Last Call For Return Of The Greek Fire

Long time readers know of my Greek Fire series of posts running through 2012 involving Athens and how much trouble the Eurozone would be if it defaulted.  Germany managed to get a handle on Greece in late 2012 and stabilized the country for a couple years.

In 2015, with the Greek government now falling apart and snap elections scheduled for three weeks, the prospect of a Greek collapse and exit for the Eurozone is again on the radar.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel came under fire Sunday over a magazine report suggesting she would be prepared to let Greece exit the euro should a far-left party win a snap Greek election.

Der Spiegel news weekly quoted government sources as saying Berlin sees a Greek exit from the eurozone as "almost inevitable" should the radical leftist Syriza party win the vote and abandon Athens' current austerity course.

Both Merkel and her finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had come to consider that Greece's departure from the single-currency bloc would be "manageable", the magazine said.

The recovery underway in other formerly problem economies such as Ireland and Portugal, the establishment of a permanent eurozone bailout fund and the creation of a banking union had all bolstered Berlin's belief that the contagion from a fresh Greek crisis would be limited, it added.

Greece's parliament was dissolved Wednesday after the assembly failed to agree on a successor to outgoing President Karolos Papoulias in three successive votes.

A snap election has now been called for January 25. Syriza is currently ahead in opinion polls.

German media saw the Spiegel article as an attempt by Merkel and Schaeuble to put pressure on Greeks and Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, who has vowed to end austerity policies.

Neither Merkel's office nor Schaeuble's finance ministry would confirm or deny the Spiegel report, which drew condemnation from members of both Merkel's conservative CDU party and the Social Democrats (SPD), the junior partners in her coalition government.

Nobody believes Germany is going to let Greece out of the Euro.  Pretending otherwise isn't even fooling the German press, let alone the Greek players.  Should the Syriza party come to power in Greece however, we'll see what happens.  Austerity has not solved the Eurozone problem for anyone, not Spain (25% unemployment, 54% unemployment for people under 25), not Ireland (still stuck with bad banks), and definitely not Britain.

We're right back into 2012 on that side of the pond, and it's going to get nasty soon.

The Huckster Is In

And I get to use The Huckster tag for another two years at least.  Former GOP Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has quit his FOX News show to mull over a run for the Clown Car 2016 ticket.

"I won't make a decision about running until late in the spring of 2015, but the continued chatter has put Fox News into a position that is not fair to them," Huckabee wrote in a letter to supporters Saturday evening released before his show started airing.

"The honorable thing to do at this point is to end my tenure here at Fox so I can openly talk with potential donors and supporters and gauge support," he added....

As Steve M puts it, that places The Huckster in the Jesus Bracket.

I think the GOP would benefit from brackets or division play for 2016. Jesus Division: Huckabee, Carson, Santorum. Establishment Division: Bush, Christie, maybe Romney. Midwest/South Governor Division: Walker, Jindal, maybe Kasich and Pence. Ambitious Fortysomethings Going Through the Motions of Being First-Term Senators So They Can Run for President Division: Cruz, Paul, Rubio. Pick the division champions and then start the playoffs.

That's not going to happen, so the likely survivor of the scrum is going to be whichever top-tier candidate has the fewest similar candidates running in his implicit bracket. It might be Rand Paul -- the Republican financiers seem terrified of his foreign policy ideas, but their response has been to offer money to anyone and everyone who's conventionally neoconservative. (That includes Huckabee, who's a Christian Zionist and has won Sheldon Adelson's Defender of Israel award.) But that means the pro-neocon vote will be split so many different ways that Paul might actually benefit from being out of step.

On the other hand, Jeb Bush might be the guy without competition -- maybe he'll get just enough votes by being out of step on immigration and education (there are still some moderate Republicans, after all) that he'll take the nomination.

Until now, it was looking as if Ben Carson might clear the Jesus field -- the religious right loves him, and he's a fresher face than Santorum -- which could have made him the last guy standing in addition to the front-runner. But Huckabee is so well liked that he and Carson will compete for votes.

Personally, I think this is going to be the nastiest bracket to watch too...or at least the most entertaining.

