The Leo/Sirius letter 2024

Topics (linked to paragraphs): Leo The Olympics The Leo of the Olympics I’m #1! Satan or Lucifer? The full moon Current events The main events The end game The grand vista War on three fronts? The inverted pyramid Censoring the truth The French had an election? The US election Twins and Lions Trump The nature of US elections This casserole of mendacity Kamala Harris Election summary, for now In conclusion

Greetings Everyone!

Having returned from the Eternal City (Rome), I still find myself in reflection as the days pass about the various impressions with which the city has left me. And it was about time I actually went there, having lived here in Italy for ten years now. If one takes a receptive attitude and spends enough time to actually experience the place, as in immersing oneself in the energies, the history, the culture and especially the people, a city like Rome (and there are very few like it) can take one back through an entire cycle of one’s soul. An entire astrological age has passed, too, since Rome was founded 28 centuries ago, and it will overlap three ages – Aries, Pisces and Aquarius – as we move fully into Aquarius. The Aquarian age will be important for Rome, and for Italy as well, with Leo being the sign opposite Aquarius. If one has a soul history with Rome then being there once again brings back vivid impressions of past experiences. Not all of such experiences are pleasant, but many of them are. It all depends on what has happened in the past in connection with cities and people. Walking past the Roman ruins one gets a sense of the grandeur that must have been Rome at its height. Of course now one has to have tickets to get into the Fori Imperiale, the Colosseo, the Vatican Museum (be prepared to hike that one), as well as most museums – the gift of neoliberalism that keeps on taking. Cities can no longer subsidize sites like one sees in Rome. And in Rome there are just too many of them to be able to keep them maintained without charging admission. I was told that 20 years ago people could walk freely through such sites.

The Colosseum was constructed two millennia ago (there is another one in Verona), its main purpose being for entertainment of the masses, the display of ostentatious wealth and a symbol of Roman power and wealth. The events staged at the Colosseum were funded privately by wealthy families, by and large. The phrase ‘bread and circuses’ originated from the Roman satirical poet Juvenal in the 2^nd century CE, when the Romans had begun to lose interest in their historical political birthright, seeking to curry favor with the Roman populace through entertainment and gifts. The practice of giving free or subsidized grain to selected families was started by a wealthy politician, Gracchus in 123 CE. From Juvenal, we have the following:

“.. Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.”^[2]

Are events in the West really so different today than they were in those times, with media being more like ‘infotainment’, sport taking precedence over history, art and culture, politicians promising more ‘bread’ at every election yet delivering less each year, and so on? There is a most apt description of that phrase from our (in)famous Wikipedia, yet true:

“In a political context, the phrase means to generate public approval, not by excellence in public service or public policy, but by diversion, distraction, or by satisfying the most immediate or base requirements of a populace, by offering a palliative: for example food (bread) or entertainment (circuses). Juvenal originally used it to decry the “selfishness” of common people and their neglect of wider concerns. The phrase implies a population’s erosion or ignorance of civic duty as a priority.”

In the US and UK especially, that erosion or ignorance of civic duty has been by design, hence we (the people) no longer seem to be able to influence government policy. Entertainment, today primarily through telephones, is a huge distraction from meaningful conversations. But I digress.

One constant one gets when in Rome is a sense of power, as in Rome being a center of power. One gets that especially at sites like St. Peter’s Square. It is an awe-inspiring site. Rome has been a center of power and rulership for the better part of two millennia, first by the Romans themselves and then via the Catholic Church. Regardless of the Vatican being a city unto itself, it is still located within Rome’s city limits. But more than that, Rome tells a story – the story of the rise, fall and rise again of civilizations and especially, empires. The once great and all powerful Rome at the time of the founding of Christianity found itself overextended, unable to enforce its rule at its furthest reaches, then unable to finance itself and gradually falling onto ruin from within. It is the story of most empires – rise, greatest extent and power, decaying from the inside and then finally collapsing. We saw this in recent history with the British Empire and the Soviet Union. And now we are witnessing it with the demise of the American-led Empire, with its 800+ military bases worldwide. Hubris is a big part of the fall of empires, too. It was no different in Rome, was the same in Britain and the USSR and is the same in the American Empire. And part of the American Empire now involves Rome and Western Europe. That is in the process of change, before our eyes if we care to look. But we return to Rome.

Italy itself is ruled by Leo (soul) and Sagittarius (personality), whereas Rome is ruled by a Leo personality and Taurean soul.^[3] So, with Rome one gets the total spectrum of Leo, from the very personal to the loftiest of Leo expressions. We will get to what all that means here in a bit. The Leo personality of Rome is quite evident – the grandeur of the architecture, some of the greatest collections of art in the world, of all types, the Roman sense of uniqueness, as well as the warmth of the fiery Leonine heart. My nephew experienced the warmth of Italian Leo when he was here not long ago. He had been on an immersion German language study in Germany and came to visit us in Italy. He said it was like night and day regarding the Germans and Italians. In Germany he said people did not greet each other on the streets unless they knew each other. When he stepped off the train in Italy it was like he was embraced. He could not get over the openness and welcoming of the Italian people. Of course, the Sagittarian personality of Italy helps a lot with that, too. But this leads into our present theme for this letter – Leo. And as it turns out, Leo features in the American elections just under three months from now. But there is something else, too, and that relates to Leo and power, which can turn to tyranny or to benevolent leadership. We will touch on all that in what follows in the rest of this letter.

Leo: Leo is the one sign that is ruled in all three levels – orthodox, esoteric and hierarchical – by one planet, the Sun.^[4] Leo rules the heart and the spine. Our language is full of such language in terms of leadership, such as ‘having or growing a spine’ (courage) or having the heart to do something (passion and/or courage), or putting one’s heart fully into something (finding one’s passion). These are qualities associated with the orthodox side of Leo. But there are some particular considerations upon which we will focus in this letter regarding Leo, paraphrased and emphasized, as follows:

“The keynotes of this sign are exceedingly well known. They sound out the note of individuality and of true self-consciousness. Many people are convinced that they are self-conscious when they are only swayed by desire and are oriented towards the satisfaction of that desire or when they recognise themselves as the dramatic centre of their universe. Yet the only truly self-conscious person is one who is aware of purpose, of a self-directed life and of a developed and definite life plan and programme. Where [Page 289] these are present, the inference is that there is mental perception and some measure of integration. To be motivated only by emotion and actuated by desire is no indication of true self-consciousness. In the undeveloped person, it is far more instinctual than is self-awareness. In the truly developed self-conscious individual not only is direction, purpose and plan present, but also a consciousness of the active agent of the plan and action. Ponder on this.

There are two subsidiary yet potent keynotes of the Leo person upon which I should touch at this point if the nature of the influences wielded by Leo are to be clearly perceived. These are the will-to-illumine, which constitutes the driving urge towards self-knowledge, self-perception and intellectual positivity, and also the will-to-rule and to dominate, which is of such a controlling nature in this sign and such a subtle potency in the Leo type. It is this will-to-rule which leads a person born in this sign eventually to achieve self-mastery and the control of the personality (for either a good motive or a selfish one), and it is also the same tendency which leads a person finally to the control by the personality, ruled by Leo, of groups and large or small bodies of people. This—at an advanced stage—is an expression of the fusion of Leo energy and Aquarian potency. It is inevitable in the long run for people and races; for this all experience in Leo is preparatory. The will-to-illumine is that which drives all Leo people on to experiment and so to gain knowledge; it is this which links them with Taurus, which “carries the fair jewel which gives light upon its forehead.” In the relationship of Taurus-Leo-Aquarius, you have a significant and important zodiacal triangle as far as humanity is concerned…”^[5]

The last bolded point, as a matter of interest, takes us back to Rome, as mentioned above, with its astrological rulers going into the Aquarian age. The implication there is that Rome will occupy some center of particular importance in the coming age, though I have no idea at present what that might be. And the purpose may unfold a century or two into the future. The same is true of Russia via Moscow. But Rome remains an active magnetic center on this planet, as well as a center for active European unity, very likely in the role of economics, resources and the like (Taurus soul) – as well as connecting Italy with Russia via Moscow, once all this Ukrainian business settles and Washington no longer calls the shots in Western Europe. Again, that lies into the future. Keep in mind that Italy and Russia are closely connected via Leo and via their capital cities and the two cities have a role to play in the emerging financial restructuring the world is at present undergoing. Italy has its own internal struggles to overcome as well as foreign interference before much progress can be made in a full Eurasian integration, but a faint glimmer of what may be to come is with connections made through the Belt and Road Initiative with the previous Italian government and the attempts being made to rekindle them with the current government. Rome and China are both connected via Taurus as well as Rome and Moscow. Regarding Leo and self-awareness we really cannot go past the Paris Olympics, because there were Leo themes there.

