The Cardinal Crisis
In this citizen journalism image from a mobile phone, a little Syrian boy carries a board which reads: ' Stop the Killing,' during a protest in Daraya, southwest of Damascus, Syria, on April 25, 2011. In a terrifying escalation of Syria's crackdown on dissent, thousands of infantry soldiers backed by tanks poured into the southern city of Daraa, on the Jordanian border, the city where the uprising began. The soldiers opened fire indiscriminately on civilians, killing at least 11 people, witnesses said. Meanwhile, knife-wielding Syrian security agents went on illegal house-to-house sweeps in what activists say is a campaign to frighten and intimidate demonstrators.
Image: AP
Transits Of June 2011
Also,
La Nina's Impact: Severe Storms Strike South
Plus,
Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
&
Mexico Rages With Mass Murder
Plus,
Attack On Dissent In Syria
Also,
Impending Economic Collapse:
Why All Baby Boomers Are To Blame?
And,
Mundane Forecast:
Saturn's Transit In Scorpio: 2012-2015
Saturn's Transit In Scorpio: 2012-2015
Global Astrology
By Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.S
Peace and Goodwill to all Humanity.
Praise and Glory Be To the Immortal God.
"It has been said that wisdom lies not in seeing things, but in seeing through things."
~ Manly P. Hall
In a new astrological year, the world events of late continue the theme from 2010 with the inclinations of the cardinal crisis transits of the outer planets relative to our Earth.
The early years of the Twenty-Tens, while challenging, also show the promises of a decade of significant changes leading, we all hope - to a better world emerging out of the last century.
In these times of economic confusion and forced austerity on nations, the gap between 'rich' and the 'poor' continues to widen amid outrageous acts of corruption from the 1990s and 2000s - now evident in the Twenty-Tens.
The complexities of issues facing the people of the world are as diverse as they are challenging; however, this does not mean we cannot triumph as we find meaning in the events of our times and play our roles to make things better.
But in order to do this require gnosis - which is to awake from the deep sleep of the world around us so we can make positive impact on the world.
For in the end, we are what we either do, or do not do.
How people choose to awaken from their slumber depends on adjusting one's views to the physical and metaphysical realities around us, and this can be done not only by noting the astrological transits but also by achieving and then strengthening gnosis.
We all know the world has become a strange place over the past ten years and appears to get weirder all the time.
In this edition of Global Astrology we take a diverse view on current and coming events at hand in the world: from the bloody uprisings and battles in North Africa - this time featuring Syria to the mass murders and violence in Mexico.
In this edition of Global Astrology we take a diverse view on current and coming events at hand in the world: from the bloody uprisings and battles in North Africa - this time featuring Syria to the mass murders and violence in Mexico.
We also look at climate change and the effects of La Nina in Severe Storms Strike South. We examine the extent of Japan's Fukushima Nuclear disaster.
We take another look at the emergence of Generation X, the incoming establishment of the next two decades. We also ask: Impending Economic Collapse: Are Baby Boomers To Blame?
Lastly, we look to Saturn's coming transit in tropical Scorpio in the years ahead as we examine generational transition, the economy and real estate.
Any astrologer worth his or her salt, who can actually read world transits, would be remiss not to see the widespread corruption, greed and rampant criminal activity among those in the highest public and private offices.
Those conducting and participating in these evils, if they really knew what awaited them, surely would not continue to perform their acts of perdition - if they knew the consequences.
Those conducting and participating in these evils, if they really knew what awaited them, surely would not continue to perform their acts of perdition - if they knew the consequences.
We've covered this before on Global Astrology. In the months ahead, we will return to the prophecies and instructions from the Pistis Sophia. In this edition, we hear the words of Jesus Christ on what fate awaits murderers.
You may notice the thing about Global Astrology is the time which elapses in-between editions. The reason for this is that I take these intervals to observe the night skies over several weeks during my astrological work.
Among the planets, along with Earth, one of my favorite planets is Jupiter, a planet that has recently emerged from the far side of the Sun.
The movements of Jupiter and the planets correlate to events - past, present and future - to the mundane happenings here on Earth.
Jupiter is now moving quickly and has recently begun a new cycle in the constellation of Aries, signalling the start of our new era - the Twenty-Tens.
I observe and examine Jupiter's condition and that of its many moons as the planet rises in the eastern skies.
I contemplate on their revolutions in combination with their astrological aspects to the planets and fixed stars; which comprises the bulk of my mundane forecasts.
These are the kinds of things I see when I observe the space around the planet Jupiter.
The Cardinal Crisis
Jupiter & Mars Rising
May 2011
Patience By Proxy?
Astrological Outlook By
Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.S
In May 2011, if you rise before the Sun and look east, you will be able to see a sparking line of planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter - rising on the eastern horizon along the ecliptic, the path the Sun rides on during the day.
Uranus and Neptune are also rising, but you will have to use binoculars or a telescope to see those planets in the eastern skies.
I've been doing so for a month now, in my astronomic forecasting work it is essential to observe the physical skies to confirm forecasts with astrological calculations.
The rising planets in the east are signs of continuing change and progress I have been forecasting for some time now regarding the cardinal crisis transits.
However, our present times require patience by proxy.
You see, a proxy variable is not something in and of itself to be of great interest at the time, but from where some gains can be made.
In order for that to be the case, the proxy variable must have a close correlation to what is happening, but is not necessarily apparent straight away.
Things may not be considered positive at first, but some things and events do have an inferred value later.
So patience is essential because anything is possible once you get over the hurtles and put yourself on the right track.
Planets Rising In The East
click on chart to enlarge
In this way, you can understand and properly use the months of May, June and July 2011.
For the last two months, the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter have been behind the Sun as viewed from Earth.
In May, these planets emerge from the Sun's far side. The positions of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus in tropical Aries signifies the new astrological age the world has entered.
It is a time of new starts, and promises; however the month of May features inclinations that forecast slow, steady progress for people. Promises of opportunities are evident, but these opportunities are not just yet readily available.
May began with a New Moon at 12-degrees Taurus.
New Moon, May 3, 2011, at 2:51 a.m., EDT - New York, U.S.A.
click on chart to enlarge
After a long winter season and contentious early spring in the northern hemisphere, the New Moon of May 3, 2011 takes position in the Second Mundane House, along with Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter - all positioned in the Second House of Finance in the chart above.
