2014 in L'Alpe di Siusi, fresh from the US and Australia.
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THE ARIES FESTIVAL 2025
“THE FESTIVAL OF THE RISEN CHRIST”
12/13 April 2025
© Malvin Artley
“Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.”[1]
Topics (linked to paragraphs):
Aries
The full moon
Current events
Signalgate
Iran
The main game
Why the rush?
Yemenis are from Mars
Sitting on the edge
Iran and nukes
Israeli nukes
The JFK files
24 hours
Liberation Day
A Father’s advice
You can’t fix stupid!
Saturn and Neptune
What to expect?
In conclusion
Greetings Everyone!
And welcome to the start of the astrological year for the West, which begins with the ingress of the Sun into the sign Aries. Here in the north of Italy spring is in full bloom. The last of the trees that bloom have done so. The final wisps of snow are disappearing from the mountains that ring the city. The land has finally turned to its lush green cover and flowers are displayed everywhere. We have made our yearly pilgrimage to the local plant nursery and our garden is in process now, including a new feature – the remains of a stump from a palm tree we had removed a year ago, the tree above the ground, that is. It had become a danger to the building next door and something had to be done, along with the fact that those trees spread like weeds, leaving tiny palm tree shoots all over the garden from the seeds they drop. But the stump remained. The gardening firm who took away the tree weren’t game to remove the stump, as they were not equipped to do so. My wife was not pleased, but we decided to have a go at it. If you ever have to remove a stump from a palm tree I have a word of advice: Hire a stump grinder or get an arborist to do it for you. We tried to remove it by ourselves. It shouldn’t be too hard, right? The tree was not that large. Well, after hacking away at that thing with an axe for a week or so and removing thousands of roots, the decision was made to leave the central part of the stump sans roots and leave it as a feature. Upon reflection, it was the sort of work our parents always told us that builds character. I am enough of a character as it is. I don’t need more. My muscles thanked me. I have washed my hands of it.
To other local news, people here, knowing I am American by birth, keep asking me what I think of Trump and the new administration. Most people here think Trump is pazzo (good Italian word. Look it up.) ‘Pazzo’ is nothing like pizza, by the way. At a birthday gathering for one of my wife’s nephews recently I was pointedly asked what I thought about the administration. I used that Italian word and slowly shook my head. They all threw up their arms and made various hand gestures in Italian (It’s quite a vocabulary) in agreement. And then we ate cake, which is what this administration is telling most of the world to do. Now, I know we are admonished not to criticise our leadership and to be impartial, give the guy a chance and all that, but sometimes some things just have to be acknowledged and stated. We will cover in this letter why such opinions on this administration prevail at present, but on to more important matters. I will be in the US for a family visit the last two weeks of this month, so I will have a chance to observe matters on the ground in the US. I am sure my family and friends will add richly to opinions on politics while I am there. That said, griping about politics and politicians is an age-old pastime, for as long as humanity has known politics. It is a diversion and conversation one has when there is nothing more useful to say, like talking about the weather – idle conversation. But with spring in the air, a sense of renewal pending – or disaster, if you like – we come to our present theme for this letter, the sign Aries.
Aries: For this year we will take a different approach to the twelve signs of the zodiac than we have in these years preceding. Instead of focusing on the individual we will focus more on the collective. For readers versed in the Western esoteric tradition we know this year is important. We have looked at the year 2025 in various past letters as to its significance. If you want a quick review or overview of the significance of this year I have compiled various quotes on 2025 as a web page. Firstly it has been stated that this year is the culmination of a cycle of work, the seeds of esoteric study for the West that were given out in Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine in 1875.[2] That was said to be the seed book for all that came out for the West thereafter. We have thereby reached an end point – and thus the point of commencing a new cycle of esoteric study and work. As is always the case in Western astrology, Aries marks the commencement point.[3] From this year, a new ray, or potency, is set to slowly emerge.[4] In that light, we have the following to consider regarding our present world situation, which explains much to us and at the same time gives us the sense that all is within order. All that we are losing in this disruptive period are outdated and institutions that no longer adequate, and forms and behaviors (modes of thinking and feeling):
“…with the entering in of a new ray, and the commencement of a new era comes ever a period of much disruption until the forms that be have adapted themselves to the newer vibration.”[5]
We indeed stand at the commencement of a new era from this year forward. We see that the old post-WWII order is dying, that the new multipolar/nodal order is rapidly taking shape. Implied in that quote is that our level of spiritual energy and openness has been stepped up. But the old forms are no longer able to cope and the people who hang on to them are fighting mightily to hold on to the old ways of doing and thinking. Yes, we see the resistance to change in the adherents to the post-WWII order. We see it also in religion, where fundamentalists across religions, notable especially in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have gathered themselves together in what looks to be a final battle to preserve (on their part) their crystallized dead-letter misinterpretations of scriptures, corrupted through centuries by the machinations of human ego and quests for power over people and lands, forgetting the essence – the life – of the great Teachers who brought forth the foundations of their religions. We see it in economics, where greed has corrupted economic systems that should instead be instruments of service for all. Somewhat immune from crystallization has been pure science, but even there money and power have corrupted its just application as the explainer of the occult laws of nature to humanity, its ends having been bent toward the satisfaction of the moneyed and powerful interests.
