Forum: What Are Your Predictions for 2017??

Every week on Monday, the WoW! community and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week's question:What are your predictions for 2017?

Don Surber : President Trump will kick ass and take names, proving Washington conservatives wrong. NAFTA and NATO will be changed in our favor. Obamacare will be gutted with the popular parts restored, taxes continued, and the mandate repealed. Liberals will battle the wall and EPA reform in court. Washington conservatives will try to muck things up by touching the third rail - Social Security -- again and again. Guys, 2033 is twenty years away. Government works best in a crisis. Handle the stuff already on the plate first.

Trump, Putin and Bibi will take care of the Islamic State. Trump, Putin and Taiwan will pressure China.

Off year elections in New Jersey and Virginia will give Democrats hope, but Trump's popularity will top 50% as the economy improves.

Stately McDaniel Manor: A Happy New Year, and here you go:

My Top Twenty, Infallible, New Year’s Predictions:

(1) The rule of law will make a comeback; the forces of progressivism will fight tooth and nail to retain and expand lawlessness.

(2) Tyranny will be beaten back: the forces of progressivism will fight tooth and nail to retain and expand tyranny.

(3) Political correctness will take a hit; the forces of progressivism will rejoice in the difficulty involved in rolling it back even a little.

(4) Big government will be momentarily interrupted in its inevitable growth; the forces of progressivism will, as always, bide their time.

(5) The legacy media will continue to lose ground: All the while, they’ll whine about how important they are and how essential to the democracy they have, for decades, done their best to destroy.

(6) Progressives will continue to be the best gun, ammunition and accessory salesmen in history.

(7) Obamacare will be repealed in name only; the forces of progressivism will smirk.

(8) Paul Ryan will continue to demonstrate what a miserable little weasel he is; the forces of progressivism will smirk.

(9) Mitch McConnell will continue to demonstrate he is a dedicated RINO by allowing progressives to prevail whenever he can get away with it; the forces of progressivism will praise his enlightened leadership.

(10) Our relationships with our allies, particularly Israel, will improve; the forces of progressivism will fight tooth and nail to weaken them.

(11) Our enemies will, once again, begin to fear us; the forces of progressivism will wail, gnash their teeth, and rend their garments.

(12) Many of Barack Obama’s illegal, harmful regulations and rules will be obliterated; the forces of progressivism will wail, gnash their teeth, and rend their garments, and predict the end of the world.

(13) Our enemies will learn there is, after all, a military solution to many issues; the forces of progressivism will wail, gnash their teeth, and rend their garments.

(14) It will become abundantly clear that virtually everything John Kerry did or said was actually exceedingly stupid and traitorous; the media will do all they can to keep us from realizing that.

(15) The depth of Barack Obama’s treason in unconstitutionally treating with Iran will become obvious; the media will do all they can to keep us from realizing that.

(16) Barack Obama will hold nearly daily news conferences from the office of the post president; the media will try to make them care; most Americans won’t give a boatload of deceased rodents.

(17) Islamist terrorists will, once again, be identified as Islamist terrorists; the forces of progressivism will wail, gnash their teeth, and rend their garments at the inhumanity of it all.

(18) Our immigration laws will, once again, actually be enforced; the forces of progressivism will wail, gnash their teeth, and rend their garments; they will not volunteer to house illegal aliens.

(19) Donald Trump will struggle against big government impulses; the forces of progressivism will do all they can to ensure he loses the struggle.

(20) America will, once again, be on the path to greatness; the forces of progressivism will join with their terrorist allies to lay as many IEDs as possible.


JoshuaPundit: I think we're in for a major shift.  First of all,  America's economic engine is about to be turned loose. I think we've already been in a major recession and will now see a recovery. Trump will cut corporate and personal income taxes, cut the ridiculous regulations strangling business, and rebuild our military. All of these steps will generate taxable economic activity and promote growth. Supporting and expanding our energy sector will also lead to cheaper fuel, and cheaper prices for goods and fuel. A moderate rise in interest rates will also flood America with investment  capital and reduce our debt.

Trump will also, if he's smart let the Chinese know that the way to avoid tariffs is to build plants here and hire Americans (which is exactly what Reagan did with the Japanese and Germans). 

The dollar is super strong right now, but I'm a contrarian when it comes to predictions that this will kill our exports. America's prosperity in the fifties and sixties vis a vis exports was that the American worker was the best in the world and we made stuff  everyone wanted. The dollar was strong then too.

In foreign policy, look for Barack Hussein Obama  to take another kick at Israel. It will likely take the form of colluding with the usual suspects to outline a 'peace agreement' recognizing a Palestinian state on the the 1948 ceasefire lines including East Jerusalem. It will subsequently be introduced as a UNSC resolution (whichis probably already written).  If it passes, Israel will ignore it, and take some fairly aggressive action in response since the whole premise of all the concessions they've made over the years for peace will have been negated and thanks to this diktat, suddenly they're being told there's nothing to negotiate and Israel's concerns simply don't matter. Don't be surprised if  Putin,of all people vetoes it just to spite Obama.

