I’m definitely more of a realist than an optimist, but I really do have a feeling that 2022 has the potential to turn out alright. Following is a list of four things that I hope to see happen in 2022.

Joe Biden will prove to be a master at the art of being a sonofabitch: Biden’s recent announcement of a White House effort to combat corruption provides him with plenty of leeway to go after GOP nonsense, including improper campaign contributions from foreign sources, and abuse of non-profit status by GOP political operatives. Republicans will whine and complain they are being “targeted”, but Biden will explain that the law is very clear when it comes to things like foreign contributions and qualifications for non-profit status, and these individuals will be tried in a court of law.  Biden will use the White House “Bully Pulpit” to call for recusal of Federalist Society judges so they can’t abuse the authority of their positions to pass favorable rulings for the organization that helped them obtain a spot on the Federal Bench.

The media will shift from attacking Biden to attacking the GOP: Democrats will finally realize that all of American media has moved to the “conflict driven engagement” model, and if you want to get attention from the 24 hour news outlets then you have to keep giving them plenty of chew toys. President Biden and members of the January 6th committee will begin releasing a deluge of information demonstrating just how corrupt the Republican Party has become, and Biden will chide the media, telling them, “We’re giving you stories every single day. Why aren’t you guys reporting on this stuff?” to shame outlets like CNN and MSNBC  into finally adding up the pieces the way we do on higher quality media outlets like NationalZero.

The book Death by Populism (which I hope to have in the Kindle store and ready for sale by July 1st) will become an international best-seller: The “profile of the profile” used by Russian intelligence agencies to infiltrate social media circles and interfere in US elections will lead to a dramatic shift in US and Russia relations. Individuals who have worked with Russian intelligence agencies will defect to the United States and explain that after they read that book, they knew their ability to compromise US elections going forward was so badly compromised, that they feared their military units might be dissolved, and their lives could be in danger if they remained in Russia. (Granted, that prediction is a bit far-fetched.)

The ridiculous shifts in weather patterns in the winter of 2021/2022 will lead to more Americans finally taking climate change seriously: Climate change is one area where I’m an extreme pessimist. I tend to believe that people are far too lazy, greedy and stupid to respond to the threat proactively, and ultimately the result of climate change will be what scientists refer to as an “evolutionary bottleneck”, which is when a series of calamitous events result in mass extinctions of all living creatures on Earth. After increasingly intense storms, crop failures, wars for resources and widespread famine and disease outbreaks result in the human population of the Earth being cut down from around 11 billion to roughly 4.5 billion, then the reduced stress on the Earth, and the memory of the series of catastrophes among the survivors will finally lead to an adequate response. However, I’m hopeful that the extreme weather variations and well above normal temperatures this winter might spark some positive action, so that we can avoid the outcome where over half of the world’s population dies off. Maybe we’ll luck out and it will only take the death of 2.5 to 3 billion people to come to our senses.