The Olympics: Now that the Olympics have come and gone we can all get back to matters at hand and leave the circus behind. And the 2024 Olympics was quite the circus, for a variety of reasons. But we touched on those in the last letter (Topic: ‘The Spectacle’). In wrapping up the spectacle there are a few points of note. Firstly, for the first time (except for 2008 in Beijing) in modern Olympic history the Chinese matched the Americans in gold medals. We can probably expect China to persistently surpass the Americans in medals into the near future. There are several reasons for that, though the Americans will probably sweep the field in Los Angeles in 2028 (home field advantage and all that, like we saw with the Chinese in 2008). Now, the first point here is that the medals are not really supposed to be the goal of the Olympics. Medals are about national pride. The Olympics, on the other hand, are supposed to be about nations coming together in celebration of athletic excellence and mutual exchange. This brings in the first Leo theme.

The Leo of the Olympics: Every athlete who aspires to the Olympics fulfills certain Leo principles, outlined in the quote above. Leo is the sign wherein humanity first became self-aware, being able to say, “I am.” Firstly, the athletes are self-aware enough to know they have a chance of making the grade, to be able to win against the odds. But to do so they have to go through a period of rigorous training and self-development – physically, emotionally and mentally. They have to put their ‘heart and soul’ into that training. They learn much in doing so, about the process, about themselves, about the politics of sport and so on. This training equips them to go forward with confidence, building large reserves of self-confidence. All developed Leo types are supremely self-confident. Then, at the games, they ‘go for the gold’, gold being the color of Leo. That gold can either be in the form of a medal, or in the satisfaction they succeeded against the odds. And there are usually golden opportunities in the form of advertising deals, coaching and the like for medal winners after the fact. But the same rigors and training pertain to all great artists and performers, as well as to any highly skilled person in any walk of life. In going through the process of attainment of the goal – known to occultists as occult practice, meaning spiritual practice – self-development and increasing self-awareness is always the result, and always exemplary to those who look on in astonishment or appreciation of the results.

I’m #1!: We saw astonishing performances from athletes from across the world at the Paris Olympics. There were too many to attempt to list them. But there has always been the undercurrent of the number of medals won determining the outcome in the Olympics, as in who is #1. The Western powers have in general dominated in the medal counts. It has been a great source of pride for the West. That is starting to change, though, with China being the prime example. Why should Americans, for instance, with only about 4% of the world’s populace, dominate at events like the Olympics? There are many reasons why, with world-class facilities, emphases on sport in American culture, money and sponsorship for training, and controlling interests in international sporting and other regulatory bodies being primary reasons. There is another reason, and it is why China is rising quickly, as was explained to me while I was in Rome.

The First World (the Western, primarily developed world) has the wherewithal to properly feed, train and promote athletics. However, we note that China has recently raised the vast majority of its population out of the worst forms of poverty. The Chinese people are now well-fed, with good housing on the whole, now with world-class facilities for training, along with a growing national pride in their progress, and most importantly, with the collective will to overcome challenges and difficulties. Protein, for instance, which was once scarce, is now plentiful. The Chinese people are no longer weak, short of stature, with challenges with medical care and so on. The people in terms of height are now on par with Western societies. A lot of that can be attributed to the care and nurturing of the children in China. These are observations. In terms of quality of life (food, housing, etc.,) China has become a first-world country, even though the West still calls China a ‘developing country’. China also constitutes roughly 17% of the world’s populace. It is hardly surprising they are rising in the ranks of events like the Olympics. And then there are nations who excel at certain events, like Australian swimming, while they are not that great at other sports. The wider view here is that the baton is passing from the West to the East, in timing with the cycles. This is only natural, but it sticks in the craw of once great but declining powers that they can no longer be ‘the best’, even though such a notion is simply exceptionalist thinking. Then, there was the closing ceremony.

Satan or Lucifer?: Compared to the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, the world reaction to the closing ceremony was quite subdued. Of course the Christian world and especially more fundamentalist commentary saw the closing ceremony as ‘satanic’, not at all taking into account there may be another view. The symbolism was not so much ‘satanic’ as it was ‘luciferian’ – a distinction lost on the larger part of the Christian world. We won’t go into it here, except to say that anyone who has studied Orientalism and Theosophical literature would readily see what the symbolism of the closing ceremony represented. It was a very Leo theme – the bringing of mind (light) to humanity. France has a history with Masonry and Oriental studies and was more accepting of Theosophy than America and the wider Christian world. With France’s 3^rd and 5^th rays the French are more mental, more academic in their outlook than most nations. This also goes along with their Leo personality. But if you want an idea of what the symbolism actually represented, then you can have a read of the evolution of humanity at this link. Still, given the fact that most of the world would not know what the symbolism would mean, the organizers of the event once again misread the impact the closing ceremony would have on the wider world, which also goes to another point: Any message to the general public is lost if the message is too ‘heady’. It is not to say the public is stupid, but the general public tends to be more emotionally focused and more traditional in its outlook, with religion generally holding sway in distinction to spirituality when it comes to symbolism of the type we have witnessed at the ceremonies of the 2024 Olympics.

It would be an interesting study, however, if we knew the astrology of the athletes who won medals – or for that matter all the athletes who competed at the games, because they were all selected because they were the ‘best of the best’. If we were to take up such a study, we might expect to find Leo and Capricorn as prevalent signs. Those are the two signs most marked by ambition and self-improvement. No doubt we would also find other factors, like astrological aspects that give energy toward focus on a goal, forgetfulness of discomfort, willpower especially, as well as the ability (consciously or not) to attract sponsorship, which is vital toward making it to the games. We will leave any further discussion of Leo for this letter because we are facing one of the most significant turning points in recent history, and in the coming days, with tensions at a point of real crisis and certain factions pressing hard in key nations for escalation of those tensions. With all the above in mind we move on to the full moon and the more significant current events.

The full moon took place on 19 Aug 2024 at 18:26 UTC (04:26 am AEST on the 20^th). This full moon marks the major crisis and turning point for this year, and indeed a culmination point for the past decade. There is a partile t-square formed by the full moon axis with Uranus at the apex. Uranus imposes a new rhythm, a new architecture. The Sun is in close proximity to the degree of the star Regulus (α Leonis). Even though only one degree of orb is allowed for most fixed stars, Regulus is commonly given an orb of around 2 ½ degrees. Opinions on the matter of orbs vary, but at only 2 ½ degrees of separation, and approaching, the Sun is conjunct Regulus. We won’t quibble here, but these factors are mentioned for students of astrology. Regulus slowly drifted in to the first degree of Virgo in 2011, at the time of the Arab Spring uprisings (a.k.a. color revolutions), due to precession of the equinoxes, but it will always remain in the constellation of Leo. Its alternative name is Cor Leonis, the ‘heart of the Lion’. As such, that star gives the same qualities as what we would commonly associate with being ‘lion-hearted’ – courageous, daring and so-forth. With the Sun conjunct Regulus we have the following: “Power, authority, great influence over friends, honor and riches, but violence, trouble and ultimate disgrace and ruin, sickness, fevers, benefits seldom last.”^[6]

The wider meaning here is that this full moon will focus on leaders and leadership. Rank politicians will meet their comeuppance for good or ill, while statesmen will rise to the occasions presented. The Sun is the apex of a yod, with Neptune and Pluto forming the base sextile. The quincunx between the Sun and Pluto can point to power struggles taking extreme turns, while the quincunx to Neptune creates uncertainty, blurring of boundaries and being prone to external influences. This particular yod can be difficult to reconcile. In the negative it is a perfect combination for whitewashing, censorship and deception, which we will get through our legacy media. On the other hand the combination can release intuitive insights, and in unexpected ways. This latter and more positive expression is bolstered by Uranus being trine to Pluto and sextile to Neptune, thus tying the t-square of the full moon axis to the yod. Expect the unexpected, in other words. Many world leaders are being faced with some of the most important decisions of theirs and their nation’s lives. Statesmen of vision will seize the opportunities and visions presented and guide their nations through the crises toward a more secure future. Politicians will make hay of the crises and vie for their little positions of power, or be faced with obscurity. The more materially focused politician will be facing some very difficult times, as Uranus is not materially oriented.

