The Official Free Republic 2003 Predictions Thread

Me, Myself and I | December 31, 2002

[Timesink]

This is it folks, the place where we all gather 'round once a year to prognosticate about the year to come, for the sole purpose of hopefully being able to come back and gloat in 365 days.

So without further adieu, I'll get it started:

1) Hillary Clinton will not become president in 2003.

[hunter112]

Here's mine:

1. US victory in Iraq (aided capably by British forces) leads to disappearance of Saddam Hussein, presumed dead by most.

2. Iran is targeted next, after limited air strikes from British and US fighter jets, secular middle class reclaims Iranian government, but is beset with civil war from Islamic fundamentalists.

3. Islamic fundamentalists, deeply alarmed by events in Iraq and Iran, forcibly take over governments in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, a few other Islamic countries. This leads to attacks on the new leaderships from US and British air forces, other allies step up to aid us, most notably Canada and Australia. The nations of western Europe dither, as Islamic unrest causes rioting and demonstrations in their countries.

4. North Korea fails to get the fuel oil it needs, South Korea makes appeasement gestures toward the North, Bush removes US troops, and turns over the bases to the South Koreans. Desperate, and emboldened by the withdrawl of US forces, North Korea attacks the South, Seoul is left in ruins. Japan urges the US to make limited nuclear strikes in Korea, but only conventional bombs are used.

5. By mid-2003, news media outlets will start calling it World War III. This galvanizes support for the war effort in the US, Canada, and Britain (its already strong in Australia), and among the oldest generations in Western Europe, who remember WW II and its aftermath.

6. The stock market swings wildly on news of the war, but finally stabilizes midyear, then rises steadily, as defense spending shores up the economy. Oil prices rise in the first quarter, but then plummet upon massive pumping from Iraq, then the parts of Iran under control of the secular middle class interim government.

7. Falling oil prices cause a final collapse of the government in Venezuela. A US-sponsored puppet government is installed, but resentment throughout South and Central America increases.

8. The Republican majorities hold strong in the face of the war, Democrats are stymied to find an issue, and the Democratic primary race loses focus. Six or seven Democrat candidates look equally viable with each other by the time of the Iowa caucuses.

9. President Bush's popularity remains strong, at levels only slightly below immediate post 9/11 levels,

10. Osama bin Laden will not be found, but will find his power limited solely to isolated acts of terrorism in a few free countries (that will swing public opinion in those lands towards fighting the war on Islam) and battling on the side of Islamic fundamentalists in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, most notably.

[gorush]

The U.S. will become more socialistic. This has been my prediction for years...I have never been wrong.

[M Kehoe]

Some predictions are serious, and some are humorous. I'm trying to figure out which category to put my prediction...

I will win the FL lottery in 2003.

I know, the humor category.

Happy New Year!

5.56mm

[Dane]

The WoD continues in 2003 without success.

Huh the WoD had great success with the defeat of three major pro-drug state(Arizona, Nevada, and Ohio) intiatives in 2002.

It was only during the Clinton years that pro-drug intiatives had great success.

[Brilliant]

Either (1) The North Koreans will give the a-bomb to Saddam, or (2) There will be a Chinese-sponsored coup in North Korea, and Kim will be replaced with a saner and more cooperative dictator.

[aculeus]

Prediction for the Year -- you got a problem with this? -- 2020: Michael Jackson is murdered by his son/daughter who just saw that "baby on the hotel balcony" video.

[T. P. Pole]

1 - Ronald Reagan dies July 4th
2 - China flexes its muscles while we are dealing with Iraq and North Korea. Before it is over, China ends up doing a Gorbachev, with a Yeltsin-type leader taking charge after a Tiananmen Square-like protest.
3 - Pakistan breaks down. Threats of a nuke exchange with India happen, but is saved just in the nick of time.
4 - Serious assassination attempt on Bush. Plan nearly succeeds. Turns out to be a local nut, and not terrorism
5 - Immigration problem worsens - in Europe. The people in Great Britain finally have enough, but the government only takes token steps to correct issue.
6 - The crime issue in Great Britain changes folks view on arms, but, again, the government is slow to act.
7 - Castro dies. We find out several weeks after the fact.
8 - There is controversy over a female star's "shocking" sex role in a film. It leads to a public discourse over this sexual practice.
9 - UN finally crosses the line in most people's minds in the US. Movement under way to move headquarters to Africa.
10 - More governments in central/south America go the Venezuela route.
11 - Race riots in the US, triggered by a police shooting.
12 - Aurora finally makes it public debut.
13 - X-prize is won in spectacular fashion, but not until after a spectacular failure.
14 - Both China and Russia start a new race to the moon. Both have major failures involving deaths.
15 - Steps will be taken to stop email spam, but will not succeed.