This is clearly financial. The pressures to make money and gain some progress after three years of recession continues to frustrate people.
The month of May signifies concerns over financial realities and the economic outlook but transits ask us to proceed carefully, as haste, impulse and frustration mount from obstacles and unwillingness of others to cooperate.
Three of the four (4) lunar phases of May are "fixed" in the Signs of Taurus, Leo and Scorpio with the last phase, that of the last quarter Moon, is mutable in Pisces by May 24.
Therefore, May's inclinations tell us there is a need to navigate carefully by controlling our desires for immediate progress with prudence and patience.
Take things steady while avoiding impulsiveness, negativity and frustrations.
Changes are coming which lead to improvements, but those who continue to block advancement stubbornly remain in their positions, but not for long. The idea for May, June and July is to take things step-by-step, rather than trying to take giant leaps with empty promises.
With a little perseverance though, you can get things done. At the May 3 New Moon in Taurus, transiting Mercury's opposition to Saturn in Libra highlights problems from negative mental outlooks with people in positions of power who are unlikely to warm to new proposals.
Venus, conjoined to Mercury in Aries is also opposed to Saturn, so the feelings of frustration from delays in progress are likely during the month.
Aries desires action, however the opposition to Saturn can make people hesitant and uncomfortable about financial limitations in light of the ongoing economic recession and unemployment.
Saturn transits in the western skies, opposing the stellium of planets in Aries, so there are the 'people' against 'old leaders' who represent the past, the status quo, against the demands of the people who desire and seek the future and positive change.
Saturn's inclinations encourages 'want' and 'economy,' while highlighting 'responsibility' which can feel unwarranted, heavy and time-consuming. This often leads to frustration.
During May, Saturn's transit in Libra wanes as it sets further west against the rising of planets in the east, so what is needed is patience while searching for signs of real support.
The month of May is not the time for public relations or for trying to impress others. Social manners under these transits lean towards conservative and reserved attitudes.
Delays in progress through poor communication and lack of cooperation are contrasted against the desire for action, movement and progress. The transits of May remain energized on a transpersonal scale worldwide.
Mars is conjoined to Jupiter in Aries in early May with both planets in fire trine aspect to the North Lunar Node in Sagittarius.
There are opportunities, but these will require faith and persistence to see one's aspirations, goals and objectives achieved in the long run.
Saturn, retrograde in Libra until June 13, performs a square aspect to Pluto in Capricorn during May. The inclinations of this square features power struggles, corporate plots and the inability to cooperate.
The economic, political and business struggles are typical of Saturn-Pluto squares. Any attempt to use dishonesty to gain advantage is bound to backfire under the transits of this spring and summer, but that will not stop those ignorant of these inclinations.
Also rising with Jupiter in tropical Aries, is the planet Mars. This planet, during 2011 makes transit through the Zodiac, and will come to a close approach to the Earth in early March 2012.
Mars Rising
Back on February 4-5, 2011, the planet Mars emerged from the far side of the Sun at 15-Aquarius.
For several days prior, Mars was 'combust' to the Sun before emerging in the cold early dawn skies of a cold month.
Our current planetary is from that 4-5 Feb 2011 conjunction of Mars and the Sun, with Mars opposed to the Earth - this is when Mars is in the same direction as the Sun from the point of view of us on Earth.
On that same day, transiting Jupiter moved north by declination, signalling the coming conjunction of Mars and Jupiter in the month of May, in tropical Aries, rising in the pre-dawn skies.
The position of Mars rising in Aries, into Taurus, then Gemini between April and early August 2011 are bound to see spikes in demonstrations, violence and military acts. By August, transiting Mars will enter Cancer, then Leo in September.
Mars will enter tropical Virgo on November 11, 2011 and will remain in tropical Virgo for seven (7) months until early July 2012.
Mars will retrograde in Virgo by January 24, 2012 and will be close to the Earth, shining a bright red-orange as the Earth will conjoin Mars between March 3-6, 2012.
This Mars phase with Earth begins with its conjunction cycle on 3 March 2012 at 20:35 03 UT. Mars will have a visual magnitude of -1.23, at about 13.9 arc seconds and be 1.66 AU away from Earth.
Mars will be at the coordinates 11h06m, +10°21' in sidereal Leo, where you will see a waxing gibbous Moon about 40 degrees to west of Mars.
Mars will appear as a bright reddish-orange object that should rise at about the same time the sun sets (and set at about the same time as the next sunrise).
The season on Mars will be late spring in the northern hemisphere and late autumn in the southern hemisphere. At opposition to the Sun, the entire disk of Mars will be illuminated in full phase, like a full moon.
Before and after opposition, it will be in gibbous phase; so it can never have a crescent phase since Mars is further away from the Sun than Earth and thus can never be between Earth and the Sun.
Due to the high ellipticity of Mars' orbit, the closest approach to Earth will occur at 16:55 05 UT on March 5, 2012, when Mars will be only 101 million km (0.674 AU) or 62.6 million miles away.
Mars will retrograde in tropical Virgo from mid-January 2012 to April 14, 2012, when Mars stations direct at 3-Virgo.
The transit of Mars for seven months in Virgo, along with its retrograde cycle and conjunction to Earth in March 2012, along with additional transits show malefic inclinations from this year and into next.
Transits of June 2011
'A Need For Speed'
The New Moon arrives June 1 at 11-degrees Gemini. The Taurian inclinations transfers into June as Jupiter enters tropical Taurus on June 4.
Today, we see people texting away, using their cellphones ad infinitum while having problems talking with people face to face. Society, seemingly obsessed with the uses of social media technology produces much quantity, but often lacks quality.
Substance lacks in June as many people are off to the races with 'a need for speed' under the Gemini skies.
This is the time of year when school comes to an end and people begin to seriously make their plans for summer in the northern hemisphere.
In the month of June, the transits from Taurus into Gemini feature a transitional month of diverse movement.
June 1 will open with a partial solar eclipse at 11 degrees Gemini. These eclipses occur over the Earth's polar regions. This one is over the north pole.
The lunar eclipse can be seen over northern Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, Iceland and portions of northeastern Asia.
The path of the partial solar eclipse will begin at sunrise in Siberia and northern China at 19:25:18 Universal Time (UT.) The shadow path will travel northeast, ending at 23:06:56 UT, just north of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean.
