by Jack
A new year awaits and I for one will sure be glad to see it arrive! 2015 hasn’t been exactly horrible, but it hasn’t been great either. We started out by losing an ally in Yemen when rebels ousted the government and seized US military equipment. That situation is far from over and so is the war in Syria and Iraq. We had the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine…that was never resolved either, some fighting still going on. To complicate matters in the Middle East, we saw this nut job running Boko Haram (Nigeria) pledge to support ISIS. Boko Haram should be dead. They’re nothing but a band of low-brow Muslim raiders attacking mostly Christians. Nigeria asked for our help and why Obama didn’t send enough military over there to wipe them out is still a mystery. So, that genocidal debacle is still going and Obama never helped get back the kidnapped girls either. Boko Haram just laughed at his meager efforts. Seems the half dozen FBI agents Obama sent over to Nigeria were of little use out the jungle.
Over the next few months (up till Oct) there were random Muslim extremists attacking wherever they could, mostly in the Middle East, Africa and Turkey. One Muslim nut gunned down about 40 tourists on the beach in Tunisia before he was shot dead by security officers. Muslims lost 2200 dead in a pilgrimage to Mecca. Another stampede. Happens all too often. Then the next month about 500 Muslims were killed or injured in another Muslim bombing inside Turkey during a “Peace” rally. I think I see a pattern here!
So what will 2016 be like? Chances are the terrorist problem will only get worse in 16. Obama has left too many problems unresolved from 2015. I can safely predict that thanks to Obama’s assault on gun rights and lack of action on terrorism, gun sales will skyrocket throughout 2016. Here’s another safe bet. American minorities will continue to find ways to claim victimhood in 2016. Personal reward has been the primary motivation.
The newly formed “Black Lives Matter” group and others will no doubt find a few random and highly unusual police shooting events to keep their protest movement alive and extort things from government. However, I also predict that the longer they gripe the less impact they will have, except in some liberal circles of course. I’m pretty sure the average person is just getting bored with all the whining and race baiting.
I bet the economy will continue to be near flat line in 2016, or at best, a marginal improvement. The reason being, government is still getting in the way of industry! They are still growing the deficit and they have failed to resolve ONE major issue of real concern to the people. Not one! They (Congress) has been a total failure.
Our representatives have mired the country in red tape and taxes, because they think this is their job – only it isn’t. We (average voter) don’t want to grow government, we want to scale it back and cut #@$%^ debt! The job of government is to provide maximum freedom and minimum obstruction. In 2016 voters will get a chance to remind them of that highest calling. Also in 2016, the Homeless situation will get worse, in part due to the economy and in part due transients migrating to California for the money and better weather. Chico will continue to receive transients from far outside the county due to its reputation for free stuff, our local Rescue Mission and other free facilities for bums.
And my last prediction is, Ted Cruz will become President, unless…. unless, Donald Trump runs a 3rd party campaign – then we’ll get Hillary Clinton.
So, what’s your prediction/s? We’ll post em right here.
ISIS will successfully launch an attack in the US; Obama’s “security” policies will be directly to blame.
Black on black crime and homicides will increase.
Congressional Republicans will continue to cave to 99.999% of Democrat legislative demands.
Hillary Clinton will be elected president and will be even more dangerous to national security, global security, and economic recovery than Obama.
US global trustworthiness and prestige will continue to plummet.
The flood of illegal immigrants across the southern boarder will increase.
The power and reach of Islamic terrorism will increase significantly.
Conservative Islamic mosques will continue to feed and foment Islamic radicalism and more will be identified here and abroad.
CAIR and the left will step up their fraudulent “Islamophobia” campaigns.
Dewey will step up his hate filled and incoherent lunatic comments
Chris will call Jack and Tina prejudiced bigots, racists, Islamophobics and liars.
Libby will heap spittle flecked calumny and scorn upon Post Scripts.
Post Scripts will roll on.
Obama will strongly pursue gun laws in his usual community organizer style.
Black Lives Matter will continue to cause trouble and be exposed as a militant organization in pursuit of chaos rather than improvement in black lives. More Americans will realize that the fundamental problem is in the culture which has celebrated and romanticized violence and which, in too many homes, children are left to raise themselves without guidance, direction, or discipline. I wish I could predict that Obama would take the lead in this. He mentions it from time to time but needs to be a strong adult about it rather than the community organizer buddy who still hates the man.
Our economy will bump along at 2.0 growth so long as the stock market, the bond market, or the commodities market don’t decide to bubble and burst. We could get “lucky” and experience all three…woo hoo. Most small investors are sitting on the sidelines.