We see in the commencement of this new era the start and ending of a lesser cycle of the larger 4th ray cycle that will slowly come in from this year. This is a 250-year cycle, one that has defined the rise and fall of empires. This has been sensed by several prominent commentators, meaning that such types of cycles are beginning to become part of the public consciousness. This 250-year cycle was recently summarized and synthesized by economist Ray Dalio in a short video. We examined this cycle in the 2023 Pisces letter (Topic: “Other cycles”), the cycle having been outlined over a century ago. Now we can see it in a modern presentation. Consider the following:
“Those who have thus trained the mind in the art of clear thinking, the focussing of the attention, and consequent receptivity to truth have always been with us, but hitherto have been few and far between. They [Page 16] are the outstanding minds of the ages. But now they are many and increasingly found. The minds of the [human] race are in process of training and many are hovering on the borders of a new knowledge. The intuition which guides all advanced thinkers into the newer fields of learning is but the forerunner of that omniscience which characterises the soul. The truth about all things exists, and we call it omniscience, infallibility, the “correct knowledge” of the Hindu philosophy. When [humanity] grasps a fragment of it and absorbs it into the racial consciousness we call it the formulation of a law, a discovery of one or other of nature’s processes. Hitherto this has been a slow and piecemeal undertaking. Later, and before so very long, light will pour in, truth will be revealed and the race will enter upon its heritage—the heritage of the soul.”[6]
The West has seen the completion of two such 250-year cycles, making the subcycle of another of the greater cycles, that of the 2nd ray, of 500/5000 years’ duration. The past 500 years have been centuries of extraordinary advancement of human evolution, as well as having been extremely violent at times. The first half of the 500-year term was the ‘European moment’, while the 2nd half was the rise of the British Empire, in the latter stages to become the Anglo-American Empire. As has always been the case with empires, there are a decade or two preceding the fall of one empire and rise of the next, plus another decade or two of a ‘settling-in’ period. If the calculations are correct, we are directly at the inflexion point between the ‘empires’. Empires is in half-quotes because what is emerging will not be an empire as we have known them, but nodes of influence based in a win-win ethic, as we are also moving between two astrological ages, from Pisces to Aquarius. All of this is leading us to a specific event, which is called the externalization of the spiritual hierarchy on this planet. This term ‘hierarchy’ has been much maligned in recent years. It has nothing whatsoever to do with some dark cabal that seeks world domination. Instead this refers to the various grades of spiritual initiates in the Kingdom of Souls, a hierarchy that expresses “love, wisdom, silence, non-separativeness and freedom from hatreds and partisan, creedal beliefs.”[7] In other words the Hierarchy, as it is called in Alice Bailey’s books is all about “Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward men”. With all the preceding points in mind, we have the following for this year:
“Thus a great and new movement is proceeding and a tremendously increased interplay and interaction is taking place. This will go on until A.D. 2025. During the years intervening between now and then very great changes will be seen taking place, and at the great General Assembly of the Hierarchy—held as usual every century—in 2025 the date in all probability will be set for the first stage of the externalisation of the Hierarchy. The present cycle (from now until that date) is called technically “The Stage of the Forerunner”. It is preparatory in nature, testing in its methods, and intended to be revelatory in its techniques and results…”[8]
Suffice it to say, we have certainly had quite a lot revealed to us since the end of WWII, and even now revelations from the past are coming fast and furious for us, largely thanks to the internet and air travel, which in themselves are a symbol for the growing ability toward telepathic interplay between people and the other kingdoms of nature. We all have a greater ‘sense’ now that events are either placing us on the right track or not, and it is the same regarding our sense about our leadership. In other words, our common sense has deepened. That is not true for everyone, but it is a trend worth noting and keeping in mind as the years pass. Regarding telepathy it may be of interest to consider the following:
“There is an interesting parallel between the three modes of telepathic work and their three techniques of accomplishment, and the three major ways of communicating on Earth:
Instinctual telepathy train travel, stations everywhere telegraph
Mental telepathy ocean travel, ports on the periphery of all lands telephone
Intuitional telepathy air travel, landing place radio
That which is going on in connection with the human consciousness is ever externalised or finds its analogy upon the physical plane, and so it is in connection with developed sensitivity to impression.”[9]
In an interesting sort of twist, ocean travel was the first to be developed, as humans have been seafarers for millennia, but was greatly expanded during the Age of Exploration, a.k.a. the Age of Colonization. But it was the 1st Industrial Revolution where shipping and ports really took off. Rail travel followed quickly therefrom. These events took place in the 1st Western 250-year cycle, while air travel was born in the Anglo-American empire cycle. Soon enough we will be adding space travel to the above listing. We can let our imaginations roam far and wide on that one. Atmic, or Nirvanic telepathy, anyone? That’s one for the Aquarian Age.
In the quote above we see the physical manifestations of spiritual impulses. All of the inventions above stated that have freed us from the limitations of earthly distances originated in someone’s or some group’s mind. By pondering on the seed idea and then applying willpower to its manifestation, we have the story of Aries:
“Aries is the place where the initial idea to institute activity takes form. It is the birthplace of ideas, and a true idea is in reality a spiritual impulse taking form—subjective and objective.”[10]
So, in Aries we have the three rulers[11] that describe the actions in the quote: Uranus on the mental plane as the hierarchical ruler, revealing that which was hitherto occult and imposing a new way of thinking; Mercury, the esoteric ruler and ponderous activity that connects the idea with the material reality; and finally Mars, the orthodox ruler which gives the energy to see the idea through, along with the zealous activity to ensure the idea comes to life on the physical plane, our ‘reality’. Hence we have the Aries esoteric motto: “I come forth and from the plane of mind I rule.”[12]
From what we have examined thus far in this letter, this cycle of Aries is of particular importance given the fact of changing cycles and entering upon a new era. It is thereby important for us as collective humanity to apply strenuous effort – for that is the way Aries acts – toward discerning the best way forward for humanity and the world, all according to our experience and situation. In terms of the emerging age, it will be seen that community is of utmost importance, with win-win cooperation taking the place of vying for the best seat in the house. Personal best instead of competition, contributing to the good of the whole, will be the call and mode as we slowly enter the Aquarian Age more fully. That mode was stated by one of America’s most beloved presidents in his inaugural speech in 1961: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”[13] With all these thoughts in mind, we move on to consider the full moon and the trend of events as they stand as we embark on this new era.
The full moon takes place on 13 April 2025 at 00:22 UTC (10:22 AEST in Australia, 8:22 pm EDT on the 12th for the US). The Aries full moon this year shows a t-square with Mars at the apex of the full moon axis. The only soft aspect to that axis is a separating trine from Jupiter to the Moon. The Moon itself is the handle/singleton of a ‘bucket’ configuration, the focal point of the entire chart, indicating the focus will be upon the masses as channelling the saving force reflected in the stellium, described next. The Moon is also the apex if a yod, with a Venus/Saturn conjunction sextile Uranus forming the base of the yod. Furthermore there is a 30° cross-sign stellium (Pisces-Aries) containing the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Saturn and Neptune, the north node and Chiron at the base of the ‘bucket’. The stellium straddles the 0° Aries, or World View point, indicating a fundamental change in the way we as nations and societies, view the world and interact with it. Mars is in-bounds, closing in on its final opposition (already in effect) to Pluto for this year, exact at the 27th of April and square to the new moon on the 29th of this month. All the planets are in-bounds now, indicating their normal functioning. In fact, the new moon of Taurus forms the apex of a close t-square with the Mars/Pluto opposition as the base. What does all this mean? – much as what we saw for the Capricorn quarter: Events are about to get quite ‘bumpy’, as if they weren’t already. Sparks will fly, and they in turn will ignite inspirations for those who are able to grasp them.
From this full moon and afterward it is forecast to be a very restive (and potentially violent) period, while at the same time being very clarifying. It will serve to shatter the old and crystallized social and international structures that no longer serve the wider humanity. The reasons for saying so will be covered in the remainder of this letter. It will be like the wild thunderstorm that clears the air for the days that follow. What we can expect to see in terms of events are potentially violent measures, upsets, the intervention of a ‘higher power’ (‘Acts of God’), acts of ruthlessness and in general, people and nations ‘showing their hand’. These lunations will serve to produce – or they will presage – events that will serve to draw out the souls of people and nations alike. Another way of stating the matter is that the soul shows its qualities in times of crises. Buddhists would say it is a wonderful time to perform pujas, as the results from the in-drawing of Light coupled with the events can produce sometimes miraculous results.
There is one more point to note regarding this full moon. Neptune sits on the Aries point, which will show in one of two primary ways: It will either stimulate the intuitive faculties in people who can access that level of consciousness and serve to clarify the astral bodies of people in the Path, or it will be used to delude the populace to act along deceptive lines. Negative propaganda will be in full force for reasons which will be outlined below. But there is another factor, that of the approaching Saturn/Neptune conjunction on the Aries point early next year, marking a change in financial structures. Uranus will make its first foray into Gemini in the middle of this year, then briefly retrograde into Taurus, before fully entering Gemini this time next year.