Greatest eclipse occurs in far northwestern Russia, near Cheshskaya Bay at 21:16:11 UT at a magnitude of 0.602. This happens two hours after the eclipse begins its path from Siberia where the eclipse's magnitude of 0.601 will be visible from the Arctic coast of western Siberia.
Observers in Iceland will see a magnitude of 0.462 just before the Sun sets. sunset while northern regions of Finland, Norway and Sweden will witness a midnight solar eclipse.
Jupiter's motion continues to be rapid in May and June. Having entered Aries on January 22, by June 4 transiting Jupiter will have entered tropical Taurus.
So Jupiter has raced through tropical Aries in just four months and by early June makes ingress into Taurus.
This is an important transit for those interested. Jupiter's transit shows that there is time to make progress, but within limits since the overall tempo involves an opposition to Saturn. More on that in a bit...
By the end of August, Jupiter will station retrograde, remaining so until Christmas Day 2011, so there is a need to try to get as much accomplished by the month of August.
Jupiter's inclinations are for progress, so the months of May, June and July are the best months to get as much done as is possible before things slow down in August.
Jupiter has begun a new 11-12 year cycle in Aries, so the inclinations are for new starts in lives, careers and projects. Expansion is on the mind of many, however the overall world transits, especially Jupiter's opposition to Saturn show how barriers and obstacles continue to frustrate.
Saturn stations to direct motion June 13 at 10-Libra after being retrograde since late January.
There are air trine aspects coming to Saturn from the transits of Mercury, Venus, then Mars in June and July 2011 which are helpful to make some progress.
On June 15, there will be a rare central lunar eclipse at 24 Sagittarius.
This is where the Moon will pass in front of the center of Earth's shadow. The last time this occurred was July 2000. The next central total lunar eclipse will occur in July 2018.
click to enlarge
The June 15 lunar eclipse will be seen over Africa and Central Asia. The eclipse will rise visible over South America, western Africa and Europe.
The eclipse highlights international events continuing to be major news, much of it around violence and military action. The inclinations from late June into July shows a need to diplomacy and adjustments to reduce violence worldwide.
The Moon's June 15 central eclipse will be seen setting over eastern Asia.
While over western Asia, Australia and the Philippines, the Sagittarius lunar eclipse will be visible just before sunrise.
The position of Saturn transiting tropical Libra, in opposition to Jupiter in Aries, is reflective of the tension of the times.
The Jupiter-Saturn Opposition
We've highlighted this before on Global Astrology. The first Jupiter-Saturn opposition since 1989-90 is now in effect worldwide, so I am not bullish on improvements in the economy until next year.
This opposition will continue through the year 2011, until finally moving out of orb in March 2012.
The main effects are those that affect domestic, professional and business affairs with unfavorable inclinations:
- Red tape & obstacles
- Poor timing
- Legal problems
- bankruptcy
- Negative overall business climate
This is not the time to expand in business and professional matters related to cultural affairs, long-distance commerce, education, law and travel.
The opposition between Jupiter and Saturn inclines towards conflicts, disagreements and general lack of support from institutions or from those in establishment positions.
There may be ulterior motives associated with attempts to break out of the economic doldrums with conflicts around status and money issues between friends, family and associates.
The opposition also inclines towards hypocrisy in the actual practice of ethics and morals.
The general atmosphere that the Jupiter-Saturn opposition will be felt in frustrating attempts to get things going.
Unemployment rates remain stubbornly high with a lack of balance between conservative and optimistic attitudes.
The moral conflicts are contrasted against the need to make business and professional adjustments amid rigid and uncompromising attitudes.
Overwork for those who have jobs are also inclined by the Jupiter-Saturn opposition as the economic recession continues in 2011.
This is because of the generational transition, now underway in its early stages.
Anyone who has business/professional goals should continue to carefully be patience while waiting for the opposition to wane out of orb. This will happen by March 2012.
The 'old' against the 'young' feature strongly in 2011 and 2012 - mainly by way of the outgoing establishment of aged baby boomer generation and the incoming establishment of Generation X.
The great majority of people out of work in the world are under the age of 51, this reflects the populations of people between the ages of 18-49 who suffer high rates of unemployment and lack of opportunities more than the baby boomer generation, all who are over the age of 58.
The situation will soon reverse itself as it becomes crystal clear that the economy cannot improve without Generation X and Generation Y getting back into the world of work.
The Jupiter-Saturn opposition helps this to happen. The last opposition of 1989-90 preceded the baby boomer becoming the new establishment in the early 1990s.
The same is about to happen for Generation X.
The transition will not be smooth because the baby boomer generation has never faced the realities of aging, but nonetheless must.
The demands of this generation to keep the status quo, or things as they are, cannot be treated seriously since time does not stand still.
The corruption, greed, hegemony, cynicism, sarcasm and rampant ideology of the present era is reflective of the inclinations of Jupiter-Saturn on those who should know better.
I remind those who would listen that in order to gain the future one must embrace it - even if this means being left behind.
For we all get older but must not break the intragenerational contract purely on selfish interest, as has already been done by the baby boomer generation.
Viewing the world transits to come in the Twenty-Tens, the baby boomers who have come to realize that their generation is now past its prime, will do better than those who want to deny it.
Have no doubt - the next two decades are for the new generational establishment and Generation X is that establishment.
Transits show that members of this new establishment should being to walk, talk and behave as the new leaders that they are.
The era just ahead call for leadership, creativity, command and practicality for society to improve and it will fall on the shoulders of Generation X to make a reality.
So, the idea between now and March 2012 is patience, as world transits signify initiative and significant change on the horizon.
Still, the world opposition of Jupiter and Saturn inclines unfavorably when it comes to making significant progress in 2011, so pace yourself well going into early 2012.
~
As forecasted, the climate and weather continue to make world news.
After a long, wet and colder than normal winter in the northern hemisphere, people have emerged into a violent early spring season as severe storms of heavy rains and tornadoes struck the United States in April - cutting a swath of destruction as La Nina's impact continues to inflict damage around the world.
The Cardinal Crisis
Severe Storms Strike South
Record Storms: A tornado moves through Tuscaloosa, Alabama on Wednesday, April 27, 2011. A wave of severe storms laced with tornadoes strafed the South on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people around the region and destroying buildings across swaths of several states.