Then, we have another t-square, with the base opposition of Venus and Saturn – a very sobering tone and pointing to breaks in relationships in many cases – with a Mars/Jupiter conjunction at the apex. The Mars/Jupiter conjunction gives a very strong focus on objectives and fulfillment of desires. But at the apex of the Venus/Saturn opposition the focus will be on sudden shifts in relationships. This is further indicated by Ceres being at the bending of the nodes, pointing to crossroads in relations. Couple this with the nature of events as they have unfolded with the last full moon – resulting in breakpoints – and we get the sense of a reckoning about to take place, one that will result in a decisive shift in the world’s security architecture. That may become apparent as our examination of certain events unfolds in the rest of this letter. That brings us to the current events.

Current events: The following events have taken place since the Cancer Blue Moon and since the Cancer Blue Moon letter:

• The Ukrainians flew drones into one of the cooling towers at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. This is in one of the regions where the people voted to return to the Russian Federation. The Russians control the plant. The Ukrainians tried to blame the attack and fire on the Russians, but the Russians would have no need to do so. The fire was quickly extinguished, with no major damage resulting. More on this in the Ukraine update.
• There has been a successful color revolution in Bangladesh. American fingerprints are all over it. The old leader, Hasina, was forced to suddenly flee and she was quickly replaced by the military with a pro-American leader. The US has a geopolitical interest in the region, having had an eye on an island off the coast of Bangladesh for the purposes of setting up a military base. That in turn is meant as a ‘counter’ to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
• There was a failed attempt at a color revolution in Thailand. That also was covered in American fingerprints. Myanmar is next on the list.
• Putin has signed a decree in support of Westerners: “President of Russia Vladimir Putin signed a decree on providing humanitarian support to individuals who share traditional Russian spiritual and moral values. The document provides for the right to apply for a temporary residence permit without taking into account the approved quota and without submitting a document confirming proficiency in Russian. According to the document, this will concern discontented citizens of states that impose “destructive neoliberal ideological attitudes.” In other words, for people in the West who object to wokeness, LGBTQ+, etc., you can give Russia a try. Russia also needs skilled immigrants. It is a soft power move by the Russians. All Ukrainians have had the right to apply for Russian citizenship since the start of the SMO.
• Nusantara became the new capital of Indonesia, replacing Jakarta.
• The Chinese have developed an AI training system that runs entirely on light. “The Taichi-II chip is fully optical and significantly boosts efficiency and performance, according to Tsinghua University scientists.”
• Trump and Musk had a 2 hour long conversation on X that generated more than a billion views. The liberal press was quick to vilify it. Trump has returned to X (Twitter). We’ll have more about such developments below. Musk is also pointing toward a political career, no doubt angling for a position in the Trump administration – if that eventuates.
• Senior Aussie officials are finally (took them a while) raising the alarm about the AUKUS deal. Seems they are worried about Australia’s sovereignty. They could have said something before, you know? Or perhaps the implications of the deal are only now finally dawning. It was three years ago AUKUS was signed, and we are probably stuck with it, seeing that once Washington decides they like your house, they never leave. The main thought here is that for the region to be prosperous Washington needs to learn how to get along with China and treat China as an equal partner in the region. There is also now a US nuclear powered sub undergoing maintenance at the HMAS Stirling naval base. The government calls it a ‘milestone’. Millstone is probably more accurate. The government is looking at spending $18 billion on army bases in Australia’s north in the coming years. And to add insult to injury, Albo wants to build a facility to build missiles, for a paltry $850 million. But she’ll be right, mate! Why do we need social programs anyway? In point of fact, we would be better off joining BRICS.
• So, apparently the US didn’t blow up Nord Stream after all. Looks like all you need is a yacht, a little diving gear, a little explosive and Bob’s your uncle! “Hold my beer and watch this”, the Ukrainians were heard to say. They think we are stupid. But the New York Post is the gold standard in American journalism (not). Let’s see if we have this right: Russia was selling gas to Germany and Europe on the cheap, gas that was used to fuel German industry, industry that made weapons that were used against Russia (which Russians are very good at using for target practice), gas which made Germany and Europe competitive with the United States. Oops! There’s the problem. When Joe said the US would end Nord Stream he was only kidding. Washington would never do such a thing to a trusted ally. Got it. Yes, they think we are stupid. Washington doesn’t much like competition.
• The Kiwi authorities are planning to deport Kim Dotcom to the US to face charges for his Megaupload site. Dotcom is an outspoken critic of Empire, with over 1.6 million followers on Twitter/X. His comments on the genocide in Gaza have landed him in hot water again, with comments on his pending extradition fingering the Five Eyes complex. His extradition has echoes of the Assange saga. Meanwhile Netanyahu can commit war crimes and get 58 standing ovations in Congress. I hear Russia has an embassy in New Zealand.
• Independent journalists are no longer safe in the UK, as recently witnessed with the arrest of Richard Medhurst. One-by-one, voices exposing Empire (Western hegemony) are being silenced on American and EU media platforms. See topic below: ‘Censoring the truth’
• Apparently we are supposed to be concerned about monkeypox (mpox) again. We are only looking at a few cases, but this strain is supposed to be more deadly. If this sounds familiar, it probably is. There is a vaccine, and Big Pharma is once again cashing in by monopolizing supply. But this one is not mRNA. Give them time….Oh, and then there is ‘sloth virus’ (yeah, it’s a real thing) for which there is no known cure. It is “sparking fears of an emerging threat to global health.” We do like our threats. Sloth virus is spread by mosquitos and biting midges. Just be aware: This is not about public health. There is big money involved.
• The Democrats finally had their convention. Biden gave his farewell speech, handing the baton over to Harris, the latter receiving nary a delegate’s vote for the job. The Dems gave a thunderous ovation to the president they dethroned. Now it is on to November 5^th.

The main events: From here we move on to the deeper investigations into the main events, and as usual they revolve around the two major conflicts. After considering those we will look at a brief overview of the November 5^th election. We have arrived at the crisis point of the two conflicts, with both Israel and Ukraine on the ropes, headed for collapse, regardless of what the legacy media tells us. Russia is not at all in danger from the Kursk incursion – a senseless move by Ukraine – while Israel is facing economic and societal collapse the longer the genocide continues, now pretty much assured since Netanyahu has scuttled the ceasefire talks. We will cover all that below, beginning with Ukraine.

Ukraine update: From the bullet point above regarding the Kursk region, after seven days the attack from Ukraine had failed. The Russians are in the process of clean-up. Putin held a meeting on the situation there, most of which was secret, but there was a transcript of about twenty minutes of the meeting regarding the impact on civilians (translate from Russian). There are several factors that have come out of investigations into the events. Firstly, the invasion was a tactical and informational victory for Ukraine, an embarrassment for Russia. Strategically, it was a huge blunder and is costing Ukraine and NATO dearly. The attack has also cost the Kremlin in terms of internal credibility, with finger-pointing all around. It is not outside the realm of possibility that Putin will come under enormous pressure to swiftly bring the war to a military victory and completion of the stated aims at the start of the SMO – demilitarization and de-Nazification – eschewing negotiations. Although it was an embarrassment for Russia, it was also a huge gift. Ukrainian attacks were solely upon civilian targets. Thereby, the attack on Russia can rightly be claimed by Russia as an act of terrorism, meaning Russia can brand Kiev as a state sponsor of terrorism. The ultimate aim, or thrust, was toward the nuclear power plant at Kursk. That would change the nature of the Russian intervention there, with Kiev likely to become targeted.

