2016 will be a volatile year in many different respects: politically, weather-wise, and economically.
Presidential election years are always difficult ones to make predictions. On the eve of 2008, Hillary Clinton was favored to wrest the Democratic presidential nomination. However, a junior senator from Illinois named Barack Obama upset Mrs. Clinton’s political apple cart. This time around, Mrs. Clinton has enough Democratic establishment and corporate backing to be ensured the nomination. Bernie Sanders is no Barack Obama and 2016 is not 2008. So, prediction #1 is that Hillary Clinton will be nominated for president at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in July.
Unlike Mrs. Clinton, GOP front runner Donald Trump does not have the backing of the Republican Party establishment. The GOP race is too volatile to make any predictions, especially with talk of a brokered convention and old-fashioned back room deals in the works. Don’t rule out the role that Mitt Romney might play in this unfolding drama. Ted Cruz’s Canadian citizenship up until he renounced it in 2013 will become a major campaign issue should he win the Iowa caucuses.
Prediction #2: Turkey will continue to fire on Russian and Greek aircraft and naval ships. The pro-Erdogan Obama administration will create a major problem for NATO when it fails to defend Greece from Turkish aggression, resulting in Greece forming an “Orthodox Christian alliance” with Russia, Serbia, eastern Ukraine, and Armenia with Bashar al Assad and the Lebanese Maronites and Shi’as as beneficiaries of the new pact. Putin will become even more popular in Russia but he will also see an increase of his popularity in Greece, Armenia, eastern Ukraine, and Serbia.
Prediction #3: The Srpska Republic of the Bosnian-Herzegovina federation will declare its independence and join with Serbia. This will create another Balkans crisis in which NATO and Russian troops will face off on the newly-created border between an expanded Serbia and a rump Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bosnia-Herzegovina will be accepted into NATO as a full member.
Prediction #4: The Muslim migrant invasion of Europe will continue and it will help exacerbate the tensions in the Balkans between the Serbs on one side and the Muslim Albanians, Kosovars, and Bosniaks on the other. Anti-European Union and far-right anti-immigrant parties will score big victories in German state elections in Baden-Wurttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin, and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s home turf of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. National Democratic Party (NPD) leader Udo Pastörs, who once called Turks “semen cannons,” will gain in popularity in the former East Germany. Right-wing parties claiming to protect Western civilization from a non-Christian migrant onslaught will call for a Christian alliance with Russia against Turkey and the predominantly Muslim states in the Balkans.
Prediction #5: With Hillary as the nominee of her party, GOP opposition research teams will uncover recent extramarital affairs of ex-President Bill Clinton. These scandals will be played up by the cable news networks and dominate the campaign news cycle. The name Jeffrey Epstein will, once again, be on the front pages.
Prediction #6: There will be major naval shooting incidents between Chinese and Japanese warships in western Pacific waters. With these incidents there will be a massive rise in Japanese and Chinese nationalism. South Korea will side with China and demand that the U.S. military stationed in South Korea not be used in any manner that will assist the Japanese. Relations between Seoul and Washington will go into a deep freeze.
Prediction #7: Argentine Mauricio Macri will continue to consolidate neo-fascist/Opus Dei rule in Argentina. He will bring trumped up criminal charges against former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and declare a state of emergency after nationwide protests.
Prediction #8: Google and Wikipedia will be exposed for censoring and altering information on behalf of the U.S. intelligence community. Both will face new competition that will proclaim their freedom from government ties.
Prediction #9: In 2015, scientists detected the first visible light reflected off an exoplanet. In 2016, improved detection capabilities will result in the first possible detection of artificial light from the nighttime hemisphere of an exoplanet.
Prediction #10: The Chicago Cubs will win the National League pennant.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
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Predictions for 2016
Posted on January 4, 2016 by Wayne Madsen
2016 will be a volatile year in many different respects: politically, weather-wise, and economically.
Presidential election years are always difficult ones to make predictions. On the eve of 2008, Hillary Clinton was favored to wrest the Democratic presidential nomination. However, a junior senator from Illinois named Barack Obama upset Mrs. Clinton’s political apple cart. This time around, Mrs. Clinton has enough Democratic establishment and corporate backing to be ensured the nomination. Bernie Sanders is no Barack Obama and 2016 is not 2008. So, prediction #1 is that Hillary Clinton will be nominated for president at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in July.
Unlike Mrs. Clinton, GOP front runner Donald Trump does not have the backing of the Republican Party establishment. The GOP race is too volatile to make any predictions, especially with talk of a brokered convention and old-fashioned back room deals in the works. Don’t rule out the role that Mitt Romney might play in this unfolding drama. Ted Cruz’s Canadian citizenship up until he renounced it in 2013 will become a major campaign issue should he win the Iowa caucuses.
Prediction #2: Turkey will continue to fire on Russian and Greek aircraft and naval ships. The pro-Erdogan Obama administration will create a major problem for NATO when it fails to defend Greece from Turkish aggression, resulting in Greece forming an “Orthodox Christian alliance” with Russia, Serbia, eastern Ukraine, and Armenia with Bashar al Assad and the Lebanese Maronites and Shi’as as beneficiaries of the new pact. Putin will become even more popular in Russia but he will also see an increase of his popularity in Greece, Armenia, eastern Ukraine, and Serbia.
Prediction #3: The Srpska Republic of the Bosnian-Herzegovina federation will declare its independence and join with Serbia. This will create another Balkans crisis in which NATO and Russian troops will face off on the newly-created border between an expanded Serbia and a rump Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bosnia-Herzegovina will be accepted into NATO as a full member.
Prediction #4: The Muslim migrant invasion of Europe will continue and it will help exacerbate the tensions in the Balkans between the Serbs on one side and the Muslim Albanians, Kosovars, and Bosniaks on the other. Anti-European Union and far-right anti-immigrant parties will score big victories in German state elections in Baden-Wurttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin, and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s home turf of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. National Democratic Party (NPD) leader Udo Pastörs, who once called Turks “semen cannons,” will gain in popularity in the former East Germany. Right-wing parties claiming to protect Western civilization from a non-Christian migrant onslaught will call for a Christian alliance with Russia against Turkey and the predominantly Muslim states in the Balkans.
Prediction #5: With Hillary as the nominee of her party, GOP opposition research teams will uncover recent extramarital affairs of ex-President Bill Clinton. These scandals will be played up by the cable news networks and dominate the campaign news cycle. The name Jeffrey Epstein will, once again, be on the front pages.
Prediction #6: There will be major naval shooting incidents between Chinese and Japanese warships in western Pacific waters. With these incidents there will be a massive rise in Japanese and Chinese nationalism. South Korea will side with China and demand that the U.S. military stationed in South Korea not be used in any manner that will assist the Japanese. Relations between Seoul and Washington will go into a deep freeze.
Prediction #7: Argentine Mauricio Macri will continue to consolidate neo-fascist/Opus Dei rule in Argentina. He will bring trumped up criminal charges against former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and declare a state of emergency after nationwide protests.
Prediction #8: Google and Wikipedia will be exposed for censoring and altering information on behalf of the U.S. intelligence community. Both will face new competition that will proclaim their freedom from government ties.
Prediction #9: In 2015, scientists detected the first visible light reflected off an exoplanet. In 2016, improved detection capabilities will result in the first possible detection of artificial light from the nighttime hemisphere of an exoplanet.
Prediction #10: The Chicago Cubs will win the National League pennant.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2016 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).