[UPDATE] On the other hand, Anne Laurie at Balloon Juice reminds us that the second Huckabee does actually run, his campaign instantly runs into a massive problem from 2009:

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee on Tuesday defended his decision to commute the prison sentence years ago of the man who allegedly killed four police officers Sunday near Tacoma, Wash., saying the defendant had received an unfairly harsh sentence because he was young and black.

That "cop killer pardon" is what kept him out of 2012, but in 2016 that represents the end of his political career among the GOP primary ghouls. 

Hood Rats

When it comes to 1) firearms and 2) sweatshirts with hoods on them, guess which one Oklahoma Republicans want to regulate to the point of making illegal?

Oklahoma lawmakers are planning to introduce a bill this February that would make it illegal to wear hooded sweatshirts, or “hoodies,” in public, according to a report from Oklahoma’s Channel 6 News.

Republican Senator Don Barrington will introduce the bill, which would make it a misdemeanor to “wear a mask, hood, or covering” either while committing a crime or in order to intentionally conceal one’s identity. If the bill is passed, offenders would be subject to a fine of $50 to $500, and up to one year in jail. The ban would not affect mask-wearers on Halloween or at masquerade parties, nor would it apply to people who wear head coverings for religious purposes.

The bill’s purpose is seemingly to deter crime. As Channel 6’s report notes, robberies caught on surveillance camera often show the perpetrator wearing a mask or hoodie to cover his or her face. With the bill’s language only prohibiting wearing hoodies while committing a crime or to intentionally hide, supporters say the ban wouldn’t negatively affect people just trying to wear a sweatshirt in day-to-day life.

Others, however, have argued that bans on hoodies — no matter the intention — only serve to exacerbate problems with racial profiling. CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin took on the issue when an Indiana mall banned the garment in March:

“This is about the pretext of being able to stop young African-American males,” she said. “Hoodie is code for ‘thug’ in many places and I think businesses shouldn’t be in the business of telling people what to wear. The Fourteenth Amendment protects us from this.”

We're for small government.  Unless it's for black people, in which case criminalize every aspect of their lives.

Bonus points: under this legislation, who decides if a person is wearing a hoodie to "intentionally conceal" their identity?  Why, the cops, of course.

Last Call For Tone Police

If there's any hard and fast truism in dealing with the Politics of The Perpetually Aggrieved in the Age Of Obama, it's that any conversation with the Perpetually Aggrieved involving race invariably ends with "Your implication that I may be racist is far worse than any actually racist things I may have done or said."  Once the game reaches that point, it then immediately ends with "You're the REAL racist!" and then endless outrage until the process is repeated.

Exhibit A in this game is Pittsburgh Police Chief  Cameron McLay.




Most likely this picture of McLay here saying that he will challenge racism at work and end white silence could cost him his job.

The picture of the chief holding the sign set off the Pittsburgh Police union.

FOP President Howard McQuillan told KDKA’s Marty Griffin: “The chief is calling us racists. He believes the Pittsburgh Police Department is racist. This has angered a lot of officers.”

Police Chief Cameron McLay released the following statement about the allegations:

“I was hired to restore the legitimacy of the police department. I did not seek these young activists out. I was stopping for coffee at First Night. Their message is not anti-anybody. It is simply a call for awareness. The photo was a great, spontaneous moment in time. Please join dialogue for community healing.”
Sources tell Griffin that McLay has been called to a meeting at City Hall regarding the photograph.

Police officers were so outraged by the photo, they thought it was photoshopped, but the police chief confirmed it was real.

A source of Marty Griffin’s inside the Mayor Bill Peduto administration has called the photograph potentially very destructive, with no upside.

However Kevin Acklin, the Mayor’s Chief of Staff, tells Ralph Iannotti, the mayor continues to support Chief McLay unequivocally in his efforts to improve dialogue between police and the community at large.

For now Chief McLay has the backing of the Mayor, but something tells me that's not going to last very long and the Chief will have to resign.  Which is a shame.  America should be backing Cameron McLay 100% because he's right.

But the Perpetually Aggrieved will most likely collect another scalp.

Back In Re-Session, Con't

Not only do Republicans control Congress, they control an overwhelming majority of state legislatures as well, include 100% control (legislative and executive) of 24 states.  In a very meaningful way, the gridlock in DC is no longer the battlefield, the states are.

