Who Could Have Predicted?

I was all set to review my predictions for 2017 that I would have sworn I had made at the start of the year--but darned if I didn't actually make any.  I went through the My Two Cents archives all the way back to late December of 2016 and found no bold pronouncements on the year ahead.  I did notice that I accurately predicted the Badgers would lose only one game--but I had them in the National Championship Semi-Finals as Big Ten champs--and that didn't happen.  My Packers picks were totally wrong--as I failed to foresee Aaron Rodgers getting hurt and the team needing to call upon Brett Hundley to try and stay afloat.  Although I do usually say those Packers predictions should be thrown out the window if number 12 misses any games.

There were some things this year that I probably would have had in my predictions for 2017: More mass shootings and calls for gun control measures that are already on the books but are never enforced.  Although I certainly would not have predicted the scale of the Las Vegas shooting.  I would have been pretty sure that we would still be talking about Russia and the Trump campaign.  Accusations of sexual harassment and assault against the President would have been no surprise--but the liberal elite of Hollywood and politics turning upon themselves would not have been predicted.

I probably would have expected more civil unrest this year.  Everyone on the Left seemed so fired up after last year's election and then the President's inauguration that you would have thought that millions were going to take to the streets every other day showing us "what Democracy looks like".  I guess everyone realized that no matter what happens in Washington, it really doesn't affect your day-to-day life that much.  I also would have thought that former President Obama and Hillary Clinton would have their own daily shows on MSNBC to keep everyone fired up.

Locally, the announcement of the Wisconsin Herd playing in Oshkosh would have been easy to make--as would construction on the arena not getting done on time due to the way-too-short timeline.  I certainly would not have foreseen the sale of Lakeshore Golf Course to the Oshkosh Corporation for their new global headquarters.  As I mentioned earlier this week, you've got to hand it to the folks at GO-EDC for keeping that a secret for as long as they did.  But other than that, there really weren't many shockers in Oshkosh this year.

I'm off tomorrow, so I'll spend the extended holiday weekend looking into my crystal ball at home and come up with some prescient predictions for 2018.