Looking back / looking forward
By Mustang Bobby
Okay, campers, it’s time for my annual re-cap and prognostication for the past year and the year coming up. Let’s see how I did a year ago.
That one was pretty easy, and I’m sorry I got it right.
Right on gay rights and marriage equality and a punt of Affirmative Action. I had no idea about the decimation of the Voting Rights Act, but then who did? And the court roster remains intact.
A little too optimistic on the unemployment rate, but the economy really is getting better.
Blew it.
Not muted, and did not see Ted Cruz coming. That’s not because he’s a formidable force to be reckoned with, but I thought that even the Republicans have their limits. I guess not.
They did pretty well, and it was fun to see them live at Marlins Park. But I was happy to see the Red Sox come from the cellar to the dome to win.
Losing Nelson Mandela, Peter O’Toole and James Gandolfini in the same year was a shock, but we all lost friends and loved ones who did not get a spread in The New York Times. I hold them in the Light.
The Pontiac earned its first Driver Participation badge last February and goes for its second in February 2014. Work continues to go on and the District is doing well: no F schools this year, a marked improvement over the last five years. My short play, Ask Me Anything, has now been produced more times than any of my other full-length works (two on-stage and one directing project), and my writing continues. It looks like our trip to Stratford in August was our last trip, simply because of relocation and logistics, but who knows? My family continues to enjoy good health and good spirits. And I finally have a Twitter account: @BobbyBBWW.
Now the predictions:
- Despite the terrible roll-out and start-up of Obamacare and the opportunity it handed the Republican campaign strategists, the healthcare law will not be as big an issue in the 2014 mid-terms that all the Villagers say it will be. By the time the campaign hits the final stretch, the law will be so entrenched that even the people who claim they hate it — even though they support what it does — will have a hard time trying to run candidates who promise to repeal it. Still, the GOP noise machine and Tea Party hard-core is locked in on re-electing their safe base and the morning after the 2014 mid-terms will show a House still in the hands of the GOP and the Senate closer to 50-50.
- Immigration reform and gun control will go nowhere because it’s the same Congress we had in 2013 and they didn’t do jack-shit.
- By December 31, 2014 it will be a foregone conclusion that Hillary Clinton will be running for president. Joe Biden will play coy with the Villagers about running, but in the end he’ll demur to Ms. Clinton. The Benghazi! non-scandal will be long gone except for the nutsery who still think Barack Obama was born in Kenya. The GOP will be lining up its merry band that includes Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, Rick Santorum, and just for laughs, Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee. President Obama’s approval numbers will be back up in the 50% range.
- Florida Gov. Rick Scott will lose his re-election bid to Charlie Crist, the newly minted Democrat, and Marco Rubio’s star will be as faded in GOP national politics as Pauly Shore’s is among Oscar voters. He’ll pick up a primary challenge from the far right, but he’ll be safe in 2016 because the Democrats have nobody to run against him.
- Governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, Rick Snyder of Michigan, and Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania will all face tough re-election campaigns, but Mr. Kasich and Mr. Snyder will probably squeak by. Mr. Corbett is out, and just for laughs, the people of Maine will toss their gaffe-prone Tea Party guv Paul LePage.
- The national economy will continue to expand and the drive for the living wage movement will take hold. The unemployment numbers will finally get below 7.0% and stay there.
- Marriage equality will spread to more states as more cases based on the ruling by the Supreme Court in 2013 are heard. Indiana will vote on a ban on same-sex marriage in November 2014, and it will lose narrowly. But same-sex won’t be the law of the land yet, and I predict that unless the Supreme Court issues a sweeping ruling, Texas will be the last hold-out.
- The Supreme Court will rule 5-4 that Hobby Lobby or any for-profit non-religious corporationdoes not have the right “to deny its employees the health coverage of contraceptives to which the employees are otherwise entitled by federal law, based on the religious objections of the corporation’s owners.”
- This will be a rebuilding year for the Detroit Tigers now that Jim Leyland has retired. They’ll do respectably well and may even win the division again, but it’s time for a breather.
- Fidel Castro will finally hop the twig, and the slow thaw between the U.S. and Cuba will begin as the generation that is as old as Castro continues to fade away.
- We will lose the requisite number of celebrities and friends as life goes on. As I always say, it’s important to cherish them while they are with us.
- Personally, life will continue at its gentle pace in good health and good spirits. In September I will turn 62 and begin the first steps towards eventual retirement, but that won’t be for a long time yet. I’ve already started on my paper for the William Inge Theatre Festival in March, and I continue to write and produce blog posts. My parents are happily settled into their “life enrichment community,” and I hope to visit them this summer. I might even get a smartphone this year, but don’t bet on it.
