November 27 I hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday, and got some overdue rest during the weekend. There were some airline flight delays and other traveling inconveniences, as predicted. Although Venus will not escape from Mars and Ketu in Libra until December 12, Venusian dissonance will begin to ease next Monday, December 6, when Venus passes by Mars. Still, this improvement will only begin to mitigate the harms to Venus, the planet with the most affinity to the upcoming holiday season -- pleasures, luxuries, gifts and celebrations. The bright side is that after December 12, Venus will be conjunct Mercury in Scorpio through the new year. This promises creative and imaginative enjoyments for the holiday season. That Mercury runs its semi-annual retrograde December 1 to 20 can confuse communications, business contracts and gift buying, but this will not spoil the last half of December. The suggestion here is to delay major holiday gift buying and celebrations until December 12 and even then double-check your decisions until Mercury regains forward motion December 20. It would be easy, for example, to forget credit card purchases and exceed card limits. Purchases and celebrations after December 12 will be more successful and enjoyable. While there was a Thanksgiving spurt in retail sales, this may not continue, causing retailers to discount prices during the final days before Christmas. Bargains, then, may reward patience. Overall, the planets are favorable or at least benign for the holidays. It's about time we had a break! This does not mean, however, that world affairs will improve, for there is such tremendous destructive momentum in many areas that a renewal of Venus's grace cannot resolve consequential long term issues. There's a figurative blizzard of world issues spanning the globe -- from the U.S. to China to Iraq to the Ukraine. These will sorely test President Bush and will inevitably impact us all in some manner. Too, although U.S. election questioning appears to have calmed, this relates more to lack of news over the Thanksgiving weekend than reality. The battle in Ohio has yet to be fought in recounts and lawsuits. Indicative of this unfolding contest, today Jesse Jackson became the first national figure to join the fray. See the Truthout.org article, Jesse Jackson Joins Critics of Ohio Vote. Ukraine's election battle may be an omen for a similar struggle in the U.S. It certainly is suggestive. Whether you are resigned to a neoconservative victory or not, a world in increasing uproar with questionable U.S. election results creates a slippery slope for Bush, discussed in the November 21 Celestial Wheel. On December 6, Bush switches out Mercury for Ketu in his planetary cycles, which is negative for his governing. The historic period for the U.S. and the Mideast continues to unfold. I've slowly but surely making progress on the aforementioned in-depth Forecast, #58 The United States Chart Through Its Planetary Cycles. The historical review of the nation's planetary cycles (Dasas) is complete to the Gilded Age's ten year Moon cycle, which cycle the U.S. is repeating now. This Forecast is a major effort, more complex than I had considered, but it will be a wonderfully useful tool for all future predictive efforts.
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November 23 As discussed in the November 12 and 13 Celestial Wheels, Venus's transit through Libra (November 17 to December 12) is difficult for Venus being afflicted by both Ketu and Mars. And, of course, Mars/Ketu has continued to bring violence overseas and at home. All of Venus's significations are harmed, including: relationship, wife (for men), sisters, daughters, vehicles, wealth, harmony, pleasures, addictions, the reproductive system and kidneys. Today, Venus transits across Ketu, stimulating the above-listed harms. That it's Mars Tuesday, and the emotional Moon is conjunct Rahu, are additional influences suggesting special care in activities today. As Venus will next be sandwiched between Ketu and Mars and finally will transit across Mars December 6, we have a couple of weeks of Venusian sensitivity. Obviously, traveling and Thanksgiving celebrations can be stressful. It's best to err on the side of caution. Still, it's important to understand everyone's chart is different, and just knowing the period is sensitive empowers free will. I personally noticed my car battery was weakening, and yesterday morning had to get it jump-started. Because I expected the problem, it wasn't a big deal. If I hadn't anticipated a car problem, I may have planned a trip that would have been delayed or even completely blocked. I apologize for not alerting you again and more specifically about this Venus transit across Ketu and Mars. My excuse is that I'm still buried in the in-depth Forecast, #58 The United States Chart Through Its Planetary Cycles. The final composition promises to be revealing. It will also provide a framework for future Forecasts examining the country's path ahead.