Oooops gotta go, back later.
I’m just going to add a couple to your accurate predictions.
The stock market will plunge at least a thousand points.
Interest rates will rise and so will inflation.
US standing in the world will continue to decline as more countries laugh at Obama’s failures to be a world leader. Israel’s Russia’s and China’s standings will increase to replace the US.
“A German journalist who spent 10 days with the Islamic State group and came out unharmed told a British Jewish news site that the jihadist fighters told him that the only country they fear is Israel.”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/12/28/reporter-who-spent-10-days-with-islamic-state-fighters-says-theres-only-one-country-the-jihadist-group-fears/
Correction to the above —
Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee; Hillary Clinton will be elected president and will be even more dangerous to national security, global security, and economic recovery than Obama.
Good News Prediction : O-destruction will not be able to close Guantanamo.
Pentagon thwarts Obama’s effort to close Guantanamo
Obama’s claim that Guantanamo’s existence is a significant Islamo-radical-fascist-terrorist recruiting tool is an odious fabrication. Guantanamo is hardly, if NEVER, mentioned.
So is the specious claim that when conservatives (Cruz and Trump) discuss terror attacks they are signalling a shaking in our boots “fear of death” and that too is a good recruitment tool for ISIS. Of course this progressive interpretation of what conservatives think (and feel) is hilariously in error as is Soros’ conclusion.
As Peggy pointed out the only nation the terrorists fear is Israel, a nation that remains, steadfastly, a tower of strength and resolve.
Progressives always turn things on their heads. Obama has signaled weakness again and again. Soros’ article is meant to convince (bully) the American electorate into thinking that Obama’s approach is working. Unfortunately many Americans will happily buy the notion that the apologetic and appeasing Obama represents a more frightening threat to ISIS than straight talking, bold speaking conservatives, Cruz and Trump.
Next year will be a defining moment in American history. Will the people decide to relegate America to third world status or reclaim our position as a beacon of freedom, strength and opportunity?
So many negative New Year’s predictions! Here’s a more positive one: the crime rate will, hopefully, continue to go down.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/12/22/in-the-end-2015-saw-no-war-on-cops-and-no-national-crime-wave/
No war on cops? Horse pucky. There has been a political war on cops led by Obama, Democrats, and the left. The shooting war on cops may have been less in 2015 than historical surges, but there still is a shooting war too.
How about a look back to 1915, just one hundred years ago.
https://image-store.slidesharecdn.com/40c7fb46-d851-4c6f-93a8-eb65ca92213a-original.jpeg
I’d rather live back then. A much freer country then. You didn’t have gummit goons feeling you up or porno scanning you when you had to travel.
Bob, do you really believe America was a “much freer country” in 1915, a time when women couldn’t vote, and Jim Crow laws were heavily enforced in Southern states? Or did you just not think about that before you said it?
I guess there’s a third option that you’re a Democrat plant trying to make Republicans look sexist and racist, but I find that unlikely.
Chris, so if a black person or woman can cast a meaningless vote in a rigged election they are free?
The people calling the shots make sure they win regardless of which candidate is elected. If voting could change that it would be outlawed. This two party system is hopelessly corrupt and beyond fixing but you are too brainwashed to see that.
And to get our freedom back we need to go back beyond 1915. 1913 was the year the corrupt Federal Reserve was created and the income tax instituted so by 1915 it was too late.
And today a person lucky enough to have a half way decent paying job or small business has over a third of his income stolen by government. And when you factor in inflation it’s more than that. (Inflation is a hidden tax that is understated.) Then factor in all the other taxes besides income and payroll taxes and then factor in how producers pass on at least a portion of taxes they pay to consumers in the form of higher prices in everything we buy and taxation is even worse!
But it’s not enough for our corrupt government so it runs up monstrous debt. 19 trilllion at the federal level than factor in all the state, county and city debt then factor in the unfunded liabilities which are in the hundreds of trillions of dollars. In effect this corrupt government has made debt slaves of us all and when this debt bubble pops you will see just what that means.
Forgot, Obammiecare. Buy it or see what happens if you try to opt out of the Emperor’s bogus health care. Another huge gummit rip-off.
Bob you bring up some good points but I still think saying that Americans were more free in 1915 is insensitive to those many Americans who had to fight long past that for their own freedom. I think that kind of comment would be alienating to a black reader and many (but obviously not all) women as well. I understand you’re talking about economic freedom, but blacks and women didn’t have a whole lot of that at the time you speak of either; unmarried women couldn’t rent homes in many states without a male relative consigning, segregation was rampant, and the list goes on and on. So even if we only look at economic freedom your statement may only be true for white American males, which has never been the majority of Americans.