Uranus in Taurus has signalled changes in financial structures and resource management in the past, and it has been no different this time. This time around we have seen the rise of the Belt and Road Initiative, cross-border payment systems that bypass the SWIFT system, the formation of BRICS and so forth. The synodic Saturn/Neptune conjunction next year will cement those in place as unshakeable systems. It will mark the end of globalization as a Western control mechanism and the emergence of a more cooperative system of economic exchange. Dollar dominance will be a thing of the past. As it turns out, at the Wesak full moon this year, Saturn and Neptune will form a midpoint with the Aries point. That combination has been noted in cases of hysteria and we will begin to see the real fallout from the West’s collective economic policies, the progress being made among the BRICS members, as well as a particular Asian initiative between China, ASEAN and West Asian nations which is noted in the current events. All this is something to keep in mind as we move on to the current events and what is evolving for the remainder of this year.
Current events: The following have taken place since the last letter:
From here we move on to the main considerations for the remainder of this year, really – two wars, a few tariffs (presaging a new world financial restructuring) and an increasingly unstable West. We start with the one that has been the most troublesome on the minds of world leaders in recent days, one that if it erupts, would bring down the world economy. But first, this:
Signalgate: The Trump administration ‘accidentally’ texted the war plans for bombing Yemen to the editor in chief of The Atlantic. Sure. The Atlantic illustrates the dire state of American intellectual life. The author of the article once served as a prison guard in an IOF prison facility and dropped out of an Ivy League school. If the ‘leak’ was true, if it was an accident then it shows a major slip-up and amateurish behaviour by the administration. But it is doubtful the administration would be conducting a war planning meeting at the highest levels over Signal (the texting app, which BTW is not secure). And the conversation was rather high-schoolish (as recounted by Pepe Escobar. See Yemen video at end). It is also doubtful, given US intelligence capacity that this administration does not know who the Houthis are or likewise what their capabilities are. The West has been fighting the Houthis by proxy for years. The Yemen bombing is aimed at provoking Iran and has little to do with freedom of navigation, unless that applies to Israel. The ‘leak’ was also pointedly aimed at Europe, as in seeking to squeeze money out of Europeans. This leads to a point: All this talk of attacking Iran is more likely bluster than not. It is typical Trump art of the deal negotiating tactics. But it is perilous rhetoric at the same time.
Netanyahu and higher-ups in Israel, along with some American donors and members of Congress want this wider war with Iran, largely because Israeli society is fracturing rapidly and a big war, as we have seen in the past, tends to unite societies, at least temporarily. What no one is telling us, or worse if they do not know, is what a war with Iran would actually produce. And the most worrying part of the rhetoric we hear is the profound ignorance of such people regarding Iran and its capabilities (see the Blevins interview at the end). This brings us to the biggest danger facing us.
Iran: There has been quite a discussion on social media regarding a looming war with Iran. Watching the military build-up in the region, Trump’s threats of military action and the Iranian military forces being placed on high alert, what are we to make of the situation? War would appear to be inevitable at this point. But is that really the case? Before we dive into this – one of the more important scenarios before us – there was an excellent roundtable discussion on West Asian matters that is worth viewing in full. Much of what follows in this topic is either supported by or stated in that discussion. In addition there is another interview with Alastair Crooke on the situation with Iran that puts the meat in the sandwich, as it were. When it comes to Iran, no matter what Trump tries to do, indeed anywhere the US has tried to dominate before, he is surrounded with people who have a visceral hatred of Iran and who will sabotage any agreement that is made with the Iranians. The Iranians see this, hence their refusal to negotiate directly with Trump, or if they do, their justifiable reticence in signing any agreements with the Americans and Europeans.
Then there are analysts such as Scott Ritter who are seeking to place part of the blame on Iran for the tensions in the region for peaking, saying Iran should never have enriched its uranium, even though intelligence reports confirm that Iran is not on the path to obtaining the bomb. The whole situation is somewhat reminiscent of the Cuban missile crisis over 60 years ago. But even more to the point, the issue has never really been about nuclear weapons. The real issue is about regional hegemony and past hatreds. Iran is the one nation in the region that stands in the way of Israel (meaning the Anglo-American empire) realizing the Greater Israel hegemonic project. Iran’s nuclear program is the cover story for ‘justifying’ an attack on Iran. For the Americans there is still a strong sense of butt-hurt (as we say in the South) about Anglo-American interests being thrown out of Iran at the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that deposed the Shah. And now we hear that the Russians, Chinese and Iranians have met in Beijing and again in Moscow, no doubt to discuss the situation in the region. Russia and China both have vested interests in protecting Iran as well as long-range strategic partnership treaties – China for energy security and Russia for protecting its trade corridor with Iran and the Russian underbelly. What is driving all this?
The main game: We have looked at the drivers in this trajectory for some months now. The primary push is as follows: The overriding plan of the US, via the Israelis, is to complete the Eretz (Greater) Israel project, which would give the Western powers control over the energy resources of the region. Let us not forget that without the support of the United States the Greater Israel project would be dead in the water, and Israel would probably not even exist. But the powers driving the West and Israel see the present moment as their golden opportunity to finally see the realization of that project. This is their delusion. They mistakenly see Hezbollah as having been defeated, along with Hamas. We have the American special envoy to West Asia, Morgan Ortagus in Lebanon calling for the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah, thus enabling normalization with Israel. Both the Lebanese government and the Lebanese military are pro-Western, while Hezbollah remains firmly in The Resistance. Hezbollah has taken the period of the Lebanon ceasefire to reconstitute itself. It has not been defeated and will soon go to war with Israel again before they would disarm. Hamas and Hezbollah are quiescent at the moment due to ceasefire agreements and ongoing negotiations. But patience only goes so far.
The terrorist regime in Damascus is seeking normalization with the Zionists (who helped to create and sustain them). Iraqi militias, we are told are talking about disarming, according to Reuters, a claim which the militias deny. Reuters is known for putting out false stories. The two major obstacles (as the American-Israeli axis sees it) to realization of the Israeli project are Ansar Allah in Yemen, and Iran. To that end, we see the build-up of US forces in the region, with another carrier strike group to arrive there in the coming days. Trump says there will be direct talks with the Iranians in Oman on Saturday, while the Iranians say the talks will be indirect (through intermediaries) and ‘testing’. Trump says if the talks fail ‘there will be bombing the likes of which the Iranians have never seen’. (Everything is BIG with Trump.) This is not exactly ‘diplomacy’. What, then, do the neocons and Israelis want from Iran? They want impossible demands, ones which would hobble Iran, ones no other nation would accept except under extreme duress, and the Iranians are not anywhere near that point:
“The demands are that Iran should be denied a nuclear weapon; denied inter-continental missiles, and denied too other asymmetric and conventional weapons capabilities. All these demands go beyond the NPT and the existing JCPOA. To this end, the NSPM directs maximum economic pressure be imposed; that the U.S. Treasury act to drive Iran’s oil exports to zero; that the U.S. work to trigger JCPOA Snapback of sanctions; and that Iran’s “malign influence abroad” – its “proxies” – be neutralised.”
