The Amazing Kreskin
The Amazing Kreskin has some bleak predictions for 2014. (MICHAEL KUBel, THE MORNING CALL / September 21, 2011)
By Kathy Lauer-Williams, Of The Morning Call
8:25 p.m. EST, January 10, 2014
What does the new year hold for us? The Amazing Kreskin has some ideas.
The mentalist, who honed his skills more than 60 years ago in south Bethlehem, is still a force in pop culture. His name turns up in the new Martin Scorsese film "The Wolf of Wall Street."
When New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is confronted by the FBI in a key scene, he is asked, "Who do you think you are, Kreskin?"
Kreskin was born George Kresge Jr. in Montclair, N.J., and still lives in New Jersey. He developed his mentalist skills as a child spending time with family members in the Lehigh Valley.

In a phone interview this week, he offered his opinions and predictions for 2014:

Kreskin predicts a huge scandal involving the growing number of rehab facilities that cater to the rich.
"Actors and sports stars are going in and out of rehab, but the percentage of success is a little bit above zero," he says. "It endlessly repeats. When they leave they go back to drugs, because you don't do drugs by yourself."
Stormy weather
Kreskin, who had several shows canceled over the holidays because of snow, says that episodes of violent weather will get worse.
"The weather is dramatically changing," he says. "We're going to see changes we haven't seen in a hundred years that will result in more tornadoes and more flooding."
He says changes in the weather especially will affect low-lying areas along the coast and even New York City. "People will need to rethink where they build their homes," he says.
Government stalemate
Kreskin doesn't see any compromise or forward movement in the government. Things will stay the same until the electorate realizes they need to take action, he says.
"We need a Congress that will rise above money and special interests," he says. "We need to clean house because all the players are the same players doing nothing."
Tough economy
Kreskin doesn't see an immediate solution to the struggling economy.
"Job loss will continue and more students will be living at home," he says. "It's going to take time. People's work ethic has to change from entitlement to getting a job. The mindset is wrong right now."
He predicts a leader will come along who will inspire young people and help to start to turn the country around.

Kreskin predicts the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, will make a "very grievous mistake" in the next year and a half.
In 2013 the dictator threatened pre-emptive nuclear strikes against the United States and executed his uncle in an apparent attempt to consolidate his power.
But Kreskin says he will do something else that "will be extraordinarily bad."
Communism ends in Cuba
Cuba also made headlines in 2013, when Cuban arms were discovered hidden under bags of sugar on a North Korean ship. Kreskin says that when Raul Castro, who took over as Cuba's president from his ailing brother Fidel in 2008, dies that communism will die with him.
"The climate is such that the day he dies, communism will be done in that country," Kreskin says. However he says he has no insight as to when that will happen.
More violence ahead
Kreskin's predictions for the United States reveal troubled times ahead. "Our culture is becoming more and more violent and we as a nation are becoming desensitized to violence," Kreskin says.
He lays some of the blame on violent movies and television.
"There is so much competition for viewers the only way to keep people watching is more and more violence," he says. "Now young people are showing more violent tendencies."
kathy.lauer@mcall.com
610-778-2235
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