Sneak Peak of 2014


 

The stories to watch, or avoid watching, in 2014:

1)      Polls Polls Polls: 2016 projections, generic congressional ballots, and finally the mid term elections. Once again we will get inundated with Quinnipiac, CBS/NYT, NBC/WJ, Gallup, Rasmussen, etc. numbers and margins of error. One thing is for certain, Congressional approval ratings won’t improve.

2)      Elections: After all the pomposity and malarkey the Democrats will retain the Senate and the Republicans will hold the House, guaranteeing two more years inaction except when it comes to naming post offices.

3)      Pundits will remind us that Obama is a drain on Democrats, Obamacare is a failure, Americans are tired of war, there is a civil war in the Republican party, and Clinton and Christie will be the nominees for 2016.

4)       Sunday Talk shows will again feature more Republicans than Democrats.  John McCain will be angry, Reince Priebus will still be a snarky worm, Lindsey Graham will try to probe he is a tough conservative, Chuck Schumer will sound like an old Jewish lady, and Newt Gingrich will sound smart right up until he says something stupid.

5)      All eyes will be on the Boston Marathon, and the city and surrounding communities will show their strength.

6)      Brazil will win the World Cup though the event won’t go off as smooth as organizers wished.

7)      LGBT rights will hang over the Sochi Winter Olympics as athletes go out of their way to hug and kiss one another.  Things get so out of hand, Putin takes his shirt off and joins in the closing ceremonies.

8)      Economists will remain true to form and miss their economic predictions badly.

9)      Someone on MSNBC will get ‘fired’, Fox News will insist the Easter Bunny is white, and not pink, and CNN will hire more big names and still suck.

10)   Arab Winter will include all out civil war in Iraq’s Anbar province, Syrian conflict will engulf Lebanon as Shias fight a proxy war with Sunnis, Egypt will slip further into a an autocratic despotic junta, Assad will still be in power, and the Palestinian peace process goes nowhere.

11)   Meanwhile in Africa: Mali, CAR, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Algeria, and Mauritania will continue to be battlegrounds and epicenters of humanitarian crises.

12)    Debt ceiling threats will lead to economic brinkmanship as some wannabes like Rubio, Paul, and Cruz try make political points.

13)   Hollywood 2014 will be dominated by more big budget CGE enhanced, scripts by 4th graders, and piss poor acting blockbusters.  Well there’s always IFC and Sundance.

14)   We haven’t heard the last of Edward Snowden

15)   Venezuela will teeter on economic collapse as the continent realizes that populist socialistic kleptocracies are a disaster.

16)   ****SPOILER ALERT****Those that were shocked and angered by the White Wedding, should wait for the Purple Wedding. 

17)   We haven’t heard the last of George Zimmerman

18)   NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman could become the political power player that Eliot Spitzer hoped to become.

19)   Abortion rights, free speech, establishment clause case rulings will be delivered by the Supreme Court.  All sides will declare victory and all sides will call criticize the court.

20)   Big winners in sports will be Florida State, San Francisco 49ers, Anaheim Ducks, Indiana Pacers, and Detroit Tigers.

 

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