What the US and Israelis want is a neutered, defenceless Iran, ripe for the picking. In the PNAC planning Iran was supposed to be the 7th nation in five years who were supposed to fall to the US/Zionist forces. They want regime change in Iran as an outcome. For their part, the Iranians do not seem the concerned in the least with all of Trump’s threats. So, war is possible. The Israelis and the neocons in Washington think an attack on Iran would be a slam-dunk, a walk in the park. It would run in three stages, they think. The first wave of an attack on Iran would take out Iran’s air defences. They barely scratched those air defences the last time they tried. The second wave would be a decapitation strike on the religious leadership and that of the IRGC. Those are probably protected by impenetrable bunkers deep inside Iran’s mountains. The third wave, to their mind, would be to waltz in and take control of the oil fields once the ‘regime’ had collapsed. Of course, that idea ignores the other 80+ million Iranians left standing, who would no doubt not appreciate the effort to place them back under a Shah-like rule. The memories of the Shah’s cruel era are still fresh in Iranian minds. Plus, the Iranians have military complexes deep within their mountains and scattered about, magnitudes greater than those of Ansar Allah. But this is actually how the neocons think. Yes, Afghanistan and Iraq were both easy, weren’t they, so easy we had to stay in those places for 20 years and more, only to leave when the situation there became a lost cause. But there is one fundamental in warfare Israel and the West seem to be ignoring, ultimately to their defeat – Geography is the indomitable god of war.
Take a look at the map at the head of that article just linked and compare Israel to Iran. Then look at the distances. When we speak of geography we are looking at two factors, which are distance and terrain. The other main factor is the population of those places and the motivation of each region’s people. And when speaking of distances, we are looking at logistics. The nations the West has failed to subdue have two outstanding features: They are mountainous and they are far from the West. Compare the topographical maps of Iran, of Yemen, of Afghanistan, of Kurdish Iraq (northeast corner), of Lebanon, of coastal Syria and then North Korea. And then consider the Russians and Chinese, both deeply tied to Iran now. An attack on Iran would be a very bad idea. It would result in a decided trajectory toward an end of the Anglo-American empire and Israel as well.
Why the rush?: Why are Trump and Netanyahu in a hurry to settle accounts with Russia and Iran, respectively? For Israel, it was mentioned in the Aquarius letter (topic: “Who controls whom?”) that the end of this month, as in after this full moon, would see a political and social crisis in Israel, as well as for Trump. Israeli society is bitterly fractured, and Netanyahu needs a large war to take the focus off of his woes and to unite Israeli society. But what if he gives a war and nobody comes? From Alastair Crooke:
“Israel (Netanyahu) is going hell-for-leather on all fronts to mitigate the divisions and turmoil at home in Israel through igniting the Iranian front – even though this course might well threaten Israel’s destruction. This latter prospect marks the reddest of ‘red lines’ to ingrained Deep State structures.”
The sad tendency in the West, especially Washington is to reduce all situations to either-or outcomes. In other words, there is no nuance in Washington’s thinking. And for Trump regarding Iran, a deal has to come now because the snap-back clauses in the JCPOA resume at the end of this year. If Trump has a deal then those clauses could conceivably be enacted and weaponized. But Trump left the JCPOA. To be able to snap back the sanctions he would have to quickly conclude a deal. The Iranians are in no hurry. In fact what Washington is proposing for a deal is a dead end for Washington. And neither are the Russians in any hurry either, regarding Ukraine. But if you want to know what a war with Iran would look like, look no further than Yemen.
Yemenis are from Mars: It is high time we came to understand Yemen. Pepe Escobar was a member of a small delegation from the West who went there for a week to do just that – understand. (See Part I, Part II and video). The military build-up in Diego Garcia and West Asia by the West, led by the US, is not about Iran. It is being formed to first flatten Yemen. From everything I have read and heard outside of Western sources the US has no stomach for taking on Iran, much as we hear otherwise. The Israelis want us to, badly, but the Pentagon has gamed the scenario on numerous occasions and every time we take on Iran in war games, we lose. Once you see the Yemen 4K – Scenic Relaxation Film With Calming Music video, you will see why the Yemenis have been so difficult to defeat and why invasion forces fail, going back to the idea of geography.
The Yemeni military assets, control and command are housed deep within those mountains and are spread out. Satellite surveillance is useless against such a situation. American forces would face the same situation on the ground if they invaded as we did in Afghanistan. These people have long experience in open warfare in the mountainous regions, which is where Ansar Allah is located. An attack on Iran would be magnitudes worse for the US than what they are trying to do to Yemen. The US learned nothing from the Saudi war on Yemen. For all of Pete Hegseth’s bluster and lies recently in the Oval Office the US has not even scratched Yemen’s military, as evidence by the fact that Ansar Allah continues to fire missiles at Israeli-American shipping and into Ben Gurion airport. Ansar Allah does not operate in the open. Many of us saw Trump’s video of an American airstrike murdering a civilian tribal gathering on the eve of Eid, claiming it was a group of soldiers. Iran is not supporting the Houthis (Ansar Allah) as he claims. Yemen has its own weapons manufacturing. The Yemenis have faced much worse than what the Americans are dishing out now and for 7 years – and remain undeterred. In that vein, we mentioned Mars. Mars is:
“The School for Warriors, or the open grades for soldiers…Its teachers are spoken of as the “Graduates of the ruddy Fire,” and are frequently portrayed as clothed in red robes, and carrying ebony wands. They work under the first Aspect logoic and train those whose work is along the lines of the destroyer.”[14]
Perhaps the Empire has come to Yemen to see its last. Ansar Allah lives by the Shia code of honor, being a Zaydi sect of Islam. They see the Palestinians as a brotherly people and see no recourse to protect them other than military action when the Zionist forces are committing genocide against them. This is why they fire on American warships and any ships bound for Israel. They are a unique combination of the 6th and 1st rays, demonstrating utter devotion to their cause, with the resilience and tenacity of the 1st ray. They are an indomitable people. The crew in the White House have no idea with whom they are tangling, but are finding out, however slowly. But Washington’s war against Ansar Allah is also a test case, because what they are facing with the ‘Iran-backed Houthis’ as they pejoratively call them, will befall Washington many times over should they foolishly attack Iran. And Ansar Allah will still be there, firing away.
At some point, and soon, the realization will come to the White House that bringing Ansar Allah to heel is simply not going to be cost effective. Cost estimates thus far are over a billion dollars. Air defence systems are expensive and Ansar Allah can lob wave after wave of drone strikes on American ships and quickly exhaust the air defences. They have also downed almost 20 MQ-9 Reaper drones, each a $30 million a pop. That in itself rings in at over $600 million, downed by cheap, Yemeni-produced anti-aircraft missiles, using Yemeni-produced radar and targeting systems. That’s not bad for a bunch a sandal-clad camel jockeys with AK-47s, as the more ignorant folks in Washington like to call Ansar Allah. The Yemen operation will soon surpass the $1 billion mark. And with the American economy the way it is, continuing to play whack-a-mole with Ansar Allah will simply become unsustainable. Now, imagine what a war with Iran would cost.