- The Ford Mustang will turn 50 years old in April 2014. That’s not the longest continuous run of an American car model — the Corvette started in 1953 — but it’s an impressive run for a car that re-defined the auto industry. My prediction is that it will last another fifty.
- And of course, the usual prediction: One year from now I’ll write a post just like this one, look back at this one, and think, “Gee, that was dumb.” Or not.
Okay, readers, it’s your turn. What do you predict will befall us in 2014?
(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)
Okay, campers, it’s time for my annual re-cap and prognostication for the past year and the year coming up. Let’s see how I did a year ago.
- President Obama moves into his second term with pretty much the same situation in Washington and Congress as he has had for the last two years, so nothing will really get done. The budget matters, including the fake drama of the Fiscal Cliff, will still be around in some form because it’s a lot easier to kick it down the road than actually do something, especially when you have a Republican Party that absolutely refuses to work with the president on anything at all. It has nothing to do with policy, deficits or debt, taxes or revenue. The reason is pretty simple: they don’t like him, and so like a kid in grade school who refuses to do his math homework because he hates the teacher, they refuse to budge. You can pick your excuses, ranging from his Spock-like demeanor to his refusal to suck up to the Villagers, but most of it comes down to the unspoken reason that dare not speak its name: he’s black. No one dares say that out loud, but get three beers in any Republican, and I’ll bet they’ll admit it by saying “He’s not one of us.” How many dog whistles do you need? A big tell was that in the last-minute budget negotiations, Mitch McConnell went to Vice President Joe Biden as the go-between the Congress and the president. Why? Because Mr. Biden was in the Senate and knows how to talk to them, and also because he’s the white guy. So we will have another year of gridlock, and the new Congress will make the one just concluded look good.
That one was pretty easy, and I’m sorry I got it right.
- The Supreme Court will rule the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Prop 8 are unconstitutional. It will be a very close vote, probably 5-4 on both cases, and they will narrowly rule on both cases, doing their best not to fling open the doors to marriage equality with a blanket ruling and leave the rest of it up to the states. But they will both go down. On the other hand, they will rule against Affirmative Action. I also think there will be some changes to the make-up of the Court with at least one retirement, either voluntary or by the hand of fate.
Right on gay rights and marriage equality and a punt of Affirmative Action. I had no idea about the decimation of the Voting Rights Act, but then who did? And the court roster remains intact.
- Even if we went over the fiscal cliff or curb or speed-bump, the economy will continue to improve, with the unemployment rate going below 7% by Labor Day. I know this only because I know that our economy, like the water level in the Great Lakes, goes in cycles no matter what the hand of Wall Street or Washington does… unless they completely screw it up like the last time and make it even worse.
A little too optimistic on the unemployment rate, but the economy really is getting better.
- After the extreme weather we saw in 2012, at long last we will move to do something about climate change or global warming or whatever it is fashionably called. It won’t be done by Congress, however; it will be because the people who make a living off the climate, such as agriculture and coastal enterprises such as fishing and tourism, will make it happen through their own efforts. (Yeah, I’m being extremely optimistic on this one. A year from now I will happily concede I blew it.)
Blew it.
- The extremism from the right that entertained us in 2012 will continue, albeit muted because 2013 isn’t an election year except in New Jersey, where Chris Christie will be re-elected and start his Howard Dean-like campaign for the presidency in 2016. The GOP will refuse to acknowledge they have a problem, but as 2014 looms and the wingers that were elected in 2010 face re-election, they will find themselves scrambling hard for candidates that can survive primary battles where the nutsery reigns and then win the general election. The only reason Governors Rick Scott of Florida, Rick Snyder of Michigan, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, and John Kasich of Ohio will be re-elected in 2014 is if the Democrats don’t move in for the kill.
Not muted, and did not see Ted Cruz coming. That’s not because he’s a formidable force to be reckoned with, but I thought that even the Republicans have their limits. I guess not.
- I’ve given up predicting the Tigers’ future this year. Surprise me, boys.
They did pretty well, and it was fun to see them live at Marlins Park. But I was happy to see the Red Sox come from the cellar to the dome to win.
- We will lose the requisite number of celebrities and friends as life goes on. As I always say, it’s important to cherish them while they are with us.
Losing Nelson Mandela, Peter O’Toole and James Gandolfini in the same year was a shock, but we all lost friends and loved ones who did not get a spread in The New York Times. I hold them in the Light.
