The Professor’s prognostications for the new year

Here are my annual state and national predictions for the coming year. Some of these are made because I want to see them happen. Others are made because I don’t want to see them happen and want to jinx them, and some are made because I really do think they will happen. You figure it out.

• Joe Biden will soon announce that he will run for president again in 2024. Kamala Harris will not be on the ticket and will be replaced by another woman of color. Some politicians who face loss of office will want Republican Liz Cheney as his running mate. Facing a Biden loss, some will say that the country must come together. Cheney will be endorsed by several members of the Bush family and their associates, theoretically bringing a lot of Republicans and Independents to the Biden camp.

• Donald Trump will be indicted. He will insist that it’s all a Democratic conspiracy. He will announce that he will be running for president, yet again. The Committee studying January 6 will report that the attempted insurrection will go down in American history as the most dangerous subversive attempt on our government ever.

• Republican State legislatures all over the country will continue to set up a Trump steal for the next presidential election while claiming that the Democrats won the last time because “… they stole it.”

• Alexandria OcasioCortez will announce plans to run against fellow Democrat Chuck Schumer for the United States Senate. She will be roundly criticized from all corners of her own party. Her profound ambition will be on display.

• Former Governor Andrew Cuomo will announce that he is re-entering the political arena. He will say that his political enemies were responsible for his leaving office and that he is not going to let them get away with political assassination.

• Sadly, yet another COVID variation will be spotted in South Africa, moving fast.

• Historic amounts of snow will be recorded in the northeastern United States. Records will be set.

• Cyrus Vance, the outgoing Manhattan district attorney, will have to face some tough questions arising from his handling of the Trump material that was in his possession while he was in office.

• Dick Wolf will announce a new round of “Law and Order” episodes that will secure a historic number of viewers.

• There will be hell to pay as New York Mayor Eric Adams announces the opening of two new prisons to take pressure off the unacceptable population at Rikers Island. One of the new prisons will be located on the west side of Manhattan, causing a NIMBY reaction seldom seen in New York. Adams will reverse himself on the decision to open the new prisons.

• Fourth doses of coronavirus vaccines will be mandated for all New

York City employees.

The unions will raise the roof, suggesting that they should have been consulted. Mayor Adams will suggest that the unions have no business interfering with people’s health.

• Governor Kathy Hochul will announce an anti-rat program for New York state. She will opine, “There are just too many rats in New York.” While people will appreciate the governor’s stance, her poll numbers will be less than impressive.

• Former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio will announce that he is in the running for president. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo will be heard to say, through a spokesman, “What’s the man been smoking?”

• Governor Hochul will have to face increasing charges that she accepted donations from powerful lobbyists and that she “gave back” to the givers, who will be identified for what they received in return.

• Co-op apartment prices will decline in the same proportion as the decline of the city’s population.

• The trustees of the State University of New York will pass a new rule mandating national searches for the SUNY chancellor position.

• A Bronx assemblyman will be arrested for taking bribes.

• Former Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver will be released from prison. The judge will say, “He has been in for too long while others, like Joe Percoco, who did far worse, are already out.”

You, dear readers will have a healthy and happy New Year.