Sitting on the edge: What we see over the remainder of this Aries quarter is a coalescence of events that will lead either to a big war in West Asia or toward the realization that Israel, aided by Trump, has hit a brick wall and can go no further. While we sit on the edge of our seats (those of us who follow these matters) there are serious discussions going on out of our earshot. Team Trump is up against a trio of nations run by teams of long range, strategic thinkers and planners, while we in the West run from one election to the next, worrying more about campaigning than about the state of our nations. And meanwhile, one-by-one the Trump team is beginning to show up its inadequacies – in terms of negotiating ability, of living up to campaign promises and so on. Trump supporters are still awaiting release of the Epstein files, purges of the Department of Justice, shutting down the Deep State, and now with the latest, the tariff gambit, which is supposed to bring jobs back to the US. But there is one more piece to add about Iran.
Iran and nukes: Just to be clear, neither Russia nor China wants Iran to have nuclear weapons. They are happy for the Iranians to adhere to the fatwa against those. However, the Pentagon has planned to use nukes on Iran in the event of war with Iran. Those are low-yield (5 – 7 kilotons), but a nuke is a nuke. Trump has threatened it, without saying so. It would be a grave mistake. To begin, the Russians and the Chinese would, shall we say, not look kindly on such a turn of events. (See Helmer-McGovern interview at end of this letter) For their part, the Iranians would, as Trump uses the term, “rain Hell” on American and Israeli bases alike. The Russians will not allow an American-controlled Iran on its southern border. The Chinese will not tolerate its largest oil supplier to fall to the West. The war would quickly escalate. Trump has given an ultimatum to Iran that they come to the table on a nuclear deal by mid-May. Someone may want to tell Trump that we already had a deal with the Iranians on the nuclear program, one which he tore up: It was called the JCPOA. Like the Russians, the Iranians see conflict with the US and Israel as being existential. It is doubtful the Iranians have any fear of Trump and they will not be threatened.
Israeli nukes: There is evidence the Israelis have used and are using specialized nuclear weapons on Gaza, in Lebanon and now in Syria. This is not fantasy or conspiracy. We are not talking about depleted uranium rounds. Those leave a signature of fissile material that lingers. Instead, the weapons just mentioned are quite small, use enriched uranium, with warheads the size of a baseball. They leave only a small amount of radiation at the blast site, but the damage is extensive. The type of weapon being used is classified. The US has these weapons as well. I am loath to use the term ‘secret weapon’ due to the conspiratorial connotation, i.e., that such a weapon is too fantastic to be real. We do not know about the Russians and the Chinese regarding such weapons, but doubtless they know of the technology. The story and the investigations behind it, still ongoing, is the stuff of a spy thriller, though.
The story about the possible use of such weapons surfaced in September of last year in an article by Dr. Christopher Busby in a post on Al-Mayadeen English. Busby is a British physician who has done extensive study in the field of the effects of ionizing radiation on the human body. His interest in Gaza and Lebanon was piqued when he started receiving reports of strange illnesses coming out of Gaza. There are two primary reasons this is being brought up here. Firstly, if what has just been described is true, then pressure needs to be brought to bear to expose and end it, with such weapons being confiscated and outlawed. Yes, it is a big ask, but over time it can happen. Exposure is a primary and necessary first step. The second reason is for health, for people who volunteer to go into such zones, and to raise awareness about the causes of the strange illnesses being increasingly reported. It is worth noting that the researchers who claimed a breakthrough in cold fusion, who worked with the apparatus that produced it, are all dead from strange cancers.
Marie Curie, who with her husband were the researchers credited for discovering radiation and X-rays way back when, died of aplastic anemia, caused by radiation overexposure. Pierre Curie was killed in an incident. The point here is the researchers into cold fusion were exposed to a type of radiation, the mechanism of which they were unaware at the time. Another reason this is important goes back to JFK. It was after JFK’s assassination – which it is now clear involved collusion between Lyndon Johnson, the CIA, Jewish and Italian mafias and Mossad – that the Israel lobby really took hold in America. One of the main reasons he was assassinated was because he opposed Israel obtaining the bomb and wanted the Israeli lobby registered as a foreign agent.
The JFK files release is curious not for what is stated, but for what is conspicuously left out. It has long been suspected that Lyndon Johnson and the Israeli state both had serious hatreds of the Kennedy brothers. On the one hand JFK was seeking to have Zionist organizations registered as foreign agents in the US, which the Zionists vehemently opposed. On the other hand it is known from FBI records that there were huge smuggling operations of arms to Israel, and after the Suez incident in 1956, uranium as well. Kennedy wanted the Dimona reactor in Israel inspected and was clearly against Israel developing a nuclear weapon. We note in particular the Israeli and Zionist fear of Iran developing a nuclear weapon, a case of pot and kettle. The Iranians have a religious edict (fatwa) against the development of such a weapon, but that does not appear to faze the Zionists in the least. The story is really about removing Iran as a threat to Zionist-Anglo-American hegemony in the region. But we come back to our thread here.
Now that the most recent dump of JFK files has happened, we note there is no smoking gun, that the definitive answer as to who killed JFK, as well as RFK, is missing. But it is not difficult to figure out. At this point an interesting narrative occurs, divided into two tracks – one useful and necessary and the other meant to dispel any interest in the JFK files. It goes something like this: Why does it matter who killed JFK? On the side of diverting attention, this is a case of the guilty dog barking the loudest. A recent tweet served to illustrate the point. There are parties, who would be implicated and exposed when people start to dig into the story, who just want the interest in the assassination to just go away. On the other side, in answering the question about why it matters who killed him, is that once the culprits are exposed it would also expose a long chain of corruption in the US, money laundering, smuggling, war crimes and the entire back story of certain movements, political figures at the highest levels in the US, organized crime connections as well as exposing a fundamental fraud that has been foisted on the Western public for over a century. Yes, it matters who killed the Kennedys, and we should show no sympathy for the devils who did it.
The Kennedy files also matter because that story is also directly related to the situation which we now face in West Asia, in fact a situation at least as dangerous to us as the Cuban missile crisis. That may not be overstating the matter, because nuclear weapons are involved there, too. The two best sources I have seen for information on the Kennedy assassinations (RFK and JFK) are from Ron Unz and an interview with Ryan Dawson, who is about to release a film on the RFK assassination. So, here is one of the biggest reasons why uncovering the whole story of the assassinations matters: Because it would finger Zionist involvement in the assassinations and thereby serve to rupture US-Israeli relations. And that is why we are not likely to see all the JFK files any time soon. We end our consideration of West Asia here and move on to Ukraine.