Almost simultaneous with the incursion into Russia, the Ukrainians attacked one of the cooling towers at the Zaporozhye power plant with a couple of drones. The main aim of these operations was to gain bargaining leverage on the one hand, to garner more Western support and an attempt to destabilize the Russian state. It has turned out to be a Hail Mary attempt by Kiev on every aspect and could very well spell the end of the Ukrainian army. The Ukrainians have thrown the best of their last elite forces into the Kursk region and they have already been defeated, now being either captured or killed. Every option to Ukraine (and the West) to stop Russian advances has failed, save for one – the nuclear option. We hold the meditative thought it never comes to that.

The end game: What just happened, then? The attack was actually a multinational force, comprised of Ukrainians, British, Estonians, Poles, French and other nations – all NATO members except for the Ukrainians. The attack was planned by and trained for by the British, meaning the Kursk operation was a NATO operation, a fact not lost at all on the Russians. What this implies – though denied by the US – is there was full NATO planning in the invasion. But the Ukrainian forces are NATO by proxy anyway. It appears the attack was planned well in advance from inside Britain. And it was quite intricate. There was jamming and hacking of communications as the invasion started. Internet cameras were hacked in street cams and residences to enable the invaders to see what Russian forces and civilians were doing. Deep fakes of Putin and Maria Zakharova were broadcast on TV in the region and on social media to confuse and sow discord in the populace.12,000+ troops were involved in the invasion. The logistics of such a force is no small matter and would have taken some months of planning. And that begs the question: Did the invaders catch the Russians flat-footed, as Western media has claimed, or did the Russians let it happen as a strategic ploy to up the ante on Kiev and NATO? Or was it something in between, as in the Russians being too slow or complacent to act? We do not know, but the Russians have handled the situation without much fuss, which suggests the latter case.

Because the plan has failed so spectacularly the Western media is whitewashing any NATO involvement. That is partly meant to show Ukraine still has a chance to still make an impact in the war and partly to distance NATO countries from possible Russian retaliation. But the invasion has begged the question: What was the point? Why would Kiev try such a risky maneuver when their manpower is so low, and in a region that has no strategic importance, save for the Kursk power plant? Recent analysis by Mark Sleboda has pretty well summarized the entire affair, which brings us to the next question: What happens next?

The nature of the events in the Kursk Oblast and at the Zaporozhye plant has solidified the Russian position once and for all – there will be no negotiations to end the conflict. As a start for the Russian retaliation, they have heavily bombed the electrical infrastructure, throughout Ukraine. The recent article from the WaPo about secret negotiations in Qatar was a smokescreen, meant to deflect from the losses on the Ukrainian side. The Russians have no interest in a ceasefire. The conflict between NATO and Russia will be settled on the battlefield in Ukraine. The acts just described were acts of desperation by a regime (and perhaps other Western regimes) that is incapable of acting rationally and which is bent on somehow prevailing against Russia – against all odds. And now a ridiculous story from the New York Post appears about who blew up the Nord Stream pipeline. It would appear, since the invasion has failed and Ukraine has lost the best of its best troops, the Western powers are getting ready to throw Ukraine and especially Zelenskyy under the proverbial bus. The last gasp would be a reported plan for a dirty bomb or small nuke false flag attack that would (Zelenskyy hopes) cause world outrage at Russia and save his bacon. Expect Zelenskyy and his entourage to beat a hasty exit from Ukraine. We are probably about to see regime change in Kiev once again. From here we move on to the next conflict.

Palestine update: Israel has reached the end of the line in its war on the Gaza Strip, according to US officials. Israel will never defeat Hamas. The recognition has finally dawned that the hostages held by Hamas cannot be released through means of war and must be freed through negotiations and ceasefire – not that Bibi and his coalition care. In fact, documents confirm they have been actively obstructing negotiations to free their own citizens. The recent round of negotiations has failed. The Western press, of course, states that Hamas rejected the deal that was offered, when in fact the deal that was offered was purposely sabotaged by Netanyahu, who (along with the mass of the Israeli populace) wants the genocide to continue. Netanyahu wants a 2^nd Nakba (video, must see). The response by the Resistance will be coming very shortly. But there is also internal division and resistance, with the regular army opposing Netanyahu’s plans for a wider war and with the state of Judea confronting the state of Israel (Mizrahi vs. Ashkenazi).

The war thus far has cost the Israeli economy over 250 billion shekels (67.3 billion dollars). Of course, when Uncle Sam has deep pockets the Israelis don’t worry so much about trifles. Up to 60,000 businesses in Israel are likely to close this year as a result of the war. The port at Eilat is bankrupt, in no small part due to the actions of Ansarallah. The Israeli economy is paralyzed – and the Resistance aside from Hamas has not even begun to attack Israel in any major way.

From the last letter we saw that Iran was plying psychological warfare on the Israelis and Western powers, keeping them all guessing as to when and in what manner they would strike. It might come soon, or the wait may be protracted. Or the attack may be averted if the ceasefire somehow eventuates. Israeli society has been on pins and needles since the Iranians announced they would retaliate, with many nights of lost sleep in Israel. The Iranians are playing the waiting game very shrewdly. Summarizing the situation:

“Smart thinking involves the brain getting precedence over brawn. That is where Iran scores over the die-hard Zionists in Tel Aviv who are still wallowing in the culture of the Nakba. Iran shrewdly assessed at a very early stage that contradictions were inevitable in Biden-Netanyahu equations post-October 7 and the Greater Israel agenda and the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy are pulling in opposite directions.  Equally, Iran has drawn the correct conclusions out of the standoff in April where it displayed its formidable military capability to inflict pain on Israel while also prompting the US to prevail upon the latter not to react! In the entire chronicle of US-Iran tango since 1979, such a thing never happened before. Why should Tehran give up that pathway leading to the rose garden? For sure, Tehran will inflict even greater pain on Israel than in April. But, fundamentally, the 900-pound gorilla in Tel Aviv has to be tamed with a smart admixture of hard and soft power — and, it also involves the West. And to that end, Iran will restrain itself and remain a nuclear threshold state.” 

Reading from the last sentence of the quote, Netanyahu has long maintained that Tehran is only weeks away from becoming a nuclear-armed power. But that is purely propaganda, in an effort to justify its attacks on Iran and assassinating Iran’s top nuclear scientists. The Israelis see Iran as their top threat, ignoring the neighbor to the north, who daily rains missiles on Israeli military facilities since October 7^th. But also involved in the timing and severity of Iran’s strikes are the talks on the ceasefire in Gaza and the West Bank along with the removal of sanctions on Iran. An attack will come from Iran, but timing is of the essence. The claim to victimhood by the Israelis is palpable and evident, recently stated, as they await Iran’s stated aim to, as Israelis say, “execute their pledged destruction of our gutsy little nation”:

“As our nation waits passively for two weeks and counting to see whether, when and how devastatingly Iran and Hezbollah will choose to attack us, in order to “avenge” the killings of two terror chiefs bent on our destruction, we Israelis feel like the hapless, helpless playthings of other, more powerful forces. This is not an acceptable situation for the revived Jewish nation. And it points to the untenable lack of a strategy by our leadership for restoring national security more than 10 months after the October 7 Hamas invasion, slaughter and abductions.”

Always the victim, never the abuser. That ‘gutsy little nation’ is about to get punched in the gut, and would not be so ‘gutsy’ were it not for Western support, most notably from the US, UK and the guilt-ridden Germans. Fewer and fewer Germans are now feeling so guilty about withholding support from the Zionists, however, while Germans in growing numbers watch as Israelis are applying Mein Kampf in reverse on the Palestinians. And that linked thought comes from Israel’s ‘right-wing’ ex-Minister of Defense, Moshe Ya’alon, who grew up in a home of holocaust survivors. The blow by the Resistance will have to be severe enough that it is made clear to the Israelis and the West that further escalation will only lead to regional war, but not so severe that it provokes a regional war. But the Russians and Chinese would have something to say about that wider war so desired by Benjamin Netanyahu. If that war ever eventuates we may be facing the biggest oil shock in history.