That battle is all but over in 2015, and the red states have won.

The unprecedented breadth of the Republican majority — the party now controls 31 governorships and 68 of 98 partisan legislative chambers — all but guarantees a new tide of conservative laws. Republicans plan to launch a fresh assault on the Common Core education standards, press abortion regulations, cut personal and corporate income taxes and take up dozens of measures challenging the power of labor unions and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Before Election Day, the GOP controlled 59 partisan legislative chambers across the country. The increase to 68 gives Republicans six more chambers than their previous record in the modern era, set after special elections in 2011 and 2012.

Republicans also reduced the number of states where Democrats control both the governor’s office and the legislatures from 13 to seven.

Democrats have all but ceded the states to the GOP.  Democratic voters certainly don't care anymore.  So look for the Kansas model to become the new normal.

A new round of the culture wars is also inevitable in 2015. Mallory Quigley, a spokeswoman for the antiabortion Susan B. Anthony List, said she expects that measures to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy will advance in Wisconsin, South Carolina and West Virginia. Missouri, too, is likely to take up some abortion-related bills.

In Tennessee, voters gave the legislature new powers to regulate abortion, and state House Speaker Beth Harwell (R) has said her chamber will take up three measures requiring mandatory counseling, a waiting period and stricter inspections of clinics.

Conservative activists also are targeting Common Core, the national education standards adopted by 46 states and the District of Columbia over the past few years. Opposition from parent and community groups has become a hot political issue on the right over the past year, leading three states — Indiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina — to drop out of the program.

Some states will attempt to join those three in leaving the program altogether. Others will try to change testing requirements or prevent the sharing of education data with federal officials. In recent interviews, several Republican governors who support Common Core say they expect debate in their forthcoming legislative sessions.

“The biggest concern and opposition you hear from conservative legislators is, ‘We don’t want Washington dictating curricula,’ ” said Utah state Sen. Curtis Bramble, a Republican.

Obama is the only person standing between the barbarians and the gate.  And we only have two years of him left.  After that, if we lose in 2016, it's going to be a long, brutal slog.

Maybe we should do something about that.

Back In Re-Session

Tuesday marks the beginning of the All-New Even Worse GOP Congress, and the first order of business is repealing the last six years of President Obama's agenda.

The new Republican-run Congress convenes Tuesday eager to pursue a dream the party’s been chasing for six years: Dilute, dismantle or defang key Obama administration policies on immigration, environment, health care and more.

First up this month will be approving the Keystone XL pipeline that Obama’s been reluctant to back. Next on the agenda: Trying to overturn his November action easing deportation policies for millions of undocumented immigrants.

There’s lots more. Many Republicans plan to grill and possibly stall Obama’s defense secretary and attorney general nominees, try to block the president’s new Cuba policy and chip away at the 2010 health care law.

Republicans start the year with a lot of muscle. The party will control 247 of the 435 House of Representatives seats, the biggest Republican bloc in 84 years. The party will have 54 of the Senate’s 100 seats.

That means they'll control every aspect of congressional activity: topics for committee hearings, the Senate and House floor schedules and who can amend bills.

Democrats have three avenues of influence. Senate legislation usually needs 60 votes to stay afloat, meaning Republicans would need some Democratic votes. An Obama veto still would need two-thirds majorities in each chamber to be overturned. And Republicans are still prone to intraparty warfare between conservatives and more pragmatic lawmakers.

So the best case scenario for America over the next two years is that Republicans block themselves in Congress.  But this is what you voted for America.

Or didn't vote for.

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2015/01/02/5997090/gop-congress-returns-tuesday-ready.html#storylink=cpy

The Heat On Scalise

The first Democrat to call for Rep. Steve Scalise's resignation as GOP House majority whip is in the books, and it's Sean Patrick Maloney of New York.

The freshman New York lawmaker is the first Democratic representative to call for Scalise’s resignation from leadership outright.“It is beyond offensive that a member of House leadership would knowingly court such a hate group, and it is doubly insulting that Congressman Scalise asserts that he didn't know who David Duke was or the hate promoted by that group,” Maloney said in an emailed statement.