I am not for Jim Crow or discrimination. We need to end the welfare/warfare state and treat people as individuals, not as a member of some group.
And let’s ask black people about comparing their lives today and in the past. The fact is the welfare state has been devastating for blacks. You just might find this interesting:
“Freed slaves in 1865 better-off than most young U.S. black men today”
http://blackstarjournal.org/?p=3826
Bob, of course I know you don’t favor Jim Crow–again, I think your claim that Americans were more free in 1915 was made due to a blind spot, not outright hatred.
The headline of the article you linked to claims that freed slaves in 1865 were better off than black men are today. That’s an extraordinary claim, and thus requires extraordinary evidence. Read the article again, and I’m sure you’ll notice it doesn’t actually provide any. It does provide some depressing statistics about today’s black youth, but absolutely no statistics about black men in 1865. It’s impossible to make a comparison by only looking at today’s stats and not the ones from the time period the article is comparing to. I wish I could say I can’t believe the writer of that article doesn’t know that, but I’ve seen to many articles just like it.
You also say that “the welfare state has been devastating to blacks.” It’s true that the rates of single motherhood in the black community have grown since the Great Society began. However, the rates of single motherhood for white families has grown as well during that time:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/mar/25/facebook-posts/facebook-meme-blames-great-society-large-rise-afri/
Arguably a more important statistic is the poverty rate. Many conservative critics have argued that the Great Society made poverty worse, but no objective look at the numbers could lead to this conclusion. Poverty rates dropped dramatically after the beginning of the Great Society, and have never once since reached pre-1968 levels. This is true for every demographic group, including black Americans:
“• Certain subgroups have seen steep drops in poverty over the same period. Poverty among blacks was 55 percent in 1959 and 41 percent in 1966. By 2009, the rate had fallen to 25.9 percent. For black single moms without a father present, the poverty rate fell from 70.6 percent in 1959 and 65.3 in 1966 to 39.8 percent in 2009.”
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/jul/29/bill-oreilly/bill-oreilly-says-poverty-hasnt-budged-1965-despit/
The war on poverty, though obviously not over, seems to have improved conditions in some way. At the very least, any argument that the Great Society made poverty worse than it was before cannot be supported by the evidence.
The black community still faces many challenges, but I don’t think there is evidence that “the welfare state” has caused them.
Over 20.7 trillion dollars has been spent on the welfare state since Lying Baines Johnson gave us the “Great Society.”
You can say whatever you want about the welfare state but that kind of spending cannot continue forever. (Same goes for the MIC spending.)
The welfare state has been a failure. Poverty rates haven’t changed significantly since 1964.
http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2014/01/thorner-johnsons-great-society-programs-at-core-of-nations-poverty.html
But the main point is that this kind of spending can’t continue. At some point it will end because government at all levels in this country has debt and unfunded liabilities amounting to over 200 trillion dollars.
And Chris, not only is the welfare state financially bankrupt, it is morally bankrupt. It’s foundation is to use force if necessary to take money from one group of people to give to another. A system based on theft is destined to fail.
Bob: “The welfare state has been a failure. Poverty rates haven’t changed significantly since 1964.”
Why would you say that, when I just showed you that the black poverty rate has decreased by nearly half in that time? As Politifact pointed out, in 1966 the rate was 41%, while in 2009 it was 25%.
One third of the elderly were living in poverty in 1964; today, that figure is one in seven.
Poverty was nearly cut in half in the first ten years after the great society began. Since then it has fluctuated up and down, but has never reached pre-1964 levels.
You can have whatever moral objections to welfare that you want. I don’t agree with them, but I can at least respect your opinion. But what is not a matter of opinion is that poverty rates have changed dramatically since 1964, and they’ve changed for the better. That’s just a fact.
The welfare state has been a failure.
Before Lying Baines Johnson launched the Great Society the poverty rate was around 18%. Today it is a little over 15%.
And well over 20 trillion dollars has been spent since 1965 on the welfare state.
The poverty rate was falling well before Lying Baines Johnson declared war on poverty.
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/09/the-war-on-poverty-after-50-years
Since Lying Baines Johnson declared war on poverty this country has spent more on welfare than all the military wars in US history since the American Revolution.
With hundreds of trillions of dollars in government debt and unfunded liabilities there is no way that will continue. The welfare state is unsustainable.
Chris, the welfare state is based on coercion which is why it will never work.
We need a society were people care for each other because they want to and know it’s the right thing to do, not though a system of coercion which will never work.
