Once again, it is time to make a fool of myself by making predictions for 2022. To save my more obnoxious readers the bother of highlighting my incompetence by forwarding my grossly inaccurate predictions for 2021, I will repeat them.
1. The stock market will gain 10%. Wrong. The S & P gained 25%.
2. Donald Trump will not go away. Correct
3. Joe Biden will be quite popular. Wrong. But give me a break. No one could have predicted this guy’s incompetence. It is as if he is deliberately trying to destroy the country.
4. The Durham Report will produce nothing. Wrong. One person has been indicted and more may follow. But it is unlikely that any Big Fish will ever face justice.
5. COVID will be mostly under control. Wrong. This diabolical virus is still torturing us.
6. The Steelers will win the Super Bowl. Correct. Most people believe that Tampa Bay beat Kansas City 31 to 9. But what actually happened was that new video technology enabled Russian hackers to superimpose images of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over those of the Steelers during the real time broadcast. It is amazing how many Americans fell for this scam though.
7. The sun will continue to rise in the East and set in the West. Correct.
So, if you want to not bother with my predictions – fine. But there is a risk. Thanks to betting sites such as predictit.com, any reader can wager on political events. You may be able to make a considerable profit by reading my predictions and then betting the opposite way. So here goes:
1. The stock market will gain 15%. With the corporate Democrats in power and the Federal Reserve printing money that has nowhere to go, expect the market to do fine while our poorer citizens – whom the Democrats claim to champion – get the shaft with higher inflation.
2. The Republicans will win the House. Many Democrats in the House are retiring (twenty- three at the time of this writing) because they see the future. Polls show a strong shift to the Republicans. This could always change, but the Democrats are going to have to get the border under control, tame inflation, and decrease the crime wave to be competitive. The problem is that their liberal base will walk if they attempt this.
3. Republicans will take back the Senate. The Senate is technically in Democratic hands as there are 48 Democrats and two independents that caucus with the Democrats. There are 50 Republicans but in the case of a tie, Vice President Kamala Harris casts the deciding vote. Ten races are considered competitive but if the hardened voting patterns of the Trump Era continue, only three states are really in play: two held by Democrats – Georgia and Arizona, and one held by a Republican – Pennsylvania. Both Georgia and Arizona will go Republican. The likely Republican nominee, former football star Herschel Walker will win enough Black votes while holding the Republican base. Illegal immigration will be a big issue in Arizona tilting the state Republican. Republicans in Pennsylvania will not be able to overcome the legalized ballot harvesting in Philadelphia to hold the seat. The net result is 51 Republicans.
4. Roe versus Wade will not be overturned. Conservatives have inveighed against decisions that legalized abortion, gay marriage and pornography. But then the Supreme Court allowed Texas to effectively ban abortion with a law of dubious constitutionality. And the liberals got a taste of their own medicine and realized that the conservatives were right on one point: Our Supreme Court consists of power hungry political hacks dressed in robes.
Thus, the liberal media and the Democrats will begin an aggressive campaign to intimidate the Court. Multiple polls of dubious validity will be published saying that the Supreme Court will lose its credibility if Roe is overturned. At least two so-called conservatives will cave allowing Roe versus Wade to stand.
5. COVID restrictions will come to an end and life will return to normal. There may be another variant or two but Americans are tired of endless lockdowns, mask mandates and remote learning for their children. Unless one of these variants is especially fatal, our political class will decide that we have to live with COVID rather than continue polices that will lose elections.
6. Some version of BBB (Buy Back Better) will pass. While much has been made of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin’s decision to oppose BBB, he is just holding out for a less intrusive bill. Biden and the Democrats will compromise rather than get nothing.
7. The Jets will not be Super Bowl contenders. This is actually more solid than last year’s prediction that the sun will continue to rise in the East and set in the West. The sudden appearance of a Black Hole could cause the rotation of the earth to reverse. This is much more likely than the Jets becoming a viable team.
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