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Quote of the Day – Predictions
It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future. – Yogi Berra
I can make one prediction about 2025 that I am absolutely confident will turn out to be true: 2025 won’t turn out the way we expect.
I suppose everything may go as planned. Just as it is possible that you can get a royal flush when dealt a hand of cards. My 50+ years of experience as an adult makes me believe otherwise. Over that entire span of time, things never went as expected for a whole year. It might—maybe—go as expected this year, but I doubt it.
That doesn’t mean every unexpected outcome is a disappointment. Let’s see the hands of all the Ricochetti who on January 1, 2024, believed Donald Trump would not only win the presidency but win the popular vote and win all the battleground states by a big enough margin for a convincing, crushing victory. Now let’s see the hands of everyone lying about that. (Strange, they seem to be mostly the same hands.) For that matter, how many expected Trump would even get the nomination back in December 2023?
Every year sees the appearance of black swans, unicorns, unexpected disappointments, and unexpected triumphs. An old saying applies: “If you want to make God laugh, make a plan.” Predicting the future accurately is less important than adapting to it. Accept what you cannot change, improve what you can and keep moving. A former boss put it best: “Hope for the best; plan for the worst.”
Published in Group Writing
“Fasten your seat belts! It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
If 50% of the things that have been made possible by the Trump victory actually happen, I will call that a huge win.
We need to fight for every single one, and not get dismayed or start arguing when some fail. Of course some are going to fail. Let’s make sure enough succeed to sustain our precious country and our way of life.
The next year would be easier to asses, if we didn’t have evil people in DC and the media going about trying to create Black Swans .
Thanks for this evergreen wisdom!
Another great QOTD post by @seawriter. You too can share some truth here by signing up for a January QOTD.
That one I did see. I’m still not sure I like it, but much better than any visible alternative.
Not quite “royal,” but our monthly poker group had this one come up a few years ago in a game called “The Cross.” Players get two cards down and these are turned up one at a time. Everyone won about 35 cents.
I didn’t make any predictions about who would win the presidential election, but I did make one prediction that I was wrong about. I was certain that unless the election was a landslide, there would be millions of voters on the losing side insisting that they really won and the election was stolen. Maybe after hearing Al Gore and Hillary Clinton spending years moping about their losses and how they really won but were cheated, Democrats have had enough of the whining.
I predict one of the countries that ends in “Stan” will cause some problems. My dark horse prediction is Tajikistan. Takinopoopycantikiblahstan also has a chance of doing something terrible we have to deal with.
Is that the little African country between East Whizblatt and Wattalottaland?
I like that typo.
Prediction: math becomes cool.
https://twitter.com/andrewyang/status/1874368529140768798?
And you were right, to judge by my Twitter feed.
I’ve heard a little bit of whining on talk radio about how racism and misogyny were critical factors in Harris losing, but I hadn’t heard claims of election fraud. I’m not on Twitter, so I don’t disbelieve you.
There’s plenty of that, too.
I haven’t paid enough attention to know whether it’s the same persons making both claims.
You left out fascist and cult-like.
I haven’t heard so much of that lately. It’s there, but it’s well behind election stealing and racism/misogyny. What outpaces even election stealing and racism/misogyny, though, is anti-billionairism. It’s as though the orders have been sent out for everyone to denounce billionaires at least six times a day, blaming them for all our woes.
I guess the trillionaire corporation doesn’t like the uppity billionaires who threaten their hegemony.
Reminds me of how Bernie used to yell about “millionaires and billionaires” until he became a millionaire himself.
He’s one of the main denouncers.
It’s those billionaires and trillionaires!
It is amazing how much ‘the rich’ can scale.
Especially when go to tax ’em. “Yeah, let’s get those bastards, take their ill-gotten…wait – why are you looking at me like that?”