- Personally, this year looks good on a couple of fronts. The Pontiac is due back from the body shop this week, and I have formally entered it in its first national Antique Automobile of America car show to take place in Lakeland, Florida, in February. Things are looking better at work with the Miami-Dade County Public Schools getting a number of important grants, including a $32 million program from Race To The Top for math preparation, and the District won the coveted Broad Prize for Urban Education this past fall. One of my short plays has been selected for production in May 2013 at the Lake Worth Playhouse’s Short Cuts series, and hope springs eternal for a full-scale production again of Can’t Live Without You here in Florida. This time I have a good director who would love to do it if we can get a theatre. I’ll be off to the William Inge Festival in May to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Inge’s birth, and plans are in the works for our annual trip to Stratford, Ontario, next summer. My family continues to enjoy good health and good spirits. The blessings continue. (PS: No, I still don’t have a Twitter account.)
The Pontiac earned its first Driver Participation badge last February and goes for its second in February 2014. Work continues to go on and the District is doing well: no F schools this year, a marked improvement over the last five years. My short play, Ask Me Anything, has now been produced more times than any of my other full-length works (two on-stage and one directing project), and my writing continues. It looks like our trip to Stratford in August was our last trip, simply because of relocation and logistics, but who knows? My family continues to enjoy good health and good spirits. And I finally have a Twitter account: @BobbyBBWW.
Now the predictions:
- Despite the terrible roll-out and start-up of Obamacare and the opportunity it handed the Republican campaign strategists, the healthcare law will not be as big an issue in the 2014 mid-terms that all the Villagers say it will be. By the time the campaign hits the final stretch, the law will be so entrenched that even the people who claim they hate it — even though they support what it does — will have a hard time trying to run candidates who promise to repeal it. Still, the GOP noise machine and Tea Party hard-core is locked in on re-electing their safe base and the morning after the 2014 mid-terms will show a House still in the hands of the GOP and the Senate closer to 50-50.
- Immigration reform and gun control will go nowhere because it’s the same Congress we had in 2013 and they didn’t do jack-shit.
- By December 31, 2014 it will be a foregone conclusion that Hillary Clinton will be running for president. Joe Biden will play coy with the Villagers about running, but in the end he’ll demur to Ms. Clinton. The Benghazi! non-scandal will be long gone except for the nutsery who still think Barack Obama was born in Kenya. The GOP will be lining up its merry band that includes Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, Rick Santorum, and just for laughs, Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee. President Obama’s approval numbers will be back up in the 50% range.
- Florida Gov. Rick Scott will lose his re-election bid to Charlie Crist, the newly minted Democrat, and Marco Rubio’s star will be as faded in GOP national politics as Pauly Shore’s is among Oscar voters. He’ll pick up a primary challenge from the far right, but he’ll be safe in 2016 because the Democrats have nobody to run against him.
- Governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, Rick Snyder of Michigan, and Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania will all face tough re-election campaigns, but Mr. Kasich and Mr. Snyder will probably squeak by. Mr. Corbett is out, and just for laughs, the people of Maine will toss their gaffe-prone Tea Party guv Paul LePage.
- The national economy will continue to expand and the drive for the living wage movement will take hold. The unemployment numbers will finally get below 7.0% and stay there.
- Marriage equality will spread to more states as more cases based on the ruling by the Supreme Court in 2013 are heard. Indiana will vote on a ban on same-sex marriage in November 2014, and it will lose narrowly. But same-sex won’t be the law of the land yet, and I predict that unless the Supreme Court issues a sweeping ruling, Texas will be the last hold-out.
- The Supreme Court will rule 5-4 that Hobby Lobby or any for-profit non-religious corporationdoes not have the right “to deny its employees the health coverage of contraceptives to which the employees are otherwise entitled by federal law, based on the religious objections of the corporation’s owners.”
- This will be a rebuilding year for the Detroit Tigers now that Jim Leyland has retired. They’ll do respectably well and may even win the division again, but it’s time for a breather.
- Fidel Castro will finally hop the twig, and the slow thaw between the U.S. and Cuba will begin as the generation that is as old as Castro continues to fade away.
- We will lose the requisite number of celebrities and friends as life goes on. As I always say, it’s important to cherish them while they are with us.
- Personally, life will continue at its gentle pace in good health and good spirits. In September I will turn 62 and begin the first steps towards eventual retirement, but that won’t be for a long time yet. I’ve already started on my paper for the William Inge Theatre Festival in March, and I continue to write and produce blog posts. My parents are happily settled into their “life enrichment community,” and I hope to visit them this summer. I might even get a smartphone this year, but don’t bet on it.
- The Ford Mustang will turn 50 years old in April 2014. That’s not the longest continuous run of an American car model — the Corvette started in 1953 — but it’s an impressive run for a car that re-defined the auto industry. My prediction is that it will last another fifty.
- And of course, the usual prediction: One year from now I’ll write a post just like this one, look back at this one, and think, “Gee, that was dumb.” Or not.
Okay, readers, it’s your turn. What do you predict will befall us in 2014?
(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)
posted by Richard K. Barry at
10:16 AM
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