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November 21 It seems the the Mars/Ketu inspired violence that peaked mid November did not bring a single signal event but instead expressed itself in the drawn-out Fallugjah battle (and other actions discussed below). Insurgents stubbornly defended using snipers, booby traps and other unconventional tactics. The U.S. routed them out by destroying literally the entire city, stimulating the broadening civil war. An unfortunate consequence restricts news reports. Reporters can't freely travel the country, and the public is therefore not being told the full truth. A thousand bees stinging are just as destructive as one rampaging lion. Mars continues in Libra with Ketu until mid December. We can also see Mars/Ketu energy, which includes not just violence but also irritation and sensitivity, in such diverse areas as: the NBA basketball fight, Republicans blocking the intelligence overhaul bill, election results discord, diplomatic maneuverings on Iran's and North Korea's nuclear programs and Russia and China kicking up their heels about armaments and oil. In the November 12 Celestial Wheel, I predicted Bush would also have a short Mars/Ketu fuse,
This was demonstrated yesterday at the international summit in Chili. MyWay.com reports in the article, Bush Pulls Top Bodyguard From Scuffle,
YahooNews.com reports a further dispute in its article, Formal State Dinner Canceled at APED. Here are the first two paragraphs,
I missed the cable news coverage on this event but note the Yahoo article goes on to say that Fox News is heralding Bush The Brave with great delight and fanfare. I wonder how the international community views Bush, the leader of the world's only superpower, literally throwing his weight around at a international diplomatic gathering? -- more likely as Bush The Bully. A CSPAN program last evening on the 2004 election featured the heads of the three major networks. This program is apparently the same forum at Stanford University reported in the November 16 Sacramento Bee's article, Major network news chiefs review election, look to future, discussed in November 17 Celestial Wheel. My concern then was that ABC, CBS and NBC hadn't gotten all the information before deciding there were no election irregularities. In last evening's CSPAN program, the three news presidents excused themselves from investigative journalism by the further claim that no election problems occurred because they didn't see any and didn't receive any complaints from the public. Following this logic, their next excuse denying election problems is to claim there couldn't be any because there were no voluntary confessions manipulating the vote! Yet, Mars/Ketu continues to stir up election controversy. At the NBC's cable station, MSNBC, Keith Olbermann sticks with his solitary reporting of the facts on his program Countdown. Today, Truthout.org published an article, Ohio Presidential Results to be Challenged, announcing a lawsuit to be filed in Ohio's Supreme Court. The article states, The lawyers have taken sworn testimony from hundreds of people in hearings in Columbus and Cincinnati, and will use excerpts as well as documents obtained from county election officials and Election Day exit polls to make a case that thousands of votes were incorrectly counted or not counted on Election Day. This, of course, flies in the face of the major networks' claims of no election problems. Perhaps NBC News president Neal Shapiro should tune in to his own network's cable channel occasionally and find out why his network didn't receive any of these complaints from Ohio. Considering all of the above, plus unreported news, it appears that Bush is on a slippery slope -- the now fashionable term used by the media when something is so clearly wrong they can't ignore it but don't dare disclose the facts. The next several weeks will reveal the true nature of Bush's mandate.
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November 20 The November 18 Celestial Wheel discussed the small government neoconservative strategy of cutting taxes and starting a war to create a huge budget deficit. This shortfall then forces cuts in domestic programs -- many safety net. While I foresaw this coming on the heels of the election, the process has begun even faster than anticipated. Today's New York Times article, Accord Is Near on $388 Billion Federal Spending Bill, describes this first salvo. Following are cogent excerpts,
I'm amazed the Democrats and the media didn't see this coming and aren't hot howling objections about this obvious set up. Watch too for free press and free speech constrictions. Already, a reporter in Boston has been jailed for not revealing a confidential source, and the TV networks are pulling ads and movies in fear the FCC will fine them for sexual indecency. While some may believe the government doesn't touch their lives, these and future neoconservative moves must affect us all for their radical impact upon public policy. The November 16 Celestial Wheel discussed Condoleeza Rice's limitations, stating in part, ...because she is emotionally fragile and cognitively challenged, Rice will be unable to weave the subtle fabric of diplomacy with diverse countries. This arises in part from Rice's blind allegiance to Bush, which is why he includes her in his yes-man group of friends/advisors. The media has been swift to critique Rice, bringing up her well documented shortfalls as National Security Advisor. I haven't yet looked ahead at longer term karmas for the Bush administration because the election results are not yet finalized. Vote recounts and investigations continue to advance, and the outcomes of these can have a range of consequences -- overturning the election results, undercutting Bush's mandate... To see how real the issue issue is, and how it how worries the neoconservatives, read the MediaMatters.org article, Conservatives rail against MSNBC's Olbermann for reporting election irregularities. Progress is being made on the in-depth Forecast, #58 The United States Chart Through Its Planetary Cycles. A preliminary observation compares the U.S.'s current ten year Moon cycle with it's previous Moon cycle, from 1878 to 1888. That was the Gilded Age, when industrialists ran roughshod over workers, and government corruption was rampant. The Progressive era, most notably under Teddy Roosevelt's administration, reversed this trend through democratic and inclusive policies supporting public collective goals.