“Speaker Boehner should demand Congressman Scalise resign his leadership post immediately.”

Scalise said Tuesday that he regretted speaking to the group, founded by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, but emphasized that he was unaware of the group’s message. On top of racism and anti-Semitism, Duke has expressed opposition to a bill that would make discrimination against gays illegal and bashed the decision to allow gays into the military.

“Families like mine, children like mine, have no place in David Duke's racist vision for America,” Maloney added in his statement.

Indeed, after Scalise's own people admitted he spoke at David Duke's conference, they're now trying to retract the statement and are now saying Scalise was at a different event in the same hotel.

Kenny Knight is a longtime associate of David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who ran for governor of Louisiana in 1991. He’s been a key player in news that broke on Sunday that indicated Scalise addressed the white supremacist convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization when he was a Louisiana state representative in May 2002.

Knight said on Tuesday that it’s “totally incorrect” to say Scalise spoke at that convention.

“He spoke early in the day to a contingent of people, prior to the conference kicking off,” Knight said. “He was not there as a guest speaker at the conference.”

The right is now pretending the Scalise story is now over, and that it was faked or something.  The problem of course is that Kenny Knight is lying. 

The David Duke associate who disavowed membership in a white nationalist group linked to U.S. House Majority WhipSteve Scalise was at one time an officer in that group, according to public records. Kenny Knight told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune on Wednesday that he was not a member of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, but documents filed with the Louisiana secretary of state's office list him as treasurer of its predecessor, the National Organization for European American Rights, in 2000.

Further, a May 16, 2002, news release on an an archived version of EURO's former website, www.whitecivilrights.com, lists Knight as "EURO Louisiana State Representative Kenny Knight." The release says Knight was expected to address the group's May 17-18, 2002, conference.

Duke, the Louisiana neo-Nazi and former politician, created the organization to espouse "white civil rights." Knight is a longtime Duke political adviser and friend.

Knight has said he rented a meeting room for EURO in 2002 at the Landmark Hotel in Metairie as a favor for Duke, but he said he was not a member and did not line up speakers for its meeting. He said he arranged for Scalise, a Jefferson Republican then serving in the Legislature, to address their neighborhood group, the Jefferson Heights Civic Association, at the same location 2 and 1/2 hours before the EURO conference.

So not only was Knight lying about not being at David Duke's conference, he lied about not being involved in setting it up.

Meanwhile, look forward to more Benghazi, Grubergate, and IRS hearings in 2015, I'm sure.

Obama's Year Past, Obama's Year Ahead

NPR has been gracious enough to post the full, 43-minute interview that Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep had with President Obama.  If you have a chance to take a look at it, please do.  It's pretty fascinating.
I think the best part is when the President discusses the 2014 election and says that Democrats had many issues to run on in 2014, and chose instead to not run on any of them.  It's as close to an admission of frustration at the stupidity of the party that ran away from Obama because they were scared.

Now the GOP has an overwhelming majority in the House and a pretty solid one in the Senate.  Luckily, Obama is up to the challenge.

StupidiNews!

• Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, father of current New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has passed away at age 82.
• Pope Francis is calling for an end to modern slavery in his first 2015 mass, saying that all people have a "God-given right to be free".
• General Motors has issued another round of ignition system recalls, affecting around 83,000 trucks and SUVs.
• Higher minimum wages go into effect in 20 states this week, putting 29 states and the District of Columbia above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
• NYC wants to know if it can take Apple Pay, Bitcoin, and other digital payment forms to settle up parking tickets and traffic violations.

Last Call For Taking Stock Of 2014

The Democrats have been very good for America's corporate economy, and the trillions that corporate America has been hording are finally, finally now being put to use in expanding hiring and growing the economy.

Oil, the Federal Reserve and an expanding economy set the tone for U.S. stocks in 2014, as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rallied to unprecedented highs and extended the bull market rally past 200 percent.

The S&P 500 (SPX) closed 53 times at a record and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) climbed above 18,000 as accelerating growth fueled optimism in the economy and accommodative central banks sent risk-seeking investors into equities. Energy shares tumbled and airlinestocks soared as the largest U.S. crude output in three decades and OPEC’s refusal to cut production led to a 46 percent plunge in oil prices.