Look also for a major change in Europe. 'Refugees' are already starting to be expelled from some surprising places. Norway, for instance, just kicked out 850 'refugees' a month or so ago and saw a 30% decrease in crime.  There are elections coming in France, Germany and the Netherlands as well as anEU referendum in Italy. France may very well see Marine Le Pen of the National Front as President of France at best and an important coalition member at worst, Frauke Petry and AFD are growing by leaps and bounds as failed leader Angela Merkel's popularity is cratering. Geert Wilders will, like Le Pen, either be the Dutch leader or, as the head of the largest party in the Netherlands, an indispensable coalition member. All three are anti-EU, and want  the 'refugees' out.  All three are also pro-Israel, as are the Visograd nations, something that will also likely negate any anti-Israel UN activity. The voters in the UK are getting increasingly impatient at the deliberately slowed down Brexit. Look for that to speed up as well.

There's going to be a major change in media as well. The old line media has been outed as purveyors of fake news and the biased whores that they are. And we now have a president who's not at all inclined to kiss their backsides. Look for alternative media like Drudge, Breitbart and of course, Wow! Magazine to have an increasing role in the national conversation.

I personally am exhilarated at the direction our national politics are going. The Donald made two sincere efforts to try and unify the country (his victory speech and his Thanksgiving address) , but the Left isn't having any of it.  They slapped his hand away with an angry sneer. I for one am happy about that, because it clarifies things.

 Since the party's leadership and many of the rank and file have no interest in unity for the sake of the country, fine. They need to be defeated and marginalized even further, and there are lots of ways to do it. That's exactly how this needs to be approached.  And believe it or not, I think that with a couple of dishonorable exceptions, the Republicans are going to unite behind Trump on this, because they see the consequences of screwing up again. If not, Trump has the option of the precedent Obama set, executive orders.

Senator Ted Cruz isn't someone I quote often, but he made the point in a FOX news interview that if the Republicans in congress fail to deliver yet again, people are going to be coming after them with pitchforks and torches, and it will be entirely justified.


The Glittering Eye : My crystal ball is sadly in need of recalibration and has been for some time. I no longer have any idea what's likely to happen next so I would have made the following remarks regardless of who was elected president.

Expect a recession in 2017. Based on the National Bureau of Economic Research's figures, we're overdue for a recession. It's possible that the pump-priming that President-Elect Trump has promised and the Congress will likely approve that might be forestalled but, well, we're still overdue and they haven't repealed the business cycle yet. China's woes are likely to spread here. Which leads me to my next prediction.

China's economy will get worse before it gets better.

Expect Trump Derangement Syndrome to exceed Clinton Derangement Syndrome, Bush Derangement Syndrome, and Obama Derangement Syndrome in its virulence. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

The differences in economy, politics, and attitudes between California and the rest of the country will become more apparent rather than less so. It's a whole 'nother country.

Expect the Democrats to obstruct anything the Trump Administration attempts to accomplish (see TDS above).

By the end of 2017 the alliance of the Syrian government, Russia, Iran, et al. will have restored Syria to government control.

By the end of 2017 there will be no prison camps, gas chambers, mass executions, or suspensions of civil liberties in the United States. You might think that would deter the Hitler references but it won't. If everything you know about current events came from reading the New York Times, you would believe that fascism was descending on the United States.

 Laura Rambeau Lee, Right Reason : We worked hard to see Donald Trump win the presidential election.  Now the real work begins.  This “draining the swamp” is not going to be easy.  The problem will be the pushback from the entrenched establishment which has grown accustomed to growing government and justifying its existence. Unless the DC elites undergo a radical change of thinking and understand the mandate that delivered President-elect Trump to the White House, the next four years will be extremely turbulent. They will not give up their power easily and I hope Trump is up to the challenges he will surely face.  It may not be until the election in 2018 before we can establish strong and influential conservative representation and start the task of shrinking the size and reach of the federal government.

Under the Obama administration, the cabinet departments have been charged with providing social, economic, and environmental justice to one or many underserved classes of people. This culture needs to be eliminated if we are to restore the rule of law and equal justice for all.  I hope the new cabinet secretaries understand this going into their positions and will work to reduce and eventually eliminate these bureaucratic and regulatory mandates.

I remain hopeful that Trump will fulfill the promises he made to the American people to secure the border, rebuild our military, re-establish our position as a super power in the world, improve the care we provide our veterans through the Veterans Administration, reduce the power of the U. S. Department of Education, and rein in the bureaucracies and regulations coming out of all of the federal departments that are crippling businesses, and help bring back jobs to grow our economy again.

On a lighter note, I would love to see the Pittsburgh Steelers win a seventh Super Bowl.
Well, there it is! Happy 2017 to all our wonderful readers...and thanks so much for your support.

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