And now for some guesses that have no real logic behind them. Wild guesses on things that I feel are due.
16 - Natural disaster kills thousands in the US. I'm thinking north-west. Volcano, tsunami, or earthquake come to mind. If earthquake, I'm thinking New Madrid or New York.
17 - Smallish asteroid makes it to earth, landing in sparsely populated area, creating a crater like the one in Arizona (Winslow?).
18 - Major scientific discovery in the area of energy, first denounced as breaking 2nd law.
19 - Revelation from the US government that a secret program in the past lead to the deaths of hundreds of people.
20 - An urban legend will turn out to be true!

[don-o]

Joe Lieberman will be exposed as a cyborg, who actually died in 1987. His calcified brain has been kept alive by the Rael Foundation in a hapless effort to give credibility to their cloning scam.

[white rose]

Oh, what the heck:

1. Saddam Hussein (along with his five or six decoys) will be assassinated by members of his own guard, in a general in-house bloodbath that'll make what happened to Nicolai Ceausescu look like a garden party at Buckingham Palace.

2. The Kentucky Derby will be won by a horse whose odds will be at least 20-1.

3. Osama bin Laden will still be dead.

4. Jimmy Carter will still be a jerk.

5. On December 31, 2003, White Rose will announce that those erroneous predictions posted in her name a year previously were done by an imposter.

[b4its2late]

Eagles Giants win the Super Bowl...

[jwalsh07]

Regime Change across the board:

Iraq, Iran, North Korea, the Vatican, untold Catholic parishes across America, and, of course, the UN.

[Momaw Nadon]

Attack on Iraq Betting Pool

[montag813]

(4) The borders will finally be addressed

How? By being opened? Dream on.

[DoctorMichael]

The Return of A+Bert.

[js1138]

I predict that eBay, Hotmail and Microsoft Windows Update web sites will go down this New year's Eve.

[snippy_about_it]

Hillary makes majority of public appearances wearing Old Crusty

No fair, that would be the same as last year. LOL.

[sinclair]

Titans win the Super Bowl.

[Libertina]

I'm a newcomer. What do bump and ping mean???
I'm predicting 1000s more newcomers will be asking for definitions of bump, ping, ROTFLOL, Series, cheese etc. Welcome to FR ScottBuck :)

[LiveFreeOrDie2001]

These may or may not represent my personal desires...

1) Mn. Gov Jesse Ventura has a bombshell of a new TV Talk Show and takes over O'Reilly in ratings.

2) Jesse Ventura then leads a new "Take America Back" grass roots party that is super-tough on terrorism.

3) The charasmic led Ventura party swells with members that are fed up with the slow moving war on terrorism and then encourage Ventura to run for President.

4) The brash talking Ventura "Shocks the World" and wins the 2004 Presidential Election with fellow Navy SEAL Dick Marcinko as Vice President.

5) All terrorism ends in complete fear of the tough, new, U.S.A.

[rocknotsand]

• Geo-political quality-control policies from US, UK, CIS grow closer, go active in Iraq war only, but the result is that the EU (France, Germany, etc) pulls even further away from 'The West' and noises re the European Army (sans NATO-American-UK baseline) get very much louder.

• Home defense in the US ends up meaning more larger larger larger Police forces since the terrorists/homicidial bombers are not a cohesive military threat at all -requiring military counter offensive - but criminals and anti-socials.

• No military invasion of any US territory anywhere but Huntington's Clash Of Civilisations is exalted as pure prophecy.

• The UN, EU, PRC grow even closer and declare eternal love for each other. Arafat rejoices, then has an accident at his bio-warfare lab. Strangely, the CIS and US 'West' grow closer too.

• Hillary is accused of having a toy-boy in her entourage but counters the rumour on Oprah by brandishing -with pure courage and self confidence simply oozing from every pore- her only indulgence, 'Rambo', her 10inch vibrator. Following this a media circus erupts:
  • People runs it on the front page,
  • NYT runs a neutral story and has a poll showing 87% of women over 30 have a 'Rambo' of their own anyway,
  • CNN does an expose on Bill Clinton's inflatable doll -exhibited the day after the 'Rambo' Oprah episode at his Presidential Library as an unfortunate and regretable oversight- crossing live to an exclusive DNC-PBS-linked talking head and former Clinton staffer who has just signed a million dollar advance deal on a book explaining the numerous Clinton administration 'bumpy days' that were resolved after the Clintons spent some quality time with their respective Chinese-made 'therapy toys'. The Reagan Whitehouse may have resorted to Horoscopes and Tarot, but "...the Clinton Whitehouse was at times full of them things," he says, "and the biggest user, the main advocate of 'toys' of all kinds, was the Attorney General, especially during the Elian [Cuban kid] thing".