After last year’s 30 percent rally in the S&P 500, “it’s tremendous to be somewhere up in the double digits,” Richard Sichel, chief investment officer at Philadelphia Trust Co., which oversees $2 billion, said in a phone interview. “Stock investors should be very happy about having a follow-through like that. There’s optimism about the economy, and lower gas prices helped as far as consumer confidence.”

The S&P 500 rose 11 percent to 2,058.90 after gaining in 2013 by the most since 1997. While the S&P 500’s 1 percent loss on Dec. 31 left the index down 0.4 percent for the month, breaking a streak of six straight December gains, the index completed its third straight annual advance of more than 10 percent for only the third time.

The Dow added 7.5 percent to 17,823.07, slipping below 18,000 on the final two days of trading. TheRussell 2000 (RTY) Index of small companies climbed 3.5 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 13 percent. 

Doesn't seem to be too much "uncertainty" these days.  Wonder why that is.  Oh, yes, maybe it's because Republicans are now supposed to be taking credit for the Obama economy they've been attacking for six years?

Of course they are.  Will the public buy it heading into 2016?

Only if the Dems let them.

It's Criminal Almost To The Palestinians

The Palestinians have finally realized that if the UN won't help them (and the US will eternally make sure that it won't, no matter what Obama or any American president says about peace) then suing Israel in the International Criminal Court will have to do.

President Mahmoud Abbas moved on Wednesday to have thePalestinian Authority join the International Criminal Court, opening a new front in the Middle East conflict that could lead to war-crimes prosecutions of Israeli officials and that risks severe sanctions from Washington and Jerusalem.

The step is part of a strategic shift by thePalestinian leadership to pursue statehood in the international arena after decades of failed American-brokered negotiations with Israel. It came a day after the defeat of a United Nations Security Council resolutionthat demanded an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory by 2017.

“There is aggression practiced against our land and our country, and the Security Council has let us down — where shall we go?” Mr. Abbas said at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah as he signed the Rome Statute, the founding charter of the court, and a number of other international conventions.

“We want to complain to this organization,” he said of the court. “As long as there is no peace, and the world doesn’t prioritize peace in this region, this region will live in constant conflict. The Palestinian cause is the key issue to be settled.”

Naturally, we're already threatening Abbas.

An American State Department spokesman called the action “counterproductive,” arguing that it would only push the two sides further apart.

“It is an escalatory step that will not achieve any of the outcomes most Palestinians have long hoped to see for their people,” Jeff Rathke, the spokesman, said in a statement. “Actions like this are not the answer. Hard as it is, all sides need to find a way to work constructively and cooperatively together to lower tensions, reject violence and find a path forward.”

It'll never happen.  Bringing up Israel for war crimes tribunals is the only card the Palestinians have left.  The US will find some way of blocking it, of course, or will turn up sanctions to the point where Abbas is ousted and Hamas takes control, opening the door for another round of collective punishment.  Certainly Bibi now has his campaign issue heading into March elections in Israel.  But it looks like 2015 will be as bad, if not worse, for the Palestinians than 2014 was.  And that's saying something.

The Medicare Money Dance

More and more Republicans are starting to come around to the fact that denying their states Medicaid expansion means their constituents are paying tens of millions in federal tax dollars that are 100% going to other states, and Republican governors are feeling the heat, big time.  Thge problem is their own Tea Party legislatures, who would literally rather let people die than accept help from a black president's health care program.

Several Republican governors and one independent are meeting Republican legislative resistance to their expansion proposals. Some have tried to woo conservatives by adding "free enterprise" provisions, which require federal approval.

Perhaps the most aggressive GOP governor is Bill Haslam of Tennessee, who won re-election in November. Meeting with newspapers and others, Haslam now says Medicaid expansion is "morally and fiscally the right thing to do."

He told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that nearly every elected Republican in Tennessee "has run sometime in the last four years saying, 'I think Obamacare is really bad.'" He said his plan "is not Obamacare." Among other changes, it would offer vouchers to newly eligible adults to help pay for employer-sponsored coverage, and require co-payments for treatment.