Image: Dusty Compton/The Tuscaloosa News
Tornadoes devastate South, killing at least 329+
By Greg Bluestein & Holbrook Mohr
AP
April 28, 2011- Pleasant Grove, Alabama – Firefighters searched one splintered pile after another for survivors, combing the remains of houses and neighborhoods pulverized by the nation's deadliest tornado outbreak in almost four decades.
A misplaced family is assisted by emergency responders near 15th St. in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the wake of a powerful tornado that struck the city on April 27, 2011.
Image: Dusty Compton/The Tuscaloosa News
At least 329 people were killed across six states - more than two-thirds of them in Alabama, where large cities bore the half-mile-wide scars the twisters left behind.
Aerial view of Tuscaloosa tornado damage.
The death toll from Wednesday's storms seems out of a bygone era, before Doppler radar and pinpoint satellite forecasts were around to warn communities of severe weather.
Residents were told the tornadoes were coming up to 24 minutes ahead of time, but they were just too wide, too powerful and too locked onto populated areas to avoid a horrifying body count.
Homes and businesses along McFarland Blvd. are completely destroyed in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Wednesday, April 27, 2011. A wave of severe storms laced with tornadoes strafed the U.S. South.
Image: Dusty Compton/The Tuscaloosa News
"These were the most intense super-cell thunderstorms that I think anybody who was out there forecasting has ever seen," said meteorologist Greg Carbin at the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.
"If you experienced a direct hit from one of these, you'd have to be in a reinforced room, storm shelter or underground" to survive, Carbin said.
The storms seemed to hug the interstate highways as they barreled along like runaway trucks, obliterating neighborhoods or even entire towns from Tuscaloosa to Bristol, Va.
One family rode out the disaster in the basement of a funeral home, another by huddling in a tanning bed.
In Concord, a small town outside Birmingham that was ravaged by a tornado, Randy Guyton's family got a phone call from a friend warning them to take cover.
They rushed to the basement garage, piled into a Honda Ridgeline and listened to the roar as the twister devoured the house in seconds. Afterward, they saw daylight through the shards of their home and scrambled out.
"The whole house caved in on top of that car," he said. "Other than my boy screaming to the Lord to save us, being in that car is what saved us."
The aftermath of overnight tornadoes that left neighborhoods in ruins include a house pictured here that was taken off its foundation in Pratt City, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, April 28, 2011.
Image: Marvin Gentry/Reuters
Son Justin remembers the dingy white cloud moving quickly toward the house.
"To me it sounded like destruction," the 22-year-old said.
"It was a mean, mean roar. It was awful."
At least three people died in a Pleasant Grove subdivision southwest of Birmingham, where residents trickled back Thursday to survey the damage.
Greg Harrison's neighborhood was somehow unscathed, but he remains haunted by the wind, thunder and lightning as they built to a crescendo, then suddenly stopped.
"Sick is what I feel," he said. "This is what you see in Oklahoma and Kansas. Not here. Not in the South."
Image: Michelle Lepianka Carter/The Tuscaloosa News
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said his state had confirmed 194 deaths. There were 33 deaths in Mississippi, 33 in Tennessee, 14 in Georgia, five in Virginia and one in Kentucky.
Hundreds if not thousands of people were injured - 600 in Tuscaloosa alone.
Some of the worst damage was about 50 miles southwest of Pleasant Grove in Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 83,000 that is home to the University of Alabama.
A tower-mounted news camera there captured images of an astonishingly thick, powerful tornado flinging debris as it leveled neighborhoods.
That twister and others Wednesday were several times more severe than a typical tornado, which is hundreds of yards wide, has winds around 100 mph and stays on the ground for a few miles, said research meteorologist Harold Brooks at the Storm Prediction Center.
"There's a pretty good chance some of these were a mile wide, on the ground for tens of miles and had wind speeds over 200 mph," he said.
The loss of life is the greatest from an outbreak of U.S. tornadoes since April 1974, when 329 people were killed by a storm that swept across 13 Southern and Midwestern states.
Brooks said the tornado that struck Tuscaloosa could be an EF5 - the strongest category of tornado, with winds of more than 200 mph - and was at least the second-highest category, an EF4.
Search and rescue teams fanned out to dig through the rubble of devastated communities that bore eerie similarities to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when town after town lay flattened for nearly 90 miles.
Image: Dusty Compton/The Tuscaloosa News
President Barack Obama said he would travel to Alabama on Friday to view storm damage and meet Gov. Robert Bentley and affected families.
As many as a million homes and businesses there were without power, and Bentley said 2,000 National Guard troops had been activated to help.
The governors of Mississippi and Georgia also issued emergency declarations for parts of their states.
This NOAA satellite image taken Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 01:45 PM EDT shows a band of clouds stretches into the Gulf of Mexico. A low pressure system moving through the Northeastern U.S. produces a strong front that triggers periods of heavy rain fall with scattered thunderstorms. Meanwhile, to the south, a few patchy clouds develop over the Greater and Lesser Antilles. Only a few light rain showers cover these areas, severe storms have not developed.
"We can't control when or where a terrible storm may strike, but we can control how we respond to it," Obama said.
"And I want every American who has been affected by this disaster to know that the federal government will do everything we can to help you recover and we will stand with you as you rebuild."
The storm prediction center said it received 164 tornado reports around the region, but some tornadoes were probably reported multiple times and it could take days to get a final count.
In fact, Brooks said 50 to 60 reports - from the Mississippi-Alabama line, through Tuscaloosa and Birmingham and into Georgia and southwestern Tennessee - might end up being a single tornado.
If that's true its path would be one of the longest on record for a twister, rivaling a 1925 tornado that raged for 219 miles.
Brooks said the weather service was able to provide about 24 minutes' notice before the twisters hit.
"It was a well-forecasted event," Brooks said. "People were talking about this week being a big week a week ago."
Gov. Bentley said forecasters did a good job alerting people, but there's only so much they can do to help people prepare.
Carbin, the meteorologist, noted that the warning gave residents enough time to hunker down, but not enough for them to safely leave the area.
"You've got half an hour to evacuate the north side of Tuscaloosa.
How do you do that and when do you do that? Knowing there's a tornado on the ground right now and the conditions in advance of it, you may inadvertently put people in harm's way," he said.
Officials said at least 13 died in Smithville, Miss., where devastating winds ripped open the police station, post office, city hall and an industrial park with several furniture factories.