Tonight completes the Leonid meteor shower. Again, watch for earth grazers, meteors skimming the atmosphere just after sunset.
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November 18 I don't want to beat a dead horse, or beat a still alive horse to death, but the nature of the election flaws finally dawned on me. As stated in the October 30 Forecast, #57 The Election Via the United States Chart, On November 1, Mars will transit into the eleventh house with the Sun, and because this is a combination for fighting between eleventh house goals and groups, election day must be tumultuous and ultimately negative for the government. Mars symbolizes machines, and when it first transits into a house/sign, Mars is weak, bringing machinery and computer problems. Election machinery malfunctions on election day are thereby the underlying cause of the erroneous election result. (Errors, of course, may be accidental or intentional or a combination of both.) Vote recounts and investigations should focus on this area, as the Ralph Nader recount in New Hampshire is doing. Other causes, such as restrictions on voter registrations, voter intimidation at the polls, ballot spoilage... may have occurred, but focusing on these would at best uncover related machinery malfunctions and at worst, distract from the actual problem of the voting equipment not performing properly. Truthout.org reprints another scholarly analysis on this topic from Yubanet.com, UC Berkeley Research Team Sounds 'Smoke Alarm' for Florida E-Vote Count -- Research Team Calls for Investigation. This is a convincing study, mirroring the University of Pennsylvania's Professor Steven Freeman's view, The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy. I noted this paper in the November 14 Celestial Wheel. In the March 24, 2004 Forecast, The Amoral Trio, I wrote about Bush, Cheney and Rumseld, all of whom have a Moon/Mercury minds. The nut of this explanation is found in the destricption about Bush, The Moon/Mercury mind focuses upon acquiring and wielding power at the expense of others and in my concluding statement,
This criminality is fundamental to the budget issue. Everyone is finally becoming concerned about the huge federal budget deficit, for it now is understood to threaten our economy. It would be unwise, however, to support the inevitable neo-conservative plan to balance the budget by cutting domestic programs. That would be the coup de gras of their malicious program to downsize government by removing the safety net for those unable to fully support themselves - the young, old, sick and poor. Here's their cruel and amoral strategy. First, cut taxes and then start a war. Finally, don't veto any excessive spending bills by Congress. These actions slash income and inflate expenses, creating huge budget shortfalls. Next, campaign to reform the entire tax system as a solution, while knowing this will not balance the budget because the underlying principle is to never increase taxes and always work to reduce them. Bush has spent many years convincing the nation that low taxes and further tax cuts are imperative for economic growth. Tax reform to balance the budget, then, is simply a smokescreen. (In fact, the promise that tax reform will be revenue neutral disguises the goal of continuing to shift the tax burdon from the rich to the rest of us.) Finally, faced with the impending tragedy of the dollar collapsing, together with the guilt of passing on a burgeoning national debt for our descendants to pay, the only budget shortfall solution is to cut spending. Now, we can't cut defense, for we're fighting a war. Nor can other security related costs, mostly contained within the Homeland Security Department, be cut. In fact, both these areas require further spending increases to keep us safe. Cutting social security by partial privatization is an obvious target, and this inevitably reduces benefits to current and future retirees. Yet, reducing federal pension benefits for the old is not enough to bridge the deficit gap. Cutting all other remaining federal programs thereby becomes the sole remaining choice, and these are predominantly safety net programs. Many other domestic programs pay for business regulation and the environment, areas the business oriented neoconservatives wish to cut to increase profits. For those of you who remember Ann Rand's novels, like Atlas Shrugged, this is Bush's socially regressive vision for the future. He is the mythical John Galt. The Leonid meteor shower is upon us. Peak periods are Friday and Saturday near dawn. Although this year's display will not match the intensity of the last few years, you may still see some brilliant earth grazers. These are meteors skimming the atmosphere just after sunset.