Some top Republican lawmakers have praised Haslam's idea. But others vow to fight it, calling the governor's tweaks meaningless. State Sen. Brian Kelsey says Tennessee voters elected Republicans to shrink government, not expand it.

And Haslam is far from alone.

In Wyoming, Gov. Matt Mead opposed Medicaid expansion during his first term but now says it would save the state money and provide needed insurance to poor people.

A committee of Wyoming's GOP-controlled legislature created uncertainty, however, by endorsing a different version. It's modeled on an Indiana plan that would require new Medicaid recipients to pay into a fund similar to a health savings account.

Federal officials have not approved the Indiana plan, backed by Republican Gov. Mike Pence.

Alaska's new independent governor-elect Bill Walker and North Carolina's Republican Gov. Pat McCrory also face serious GOP legislative opposition to their ideas for expanding Medicaid. Virginia's Republican-controlled legislature has thwarted Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe's repeated expansion efforts.

And it gets worse.

Arkansas could become the first state to rescind a decision to expand Medicaid. Term-limited Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe negotiated a modified expansion plan with the Republican-controlled legislature. But Republicans made dramatic gains in the November elections, and some legislators want to undo the decision.

Republican Gov.-elect Asa Hutchinson has yet to announce his position, which could prove crucial.

That's right, Arkansas Republican hate people of color so much, they'll take away their health care.  Maybe they'll die or go to another state, right?

And let's not forget, Republicans in Washington want to take health care away from tens of millions for "principles".

Some principles, huh?

StupidiNews, New Year's Day Edition!

• Former Florida GOP Gov. Jeb Bush continues to quit boardroom positions and non-profit positions ahead of a possible presidential run.
• Chief Justice John Roberts says the Supreme Court will introduce a new case-filing system in 2015 that will allow the public to read case documents on the court's own website.
• A New Year's Eve stampede in Shanghai turned deadly as 36 people were killed rushing to get coupons thrown from a building that looked like Chinese bank notes.
• Average weekly jobless in claims in 2014 were the lowest since 2000 as more evidence rolls in that the economy's labor picture is improving.
• The Fedreal Trade Commission says Snapchat, famous for its "disappearing" messages that vanish after a short time, must submit its messages to an independent monitor.

Last Call For 2014

I wanted to thank all of you for sticking with me for another year.  2014 wasn't all bad for me personally, I have a new job and I love it, but for the country as a whole, we've had better.

Here's hoping your 2015 is a good one.






And yeah, this one still gets me. Every time.

Zandar's 2015 Predictions

Not sure if I can beat 7-2-1 from last year, but I'll give it a shot.  Here are my ten predictions for 2015:

1) Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul, and Jeb Bush will make it all official in 2015.  All of them will be in the race for the White House.  How far they get, well, that's for this time next year, isn't it?

2) Obama will have 25 or more presidential vetoes by the end of 2015.  Figure that's two a month, plus one for good measure.  Do not be surprised if it's less than this.  Mitch is not going to be able to get passed what he wants in the Senate.

3) The Supreme Court will strike down Obamacare subsidies in federal exchange states.  I'm not a lawyer by any stretch, but I know vindictive political backstabbing when I see it coming.  King v. Burwell is going to sorely test the GOP however.

4) Having said that, SCOTUS will also rule in favor of national same-sex marriage.  Hedge here that the decision may not come in 2015, but they'll take up a case to decide it before 2016. I just think Justice Kennedy wants this to be what he's remembered for.

5) Oil will close 2015 at under $60 a barrel.  Pretty huge hedge too, it'll probably be a lot lower.

6) Still feeling good about Marvel movies, so I'll say Ant-Man and Avengers: Age of Ultron will break $200 million.

7) Google Glass will officially get the plug pulled.  At least on the home version.  Watch for the business model to stay viable, however.

8) Apple iWatch will be huge.  Morgan Stanley says it could do anywhere from 30 million to 60 million, I'll peg my guess at 40 million worldwide in 2015.

9) My off the wall projection:  A US embassy in Havana will be in place, with ambassador, before the end of 2015.  It'll also be the end of Marco Rubio, but hey.

10) ZVTS will be here for another year.  Haven't lost on this one yet...

Have a safe New Year's Eve and 2015, folks.