network heads told Trump there was no buzz for the USFL as a fall entity. The third? Trump never even called.

On and on it goes — sinister parallel after sinister parallel. Trump, the USFL owner, browbeating fellow multi-millionaire owners, just as Trump, the president, browbeats military generals.

Yet as we approach today's certification of the electoral college vote count before a joint session of Congress — and as we wonder what Mike Pence will do — there is one final parallel that should make us all shudder.

Namely, Donald Trump will burn it all down.

In 1985, not long after Rozelle rejected his overtures, Trump convinced his fellow USFL owners that the league needed to both move to the fall and sue the NFL for antitrust violations. He convinced his peers (just as he's convinced too many Republicans to count) that he was looking out for their interests; that he was a team player and this was good for everyone.
All the while, his plan was simple: If Rozelle won't let me in the easy way, we'll threaten the NFL with a season change and a lawsuit. That will get me the franchise I want in the league I want.

So the USFL, led by Trump, sued the NFL. Trump hired the attorneys. Trump starred as the key witness. Trump bragged and boasted his way through the 1986 trial, which lasted 42 days through most of the summer.

And when the jury awarded the USFL a single dollar (trebled to $3, as is the law in an antitrust case), and jurors insisted Trump's jarring dishonesty made the upstart league impossible to believe, Donald Trump walked off into the sunset, later dismissing the dead USFL as "small potatoes" and never again speaking to most of his fellow owners.

Thousands of jobs lost.

Thousands of sports dreams destroyed.

And a future president of the United States who could not have cared less.

Who paid no mind to the rubble.

https://deadspin.com/the-usfl-was-trump-s-dress-rehearsal-for-the-american-c-1845999525/amp

[Danno]

His followers probably watched him on big time fake wrestling. And still think it's real.

[dogwalker]

OMG yes that was WAYYYYY too long for me to read.  However based on the post title I might speculate Jan 6 was not so predictable in retrospect.  I was certainly shocked it occurred at the time. A mob was possible but inadequate protection of the Capitol is concerning.

[HighStepper]

... I was certainly shocked it occurred at the time. A mob was possible but inadequate protection of the Capitol is concerning.

Kevin McCarthy is going to address those concerns for you.
https://fantasysaloon.com/index.php?msg=4942