What to expect: Ceasefire talks have resumed in Doha, but there is really little hope they will go anywhere. Hamas is not in attendance, citing that Israel had agreed to a ceasefire with Hamas and then backed out. Hamas has said if the Israelis rejoin the previous ceasefire agreement then a deal will have been reached. Once it is clear the talks have failed, which there is little doubt they will, the Resistance will launch their response at some point, keeping in mind the aim of the Resistance is to stop the slaughter of the Palestinians. This is what the majority of Israelis want to avoid. The aim of the latter is to purge ‘Israel’ of all Arab influence, along eventually with Christians and any other minority. So, given the intractable nature of the Israelis and the Palestinians fighting for their very existence, escalation will come, at some point. Hezbollah has just posted a video of one of its vast tunnel systems and missile systems as a warning to the Israelis:

“Hezbollah is known to have a large and advanced secretive network of tunnels under south Lebanon. In February, French newspaper Liberation reported that the network is remarkably sophisticated, spanning hundreds of kilometers and even reaching into Syria.”

Iran would have even more advanced facilities in the mountains that line their coast on the Persian Gulf. Both Hezbollah and Iran have far more extensive tunnels than Hamas. Given the IOF has yet to be even close to defeating Hamas, we might take a guess as to how they might fare against Hezbollah and Iran. My own guess would be, not well at all. Iran has been threatened with a nuclear strike by the Israelis, too. Iran’s response was blunt and to the point: Don’t even think about it. Their response to such an act would be even worse for the Israelis than the nuclear strike.

The grand vista: There is a much larger picture arising from the two conflicts, along with the attempts at color revolutions in South and Southeast Asia. Pepe Escobar gave an overview of the situation in a recent interview. That picture has two main components – to save the West’s failing hegemony (which is why we are getting all the bread and circuses) and to prevent the emergence of the multipolar order. The Western powers, centered in Washington and London, are using every means to affect those ends. The huge buildup of American forces in West Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean would be hard pressed to engage in a protracted conflict. The major part of any wider conflict will initially be fought in the air, and with each Western antiaircraft missile costing a million dollars or two, and with industrial capacity in the West at all-time lows Washington, much less Europe, cannot sustain trying to shoot down hundreds of thousands of Resistance missiles and drones. Neither Washington, nor London, nor France, nor the Saudis, nor even Israel seem to be able to make any difference against Ansarallah in Yemen, much less the wider Resistance. If Netanyahu makes further attempts to draw Washington into such a war it will once and for all put paid to the idea that ‘America is the finest fighting force in the history of the world.’ In fact, the wider world already recognizes the US is no longer ‘the finest’ in many areas. But the Americans are trapped and must step in, somehow, if a wider war comes. They have trapped themselves and are trapped by the very nature of the corruption in Washington and the Pentagon and the undue influence of Israel, created as the American outpost in the region of West Asia, and now being drained of power and influence by that very creation.

War on three fronts?: Then, there is some recent delusion that has come to light, in this little gem:

“Alex Karp, CEO of the data-mining software company Palantir which is known for its work in defense and intelligence, warned that the U.S. may have to wage war in three different theaters in the future.”

You don’t say…And just who is Alex Karp, aside from the CEO of the company? He was also one of the co-founders of the company, along with another name now connected with the US presidential elections – Peter Thiel. Thiel sponsors, or did, Trump’s running mate. Thiel was involved with the financial arm of Palantir, the first backer of which was the CIA via In-Q-Tel – the ‘non-profit’ venture capitalist arm of the CIA. Ever heard of a non-profit venture capitalist? Neither have I. There is always some angle by which they will profit. But in talking war, we are talking – Karp, Thiel, Palantir, the CIA, the MICIMATT (the military-industrial-congressional-intelligence-media-academia-think tank complex) and the lot, along with J.D. Vance now – making preparations for the next big war, their fantasy being they can win a three-front war against the combined Iran/Russia/China ‘new axis of evil’. It would involve Big Tech, autonomous drones, electronic warfare – and the draft (conscription). It puts one in mind of Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’, which was a flop but was spun as the reason the Soviet Union fell. We went from grandiose dreams of an impenetrable ABM shield over the US, to finally ending up with Brilliant Pebbles. Now, there is a symbolic meme for you! The Pebbles idea never got off the ground, either, especially when we had the End of History (the fall of the USSR). Well, history has begun again with the rise of the East.

The thinking from the likes of Karp is the US can win said war on three fronts without nukes. Pepe Escobar put it in context when asked if he thought the US would win, his answer being, “Yemen”. Why would people like this – billionaires – even contemplate such a fool thing? We go back to the quote at the start of this letter, and realize the odds are stacked high against the US emerging victorious from such a war. But why try it, knowing we would lose or all be destroyed in the process? It comes down to the inverted pyramid. Karp, Thiel and their ilk need to be kept far away from military strategy if this is what they have to offer.

The inverted pyramid, otherwise known as a Ponzi scheme is front and center when it comes to the two wars that have so captured our attention in the past couple of years. We might question why the Western powers, particularly in the US and Western Europe, have been so stubbornly supporting Ukraine and Israel. The main reason – and it has nothing to do with freedom and democracy – comes down to resources and what they really represent to the West. There is something quite important to keep in mind regarding why the Western powers are so intransigent when it comes to Ukraine, Israel and especially China, Russia and Iran, and it has to do with the way the Western financial system is constructed, recently described by Alastair Crooke:

“I think there is ultimately a desire for a great war – not I mean by the Kamala Harris forces of this world, but I mean by those deep structures of foreign policy which need some form of reset for financial reasons, economic reasons essentially. The West has created this inverted pyramid of financial instruments, I mean not just options but all of these financial structures that sit in derivatives in trillions. And they sit on a tiny base of real collateral, of real value. A few bars of gold perhaps here and there, a little bit of commercial real estate is not valuable anymore, so where’s the collateral underpinning? They need this to come. This is why you had Lindsey Graham saying very clearly, he said, “Listen, look you know Ukraine for America is a gold mine. It sits on 12 trillion worth of raw materials. We need those to refinance to re-equip and refinance ourselves and we don’t want Putin and China to get it.” That’s what he was speaking about saying we need some more actual commodity value at the bottom of our pyramid so we can go on expanding our inverted pyramid that rests on this tiny base of real commodities – oil, gold, rare materials, lithium – all of the things. This is why he said we can’t allow Ukraine to go to Putin. We need those to underpin our actually wobbling inverted pyramid. We’ve just got too much financialism on a tiny base of real money.”

Crooke’s statement is probably the most important factor to remember as to why we are always going to war and why certain nations are demonized in the press – especially the leaders of those nations – because said nations choose to maintain their sovereignty over their land and resources. This is what our ‘forever wars’ has been about for decades. It is the basis for the maintenance of the MICIMATT and the transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top has been about especially since the Reagan/Thatcher years. We are talking about the basis of neoliberalism here – the illusion of real wealth. The likes of Lindsey Graham give voice to the old Atlantean sin of theft. What Crooke described is why the big financial players like BlackRock are going in and buying up (if you can call it that) Ukrainian farmland – some of the richest in the world – for pennies on the dollar. They are not really buying it. They are seizing it as payment for all the weapons and financial ‘aid’ we have sent to prop up the regime there. The real aim of the war in Ukraine was for the Western powers to be able to seize control of the immense wealth in resources which Russia commands and holds sovereign. That is why the Western press was so giddy about the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk, hoping it would somehow destabilize Russian society and upend Putin. Now for the Western press, it’s cryin’ time.

And the reason we are propping up the Zionists? – simple: It’s about the immense oil reserves of West Asia and shipping through the Suez Canal. That is why Iran is seen as the great prize and why the West has tried so hard since 1979 to ‘throw out the mullahs’ and ‘restore democracy’ to Iran. Well, Iran is a democracy. They just demonstrated it. We just don’t happen to like their form of it, because the Iranians have decided they will keep control of their oil and gas. Crooke’s statement above is also a big reason why we refuse to leave Iraq and Syria, also, and why Libya remains the basket case we have made of it. The formation of the Israeli state was never about making a home for the Jews. The West’s collective guilt over the holocaust was used as the ruse to seize the land from the Palestinians, which is also why ‘antisemitism’ has been weaponized to keep the public on the straight and narrow regarding Israel. So, in answer to the question as to whether or not there will be a wider war in Ukraine or West Asia, the answer would appear to be that for the Western powers it is a necessity if hegemony is to be maintained. Except the West bet on the wrong horse and the odds are against us winning such a war in either place. Times have changed, energies shifted to the East, and for the West it is the end of an era.