Pieces of tin were twined high around the legs of a blue water tower, and the Piggly Wiggly grocery store was gutted.
Lee Henderson sits amid the rubble of his Smoothie King store after a tornado ripped through it Wednesday, April 27, 2011 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Image: Caroline Summers/AP
"It's like the town is just gone," said 24-year-old Jessica Monaghan, wiping away tears as she toted 9-month-old son Slade Scott.
The baby's father, Tupelo firefighter Tyler Scott, was at work when the warning came on the TV.
"It said be ready in 10 minutes, but about that time, it was there," Monaghan said. She, Slade and the family's cat survived by hiding in a closet.
At Smithville Cemetery, even the dead were not spared: Tombstones dating to the 1800s, including some of Civil War soldiers, lay broken on the ground.
Brothers Kenny and Paul Long dragged their youngest brother's headstone back to its proper place.
Unlike many neighboring towns, Kenny Long said, Smithville had no storm shelter.
"You have warnings," Long said, "but where do you go?"
Some fled to the sturdy center section of Smithville Baptist Church. Pastor Wes White said they clung to each other and anything they could reach, a single "mass of humanity" as the building disintegrated around them.
The second story is gone, the walls collapsed, but no one there was seriously hurt. The choir robes remained in place, perfectly white.
Seven people were killed in Georgia's Catoosa County, including Ringgold, where a suspected tornado flattened about a dozen buildings and trapped an unknown number of people.
"It happened so fast I couldn't think at all," said Tom Rose, an Illinois truck driver whose vehicle was blown off the road at I-75 North in Ringgold, near the Tennessee line.
Catoosa County Sheriff Phil Summers said several residential areas had "nothing but foundations left," and that some people reported missing had yet to be found.
In Trenton, Ga., nearly two dozen people took shelter in an Ace Hardware store, including a couple walking by when an employee emerged and told them to take cover immediately.
Lisa Rice, owner of S&L Tans in Trenton, survived by climbing into a tanning bed with her two daughters. Stormy, 19, and Sky, 21.
"We got in it and closed it on top of us," Rice said. "Sky said, `We're going to die.' But, I said, `No, just pray. Just pray, just pray, just pray.'"
For 30 seconds, wind rushed around the bed and debris flew as wind tore off the roof.
"Then it just stopped. It got real quiet. We waited a few minutes and then opened up the bed and we saw daylight," she said.
The badly damaged Moore Funeral Home, meanwhile, sheltered the woman who cleans Larry Moore's family business.
When the first of three storms hit and uprooted trees in her yard, she figured the funeral home would be a safer place for her two children. As shingles began sailing past the window, she headed for the basement.
"That's what saved her, I guess," Moore said. "It was over in just a matter of seconds. She called 911 and emergency crews had to help her get out."
The storm system spread destruction from Texas to New York, where dozens of roads were flooded or washed out.
It was unclear how high the death toll could rise. In Mississippi, Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson and a crew of deputies and inmates searched the rubble, recovering five bodies and marking homes that still had bodies inside with two large orange Xs.
"I've never seen anything like this," Johnson said. "This is something that no one can prepare for."
~
La Nina's Power
Extreme Weather: Floods & Droughts
By Theodore White, astrometeorologist.S
Since mid-2009 more than half the planet has been in the climate throes of ENSO, or El Nino Southern Oscillation. ENSO is the abbreviation for El Nino/Southern Oscillation.
For years, climate science has been perverted by ideologues who promote 'man-made global warming' - something that is not real.
As a forecasting astrometeorologist, I have always known that the climate and resulting weather are caused by astronomic forces. It always has. The natural world includes outer space, and this is where all of our weather comes from.
Many people tend to forget that our planet, the Earth, lives in space. The climate of the Earth is a Hydrosphere - with three-fourths of the world covered in seawater.
Our weather is forced by the interaction of the Earth's hyrdosphere with forces in space - mainly that of the Sun: the driver of all life on our planet with solar winds comprised of a diverse menu of cosmic rays and magnetic resonance modulated by the motions of the planets in our solar system.
Coupled to the inclinations and causes of the Moon, our planet's weather is highly variable and always in motion - like the celestial bodies.
The Sun regulates the ocean patterns and jet streams that produce cold and warm pressure systems. The Sun continues to pick up its activity from 2010 into 2011 with cosmic geomagnetic storms via the solar winds and modulated by motions of the planetary bodies.
What the ENSO phenomena comes down to is a recurrent and astronomically-forced oceanolgraphic phenomenon that does produce extreme weather in many parts of the world. I have foretasted droughts and floods co-existing at the same time and expanding in 2011-2012.
Back in 2006, I forecasted ENSO for the 2009-2011 period of which we are now emerging out from.
The causes for all climate and weather come from space, by the motions and configurations of the Sun, Moon and planetary bodies relative to the Earth.
Since we know where celestial bodies will transit in the future, astrometeorologists are able to forecast medium and long-range weather.
This surprising result stems from the fact that the oceans and the atmosphere interact with each other and land through a system of astrophysical to geophysical causes and effects.
Southern Oscillation was named by the British scientist Sir Gilbert Walker. During the 1920's, when South American scientists were busy documenting the local effects of El Nino, Gilbert was in India scanning meteorological data in hopes of discovering how to predict the severity of the Asian monsoon.
He discovered barometric pressure readings obtained from stations on either side of the Pacific fell into a remarkable pattern - that rising pressure in the east would almost always be accompanied by falling atmospheric pressure in the west.
The reverse held true as well. Gilbert described the atmospheric system in the Pacific as a teeter-totter rocking back and forth.
Because the wind's direction and magnitude are generated in response to pressure differences, extreme swings in either direction yield El Nino or La Nina years as wind patterns move surface waters and change the distribution of heat in the equatorial Pacific.
The Southern Oscillation is thus an east-west seesaw of pressures that can be used to predict the occurrence of El Nino or La Nina. Today, the Southern Oscillation index is heavily relied upon in forecasting.
Walker was the first to link such regional observations to conditions across the globe. He noted that a monsoon season characterized by "low-index" values often corresponded with drought in Australia, Indonesia, and portions of Africa.
He also noted that Western Canadian winters in "low-index" years were unusually mild. Though chided for linking such distant events, we now know that El Nino and La Nina spread their influence around the globe.