24 hours: The last time any of us checked our watches, 24 hours have passed since Trump took office. We recall he said he could end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Of course, we knew it would not be that easy. But it sounds good on the campaign trail. That said, Trump has a reason he wants to end that war quickly, and the same with the conflict in West Asia – because he wants to be able to coerce China into a deal so his economic plans can bear fruit and save the American economy. So the thinking goes. It would take all of America’s combined might to force China into submission – or so the folks in DC think. Like the Iranians, the Chinese seem rather unfazed by it all. But what do we know now about the sad state of Ukraine, given tariffs have taken all of our attention away from Zelenskyy? What we do know now was recently stated out loud by none other than the Grey Lady (New York Times): The war in Ukraine is lost. We know the war is lost because the NYT has revealed the depth of America’s involvement in that war. Of course, we have been following this and have known it for some time. The bankers and the US establishment have wanted this war for a long time, ever since the Russian Revolution, if not before. American bankers financed German rearmament after WWI to serve as a bulwark against Russia. And especially now, since neoliberal economics has just about run its course, they want Russia’s resources to continue financing the economy. Trump wants an off-ramp, but the Russians aren’t budging on their demands. An neither are the bankers, or for that matter West European politicians.
As it turns out, though, the news that was fit to print yesterday doesn’t fit today. All this time, as in the past 3+ years now, we have heard ‘Ukraine is winning’, ‘Russia is collapsing’ and on and on, like a broken record (if you are old enough to know what a broken record is). Well, reality has finally dawned on the Western powers behind this war, and factions within those governments are desperate to keep that war ongoing. All the talk of sending troops from NATO countries into Ukraine as ‘peacekeepers’ (which the Russians know is a joke and a ruse toward future conflict) is starting to fall flat. Nation after nation in Europe is refusing aid to Ukraine, as well as refusing the EU diktat to rearm Europe to the tune of €800 billion. The European public in the majority just isn’t buying “The Russians are coming!”
Meanwhile, Russia is focused on its own development and Eurasian integration. Militarily, the Russians are not in any hurry. They could easily go into next year. So, the ball is in the American court, so to speak. Europeans, for their part, have nothing else to contribute to Ukraine’s war effort. Trump wants to end the war quickly to move on to China, not for humanitarian ends. Some people might say, “Well, Russia could stop the war tomorrow!”, But that would not end the war, because the powers in Europe and factions in the US would rearm Ukraine and the whole thing would flare up again. What the Russians are demanding – and rightly so – is an end to the causes of the war, a just peace. They never wanted the war in the first place. And just to be clear, the Russians rightly call this a Special Military Operation. In a state of war, Kiev would look very different instead of how it looks at present. In terms of negotiations the Russians are sticking to their June 2024 positions and offer meaningless alternatives. Russian troops are advancing quicker and steadily along the entire front. There are rumors of a large offensive by the Russians in the next months. And still the US keeps shipping weapons into Ukraine. So much for peace in Ukraine. Instead, we have tariffs and worries about the economy.
Liberation Day: A.k.a. ‘Trump’s Tariff Tizzy’. Congratulations, America! Trump has just moved to liberate us from the burden of supporting the rest of the world. From now on, it’s America first (so long as a certain other nation approves)! On Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’, he announced “a “declaration of economic independence.” On April 1st (April Fools’ Day) the White House put out a statement on National Financial Literacy month (I am not making this up.), in which Trump stated “The United States is the best, most innovative in the world, and we want everyone to invest in, and reap the benefits of, expanding our nation’s prosperity.” The next day he slapped tariffs on nearly every nation. That was quite an invitation, Mafioso-style, or was the White House statement on the 1st just an April Fools’ joke? Maybe it was, since “products made by the penguins of the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands in the Antarctic will now come with a 10% surcharge.” True. The penguins are not happy. Jokes aside, who came up with these outlandish tariff figures? And who, in fact authorized their imposition? Well, it comes down to this: If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bulls**t – which is exactly what they did in calculating the tariffs. Basically, they were probably calculated with a LLM (an AI).
Apparently the White House has no financial or legal literacy. Washington has made the same sort of miscalculation about China (explained later) that the intelligence reports made about Russia before provoking the Russian SMO in Ukraine. The result was an absolute fiasco, not to mention crime. Washington overestimated their own capacity and underestimated that of China, and indeed the rest of the world. American exceptionalism had doomed the tariff project from the start, because they forgot about America’s weak spot – its debt. Most financial analysts I have read, like Michael Hudson, agree that Trump’s tariffs are an economic fast track to ruin for the US. The Toronto Star had a headline that pretty well summarized world opinion on the tariffs. Even Trump himself does not appear to understand that Americans will pay the tariffs, rather than the tariffed country. In the long run, Trump’s tariffs may win him the coveted Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award, a.k.a. the ‘Rigid Digit’, the latter which is likely to be the response of the wider world to Trump’s tariffs. This act has all the appearances of a return to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. Just so you know, the Russian Federation, Belarus and North Korea are exempted from the tariffs, ostensibly because we do not trade with those countries (actually, we do) – but we all know the real reason why. What follows on this topic is essential to understand.
Trump pronounced the imposition of these tariffs ostensibly because the US is facing a national emergency (see Sachs interview under recommended viewing). According to Judge Napolitano, Trump’s action is based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 signed into law by President Jimmy Carter:
“The definition of an economic emergency under the act…is an unusual and extraordinary threat to the National Security, foreign policy or economy of the United States originating in whole or substantial part outside the United States.”
The bolded text is the key to the matter here, but there are several points to be held in mind as we parse this act. Firstly, a tariff is in its essence, a tax. It is a tax paid by the importer, meaning the company in the United States or the government itself who is importing goods pays the tariff. The Chinese, for instance, will not be paying the tariff on electronics goods exported to the US. That cost is passed on to the American consumer, meaning we will all pay higher prices for virtually everything in the United States. Your iPhones will now cost more, thanks to the tariffs. Why? Why would we have to import so much? We will because the bulk of our manufacturing has been moved out of the US under globalization and neoliberal economics. The US has become a service economy instead of the manufacturing powerhouse we once were. Manufacturing of goods we need are now largely produced across Asia, in Mexico and in Canada. Now, we were not forced to move our industry out of the US at the point of a gun. American corporations opted to do so freely and quite happily in order to reduce labor and material costs – at the expense of American jobs. So, the US is not threatened economically by trading with foreign states. The economic threat is of our own making – or we should say, from the making of Congress, corporations and a tiny minority of the wealthy. In other words, Trump’s placing the blame of our economic troubles on foreign trade is just disingenuous, as well as being a scam.
Added to this background, once we learn about the laws governing tariffs what Trump has just done is both illegal as well as being unconstitutional. Only Congress has the authority to levy taxes, and Congress was not consulted. Read Article 1 Section 8 of the US Constitution. What Trump has just done is equivalent to taxation without representation, recalling the Stamp Act of 1765 and its effects on the American colonies. We celebrate July 4th every year in the US as a result of such acts. Congress, if they had any marrone,[15] would veto the tariffs and restore its constitutional powers. But there are not enough votes in Congress to prevent Trump overriding a veto. So, what are we facing as a result of our ‘liberation’, and who, exactly, is being liberated? The answer may come as no surprise, because there is more to this than meets the eye. What we are beginning to see are two aspects to the tariffs – a massive wealth transfer upwards to the wealthiest people in the West, and decoupling from China. The tariffs are really mainly about stopping China’s growth.