Censoring the truth: From the bullet point above of the same title, Judge Napolitano (meaning all his guests as well) had been banned from uploading to YouTube for a week (so far). You can watch the banned interview here. Scott Ritter had his house raided, with a trailer load of material including a book manuscript carted away. Larry Johnson was prevented from going to Russia to speak at a recent conference. And as a big indicator, the house of Dmitry Simes was raided, similar to what happened with Scott Ritter. Problem is, Simes has not lived in the US since the start of the Russian SMO at the start of 2022. Bassem Youssef’s X account has been removed, because he dared to satirize the Israelis. The Cradle, a very reliable source on reporting on West Asia and the Palestine conflict, has been permanently banned from Facebook and Instagram (Meta). And in the latest, Richard Medhurst was arrested on charges of terrorism as he got off the plane in London because of his journalism on Palestine, having committed no crime.

The fact these people are being silenced points to an uneasy conclusion – something big is about to happen, something which the Washington/Anglo establishments want to keep secret, or want to be able to obfuscate. This was recently outlined by Alastair Crooke. Rowan Atkinson, of Black Adder/Mr. Bean fame, gave a speech, quoting some of the most egregious examples of censorship in the UK, but also giving a solution: more speech. In other words, people need to speak up and be allowed to do so. In effect, because both Ukraine and Israel are on the ropes, as it were, the Western powers need to be able to at least control the narrative for the Western public, if not the conflicts themselves, telling the public they are winning, somehow, as Crooke explained. It is a lie, of course, and a dangerous one at that. Most American people are hopelessly ignorant on such matters, by design, and for the most part don’t really care. But there is more.

Pavel Durov, creator of the Telegram social media platform, was arrested in Paris when he stepped off his plane (translate from French). Telegram has around 900,000,000 users worldwide. It is one of the few platforms that does not censor its users, except for posts inciting violence. This again shows the utter hypocrisy of the West when it comes to freedom of speech. Durov left Russia when the Russian state demanded he keep phone and user data for six months. He declined and left Russia, and in a piece of irony, obtained a French passport. The French issued the warrant for his arrest as he landed, in a sleight of hand. The Western powers were up in arms over the Russians demanding the back door into Telegram, and now they do that very thing on all platforms used in the West – except for Telegram, where Durov once again refused the back door into the platform. The CEO of Rumble, Chris Pavlovski, has just fled Europe due to Durov’s arrest, citing freedom of speech is under threat. Pavlovski is Canadian. The French are after him, too.

Twitter/X users would do well to bear in mind, also, that Musk has deep ties with the MICIMATT, with much of the tech he has developed being used by the US and Ukrainian militaries. He is also the world’s richest man and censors users himself. He gave his game away when he stated, regarding the attempted 2020 Bolivian coup, that, “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.” Then he bought Twitter and renamed it ‘X’. But since we have mentioned France, and leading into our look at the American election, we might recall France recently had elections.

The French had an election?: For some reason the other morning I woke up with the thought that the French had been subject to a soft coup once again as a result of their recent election, the question being: Why is Macron still PM of France? Why indeed, and why would such a thought intrude before the morning coffee? Of the three major parties or party blocs in France, Macron’s did the worst in France’s recent election. There is a small anecdote before proceeding. France has a Leo personality and the French bear the stereotype of being an arrogant people, which I experienced firsthand on meeting one French gentleman when I was in Paris some years ago when asking for directions. I was with a group and one of them wanted to go to a bank. None of us spoke French – a major sin in France, it appears. We were told, “You really should speak French. French is a language of culture, of refinement. Ze English is for ze computers. But the banque is down the road across from the embassy for ze people who stand on zer heads,” meaning the Australian embassy. Fortunately all the other French people I met were quite friendly and helpful. But again, I digress.

Apparently Macron thinks he can just ignore the will of the people and election results. Le Pen had the biggest vote in the election, but in yet another soft coup she was ousted and Mélenchon and his bloc were supposed to form government. That was very similar to ‘anyone but Trump!’ in the US. The French establishment hates Le Pen. So Mélenchon has just put the fire under Macron. Macron should have nominated a new PM from Mélenchon’s New Popular Front, a leftist coalition. The New Popular Front has a Prime Minister ready: Lucie Castets, a senior public servant, but she is not from Mélenchon’s LFI party. There is a long thread on Twitter by Arnaud Bertrand, explaining it. The short of it is Mélenchon has quizzed Macron if not from LFI, since Macron refuses to nominate anyone from Mélenchon’s party (LFI), then why not Castets? This will cause an uproar in France if Macron says no and it will illustrate that Macron’s call for snap elections was just a sham and a ruse. Well, he has said no. An impeachment notice has been filed, with calls for the French people to protest Macron’s refusal. The whole show demonstrates how undemocratic France has become. And that leads into the US elections, yet another demonstration of a failed democracy.

The US election: We have some interesting astrology in this election when it comes to the candidates. Currently there are four primary presidential candidates on the ballot for November – Trump, Harris, Jill Stein and Chase Oliver. In respective order, we have a Republican, a Democrat, a Green, and a Libertarian. Cornel West is also running as an independent, though we hear very little about him. The only two candidates who get any air time are from the American Uni-Party – Trump and Harris. There is very little difference between Republicans and Democrats these days in terms of policy. They are both Zionist, corporatist parties. This is why I have stated in the past the election is already decided: No matter which of the two main candidates (Trump or Harris) are elected, nothing much will change, regardless of the promises they make. Both parties are neoliberalist, Zionist, beholden to the donor class (the oligarchs, corporations and Zionist lobbies), work for the 1%, vow to keep US hegemony and promote a foreign policy that is imperialistic. The only difference, if that is what one wants to vote for, is that the Republicans allegedly barrack for ‘conservative’ values, while the Democrats allegedly barrack for ‘liberal’ values. The terms ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ do not really mean anything these days anyway. They are just colors of the hat one wants to wear.

What we have in the US is a contest between oligarch and corporate factions who decide on who they want to represent them, and then present them to us as if they actually represent us, so we can choose which faction we think will represent our interests. There is no process any longer. It is like choosing between teams in the various sports leagues – UEFA, the NFL, the NBA, etc. No matter which team for whom one barracks, the people who run the teams and the leagues rake in the cash. Some of the players are very handsomely rewarded as well. We return here to the thought of ‘bread and circuses’. The candidates give us the circus via the media, all the time they promise us a bigger loaf of bread. Meanwhile around 15% of Americans live in areas considered to be food deserts. The public at large thinks they are voting for someone who represents their (often quite narrow) interests, when in fact ‘the system’ continues unaffected in the least and continues its march toward dominance, at the expense of the people who support their ‘team’ – in this case either Trump or Harris. In reality this election will only be about whether or not we want to choose between LGBTQ+, social engineering (DEI) (Democrats) or with Republicans, low corporate and wealth taxes, the ‘right’ to own a firearm, ‘good Christian values’ and deportation of immigrants. If we vote for either of the major parties we vote for genocide, corporatism, erosion of social programs and the collapse of our living standards. If you think this is too cynical you may want to do a little research. There is no ‘voting for the lesser evil’ in this election. Voting for the lesser evil still leaves evil in place. Besides, to qualify either party as ‘the most evil’ is only to buy into the political game. But we mentioned astrology at the start of this topic.

Twins and Lions: There are two signs in particular that run through this US election – Gemini and Leo. The two main candidates are both Gemini types. Trump has Gemini Sun and Harris has Gemini rising. Trump has Leo rising while his running mate, born James Donald Bowman (J.D. Vance) has Sun in Leo. The Libertarian candidate (Oliver) also has Sun in Leo. The Gemini and Leo combination is important if one considers the personalities of the two main candidates. Of the two signs, Leo is far more magnetic, Leo being the most magnetic of all the signs, thereby giving the Trump team a better draw on the public. With Gemini one gets the ‘spin’ of campaigning and the ability to communicate with the public, such as what is communicated to the public with these candidates actually is. With these two signs it is like an old saying, “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance (Leo) you can baffle them with bullshit (Gemini).” Apologies to more sensitive readers. But we are getting a big dose of the bullish sort with this election. The Leo is more bombastic, more focused on personalities, about strong leadership and ‘how excellent I am’, while the Gemini is more subtle and in some ways more dangerous than the in-your-face Leo presentation, as Gemini knows well how to divide, focus on details and divisions and thus applies mental manipulation in its lower expression. In its higher political expression it gives an ability to work across the aisle and bring people together in a consensus, such as we saw with JFK and Bush, Sr., both with Gemini Sun. Bush Sr. had Virgo rising and Libra Moon, while JFK had Libra rising and Virgo Moon. Harris has the reverse combination of JFK – Sun in Libra with Gemini rising, with the addition of Aries Moon. We’ll get to her in a bit.

