The world will not end in 2012 but I do have some predictions:
TECHNOLOGY:
Congress does not pass SOPA but there is little victory over it because similar legislation lurks elsewhere, including the horizon. Representatives also fail to feel a noticeable sting in their re-elections due to SOPA support and major corporations only learn to be more stealthy about support of such laws and power expansion policies in the future. Re-name and re-introduce will be their strategy and with no one losing an election over their SOPA sponsorship – it will work.
Apple continues to disappoint us with software and lackluster hardware releases and suffers from bad press about whether the company can keep its magic without Steve Jobs. As much as I want an AppleTV television right now, I predict it doesnt come out in 2012 (unless it makes a last minute appearance in October) and we continue being teased until 2013.
Facebook, despite not wanting to, finally goes public and i’m forced to learn what IPO actually means/is. It will not do well either right away or soon after having a gangbusters opening.
Netflix recovers from its series of terrible mishandlings in 2011 and no one even remembers the fiasco anymore, so much to the point that when this prediction list is later recalled, people will need their memory jogged over why this was even in here.
CELEBRITY:
Reverend Billy Grahm passes away. Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez go on to live.
Bill Clinton has a health scare but lives. Betty White lives. Lindsay Lohan lives but theres a close call.
Charlie Sheen stars in a new show. It doesn’t last long but doesn’t ruin his career. He mellows out and is all but entirely out of the headlines.
Megyn Kelly gets a new show on Fox and Jake Tapper hosts the sunday show on ABC (finally), like he deserves. Mike Huckabee also expands his career outside of his current weekend talk show but does not re-enter politics in any form, ever.
POLITICS:
Ron Paul does not win the Iowa caucus in the Republican primary. or any other state in the entire primary process. His fans cry fowl and then go on to either not vote or vote for Obama.
Donald Trump will not run for president and will endorse the Republican nominee (see below).
Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee, will choose a hispanic vice president (i’m hoping for either Rubio or Fortuno) and will ultimately defeat Barack Obama in the November election.
As is often talked about, Hillary Clinton will NOT switch places with Joe Biden in their respective roles as Vice President and Secretary of State. Clinton will in fact plot a comeback. Barack Obama, constitutionally allowed to serve 1 additional term as president, plots his own comeback in another run for president but waits out the following cycle to avoid a rematch with Romney. See 2013’s predictions for how and when Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey will run for political office.
Liberals who have been vocal about how disappointed they are in Obama all year change their mind and come out with vocal support for Obama again, making the election much closer than previously thought by popular wisdom.
Republicans will keep the House and just barely capture the senate – possibly causing a 50/50 split.
The Tea Party will fuck up chances for bigger Republican victories and something will be done about that shit.
The Occupy Wall Street bullshit fizzles even faster than the nuts int he Tea Party get netted under control and more former supporters start to be more open about their embarrassment about what a masturbatory joke that whole thing was. Romney as the GOP nominee causes more anti-Wall Street activism press but not due to Occupy. The Occupy protests are forgotten as the non-consequential-to-history annoyances they were.