As soon as the tariffs were announced stock markets around the world took a sharp dive. The US dollar also fell against major world currencies. US stocks saw their sharpest dive since 2020, with almost $2 trillion in stock value lost. Apple was the biggest loser. iPhones and Macs are largely made in China, just so you know. European stocks took a dive as well. Nation after nation has vowed to retaliate against the tariffs. Internationally, then, the tariffs will produce an immediate disruption in supply chains and a reorganization of trade relations. The overall effect will be an ongoing American isolation. And then – all of a sudden – Trump placed a 90-day moratorium on the tariffs worldwide – except for China. The stock markets soared on the news and Trump’s cronies and Wall Street pals made a small fortune, for which Trump congratulated them.
So, we see how the wealth transfer will work. Instead of wealth trickling down, it will be pumped up to the highest levels. What American workers will gradually face, as is likely, will be stagflation. Meanwhile, instead of isolating China, Trump has managed to unite the Chinese. Vance saw fit to do the same. The Chinese are mercilessly trolling the US on their social media. And to top it off Trump boasted to a conservative meeting that 75 countries had called him to “baciami il culo” (sparing the sensitive), desperate to make a deal. Why not just insult the entire world? And what was it that caused Trump to apparently capitulate on the tariffs, if it was a capitulation? It happened when the Japanese suddenly started selling off 10-year treasury bonds. This displayed the weak spot in Trump’s strategy. Asian bond holders kept the tariff war in check. They are the bond vigilantes. When the bond market started to crater because the Asians were dumping treasuries (bonds), someone got on the phone to Trump and told him to knock it off. The bankers were not happy. Trump is not the one running this show. It is the bankers and large multinational corporations. Keep in mind the stock market is the playground of the wealthy and Trump can let that fall, but the bond market underpins interest rates. Money supply squeezes shut when interest rates shoot up. With Asians selling off US debt, interest rates in the US were poised to begin to rise and the economy to become unstable. But such dramatic economic moves also point to wealth transfer to the top.
The message of the tariffs was sent to China, thus revealing the entire plan. The tariffs were never about bringing jobs back to America. They were to be used as a weapon against China. The Chinese will weather this. At most it is calculated they would result in a mere 2.5% drop in their GDP, while the results for Americans and the 8000 American businesses in China will be painful. Trump and his team think they have set a trap for China for which China has taken the bait, but that may turn out to be an own-goal in the long run. Bessent has painted China as the ‘bad actor’ for taking the bait. But who is really acting badly here, referring to the US seeking to rein in China’s growth?:
“Bessent is obviously pleased that he and Trump were able to ‘pull a fast one’ on China. Bessent thinks that’s good policy. And, of course, the American people—most of whom are distrustful of China to begin with—agree. “China is ripping us off”, says the president whose nation’s bank account is $36 trillion overdrawn and whose country lives on ‘the generosity of strangers.’ “China is stealing our jobs”, say the corporate bosses who uprooted their businesses and factories lock-stock-and-barrel and shipped them to China to take advantage of the cheap labor and free security. But now China must be crushed for aspiring to compete with “their betters” in the USA. Now China must be ‘brought to heel’. Isn’t that what’s really going on? (if we’re honest with ourselves) Isn’t this really a case of sour grapes?”
Have a look at the video at this link if you really want to know a bit about why China has not buckled because Trump slapped tariffs on them. What we will see in the US as inflation rises, as it will over time, is media bashing of China. “Interest rates are rising because of China…” and headlines along those lines. What seems clear now is that Trump concocted the ‘tariffs hoax’ to ‘decouple’ with China (must read). The ignorance, racism and exceptionalism expressed by this administration on the rollout and comments around these tariffs have shown the world the true face of this administration. And then to turn around and pause them? Who would want to negotiate with such an administration? These latter comments have a bearing on talks in Oman regarding Iran and regarding Russia and Ukraine as well. A tangent is in order here before we look at what these policies will mean further on.
A Father’s advice: Regarding hatred and distrust of other nations, in George Washington’s Farewell address cited at the heading of this letter, old George had this to say to the citizens of the fledgling nation about international relations:
“…nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations and passionate attachments for others should be excluded, and that in place of them just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.”[16]
How did we get to this place of such misunderstanding and fear among the nations of the West regarding nations we have demonized over the years, whose leaders have been called the worst sorts of despots? We might consider the following, written decades ago, as a reminder:
“…it is the blind inertness and lack of interest of the masses of the people which permit the wrong men to be in power…it is the wrong use of money which colours the press and the radio in Great Britain and still more in the United States, thus keeping much of the truth from the people; it is the upheaval of labour everywhere which feeds the turmoil and forces unnecessary suffering upon the public; it is powerful, political and international distrust, lying propaganda and the apathy of the churches which still further complicate the problem. It is—above all else—the refusal of that public to face life as it is and to recognize the facts for what they are. The mass of humanity need arousing to see that good comes to all people alike and not just to a few privileged groups, and to learn also that “hatred ceases not by hatred but that hatred ceases by love”. This love is not a sentiment, but practical goodwill, expressing itself through individuals, in communities and among nations.”[17]
Expanding on the preceding we have this:
“…there is no truly free press anywhere; particularly is it absent in the United States, where parties and publishers dictate newspaper policies. The main reason why there is no really free press is based on two factors: first, the fact that humanity is not yet free from its predetermined reasonings, its basic ignorances of factual history, or of nations and their psychology; humanity is still controlled by racial and national bias and by prejudice…”[18]
Regarding history, the Trump administration is seeking to rewrite American history, which is something autocratic governments do routinely. We are not quite there yet, but the direction this administration and Congress are taking is unmistakable. It is a continuation of the dumbing down of America. The effort is part and parcel of the reasoning behind dismantling of the Department of Education. It is about the restoration of the American sense of exceptionalism at the expense of a shared history, at the expense of minorities. It is an attempt to erase what the administration likes to call the ‘radical left’ – you know, the people who advocate for social programs, care for the poor, taxes on wealth and corporations, everything the oligarchs hate. It is straight out of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. It is geared toward erasing dissent, keeping unbridled capitalism intact, toward reinforcing the idea that America is the one exceptional nation, the ‘shining city on the hill’, about erasing American perfidy – it is a long list. And just so you know, investigations are revealing a facet of the DOGE unrecognized, even denied by the administration. An unspoken part of the work of DOGE is to seize records of American malfeasance and corruption and erasing it, what Catherin Austin Fitts has called the great Whiteout. The end result will be, if successful, the institutionalization of American stupidity.
You can’t fix stupid!: I was told this once by a TSA crossing guard at RDU airport because I didn’t blindly follow his direction. I had a clear path to my brother’s waiting car and went for it. I was in no danger, nor was anyone else. But I didn’t wait for his instructions, even though it was clear that I could safely cross the road. It was a clear example of the difference between the letter and the spirit of the law, and of blind obedience to authority. This guy didn’t like that I crossed without his permission. I bring this up to illustrate a point, the title of this topic (see suggested viewing at the end) – across the West, especially in the US and UK, we are becoming increasingly aware of stupidity in members of the public. I am not referring to the readers of these letters, but to an unknowing and numbed public, who neither seem to know or to care about what is going on in the world or in the fun and games put on by their governments. But the reason it is so important for people to be aware of what is going on around them is that it gives people the tools they need to take care of themselves and their communities when the systems they think have supported them finally fail and they are left without any means of support. And that is where nations like the US, UK, France and Germany are headed as they dismantle their social programs.
