42 Comments
User's avatar
Andrew Maier's avatar

"Trump will not receive the Nobel Peace Prize."

Brave, haha

Ellis Weiner's avatar

I dig it all, or most of it. Why would Miller's wife leave him? She knew he was a snake when she invited him in. And I think you might want to add that Pritzger and Newsome, each with prez ambitions, will lead the campaign to crush Dem squishiness over hearings and prosecutions of Republican criminality. Schumer and Jeffries have spent a year aware of our rage. I don't think even THEY will try to placate it with half measures. Or maybe that's just what I want to think.

Austin Payne's avatar

Also take her own comments into account on TV and podcasts. She’s packaged a little differently, but just as much a snake as her husband.

Kindler's avatar

J.D. Vance’s wife is the one who ought to be filing for divorce ASAP. I’ve lost track of how many times he’s thrown her under the bus.

Jo B's avatar

#15 - I cannot properly convey how sick it makes me how right you likely are that too many republicans will make excuses for why “pedophilia isn’t really pedophilia in this case” when the ‘Epstein files’ truth finally comes out.

And fuck Stephen Miller. What a hateful, pathetic little man.

Christian Rether's avatar

Steven Miller’s wife will not, in fact, leave him. She will remain confined to their home and tracked by a chip when she is on shopping sprees in Georgetown, where she drinks Chardonnay and cries.

Sane English's avatar

Agree. They are true lack-of-soul mates

Lance Khrome's avatar

Re: No. 6...Aileen "What, me worry?" Cannon's first step failing upwards would be to an open appellate seat, avoiding the drama of a Scotus nomination...James Ho, on the 5th CA, would be the more "logical" far-right nominee for a Scotus nomination, IMHO.

Michael Roulier's avatar

Linking points 11 & 15, someone should come up with a monthly Nobel Prize for Pedophile Protection and market the shit out of it.

John's avatar

The overall tenor of this seems optimistic -- as reasonably optimistic as we can be given the depth of the hole we find ourselves in. Thanks.

Maureen Osborne's avatar

Realizing that these are basically best case scenarios is truly terrifying.

Joel Pomerantz's avatar

Agree. Especially regarding the U.S. election, where so many implicated power brokers are going to behave like cornered hyenas. They may outright destroy, not just sabotage. Analysts steeped in electoral politics haven't developed muscles to foresee that level of undoing. You, Brian, may have that deficit, despite being among the more willing to consider the extremes. I hope we don't see such extremes, but I feel the pain of anticipation. Also in Gaza, which I predict will have a big impact on the U.S. in 2026.

beckya57's avatar

Agree with almost all of this. I don’t see the Dems retaking the Senate, however, as almost all the seats up for election are in solidly red states where voting for Dems is seen as voting for Satan. I think Dems’ expectations will be too high, and the resulting fallout will lead to Schumer’s ouster.

Sharon Bjork's avatar

Number 13...noooooooo....Citing victory, Chuck Schumer will hang on as Senate Dem leader, infuriating Democratic activists.

Victory...Yes...

David Muccigrosso's avatar

Quick grammatical quibble on 19: There is not supposed to be a dash in the phrase “five million people”.

The dash is only supposed to come when its parent phrase is part of an adjectival phrase describing the subject, NOT as a direct part of the subject phrase itself.

For instance, “five-million man army” and “five-million-man army” are both acceptable, whereas “five-million people” is NOT.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Christine's avatar

Hyphen, not dash 🙂

LEONARD PERKINS's avatar

No, thank you professor.

James's avatar

This is really good, but I'd like to see more speculation about Trump's health. Will he act more and more erratic? Forget basic facts? Blurt out more national secrets? Limit his public appearances by the end of the year? Does Miller get more powerful? Or Susie Wiles? He's been deteriorating for many years so I can see how one would be hesitant to predict that it suddenly comes to a head in 2026.

Will Rhodes's avatar

Immediately correct on #10

(or sort of, kidnapping, president, maduro, declaring victory, and just assuming you’ll pump and sell oil)

I am sure the increasingly unstable quagmire will come

John's avatar

We are indeed immediately stress testing number 10.

Colin Chaudhuri's avatar

Just a note about predictions regarding the economy, the Fed and inflation. Next year “shelter” is going to have very strong downward pressure on inflation. Rents went down nationally throughout the US and especially in the Sunbelt

This is important as shelter is the biggest component of CPI and PCE. Combine that with the fact that a lot of businesses are likely holding off price increases assuming SCOTUS will bail Trump out and we could have some “softer” than expected inflation. However, given that companies can’t just ignore tariffs, think it’s likely you’ll have more layoffs and possible drop in consumer spending (in other words recession). Meaning having Trump toadies lowering the Fed funds rate may not be as damaging as it maybe should be.

Basically my prediction is be prepared for another year of disconnect between underlying economic numbers and people having a very negative opinion of the economy. Continued rising prices for goods (like food) that Americans purchase on some sort of regular basis, higher unemployment, but still decent GDP (due to tech and continued spending from the top 5% who can eat the higher prices) and not so bad CPI readings (definitely the year to look at inflation readings that exclude shelter).

Terri Thornton Davis's avatar

Maybe J.D. Vance's wife will leave *him.*

Bartlomiej's avatar

Trump won't be impeached. The success in midterms (substantial one, yet without Senate majority) will be cited as a extorneration for the health-care only tactics. Trump, Miller, or Maga will be ignored by important democrats, who will try to craft a 'morning in america' message for presidential elections.