The El Nino/La Nina oscillations have been the reasons for last year's heavy rains and monster floods that wrecked such damage and loss worldwide.
In 2011, the cold, wet and stormy spring season in North America is testament to the power of planetary transits that regulate the world's weather and climate.
La Nina will continue to have impact as it wanes; as it was the mix of cold and warm air masses across the American South and Midwest produced the super cell tornado super cells to strike and La Nina fueled that.
For instance, the solar/planetary configurations of the cardinal crisis transits have caused the jet stream patterns have caused a drought to strike the U.S. South:
Bloomberg reported,
"The worst Texas drought in 44 years is damaging the state’s wheat crop and forcing ranchers to reduce cattle herds, as rising demand for U.S. food sends grain and meat prices higher.
Texas, the biggest U.S. cattle producer and second-largest winter-wheat grower, got just 4.7 inches (12 centimeters) of rain on average in the five months through February, the least for the period since 1967, State Climatologist John Nielsen- Gammon said.
More than half the wheat fields and pastures were rated in poor or very poor condition on March 20. Dry conditions extending to Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado may cut crop yields in the U.S., the world’s largest exporter, as too much moisture threatens fields in North Dakota and in Canada.
Wheat futures in Chicago are up 50 percent over last year, after drought in Russia and floods in Australia hurt output and sent global food prices surging. Wholesale beef reached a record this week, and the U.S. cattle herd in January was the smallest since 1958."
As La Nina wanes approaching the winter season in the southern hemisphere, I expect the atmosphere to become colder than normal as chilly masses from the south pole gain intensity.
This colder atmosphere will extend to the center south region of Brazil, one of the biggest producers of arabica beans - or coffee. I expect coffee prices to rise this year and next.
Bloomberg also reported on April 29, 2011 that,
"Arabica-coffee futures for July delivery closed at $2.9985 a pound in New York. Yesterday, the price surged to a 14-year high of $3.034 and has more than doubled in the past year.
Cocoa futures are up 4 percent for the same period and raw sugar is 46 percent higher.
Kraft, based in Northfield, Illinois, increased U.S. prices on Maxwell House and Yuban ground coffees by about 22 percent on March 16, spokeswoman Bridget MacConnell said.
Orrville, Ohio- based Smucker, maker of Folgers coffee, raised them by 10 percent in February, Vincent Byrd, director and president of U.S. retail coffee, said on a conference call that month.
Global food costs tracked by the United Nations reached an all-time high in February and the World Bank says that contributed to 44 million more people being driven into poverty in the past year.
Inflation is accelerating worldwide, spurring central banks from China to the euro region to increase interest rates, potentially curbing consumer spending.
Arabica coffee, preferred by coffee shops such as Starbucks Corp., climbed as rains associated with La Nina damaged crops in Colombia, the fourth largest producer last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Brazil’s crop will be 13 percent smaller than last year, Brazil’s Agriculture Ministry estimates."
What we see happening are rising food and commodities affected both by climate conditions and rampant market speculation with coffee expected to rise 40% in the coming months.
The Earth's climate is always changing, always highly variable. What I like to remind people is the fact that we live in a hydrosphere with three-fourths of the world covered in water.
The configurations of the Sun, Moon and planets cause and regulate the Earth's climate. We are currently in the 31st year of solar-forced global warming in my astrological estimation.
There are six (6) years left of climate warming, so we are on a downward phase of global warming and heading to a new world climate cycle - that of global cooling - again, forced by the Sun.
Between now and 2017, we can expect wild weather from radical extremes between warm and cold temperatures as we transition from global warming to global cooling.
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As a crime reporter, I've seen and reported on a wide variety of topics, including accidents and murders that left its victims dead. Yet, never have I witnessed the rampant bloody carnage taking place in the beautiful nation of Mexico, just beyond the U.S. border.
"During this astrological supputation, harmonized with the Holy Scriptures, the persecution of the Ecclesiastical folk will have its origin in the power of the Kings of "Aquilon" [the North], united with the Easterners. This persecution will last for eleven years, or somewhat less, for then the chief King of "Aquilon" will fall.
Thereupon the same thing will occur in the South, where for the space of three years the Church people will be persecuted even more fiercely through the Apostatic seduction of one who will hold all the absolute power in the Church militant.
The holy people of the Immortal God, the observer of his Law, will be persecuted fiercely and such will be their affliction that the blood of the true Ecclesiastics will flow everywhere."
- Michel Nostradamus, mundane Astrolog.S
Mary said: "Woe, woe, unto sinners!"
Salome answered and said: "My Lord Jesus, a murderer who has never committed any sin but murdering, if he comes out of the body, what is his chastisement?
Jesus answered and said:
"A murderer who has never committed any sin but murdering, if his time is completed through the sphere that he comes out of the body, the receivers of Yaldabaōth come and lead his soul out of the body and bind it by its feet to a great demon with a horse's face, and he spends three days circling round with it in the world.
Thereafter, they lead it into the regions of the cold and of the snow and they take vengeance on it there three years and six months.
Thereafter they lead it down into the chaos before Yaldabaōth and his forty-and-nine demons, and every one of his demons scourges it another three years and six months.
Thereafter they lead it down into the chaos before Persephonē and take vengeance on it with her chastisements another three years and six months.
Thereafter they carry it on to the way of the Midst, and every one of the rulers of the way of the Midst takes vengeance on it with the chastisements of its regions another three years and six months.
Thereafter they lead it unto the Virgin of Light [The Holy Spirit] who judges the righteous and the sinners, that she may judge it.
And when the sphere turns itself, she commands that it shall be cast into the outer darkness until the time when the darkness of the midst shall be upraised; it [the soul] will be destroyed and dissolved.
This is the chastisement of the murderer."
- Jesus Christ, Portions Of The Books Of The Savior, Chapter 145, The Pistis Sophia
We head south, to Mexico, where vicious drug cartels continue their lawless onslaught on society's innocent with horrid acts and shocking abuses of human rights that surely will send the perpetrators to the very depths of Hades itself in eternal punishment for all their evil and unspeakable acts.
The Cardinal Crisis
Mexico Rages With Mass Murder
A Mexican police officer guards a refrigerated truck carrying bodies that were found in mass graves in northern Mexico, after it arrived in Mexico City, Thursday April 14, 2011. Mexican investigators found a clandestine grave with six bodies in Tamaulipas state, bringing to 183 the number of bodies found in pits in a region near the U.S. border wracked by battling drug cartels, authorities said.