Well, you can fix stupid. It is through a process called education, as in teaching people how to think instead of what to think. But the powers-that-be in every nation rely on that public group-think (re: stupidity) that follows only the media in order to further their own ends. It is how fascism arises, by always focusing and reinforcing public opinion about ‘the other’. It is why we see the leaders in Europe clamouring to warn the public about the non-existent Russian threat, or the West in general about the alleged various and sundry evils of China, or that ‘all Arabs are terrorists’, or that ‘Israel is our greatest ally’. The low level of public thinking is also reinforced by the team sport known as party politics. That is really what election cycles are for the most part, are they not – for the championship? We see that they are because the public good is rarely elevated in the West when a new leader is placed in office. “Meet the new boss. He’s the same as the old boss.”
This topic is brought up because of the very cycles we examined in the first part of this letter, along with the fact that the old order is collapsing. It comes down to this: The present leadership we have in the West in the key nations of the West, in the US and Europe are there precisely to bring about the end of the old order. They are not doing so consciously. They do it not through skilful means, but instead through their adherence to the diktats of the old order, through bad reporting by intelligence agencies, through corruption and through bribery, blackmail and sundry other means. It is not to say our leaders are inherently evil, but they are trapped by and products of the very systems they claim to govern. It is largely the moneyed classes who govern the West, and parts of Asia as well. The sooner the public realizes what the game is the better, and the sooner the new order can arise. We have no better example of what this topic addresses than the current administration in the US. It is abundantly clear to older and experienced commentators that the Trump team knows very little about Russia, China, Iran or Asia in general. Hence we see threats to those nations instead of diplomacy, New York real estate men seeking to do deals instead of practicing real diplomacy and ChatGPT being passed off as economic acumen. This brings us back to the tariffs, this time also with a look at Saturn and Neptune, from the topic of the full moon.
Saturn and Neptune: This initial rollout of the tariffs may have been enough for Trump, as he may see it as enough of a win that he doesn’t need to impose anything more than what he has done with China. Some nations will come to him to make a deal – nations who are weak and too tied to the IMF and World Bank, unable to bypass the SWIFT. China will not budge, though. We will find out at the Wesak moon and what follows on from this first rollout. But Trump has played his hand. The old experienced nations of the world see clearly what he is doing. And the tariffs are not the only matter at play regarding finances. We still have the two main conflicts with which to deal. And as it turns out, both of them are tied in with the financial warfare. A war with Iran, for instance, is not simply about Iran. It is about disrupting BRICS, as recently outlined by Pepe Escobar. But with regard to China, Russia and Iran, the three main BRICS partners, the White House has no clue how to handle them. We can expect, fully, that there will be no major progress to end those wars in Ukraine or West Asia, and Iran has been watching the attacks on Yemen very closely, the end result being they are ready for anything the US/Zionist axis can throw at them. Referring back to the full moon, if you want to know where hysteria will hit, it will be in the halls of power in Washington and Western Europe when they realize that nations like Russia, China and Iran are acting in full confidence and have thereby called Trump’s hand.
What to expect?: What can we expect from everything we have examined here? From the tariffs we can expect an acceleration of de-dollarization in trade as nation after nation realizes they cannot trust the West and the SWIFT system for trade, where their assets can be frozen and their trade blocked on a whim. It will accelerate cross-border payments in a nation’s own currency. The disruption of trade as the US seeks to control the four major choke points in transit – the Northeast Passage, the Suez Canal, the Northwest Passage and the Panama Canal – on top of tariffs will cause the break-up of the post-WWII order and the emergence of trading blocs based in familiar partnerships. We have examined this before, as blocs based in culture are a natural and preferred situation from the standpoint of Aquarian values.
The East Asian bloc is already solidifying, with Japan and the Koreas becoming trading partners with Russia and China, turning away from the US because of threats and tariffs. And in an interesting move, China will begin buying LNG from Australia, rebuffing the US. This was retaliation by China for the tariffs. Billions-worth of LNG is now sitting in ‘Gulf of America’ ports and stranded mid-ocean with nowhere to go. It left the Americans panicked and reeling. Australians can expect a visit from Marco Rubio. The tariffs were as big a miscalculation with China as trying to crash the Russian economy was at the start of the SMO in 2022. Trying to crush Russia was an abject failure, and the same will be true regarding China.
In conclusion: And finally, if the US/Zionist axis decides to go for broke – which is what it will mean – and attack Iran it will totally upend the entire world financial order. Maybe that upending is what is needed to finally bore some sense into the talking heads in Washington and Western Europe. Maybe, once the dust has settled, we will find that the actions of Trump and a few other European leaders have served to unite the world in a more just order, based on shared friendship and understanding. Gemini can unite as well as to divide-and-rule. And with Gemini expressed through nations we are talking about the US, Brussels (EU), the UK and Poland primarily, along with Trump’s Gemini Sun. We leave these thoughts for pondering, and return for some more Fatherly advice, once again for a fledgling nation:
“Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all; religion and morality enjoin this conduct, and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that in the course of time and things the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?”[19]
It would seem old George was ahead of his time, But his address was certainly wise, as well as visionary. In the coming age I have little doubt that the US, chastened by the lessons drawn from its vices, will live up to those words. The time is not yet, but the lessons are fast upon us. Let the events to come draw out the best and highest in all of us. Though the times be testing, the opportunities to live as souls are greater still.
Easter blessings,
Malvin
12 April 2025
malvin@malvinartley.com
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Suggested viewing: (Yeah, it’s a long list this time, but essential viewing, IMO)
Judging Freedom: Trump, Yemen and Iran Pepe Escobar, and more on ‘the phone call’.
Judging Freedom: Can Ukraine Survive? Wilkerson, with important points on free speech
Judging Freedom: Trump in a hurry; Putin patient Crooke on US, Iran and Russia
Judging Freedom: Prof. Jeffery Sachs: The Disaster of Tariffs (must see)
Dialogue Works: Helmer and McGovern Is Trump pushing for war against Iran?
Dialogue Works: Pepe Escobar from Yemen (We know nothing about Yemen) and Part II.
Dialogue Works: The West vs. Itself – a silent collapse? Alex Krainer
Galloway/MOATS: Bombing Yemen is the next best thing to bombing Iran
Reason2Resist: The Trump Administration Is Peace-Incapable John Helmer: Russia, Syria, Iran
Rachel Blevins: Iran Unveils Advanced Missile System Amid Trump Threats Marandi
PhiloNautica: Why Stupid People Are a Greater Threat to Society Than Criminals
Tucker Carlson: Captain Sherry Walker Reveals the Real Reason for All These Plane Crashes
Middle Nation: America Suffers Biggest Tariffist Attack in History
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