New Year "Predictions"

[ravan]

So, here are my wishes and cynical predictions:

So, what I want to see:
1. Manchin and Sinema ave "Road to Damascus" conversions to at least semi prograssive views
2. Voting rights gets passed
3. The Build Back Better act gets passed
4. The sedition caucus is expelled from Congress and tried
5. The lawsuits against the states that are fucking over voting rights are successful
6. The Jan 6th conspirators are indicted, arrested and tried, including the top one
7. Qanon folds up like wet tissue paper due to scandals of pedophelia and corruption
8. The crooked justices that McConnell crammed onto the Supreme Court are impeached for corruption and lying to Congress
9. McConnell retires in disgrace
10. An international consensus is reached and the US gets on board
11. The Omicron variant turns out to be significantly less damaging even though its R0 is over 10
12. The Dems sweep the house and senate in the midterms
13. Marijuana is legalized nationally, and marijauna convictions are expunged
14. Texas' abortion rights attack is shot down

What I am afraid I'll see:
1. Manchin and Sinema turn Republican, giving McConnell back the Senate
2. Dem initiative likes BBB and Voting Rights are dead in the water
3. The Jan 6th commission is toothless, and their criminal referrals are ignored by the toothless DoJ
4. The lawsuits against the states fail due to partisan SCOTUS
5. The Jan 6th caucus increases and takes over the House
6. Qanon become mainstream and the Proud boys are the new brownshirts
7. SCOTUS becomes increasingly partisan without shame or brakes
8. Multiple countries, including the US, ignore climate change and actively make it worse
9. Yet more variants ravage the population as vaccination efforts are sabotaged by the GOP
10. The Dems lose the House and the Senate in the midterms, setting the stage for a successful right-wing coup
11. The GOP doubles down on the "War on Drugs" and its War on Women and War on Minorities
12. Right wing terror squads start stlking the cities and doing armed voter intimidation and murder, with the cops ignoring it or being complicit.

Quite frankly, 2021 said to 2020 "Hold my beer". I don't really expect any better for 2022.

Comments

[weofodthignen]

My hopes for many from List 1 and very few from List 2.

[freyjaw]

I hope none of list 2 and as many of list 1 as possible happen.

No help here

[elainegrey]

I share this outlook.

Hope #11 seems like it's going to turn out that way. Hope #7's cause hadn't occurred to me, but, yeah, QAnon is pretty obsessed with that crime, isn't it. Would not be a shock. Hope #9 is too good for him, but, i'll take it. Hope #13 wouldn't have shown up on a list but, yes, you are right. I'll tack on a hope that Florida's stupid "you can vote after you pay us back" policy gets taken behind the barn and shot.

In your expectations you leave out the end of anything resembling privacy resulting in a capitalistic surveillance state where the government just buys the surveillance -- warrants not needed -- and the end of a free press.

I would also add to my expectations that Chronic wasting disease (CWD) expands to all 49 continental states and all Canadian provinces and becomes economically significant (https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/occurrence.html) Sudden oak death spreads east, beech bark disease spreads south, the emerald elm borer population explodes.

The only good thing i can add to that list of ecosystem disruptions is that the spotted lanternfly prefers Tree of Heaven as a egg host plant: maybe there will be a meaningful push to eradicate Tree of Heaven from the US.

[dubhain]

I'm in that cussed phase, where the migraines are coming daily, and I'm mainlining caffeine and migraine meds. So...I'm not making predictions, and I'm keeping my head (mostly) in the sand until I get some respite.

That said, as 2022 hasn't shown enough of itself to verify anything, so long as I'm migraine-encumbered, I'm insisting that Betty White sacrificed herself and died for our collective sins as a nation, so that 2022 wouldn't do the "Hold my beer!" thing.

(And yes, I know it's bullshit. I'm still maintaining it, until this migraine crap subsides, and I can deal with the real world again.)

Re: No help here

[ravan]

Yeah, I didn't address the most chronic failure modes in our society that are slow moving poisons like the privacy issues and the free press turning into a "Truth is what is paid for" propaganda network. Even now, you have to pay money for real reporting, but bullshit and propaganda are free, so the poor are fed lies and the rich get to pay for their brand of truth.

I didn't address CWD because it won't go critical mass this year, IMO.

I would love it if they started a real push to wipe out Tree of Heaven. That shit is nasty, popping up all over my property, it's like it's root have a network. Stinky stuff, too.