It never ceases to amaze me how liberals on the one hand say they are for peace yet on the other hand insist on doing virtually everything on a system based on the threat of violence.
Bob, even the chart provided by your Heritage article shows that welfare has not been a failure. It’s true that poverty was falling prior to 1964, but you can see that after 1964 that trend only accelerated, with a very steep decline over the next few years. Poverty only began to increase again in 1980, and since then has fluctuated, but it can’t be stated enough that poverty has never since reached pre-1964 levels. That to me is the most important barometer of success: are we as a nation less poor than we were before the Great Society? And the answer to that question still is and always has been yes.
We just came out of the worst recession in our country’s history; of course our poverty rates went up. To use that as an indictment of the welfare state (which helped a lot of people during that time) doesn’t make sense, and is a misuse of statistics. You can’t just say the rate was 18% in 1964 and 15% now and then conclude the war on poverty did nothing, without leaving out decades of other important factors.
The wise thing to do would be to look at the successes of the war on poverty and see how to replicate them. How did we manage to cut poverty nearly in half in the first ten years of the Great Society? Why did poverty start fluctuating so much in the early 80s? Instead of threatening to burn the whole system down we should be looking at what worked and trying to replicate it.
Poverty was falling at a faster rate from ’49 to ’64 than after the “Great Society” was inflicted on the poor.
How do you know that trend wouldn’t have continued if the “Great Society” never happened? If that was the case the Great Society made poverty worse than it would have been.
In any event,over $20 trillion was spent and what you won’t acknowledge is that kind of spending is unsustainable.
I predict you will be paying higher taxes here in Chico.
Lando, the cops, the liberals, the local gummit bureaucrats, the crony capitalists in the chamber of commies, they all want a sales tax increase. And CARD wants either a sales tax increase, bond measure or property tax increase for millions to fund a new aquatic center when they can’t even afford to maintain the pools and parks they already have. (And this new aquatic center’s eventual cost including maintenance will be in the tens of millions. You ready to pay that?)
Higher taxes, more debt and more spending. Anyone here against that?
Um, seems not.
For your information most local tax increases and bond measures pass which explains why even in a conservative blog no one agrees with your view on local tax, debt and spending increases.
Maybe you should just go back to 1915 or even better 1815.
For your information most local tax increases and bond measures pass which explains why even in a conservative blog no one agrees with your view on local tax, debt and spending increases.
If that is the case than this is not a conservative blog.
I’d welcome you to our blog, Liberal Laura, but then, you’re really not knew to PS, right?
Old brain strikes again: …really not new…duh!
Libby?
Some interesting observations from another blogger, and some interesting links as well—
http://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2015/12/terrorism-thug-culture-and-entitlement.html
Thanks!
After the civil war blacks did have a tough time, all they had known was doing what they were told. But economically not all whites fared well either, particularly in the South. Many were poorly educated and unskilled.
“Black Owned Businesses in the South, 1790 – 1880,” by Loren Schweninger:
Chris: “How did we manage to cut poverty nearly in half in the first ten years of the Great Society?
Did we really reduce poverty or just slap a bit of paint over the condition. If we were going to do something useful to truly impact the condition it would have been smarter to at least use some of the money to educate and train people for work? This leads to the second question:
Why did poverty start fluctuating so much in the early 80s? ”
The Jimmy Carter years were economically similar to what we are experiencing today it should come as no surprise that black and white unemployment would increase the poverty rate during times of economic distress.
Unemployment for blacks today is still abysmal and for the same reason.
The best way to measure the success of a poverty program is by the number of people no longer needing help. In that context the war on poverty has been an utter failure.
We have experienced policy and leadership that brought people out of poverty…Ronald Reagan inspired the entrepreneurial spirit and created policy that would encourage growth. Blacks made tremendous progress under his leadership:
Just in terms of compassion does it make better sense to prepare someone to take care of himself or invite him to become permanently dependent? It’s human nature to take the easier path, the poor often do it but so do the wealthy. Freebies just don’t offer incentives that appeal to our better natures.
The unintended consequences should also be included in any evaluation of a program or policy. High dropout levels and high levels of single motherhood, gang membership, substance abuse, criminality, and abortion all follow when people aren’t encouraged to reach for their dreams and acquire skills and independence.
A good documentary on the welfare state including a discussion of the welfare cliff which traps generations in poverty. The war on poverty has been a failure. I think he’s low by a trillion on the spending since ’64 but that’s only a little over a year of current welfare spending.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XooUY4p4RaY
And a related issue, crime. I’m sure the liberals who infest this blog will say these inconvenient truths are racist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVBJ5m3sGfk