To those who claim to possess the psychic ability to see into the future, we have to ask:
Why the hell didn’t you warn us?
The year 2016 has, by all accounts, been a year of unmitigated disaster. From the deaths of far too many beloved idols to the triumph of vestigial Neanderthal genetics that was Brexit, few years have managed to stick in our collective consciousness with such a lack of stillness and grace.
And then there was the elevation of a thrice-married, pussy-grabbing, princess-perving, bipedal buffalo wing to the White House. You know, the one who reminds us on a daily basis that the gag reflex is an autonomic response.
The purported powers of the psychic, the shiftless mumblings of soothsayers, entrail readers, and crystal gazers; they failed us one and all.
Not that it was a total surprise. Not everyone on the left was convinced that a Clinton victory was anything like a certainty. Some of us saw the writing on the wall.
So what follows has nothing to do with crystal balls or wishful thinking. Not everything listed below will come to pass; nobody can see into the future with anything like 20/20 vision.
But that is not to say that these predictions are flights of fantasy. Far from it. What follows is a necessarily brief assessment of the political world as it stands today; an examination of the probable in as much as it is one of the possible.
James And The Giant… Impeachment?
After electors took the decision to prove their utter redundancy to the entire world by failing to block President-elect Trump, the only viable way of ridding ourselves of him now lies in the use of the political equivalent of a comprehensive flea treatment.
Although experts have already suggested that impeachment proceedings should begin the day Trump takes office, it seems unlikely that anyone on Capital Hill will play their cards quite so soon. The two main areas of contention, his abuse of the emoluments clause and the pitfalls of the Stock Act can be easily avoided. He just needs to liquidate his assets and place them in a blind trust.
This is something he has so far refused to do. His fallback position, to deny any wrongdoing and delay settlement right up until the eleventh hour, will probably keep him safe; at least during his first term in office.
Hillbilly’s Heel
For a man with more skeletons in his closet than an 18th-century apothecary, the active courting of media hostility might sound like a bad idea. That he has made enemies of such distinguished periodicals as the New York Times and the Washington Post makes about as much sense as his foreign policy beats.
With a rich smorgasbord of treats for them to choose from — mafia ties, alleged charity fraud, tax evasion, sex scandals, and that video of him using the N-word — expect a major scandal to break every three months or so.
Brexit Stage Left
In the U.K., the shock decision to leave the European Union looks set to be tempered by reality’s rather inconvenient tendency to get in the way of stuff. The idea of a hard Brexit — wherein the U.K. closes itself off from the outside world more tightly than an oyster with an annual subscription to Breitbart — is looking increasingly less likely.
A soft Brexit approach is gaining momentum.
Under such an arrangement, the U.K. will remain a member of the EU in all but name. The negotiations will begin in May, but the divorce won’t be finalized until sometime in 2019.
War Crime And Punishment
Russian President Vladimir’s Putin, flush from his success in fucking over America, will be trying to pull the same trick in France. The election –which will be held in May — is set to become something of a three-horse race. The Socialist Party candidate has yet to chosen. but Republican François Fillon, and the anti-EU fascist Marie Le Penn are already in the race.
No prizes for guessing which one Putin has been accused of not-so-covertly funding.
At any rate, Le Penn looks set to come second in the first round of voting, but ultimately fail to form a government. Her toxic brand of casual racism and willingness to spend Putin’s dirty money will probably prove too much even for the gastropod eating people of France to stomach.
Putin’s bid to destabilize both the EU and NATO via Brexit and U.S. election manipulation is likely to lead to a brazen repeat of his illegal annexing of Ukraine. In addition, with his pet-president in tow, the $500 billion oil deal with Russia that President Obama blocked will not so much be back on the table, as it will be the table itself.
Made from bundles of cash.
Re-Run DNC
Regrets and recriminations only hurt the soul; what’s bad for the soul tends to be bad for the political party. Dwelling on the hypothetical ‘could have been’ is a luxury the Democratic Party can ill afford.
Both wings of the party — Neo-Liberal stalwarts and the progressive inheritors of the New Left –are currently rudderless. The pressure to perform come the 2018 midterm will dominate party choices next year.
The old guard will look to figures such as Tim Kaine, Andrew Cuomo, or perhaps even Gavin Newsom. That the continuation of failed policies is the last thing the majority of the party wants will not faze them.
They’d rather lose than let go of their centrist security blanket.
Meanwhile, progressives will rally around Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in an attempt take the party back to where the energy is. If successful, the eventual dethroning of Trump in 2020 will be all but inevitable.
To Be Continued
Not that we can leave it there. In part two of this article, we will take a look at some of the most hopeful predictions for 2017.
Those things that could happen but for various annoying and off-putting reasons probably won’t.
Still, it’s nice to dream.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-yzgeBUDWw&ab_channel=TheAmericanCitizen
Featured Image Via Pixabay.
