Day: December 30, 2023

We use Holidays as markers in time. The little events that pass or collect.. all lamented or contemplated deeply over the week between Christmas and New Years. Those reflections of themes of the year, the wishes of what we did different.. and the resolutions for the future that undoubtedly will fail miserably by mid-January.

We are collectively creatures of habit.

So in that light, it is a habit that even this website considers these events, perhaps in a bigger picture style.. we review it all. We consider and think .. and predict.

2023 and where it got us? No further than 2022.. And maybe we are still stuck in a kooky weird pandemic mindset. But it sure will never feel like 2019 again. But that was the year that was, then. This is the year that was now.

2024..here we come. Never thought you’d write that year down, did you?

2023 and where it got us

THE BEST AND WORST OF THE YEAR

So many lost in 2023

Predictions for 2024

Final reflections

So it’s that time again.. we predicted. We locked those prognostications in the massive secured vault, protected from the elements and storms of the year, and unsealed and opened as we end the year..

What did we predict in 2022 as the new year bloomed, and how bad was it… while we are at it, what do we see, as the great seer of sees, for magic ’24?

First we review.. the “bold” in what we say about it now. And we did BAD.

1. The Ukraine/Russia war will drag on until about April or May.. at that time serious discussions will occur to bring a truce. This will be inspired by House Republicans becoming increasingly reluctant to give more aid to Zelenskky.. Russia may end up getting a piece carved from Ukraine for its territory as a result. Before that occurs there will be at least 2 or 3 potentials that it develops into what looks like World War III.. WRONG. The war still drags on. And as far as aid packages, while there are some who decry the money, it continues to flow..
2. Before said war comes to a truce, an atrocity will occur in Ukraine. It will cause global outrage, but will not cause world leaders to intervene despite the horrors the world sees.. WRONG..
3. 2023 will be a troubling year for world figures. At least 3 or more world leaders will succumb to their fate. It could be Putin. It could be Biden, It could be the Pope. Troublesome events will emerge in some nations. WRONG.. Just wrong wrong wrong.
4. We are banking on a Papal change, and with it ‘the end.’ That was predicted by old prophecy.. Peter the Roman would be last. That does not mean the Church and the Pope are gone forever, it means something weird and new happens. A great new schism of modern time may be upon us. WRONG.. we didn’t have much hope in the Pope. But he survived to live another year..
5. There will be serious litigation considered about how to reign in AI art. It is busy stealing copyrighted images.. it is creating a strange legal conundrum. Who do you prosecute. How. And when. The future is happening faster than law can keep up with it. When the first AI art gets to court, there is a good chance the judge won’t even understand the concept of what is being dealt with! Not yet. Maybe soon. But AI art sure is changing everything.
6. Inflation will ease–slightly. But also will be a total collapse of certain markets. Automobiles, housing, and pensions will have a bad 2023. Bright silver linings will emerge. A new economy is coming. But so many parts of the old will die first and cause true economic pain in 2023. Eh.. kinda/ We are so desperate looking for something accurate we will hone in on ‘inflation will ease slightly.’ It did. The rest? Eh..
7. COVID lockdowns are a thing of the past. But we will be sicker and as a whole more and more ‘sudden deaths’ will occur. Living with COVID will mean living with a weaker immune system, more disease, and more snake oil salesmen. We think we are ready to ‘live with COVID’ mentally, but physically we will be living with stronger viruses and less viral and bacterial medication. Life expectancy will drop either in 2023 or 2024 as a result. DING DING DING.. this one is so right, and yet so many are not paying any attention to the ‘died suddenly’ issue.. and certainly not paying attention to the excess deaths around the world.
8. House Republicans will attempt to launch investigations of the Biden Administration. Everything will just be a mess. Few legislative *if any* victories will be had by either part due to a divided legislative branch. Yep! Got that right. Impeachment coming in 2024.
9. Everything will seem unstable. Institutions. Governments. Banks. Jobs. Everything we have come to accept will look weird as events change quickly. YES. But this one was easy.
10. Space travel will be filled with hope.. until it is not. Events will occur that will make Mars and even Moon explorations look implausible in 2023. NAH.. Maybe some other year. Not in 2023.

So there you go. We did rotten. A barely-anything-right kind of set of predictions. Everyone has an off year..

What do we see in the great year of 2024? Pain? Horror? Hope?

Here we go..

1. The Israel / Palestine war will ravage through spring, with more and more corpses piling up. At some point by May the world will have enough and look for a solution. But Ukraine and Russia will at time divert attention. Both wars will ease as the summer months reign.. but newfound chaos awaits in the autumn.
2. Black swan event. We will have turmoil and tumult. At times it will feel like the world around us is ending. The only sanity we will get is if we go offline..
3. Going offline will be in vogue in 2024. With AI tech reigning, we will distract ourselves with 20th century ideals of nature.. hiking.. We will still keep our phones attached to our bodies, but we will try to get in touch with things that once grounded us to the planet. We will need all the support from Earth as we can get in 2024’s stressful news cycles.
4. Donald Trump will be the nominee for the Republican party. The party will attempt to force him to choose Nikki Haley as VP but he will take his own course of action.. while he will want Tucker Carlson, Tucker opts out in favor of making big bucks on X. Instead Trump goes with Kari Lake.
5. Robert Kennedy will get 19% of the popular vote and will become the biggest third party candidate since Ross Perot. However he will take votes from both Biden and Trump..
6. There will be NO presidential debates between Biden and Trump.
7. AI technology will begin to really, really scare people. We will figure out that nothing we see online is written by real people. Jobs? Well we better rethink them. 2024 will showcase the end of the workforce as we know it. Construction and the building trades may be the future no one saw coming. The roaring 20s will be built by grit, not by BITs.
8. Late January and February will be cold across North America with several snow storms. But for the most part, get ready for heat and hot and sweat. It will be a record warm 2024.
9. There will be a new Pope by Christmas mass in December 2024.
10. The electoral college map prediction. Get ready to freak.. we say a 269-269 tie and God knows what will happen next. Our map prediction below:

Boom.

Sealed.
INTO THE VAULT .. to be consumed in 2024 as we enter 2025… May we have a beautiful year and may most of what I say be wrong as hell.

2023 and where it got us

THE BEST AND WORST OF THE YEAR

So many lost in 2023

Predictions for 2024

Final reflections

Happy end of 2023.

Happy beginning of another one.

We lament the past every December–we play melancholy songs to end the calendar and have hope a new one will be better.

Every year will BE the best.. and by December every year WAS the worst.

But yet somehow we go back again.. the next year.. doing the same thing.

That is why this particular Batman comic has been poignant for me for a long time.

Happy end of 2023.

Happy beginning of another one.

We lament the past every December–we play melancholy songs to end the calendar and have hope a new one will be better.

Every year will BE the best.. and by December every year WAS the worst.

But yet somehow we go back again.. the next year.. doing the same thing.

That is why this particular Batman comic has been poignant for me for a long time.

It is not that next year will be better, or worse.. but that it will be.

That we will make it, and a year from now be healthy and safe enough to toast what was and what will be.

As times beats on, we all take a beating.

Here’s to survival. And yes, Commissioner, hopefully we will be doing this again next new year’s eve.

2024… as we will turn to 2025. . .

My God.. make it stop.