Image: Marco Ugarte/AP
Six More Victims Found in Mexican Border Pits, Climbs To 177+ Bodies Discovered In 40 Secret Graves
By E. Eduardo Cartillo
AP
April 26, 2011 - Mexico City, Mexico - Security forces have unearthed six more bodies in a northeastern Mexican border state where a drug gang is believed to be kidnapping passengers from buses and hiding their victims in secret graves, authorities said.
Morgue workers remove a body, found in a hidden mass grave, from a refrigerated truck at the entrance of a funeral home in Mexico City, Thursday April 14, 2011.
Image: Marco Ugarte/AP
A total of 177 bodies so far have been discovered in a month - buried in 40 secret mass graves.
The horrific discoveries have intensified criticism that lawlessness reigns in Tamaulipas state, where the Zetas drug gang has terrorized migrants trying to make their way north to the United States.
It is the same region where authorities say the Zetas killed 72 Central American migrants in August.
Meanwhile, a different search over the last month in the capital of northwestern Durango state has yielded 96 bodies in two mass graves as of Tuesday, said Gerardo Ortiz, spokesman for the state attorney general's office.
State investigators led by federal agents have exhumed 79 bodies in a car repair shop of a working-class neighborhood of Durango city, Ortiz said.
Seventeen other decomposed bodies were found in mid-April next to a well-known hacienda in the city, less than a mile away from the car shop.
Ortiz said the bodies appear to have been buried under dirt for anywhere from six months to six years, but authorities don't know for sure because they haven't done tests.
He wouldn't say who the victims likely were or the motives. But unlike in Tamaulipas, where states across Mexico sent reports of missing persons and families lined at up morgues to give DNA samples, no one has been calling Durango.
Very few families have inquired about loved ones, Ortiz said.
He said perhaps families were afraid to come forward, but he didn't want to speculate.
Both excavations are part of an investigation by the federal Attorney General's Office, Ortiz said.
But an official in the federal office disputed that. The official, who insisted on not being quoted by name, said state authorities are in charge of the Durango invesigation.
Federal Attorney General Marisela Morales said at a news conference Tuesday that six more bodies had been discovered in the San Fernando area of Tamaulipas, just south of the U.S. border.
Workers put up tarps to block the view before the transfer of a tractor trailer containing the bodies of 76 people found in secret mass graves in northern Mexico. The bodies were parked outside the La Piedad's Embalment building in Mexico City April 14, 2011 to collect forensic tissues and DNA to hopefully identify the victims.
Image: Jorge Dan Lopez/Reuters
Security forces began exhuming the corpses on April 1 after they were led to the site by suspects who confessed to kidnapping and killing bus passengers traveling through the area.
The motive for the bus abductions remains unclear, though prosecutors have suggested the gang may be forcefully recruiting people to work for it.
Using a makeshift raft, pro-migrant activists and Central American migrants cross the Suchiate River as they participate in a Via Crucis near the Mexican city of Ciudad Hidalgo, on the border of Guatemala and Mexico, Wednesday, April. 20, 2011. Mexican authorities say they have rescued 68 people, including 12 Central American migrants, allegedly kidnapped by a drug cartel in northern Mexico. The banner at right reads in Spanish, 'No more kidnaps, rapes, deaths, operations.'
Image: Eduardo Verdugo/AP
Morales said the Zetas have also been extorting migrants for up to $2,000.
Those whose families pay are led across the border to the U.S. by the Zetas themselves, she said.
The discoveries of the mass graves have sparked sporadic protests by citizens.
Alejandro Poire, the government spokesman for security issues, insisted "the government is in control of Tamaulipas."
He said the government has sent more federal police to the state and is aggressively investigating the mass killings and working to prevent more deaths.
He said the increased federal presence has led to the rescue of 119 kidnapped people in the northern Tamaulipas city of Reynosa in recent days, including Mexican, Central American and Chinese migrants.
Morales said 74 suspects have been arrested in the Tamaulipas killings, including 17 officers in San Fernando's municipal police force who were identified as collaborators of criminals by some of the detainees.
Only two of the 183 victims have been identified, Morales said. Mexican authorities have declined to reveal their identities, but the Guatemalan government has said one was a Guatemalan national.
A number of mass graves have been discovered over the past in areas of Mexico where drug gang turf wars have been the fiercest.
President Felipe Calderon stepped up the fight against drug traffickers when he took office four years ago, deploying thousands of federal police and soldiers to cartel strongholds.
Several gang kingpins have been brought down, leading to the splintering of several of Mexico's cartels. Drug gang violence has since surged, claiming more than more than 34,600 lives.
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The violence is a result of decades of failure to respect human life and freedom, ignored by transgressors who falsely believe that drugs, money and power are worth more than human life.
click graphic map to enlarge
The world transits over Mexico continue to reveal that evil forces intent on power and control have no respect for the sanctity of human life.
For instance, on Saturday, April 23, 2011 Reuters reported that five women were found brutally murdered in the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco, according to state police.
The semi-naked and bound bodies of two women and a 14-year-old girl were discovered in a beauty salon in the early hours of Saturday morning. All three had their throats slashed.
Police later discovered the corpses of another two women with their throats cut and dumped in the streets. Mexican media said both victims worked at the beauty parlor. No motive was given for the killings.
Acapulco, famed in the 1960s as a glamorous haunt for Hollywood stars, has been convulsed by drug violence in recent months as powerful cartels battle for smuggling routes, prompting the United States to warn tourists against visiting the downtown center of the resort.
Mexican officials have been anxious to downplay the impact of the violence on tourism, one of the country's main foreign exchange earners, pointing out that the number of visitors arriving in Mexico has continued to rise in recent years.
Spreading drug violence that killed more than 15,000 people last year has prompted foreign governments to issue a number of travel warnings for parts of Mexico.
In astrology, we look at what's happening in the real world to gain more of a sense of the times.
Let's gain more of an overview of the situation in Mexico:
click graphic to enlarge
Transiting Saturn and Pluto are in a waning world square cycle. This cycle is part of the 38-year Saturn-Pluto 1982 conjunction that ends in the year 2020.
The cardinal transits of the planets into the early to mid-Twenty Tens shows us that unless this serious problem is solved that we haven't seen anything yet when it comes to the troubles in Mexico and Central America.
