People have been known to make predictions...

From SF last year:

Dem ticket:  Hillary Clinton and one of the Castro brothers.

Well half right.

Repub Ticket:  Chris Christie/Susana Martinez

And its a long hard ball out into left field.

Next US President:  Hillary Clinton

Next!

1 TB, 2 TB and 3 TB solid State computer drives will fall below $200/Terabyte 

A 3 TB drive is available on Amazon for $4995

Assad regains control of all of Syria, including Raqqa, but violent ISIS remnants continue to ankle-bite his regime, while ISIS keeps a firm hold on parts of Iraq. 

Pretty darn close.

US GDP for 2015 will be below 3%

According to US News it was 2.4%, give that man a cigar.

Europe and North America will each experience at least one Islamic terror attack with more than 50 casualties each (I will be happy to be wrong about this one) 

Well that one was kind of like stepping up to the plate with a barn door ;)

GOP House and Senate will approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership and President Obama will sign it.   

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle...

MORE PREDICTIONS FROM YOURS TRULY

Clinton campaign implodes after charges are filed in re. to >1200 classified emails on her home server. Democrats field a Sanders/Warren ticket.  

I can dream can't I ?

Republicans field a Cruz/Scott Brown ticket in a brokered convention.  

And none of us saw the steam engine barrelling down the track.

Trump runs an Independent campaign, no one gets an electoral college majority, and the House picks Cruz amid a flurry of legal challenges. 

Who'd have ever thunk he'd get the nomination ;)

Oil drops to between $20-25 a barrel for WTI. 

Close but no cigar ($26.56 was the lowest it got).

The government of North Korea collapses, refugees stream both north and south over the border resulting in a Chinese military intervention in the north preventing reunification and raising tensions in Asia to a tinderbox level

Well it's bound to happen sooner or later, let it roll...

AND FROM A FEW OTHERS

Freesoul1957:  Trump will become president

Ducky: Clinton/Julian Castro vs.  Cruz/Ayotte

Ducky: Unemployment will drop below 5% but labor participation will edge down.  (Dropped to 4.9 in October... maybe, sort of)

Jersey: Clinton/Beshear vs.  Christie/Haley

2016 Western Hero Predictions 

Anyone care to go out on a limb this year?
 

 
 

Somebody wake up Michigan

Hello Michigan!  It's been a week since the election, all 83 counties have reported their results, and while I can understand dotting your "I"s and crossing your "T"s, just call it already, as someone famous once said "What difference does it make"?

FEEL MY JOHNSON

Photo: Gary Johnson

The Bern has long since smoldered and gone out, Hillary is a seething oozing mass of corruption and incompetency, and Trump is well... Trump is Trump. So, who is Gary Johnson?

Johnson's mother worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and his father was a public school teacher.  He went to Sandia High in Albuquerque and to the University of New Mexico.  In college he worked as a door-to-door handyman building his business into one of the leading multi-million dollar construction companies in New Mexico after graduation.

He was elected governor as a Republican by a ten percent margin in a state that is 66% Democrat on a fiscally conservative low-tax platform.  Using a cost-benefit approach he vetoed 200 of 424 bills in his first six months of office.  Meeting one of his campaign promises he reduced the spending growth of the NM General Fund from 10% to 4.67%. But while cutting spending elsewhere he increased spending on education by a third and when that did nothing to improve test scores and the drop-out rate he switched tactics and his support to the school voucher program.

In his reelection for his second term he defeated the Hispanic candidate fielded by the Democrats in their attempt to out him.  In a state that is 66% Democrat and 40% Hispanic, he won reelection 55-45. After increased education spending failed to produce results his support of the School Voucher program became one of the hallmarks of his second term. With more than half of what states spend on police, courts, and prisons being devoured by the "War on Drugs", Johnson advocated decriminalization becoming the most senior elected official to do so.

National Review 

The Economist

New York Times

CNN: Libertarian Town Hall

Whether you vote for Johnson or not, if you just listen to the opposition talking points about him and don't research who Gary Johnson and Bill Weld are, their positions, and what they've accomplished you are doing yourself and your country a disservice.

Government today is the direct result of 

choosing the lesser of two evils for generations

 

Rio 2016

The 2016 Rio Olympics start this Friday, are you interested?

I've never been that big a fan of the summer Olympics, I mean Archery, Badminton, and Canoeing? Seems like only yesterday we were watching Michael Phelps swimming. This year they've added  golf, karate, rugby, roller sports and squash.  Roller Sports? And come on, I like playing it but watching Golf is slightly less exciting than watching paint dry.

I began to lose interest in 1988 when they started allowing professional athletes to compete and lost more interest in 1992 when they started the alternating two year cycle between the Winter and Summer games. Beijing - Vancouver - London - Sochi it's all a blur, the games had more impact when they were four years apart.

So what do you think? Are you psyched?

And the Frontrunners are...

Rand Paul - 31%

Ted Cruz - 11%

Photo by Gage Skidmore

 Ben Carson 9%

CPAC

These are the results of the CPAC/Washington Times straw poll.  Rand Paul increased his performance from last year, climbing 6%, Ted Cruz also improved over last year rising 7%.  New Jersey Governor Chris Christie improved slightly from 7% to 8% finishing fourht.  Marco Rubio plunged from a 23% second place finish last year down to only 6% this year and Paul Ryan fell from 6% to 3%.

Of course these results are far more reflective of the 2,459 CPAC attendees that participated than Republican voters in general.

Washington Times