November 17 I dated yesterday's Celestial Wheel with today's date of November 17. I apologize for any confusion this may have caused. I'm plodding through in in-depth Forecast on the July 4, 1776 United States chart -- looking first at historical trends and events during the country's initial set of the nine planetary cycles (Dasas) to understand how each of the planets operate in this chart. This first Dasa sequence lasted 120 years, until 1896, at which time the planetary Dasas sequence began to repeat. I'll next apply this knowledge to see how those same planetary Dasas operate during contemporary times. Further, because there are primary Dasas, lasting from six to twenty years, and shorter term sub-period Dasa planets acting as modifiers, historical knowledge of primary Dasa planets guides interpretation of contemporary primary and sub-period Dasa planets. Thus, analysis can illuminate both the broad brush of the U.S.'s current ten year Moon Dasa and shorter sub-periods within this decade-long interval. Transits, the passages of planets in today's skies over the birthchart, also influence, but they do so in relation to the primary and sub-period Dasas influences and typically signify events. Dasas are the river and transits are weather events on that river. So, I'll first look at the Dasas for underlying trends and only then add transits to anticipate specific events. Regarding the election, which will also be discussed in the U.S. chart Forecast, three new articles are worthwhile referencing during this week in which everything is in flux with the transits (sign changes) of the Sun and Venus. I'm concerned here with both the unfolding and culmination of recounts and investigations and election news reporting based upon opinion rather than fact -- for the search for truth is being obviously hobbled by opinionated corporate media muscle, not illuminated by a truly free press. First, the Sacramento Bee's article, Major network news chiefs review election, look to future, is a fascinating snapshot on the major TV networks flawed perception. Below is the second paragraph, revealing that conclusions are drawn before the data is found.
How could NBC conclude the exit polls were wrong when it admits it doesn't yet understand why? This is especially disconcerting because exist polls are proven to be more accurate than voting results. Exit polls are used worldwide to uncover manipulated vote totals, not the reverse! UPI (United Press International) published Monday the article, Outside View: Lingering Suspicions offering better fact-based journalism in stating, Taken together, such factors could significantly change the vote in some areas, bringing the count more into line with the exit poll results. However, the reporter then makes the unproven conclusion that vote manipulators couldn't be caught, especially if this were a CIA or Pentagon plot. That a government conspiracy has scarcely been mentioned, and other vote manip- ulation techniques have already been documented, hasn't yet seeped through into that reporter's conscious- ness. The Wired News' article Vote Recount to Settle Doubts? is an honestly objective factual review. It explains why Ralph Nader is recounting votes in select wards (precincts) in New Hampshire. These recount results will document any problems with paper ballots and/or optical scanning machines, for New Hampshire requires a paper trail for all voting machines. These facts will then be available to scrutinize other states where voting irregularity questions are unanswered, especially those relating to the lack of a paper trail.
November 16 While everyone's focus has been on the election and Iraq, important positive news for Iran has been largely bypassed. Yesterday, the Washington Post article, Iran Vows To Freeze Nuclear Programs, announced that Germany, France and Britain have reached agreement with Iran to suspend its nuclear programs, bucking U.S. policy of taking Iran to the U.N. Security Council. This dovetails with the June 30, 2004 Forecast, #53 The Timeless Mideast Bottleneck -- Iran,
It may seem surprising that Condoleeza Rice is reported to be Bush's choice for Secretary of State. However, Rice has strong connections with Bush in her exalted Jupiter sitting on his first house and her Moon conjunct his Sun. The first brings apparent wisdom and fortune to Bush and the second, a spiritual connection. This appointment also falls in line with Bush replacing some of his father's friends with his own. Rice, however, continues to experience the transformation of Sadi Sati (when Saturn crosses the houses around the Moon), and because she is emotionally fragile and cognitively challenged, Rice will be unable to weave the subtle fabric of diplomacy with diverse countries. This arises in part from Rice's blind allegiance to Bush, which is why he includes her in his yes-man group of friends/advisors. While the media downplays the Ohio vote recount, and the anger from the Mars/Ketu conjunction is lessening, challenge to election results appears to have faded. Keep in mind, however, that as discussed in yesterday's Celestial Wheel, ...everything is in flux this week. Note that the New York Times continues to move cautiously toward giving credence to this issue. Today, it prints four Letters to the Editor under the title, Still Skeptical After The Election.
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