Now, what is to follow is not likely to sit very well, if one is firm about voting for either of these current candidates. But we will begin with this statement: A vote for either candidate on November 5^th is a vote for the MICIMATT. The original military-industrial complex of Eisenhower has expanded over the years to include all of the actors in McGovern’s MICIMATT, to the extent they are all intertwined and interdependent. We cannot go into all the interrelations here, but we note that American media and academia both go to support the official narratives on a great many issues, as we have noted with COVID, vaccines, the war in Ukraine and support for Israel, for example. We will start with a brief overview of the personalities here and probably expand on them in the next couple of letters. Since Trump is a known quantity we will start with him.

Trump: There were many pundits after The Incident with Trump who were saying he was a shoe-in to win the election in November. After the assassination attempt (which many people still think was faked) money poured into his campaign coffers, a sure indicator in most cases that his ratings would rise. In 2004 Noam Chomsky was interviewed by the Mehr News Agency (Iranian), where he was asked if voters would be willing to change administrations in the midst of a crisis:

“Usually, US elections can be predicted pretty well by the level of funding, overwhelmingly from the very wealthy and corporations. In the early stages, Bush was far in the lead, not a surprise in the light of the enormous gifts his administration has lavished on a very small wealthy minority and on corporate power. However, that funding gap has reduced considerably in the past months, apparently reflecting concern among elite sectors over the extraordinary incompetence of the Bush planners and the harm they are doing to core elite interests. The election is, as usual, avoiding issues of major concern to the population. Few people are aware of the proposals of the political parties on matters of concern to them. The public relations campaigns are focusing on “strength,” “leadership,” “personal qualities,” and other matters that keep the public removed from interference with policy choices, which are not considered to be the public role in a severely eroded democratic culture.”

We are currently in a crisis situation, what with Israel about to be attacked, high inflation and the war in Ukraine about to wind down (which often leads to desperate measures by the losing side). After Trump’s conviction on felony charges in May his campaign has raised $200 million in a manner of days. As soon as The Incident happened, there was a small bump in his ratings, but that has settled down now. As it stands there are growing doubts he will make the grade on November 5^th, and his astrology – though strong by standard measures – shows an event in late October that could take him out of the race. I won’t say more at present. But then, there is Elon Musk, who is giving $45 million a month to Trump’s campaign, and who has just reinstated Trump on X/Twitter, where Trump is now waging his campaign war against ‘Cackling Kamala’. Apparently Trump and Musk are best buds now. Both candidates are pretty well even on campaign funding. But then, it depends on how the funding is spent. Social media is the big battleground now, as most people don’t pay much mind to TV or print media any longer. And Musk is currently in the process of ‘getting religion’, or so he says, while Trump has come to believe in miracles and that God has a plan for him. His followers apparently believe the same as well. Trump had this to say in the aftermath of The Incident on his Truth Social network, just prior to being reinstated on Twitter/X:

“Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness.”

If this bothers you a little, you are not alone. We remember the quote oft misattributed to Sinclair Lewis: “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” It wasn’t an act of God or a miracle that saved Trump. It just wasn’t his time. One’s chart, if accurate, clearly shows the time of death. And if The Incident was faked, that is even more disturbing because it would have been the Big Lie to his followers and ploy to bring in the evangelical vote. And now that Musk has attached himself to Trump and is angling for a place in the administration, as well as ‘getting religion’, well…perhaps a pattern is emerging. There is no problem with people genuinely coming closer to God, but to mix it with politics – just a thought. Then there is Israel.

Miriam Adelson, widow of deceased casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, has just committed over $100 million to Trump’s campaign. Given what we have examined above, and given the Adelsons are Zionists’ Zionists, any talk of Trump ending the conflict in Gaza is simply fantasy. Oh, it would end allright – with the genocide completed. I read comment on social media after Trump introduced the Abraham Accords that he should receive the Nobel Peace Prize. That, too, was fantasy. One of the triggers for October 7^th was those very Accords. But Trump sees himself as the great dealmaker. We know what his son-in-law would like to see – Gaza rid of Palestinians with beachfront resort properties on the Gaza shore, built with the rubble of Gaza. There again, we see fantasies instead of facing realities.

People were questioning Biden’s mental state, but very few are focusing on the same measure in Trump, who is also showing signs of dementia:

“Trump’s word salad, psychologists say, is a sign of dementia and schizophrenia. According to the Alzheimer Society of Canada, “common behaviours (of a dementia patient) can include mixing up words (word salad) and creating false memories without motivation (confabulation).” We’ve seen both with Trump. He also exhibits logorrhea, i.e. excessive talking. Why say something once when 14 times will do?

What is wrong with Biden? He probably has Parkinson’s disease. What is wrong with Trump? I don’t know exactly. Maybe that’s just his personality. More likely, something is wrong. To put it another way, it doesn’t matter if Trump is sane if he’s unable or unwilling to communicate clearly. Whatever is going on with Trump, or isn’t, should be the subject of serious consideration during this political year. Trump, 78, should submit to a cognitive test administered by an independent expert.”

We could go on and on about Trump. It has cited that Trump has Regulus on his Ascendant, the implication he is a great leader. There is leadership, and then there is rulership, as in ‘It’s good to be the King’. Trump is more like the man who would be king.

The nature of US elections: In a recent conversation on The Gaggle, the interviewers sat down with Lionel and gave a most informative and entertaining look at how US politics actually works these days and what is going on with the two main candidates. That said – and we go back to personalities and then issues – whether or not one likes these three men in the conversation, I can vouch for the messages conveyed, being American myself and having gone back and forth there over the years. American politics has become a personality contest, covering over the corporate takeover of the US. The following pertinent points were made during their talk:

• In terms of legacy media, and social media to a large extent, Americans live in a fish bowl, unaware of the rest of the world or how the wider world actually views America – and there are many Americans who simply don’t care and are even happy with the situation. That lack of awareness extends to many American politicians and journalists news presenters.
• Issues at election time are rarely discussed unless they affect a person directly. Elections are more about how one feels about the candidate. We have looked before about how Neptune rules over elections, and this is prima facie evidence. Analysis doesn’t enter into the equation.
• Unless Trump gains some mojo – which he seems to have lost – the Democrats will win the election, due to the some 25 million or so cross-border immigrants currently being given voting rights. Even if the vote is close, the Democrats will be able to legally cheat and win the election. They win because they are ruthless.
• There are three groups of voters in the US – those who would vote for Trump no matter what, a group who will vote for anyone but Trump and a third group of undecided/independent voters, including those who have no particular affiliation. Again, the election is about personalities instead of policy.
• There is a sense of exhaustion in the country. What the Harris campaign is doing is saying, Don’t worry, be happy. Will ‘feel the joy’ last until Election Day? It could. But people do have short attention spans.
• Words like ‘socialism’, ‘Marxism’, ‘leftist’ and so forth have no meaning to the larger society, and people do not really understand the meaning of the words. Start discussing ‘Houthis’, ‘Yemen’, Hezbollah’ and people’s eyes glaze over – unlike readers of these letters. ‘Trump will bring peace!’ Well no, he won’t.
• Trump wants to be the tough guy (Mars on his Leo Ascendant) but he also wants to be the peacemaker, but he hasn’t worked out how to reconcile the two. He is no Nixon. He is too malleable.
• Trump will never do time in prison. Whatever happens, Trump will have to toe the line just like any other president. But prison, forget it. The logistics of that and other factors would never permit it.

Those are points well documented. And then there is RFK Jr. with his brain worm, whatever that is. It doesn’t matter anyway, since he has dropped out of the race so as not to pull votes away from Trump. He now fully endorses Trump. He seems to be leaning toward a cabinet position in the Trump administration, if the latter eventuates. Does the word ‘insanity’ in US politics ring a distant bell, given everything we are witnessing regarding American politics? Well, that is what the wider world is saying, and it has foreign leadership concerned, putting it mildly, which brings us to our consideration of Kamala Harris.

