My Predictions for 2017

1. Obamacare will not be repealed. If the Republicans have half a brain among them, they will do some necessary technical edits and call it something without the "Obama" name in it. And everybody will be relatively happier.

2. Many Trump supporters will regret their vote so much that they will come to say, "If only Obama were back. Things weren't so bad then!" (Which I already believe).

       [Trump support significantly down Politico Aug. 10, 2017]

https://twitter.com/cspanwj/status/952198650330996737

3. I'm going conservative on this predicting only six (6) major scandals in the first year of the Trump White House. (Remember President Obama's record, a big fat 0 in eight years*. Even if you insist on Benghazi and "Fast and Furious" which even the promoters don't directly link to the President, that's two in eight years.)

[1. February 13, 2017, General Michael Flynn forced to resign as National Security Adviser for failing to tell the truth about discussing sanctions with Russia before the inauguration.]

[2. May 9, 2017, trump fires James Comey, FBI Director, in the same week Comey is testifying before the Senate Subcommittee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and the same day a federal grand jury subpoenas records. The reason given is untruthful statements regarding Hillary Clinton's emails. This ain't over yet.] 

[3. May 15, 2017, the Washington Post reports citing senior intelligence sources that trump revealed confidential national security information compromising a foreign-partner source to the Russian Foreign Minister and Ambassador in a meeting in the oval office last Wednesday, May 10.]

[4. July 11, 2017. Donald J. Trump, Jr. releases emails evidencing that he sought out allegedly harmful information on Hillary Clinton offered by Russian sources when he previously denied he had any Russian contacts during the campaign.]

[5. July 21-31, 2017, Scaramucci. #!*@&#^*@^#**#!!!!!!! 'nuff said.] 

4. I do think our institutions are strong enough to withstand even Trump in the White House and we will not sink into Fascism. Even if he manages to burn down the Capitol and blame it on the terrorists or the Democrats, the military won't allow him to establish martial law. And many of us will not just be standing in front of the tanks if they do,but  they will have to go over the top of us. We are too many (a solid majority of voters, for one thing). Our service men and women are true patriots, not Trump stooges.

5. Even President Trump will come to understand that Putin is not his friend. I know that's expecting a lot, but nobody can be that stupid.

6. A nuclear weapon will go off somewhere in the world. OK, that's pretty negative, but I see it coming. I dread the destruction but hope that good will come from a realization that we are all in this together and we cannot allow nuclear weapons anywhere in the world. (That includes the U.S.) M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction) worked for several decades in a Cold War mentality in which only a handful of countries had such weapons on a pretty clear divide of one side or the other. Today is more like the multiple war powers in an arms race and tangled alliances that accidentally launched the Great War (WWI).

7. None of these may occur if my vain hope, rather than a prediction, comes true and Trump abdicates for his true love, his financial empire (i.e., financial house of cards) and its insurmountable conflicts of interests with the Office of President of the United States.

There you have it. My hopes and dreams, mostly nightmares, actually, for the next year.

God bless us! We're going to need it.

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*To be fair and as reminded by the National Review, Pres. Obama had a few troubles getting his cabinet filled. There were problems with some nominees like Bill Richardson, whom I used to like, who really was a complete political hack, the nominee for National Security, Charles Freeman, who had connections with China, and former Senator Tom Daeshle, who had problems with taxes and did not become HHS Secretary.