Zandar's 2019 Predictions

As promised, another year, another set of ten predictions, and it shouldn't surprise any of you that I'm going to reuse my first two from last year.  Here we go:

1) Robert Muller recommends impeachable offenses for Donald Trump.  I know, this is a huge bet: that Trump won't fire Mueller, that Mueller will complete his investigation this year, and that he will find something that warrants an official recommendation to Congress that articles of impeachment be voted on.  But I see it happening.  There's just too much self-reinforcing evidence at this point to ignore, unless you're a Republican in Congress, in which case...

2) Trump will wait until after Mueller's report is delivered in order to issue pardons.  More indictments in 2019 by Mueller are as close to a guarantee as you can get at this point.  There are so many targets, too.  But Trump will wait until the investigation ends in order to start dishing out pardons. That leads me to...

3) Trump will not be impeached in 2019.  I understand people want this to happen, but the Senate was never going to have the 67 votes needed to remove him from office.  There won't be a Senate trial without impeachment by Pelosi and the Democratic House, but I don't see Pelosi allowing impeachment to happen without an assured Senate conviction and removal, and that won't occur.

4) The Roberts Court will get a major decision on executive power related to the Mueller probe.  I think this is a given, but in a 5-4 world I don't know which side will prevail.  The state cases against Trump will continue regardless I would think, but I think it will be "Can a sitting President be indicted" and it will be answered.

5) The Roberts Court will effectively side with Trump in Gamble vs. United States.  The Gamble case is whether or not a person being tried for a state crime can also be tried for the same federal crime, and vice versa.  In a Trump world, this could mean a decision removing that sovereignty exception to double jeopardy means that Trump could pardon federal crimes for Cohen and Manafort and even himself and then not be tried for identical state ones, depending on the ruling.  I desperately want to be wrong about this one.

6) Hillary Clinton won't enter the 2020 race in 2019.  This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, but she's not going to be a factor, and I don't think she'll endorse anyone.  She'll say she's not running, Republicans will say she's running, some people on the left will say she's running, op-ed pieces will be written saying she needs to run or that she needs to make it clear she won't, irrelevant because nobody will believe her either way, but she's not running.

7) Bernie Sanders will enter the 2020 race in 2019.  This is as much of a no-brainer as Clinton not running.  Sanders will run, and he will lose badly, but this time Clinton won't be around for him to use as a lightning rod.  The primaries will effectively be decided in March 2020 with California moving up to Super Tuesday, and the Bernie camp got many of the reforms they wanted in the process in 2018, so when Bernie gets crushed, there won't be a damn thing he can do about it.

8) Dow Jones Average will be under 20,000 on December 31, 2019.  Trump's tariff war and a global slowdown thanks to Brexit, European Union issues, and the TPP passing the US by means we're heading full steam into recessionary waters.

9) Marvel movies will continue to rule the box office.  I do love seeing my Marvel predictions come true year after year, so this year, let's stretch it out.  Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home will all top $500 million domestically, each will top $1 billion worldwide, and Avengers will top $2 billion worldwide.

10) And of course, ZVTS will make it through year 11.  It'll be thanks to all of you who have stuck with me since the 2008 primary race.

We'll see what the future brings!