This casserole of mendacity: Some readers will be familiar with the following from a famous old film from 1958:

“What’s that smell in this room? Didn’t you notice it, Brick? Didn’t you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room? There ain’t nothin’ more powerful than the odor of mendacity. You can smell it. It smells like death.”^[7]

The American public can certainly smell it. This circus which we are calling an election has that stench, that obnoxious odor of mendacity. It smells like the death of Empire. Along with bread and circuses we are being served a veritable casserole of mendacity – about the economy, our government (as in who is actually running it), about those beacons of democracy called Ukraine and Israel, about who our real enemies are – we could make a very long list. And the Gemini component of the candidates is serving up heaping portions of the casserole. Both candidates are known liars. Trump’s record has been very clear, having been pored over exhaustively over his term in office. But Democrats are just as adept at cooking up stories. It is a bipartisan affair. So, what about Kamala Harris?

Kamala Harris: Wisner’s Mighty Wurlitzer is currently regaling us with a cover of Culture Club’s old song “Karma Chameleon.” And the lyrics to the song fit Harris’ political career. She has been like the proverbial chameleon. Now the spin doctors are busy painting her as the best thing since brown bread, and her past record as a politician are being quickly memory-holed. This latter process started on July 8^th this year, which is more than a little interesting, given recent events. We might ask why the powers-that-be would want to do that. Five days after the whitewashing of her record started was the attempt on Trump’s life and then a few days after that Biden was removed from his run for a 2^nd term, at which point he supposedly endorsed Harris. If you are interested, there is a book about Kamala Harris and her real record, from the time she entered politics. It was written in 2020 and is available on Amazon, and also as a PDF: Kamala Harris & The Future of America: An Essay in Three Parts. The book was banned by Amazon for a while, if that tells you anything, but then they saw fit to un-ban it. I will tell you from the outset that if you are a Harris fan this book is not flattering of her. It is not a picture of bringing joy to America. Her record as a prosecutor in California is telling, as she was chief supplier of inmates in California for the prison-industrial complex, including parents of truant children. She quite liked the idea.

What does Harris’ astrology say about her? There is a t-square in her chart that is descriptive, with a Mars/Saturn opposition at the base and Jupiter at the apex. That also forms a tight midpoint combination. The Mars/Saturn opposition, though wide, makes for a person who has a very high opinion of herself, and not on the whole warranted. It normally marks a person who has poor judgement, especially when it comes to financial matters – the rags to riches to rags again type. Her economic policy has already come under fire. Her astrology in general shows a person easily influenced by others (another ‘malleable’ type, like Trump), prone to making poor decisions. If she gathers good people around her and mentors, she might do well, but there is always the danger of jumping to a decision in times of stress. There is a touch of hardness, even cruelty in her nature, as shown by her tenure as prosecutor in California. Do not expect to see reforms in the prison-industrial complex in the US under a Harris administration. She has not endeared herself to black voters as a result. If all this sounds unduly harsh, there is a reason for doing so.

It is very easy in the US for the public to get caught up in presentation instead of actually digging into a person’s past and real policy. There is a tendency for Democrats and liberals (so-called) to rally around Harris ‘because she is not Trump’ and because she puts on a nicer face than do the Republicans. “But she has to be better than Trump!?” is the common refrain. Well, no, she could actually be worse. Harris will do nothing to bring ‘joy’ to the US, any more than Trump will ‘make America great again’. Having said that, neither candidate would be wholly awful, however much their detractors might refrain. When we pull back the curtain and look beyond the personalities, the picture is not pretty, though. Yet, many people seem to want to ignore what is behind the curtain (the real power brokers) and just focus on the circus instead of the real powers behind the throne.

Ralph Nader has pretty well summarized her, after her speech at the DNC:

“Has there ever been a more banal, ditto-heading a sitting president speech by his successor presidential nominee as last night’s acceptance address by Kamala Harris? It was Biden 2.0, except obviously with different family proper names. No mention of the corporate crime wave, no touting of unions and labor law reform, no mention of corporate tax reform. Not even highlighting an authentic pledge to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour from its present frozen $7.25. No critique of massive corporate welfare giveaways. No mention of massive deficits, which don’t qualify as investments, but are due to Trump’s tax cuts and other longstanding corporate and super-rich tax escapes, and no mention of America coming home and pulling back on boomeranging empire wars. What you are going to get is another younger version of Biden. And Harris also made the AIPAC ultimatum lobby and their mentor Netanyahu deliriously happy.”

We’ll leave the two candidates at that, except for one last thing, relating to Leo. Leo types can either lead or they can rule. There is a difference. Leaders are able to be exemplary in that they bring out the best in people. A ruler will tend to be autocratic, even if benevolent. The reader can decide which type Trump actually embodies. But he is not young. If he does happen to win the election and has to leave office, Vance would automatically step into his place. And we would have the Republican version of Harris-Biden. We have not covered Vance here, but there are warning signs around him, too, which we will cover later. He would tend to rule instead of lead and would be a major exponent of the security state – just something to keep in mind.

Election summary, for now: All Americans of voting age need to vote. It doesn’t matter if one’s preferred candidate wins or not. Voting itself sends a vibration through the system. If enough people – even a minority – make enough of an impact the system will have to change. And here is the thing: At present there are two very major considerations for the election – the two wars and the oligarchy that pulls the strings of government. That oligarchy (meaning individuals and corporations) wants at all costs to continue the American-led Western hegemony, largely via Israel and in disrupting the emerging multipolar order. And we have little if any say in the matter. The two major parties represent that oligarchy, without exception. If we want to see the genocide stopped, then there are only two candidates who would work to bring it to a close – Stein and Oliver. The same two also support ranked-choice voting and legal status for immigrants. There is only one candidate who represents the overall desires of the majority of Americans, and that is Jill Stein. The importance of a candidate like Jill Stein is that she brings said issues to the attention of the American public, even if she is not expected to win. My advice to people is to vote their conscience, wherever that lies in the spectrum. But we close this with the following thought: The fate of Western hegemony hinges on the outcomes of the two wars we have in Israel and Ukraine. It is why the two major parties at present are both solidly behind Israel – and Israel is directly connected with Ukraine. We will leave that thought for consideration for now, to come back to after the election.

In conclusion: We just had a couple of friends here on a visit from Australia for a few days. It was good to hear an Aussie accent again and to get news from my old stomping ground in Adelaide. One evening we took a trundle up the mountain to the site of the peace bell, Maria Dolens – La Campana dei Caduti (the bell for the fallen). It is a monument to the fallen in all wars, regardless of nationality. The path leading to the bell is “decorated with flags of nations, organisations and communities working for peace and brotherhood between peoples.” I have mentioned the bell in past letters. But it has a particular meaning these days, seeing that we may be facing a catastrophic expansion of war in West Asia and possibly Eastern Europe. It had been about ten years since I had been to the site, yet one can hear the bell clearly in warmer weather every evening here in the city. Walking along the path leading to the bell I noticed the Russian flag had been shredded by some misguided soul and not replaced. Regardless of one’s opinions of any of the nations, the Russians have earned their place on that path, especially in the world wars, and today as well. Regardless, we work as humanity to bring an end to wars, an end to animosity between nations and peoples, and to restore a lasting and just peace among nations. To sit in the presence of the bell as it rings is a moving and sobering experience, and to sit there after in reflection of the ultimate sacrifices made by peoples the world over. Let peace prevail. Let evil be sealed away, once and for all. May we all do our part to make it so.

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1. Dr. Lawrence “Larry” Kersten – American sociologist and author (1933-2006), Quotations book 2017 ↑
2. Juvenal, “Satire” 10.77–81 ↑
3. https://development.malvinartley.com/2022/02/08/excerpts-from-the-destiny-of-the-nations/ ↑
4. Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Astrology (1951) New York, NY, Lucis Publishing, p. 68 ↑
5. Ibid, p. 289 ↑
6. Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology, Vivian E. Robson, 1923, p.48, 195, 235. ↑
7. From Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams. My favorite was the original film with Paul Newman, Burl Ives and Elizabeth Taylor. Classic. ↑