Among the many many geniuses we misplaced in 2025 was satirist Tom Lehrer, who scandalized America within the Fifties and Nineteen Sixties together with his biting political songs, then left that profession within the early Seventies to show math.
“Political satire grew to become out of date,” he famously quipped, “when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.”
That thought crossed my thoughts as I deliberated whether or not to proceed my annual Gustadramus columna, the place I supply predictions for the approaching 12 months. How may I presumably discover mirth after a 2025 in Los Angeles that began with infernos, continued with a blizzard of immigration raids worthy of the White Walkers in “Sport of Thrones” and is ending with report Christmas rainfall and a gasoline line rupture that threatened to show Castaic into a large bonfire?
However hope and humor are what make life value residing, and President Trump makes Kissinger appear as inoffensive as Bluey. So behold my 2026 forecast, which is able to completely come true, as a result of my monitor report is extra excellent than an order of taquitos at Cielito Lindo washed down with horchata.
*Rick Caruso decides to not run for California governor or mayor of Los Angeles when he realizes JD Vance has a greater probability of successful than he does. As an alternative, the developer challenges L.A. Metropolis Councilmember Traci Park and simply beats her by spending $538 million. He then shocks everybody by siding with the progressives on the council, citing his Catholic religion and the truth that Jesus made the Democratic Socialists of America’s L.A. chapter appear as woke as, effectively, Park, a Democrat who’s about as blue on the political spectrum as a firetruck. Caruso makes use of his riches, deep connections and billion-dollar smile to resolve homelessness, housing affordability and get from the Westside to the Eastside in 20 minutes throughout Friday rush hour.
*Talking of will-he-or-won’t-he, Gov. Gavin Newsom decides to not run for president in 2028. He retreats to his predecessor Jerry Brown’s rural ranch in Northern California, shaves his head and broadcasts he’s taking a vow of silence till the primary leg of California’s high-speed rail venture is completed. Newsom by no means speaks once more.
*UCLA soccer breaks its contract with the Rose Bowl and relocates to a venue nearer to campus the place it’s supposedly simpler to fill the stands: The Unhealthy Information Bear Discipline on the Westwood Recreation Middle. The bleachers stay half-filled all season even because the Bruins end with an undefeated report, as a result of who desires to see UCLA play soccer?
A UCLA fan within the stands of the Rose Bowl on Nov. 22 because the Bruins misplaced to the Washington Huskies, 48-14.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Instances)
*Stephen Miller, the chief architect of Trump’s scorched earth deportation coverage, by chance applies Rogaine to his bald pate and sprouts an Edgar lower inside seconds. Seems he’s a modern-day Samson: his lack of hair was the rationale he was such a soulless ghoul. He rapidly grows a coronary heart and urges the president to not solely cease all deportations, however to go a full-scale amnesty and open the borders. For a era, Latinos title their first-born sons Esteban in his honor.
*For a whole hour, no political scandals hit the cities of Southeast L.A. County.
*The Angels make the playoffs for the primary time since 2014, ending an 11-year drought that was the longest in Main League baseball. They get swept sooner than downtown streets after a Dodgers World Collection victory parade.
*NASA broadcasts {that a} meteor is headed towards Los Angeles, main Mayor Karen Bass to efficiently order the evacuation of town for everybody besides her. L.A.’s horrible air high quality shrinks the next meteorite into the dimensions of a Chihuahua’s head because it lands on the steps of Metropolis Corridor, takes the elevator to Bass’ workplace and proceeds to criticize her for taking that journey to Ghana whereas the Palisades burned.
*Invoice Essayli is determined to show to the world he’s an excellent authorized thoughts, after a choose dominated he was “not lawfully serving” as performing U.S lawyer in Los Angeles, his prosecutors referred to as him imply nicknames behind his again and federal public defenders constantly beat him in instances involving protesters at immigrant proper’s rallies. He volunteers to prosecute the Hamburglar at a kindergarten mock trial — and he loses.
*Everybody working for California governor will get the very same vote rely within the June major, which means all of them transfer on to the overall election. The identical factor occurs in November, resulting in a runoff determined by a communal sport of rock, paper, scissors. The ultimate two candidates are former L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and British and American political commentator Steve Hilton. Hilton agrees to concede defeat when Villaraigosa guarantees to make him the marquis of Huntington Seashore.
*San Clemente buys all of the sand in Saudi Arabia to replenish its quickly declining coast and builds a 500-foot-tall seawall to maintain the waves from the shoreline. Town nonetheless sinks into the ocean as a result of Mom Nature stays undefeated.
*Border Patrol sector chief-at-large Gregory Bovino returns to MacArthur Park, which he invaded final summer time, on the identical day MS-13 holds its first worldwide conference. He ignores the transnational cholos and instructions his migra to gang-tackle a mango girl, then justifies the extreme pressure by claiming she squinted at him.
Modesto Nuts mascots Al the Almond and Wally the Walnut, together with particular visitor Woody from Disney’s Toy Story, work together with followers earlier than a California League sport in opposition to the Lake Elsinore Storm at John Thurman Discipline in 2018 in Modesto. Modesto defeated Lake Elsinore 3-1.
(Zachary Lucy/4 Seam Pictures by way of Related Press)
*L.A. County CEO Fesia Davenport, who’s presently on depart, returns the $2-million payout the Board of Supervisors awarded her after voters handed a measure to make her place an elected one, which Davenport claimed harm her repute. Her change of coronary heart occurs after discovering her disgrace in a Louis Vuitton bag left behind within the women room of the Kenneth Hahn Corridor of Administration.
*Extra low-level tornadoes descend on communities alongside Whittier Boulevard, the place twisters struck Boyle Heights and Pico Rivera in 2025 and Montebello two years earlier than. Scientists do emergency research earlier than realizing the phenomenon solely happens when former L.A. Metropolis Councilman Kevin de León is speaking.
*AI takes over Disney, proving that computer systems are solely able to creating slop by ordering a fifth “Toy Story,” a reset of Marvel Studios’ Avengers franchise, a Child Yoda film, one other crappy live-action remake of a Disney animated traditional. … Wait, that’s Disney’s precise 2026 slate? Informed y’all I’m a prophet!