What we see happening now are intense drug cartel battles to control the multi-billion dollar drug flow, mainly into the United States and Canada, where a generation of aged Baby Boomers consume massive amounts of drugs, willing to pay top dollar even as society heads into economic decline.
Most of the victims of the drug wars are the young, who suffer so an aging generation can continue to deny reality at the expense of shedding human blood?
This is yet another reason why I am not positive about the Boomer generation and their total failure as the establishment to society.
Meanwhile, cartels with access to military-grade U.S.-made weapons seem to find it easy to ambush Mexican military forces struggling to contain and then end the rampant murders.
The transpersonal world transits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto during the Twenty-Tens indicates that unless Mexico's problem is resolved within a few years that the situation will cause other nations to deal with the drug wars directly.
Saturn's coming transit in tropical Scorpio from autumn 2012 to summer 2015 is a warning of even more malefic acts to come.
This transit of Saturn in Scorpio clearly shows an intense rise in violence that could eclipse the tens of thousands of horrendous murders that have already taken place in Mexico.
The brutal violence of 2010 continues into 2011:
- January 4, 2011 - Monterrey, Mexico: Female kidnapping suspect Gabriela Muniz, also known as 'The Redhead' was found tortured and hanging by the neck from a pedestrian overpass in Mexico's wealthiest city, Monterrey.
She had been in prison since July 2009, accused of leading a gang of kidnappers and extortionists whose victims included wealthy ranchers, truckers and restaurateurs.
After being sprung from prison, Muniz, in her early 30s, was discovered over the 2011 holiday weekend. Her body was found naked from the waist up with letters that may have formed a man's name painted on her back.
Although she showed signs of having been beaten, forensic specialists said the hanging appeared to have been what killed her.
Muniz had been in prison since July 2009, accused of leading a band of kidnappers and extortionists whose victims included wealthy ranchers, truckers and restaurateurs.
As Mexico's industrial and commercial hub, Monterrey had long been immune to the drug-trafficking warfare plaguing Mexico.
In 2010, as two cartels battled for dominance of Monterrey, this city also suffered the same kinds of broad-daylight shootouts, kidnappings and abuse by traffickers, who seized control of parts of the city.
The murder rate rose tenfold in just a single year - from 2009 to 2010.
- January 8, 2011 - Acapulco, Mexico: Fifteen of 25 bodies found in Acapulco decapitated: The bodies of at least 25 people, 15 of them with their heads cut off, were found in the resort city of Acapulco, authorities said.
The grimmest discovery came as police were investigating a burning car in a shopping center parking lot early in the morning: the decapitated bodies of 15 people. Security officials of the state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, said all were men younger than 30 years old.
Police discovered messages attached to the bodies, and journalists said the notes claimed responsibility on behalf of the Sinaloa cartel accusing the dead men of being extortionists.
Later, six more bodies were discovered in a minivan taxi in the Rebirth neighborhood of Acapulco. All had been shot in the head and were in their late teens or early 20s.
In late 2010, at least 20 young men from the neighboring state of Michoacan were kidnapped by drug hit men in Acapulco.
Weeks later, the bodies of 18 of the men, whose families said were taking a vacation, were discovered in a mass grave about 40 minutes from the city.
Officials surmised that the men were seized by gunmen working for a faction of the Beltran Leyva cartel who had mistaken them for members of the rival La Familia gang, which is based in Michoacan.
If members of the Sinaloa cartel were responsible for the slayings and have moved into Acapulco, a nasty fight may be in store between them and Beltran Leyva gang members.
Both groups were once allies but have been deadly rivals for several years. The Beltran Leyva group, dominant in Acapulco, is now seen as greatly weakened after the killing or capture of several of its leaders.
The Sinaloa cartel is probably the most powerful drug-trafficking organization in Mexico, according to law enforcement authorities.
The Spirit of A Christian Woman
January 26, 2011: San Fernando, Mexico: A U.S. missionary died at a southern Texas hospital after her husband rushed her, mortally wounded, over the Rio Grande from Mexico.
Sam Davis told police he and his wife Nancy were traveling about 70 miles south of the border when gunmen in a pickup truck tried to stop them.
When the couple sped up, the gunmen fired, wounding his wife in the head, he said.
Pharr police and U.S. customs agents converged on the Davises' truck just before 12:30 p.m. January 26, 2011, after Sam Davis stopped in the middle of bridge traffic to seek help.
Nancy Davis was bleeding from a head wound in the passenger seat.
She died in a McAllen hospital about 90 minutes after her husband drove the couple's truck against traffic across the Pharr International Bridge, according to a statement issued by the Pharr Police Department.
A police statement said the Davises live in the lower Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas but did not specify where or provide details about Nancy Davis' missionary work.
Here on Global Astrology, we remember the loving and giving people who have become victims of evil.
I also warn those who have been threatening Mr. Davis that they are being watched and who is watching them is to be truly feared.
The United States lost a very spiritual woman who gave freely to others and is a model for all Christians.
Nancy Davis, 59, pictured above with her husband Sam, was a American native of Dellroy, Ohio, a town in the eastern part of the state where she grew up.
Married for 38 years, the couple believed very much that people needed to know about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and were willing to face whatever dangers came about.
Sam Davis and his wife Nancy worked tirelessly as missionaries. They built churches and medical clinics in Mexico before she was killed by suspected drug smugglers.
Though returning would be dangerous - maybe fatal, he admits - Sam Davis said wants to continue the work to his beloved "Nanz" dedicated her life.
Nancy Davis was buried in a quiet ceremony on Sunday, January 30, 2011.
Family members passing in and out of the house remembered her as a small woman who played the piano with such enthusiasm that it shook.
She was a master of sewing and pie baking and counseled lady friends so often that her phone earned the nickname, “Nancy's Hope Line.”
She helped build churches, get children to school and brought doctors where they were needed. “She finished what God had for her to do,” her son Davis Jr. said.
“Lots of good has been done. Momma's life has not been in vain.”
Speaking with The Associated Press in late February 2011, exactly two weeks after the couple were ambushed in their pickup truck, Davis said he doubts his wife's attackers will be brought to justice.
But he prays for them.
"I miss her terribly, but those people who killed her need to be saved," Davis said during a telephone interview from his home in South Texas. "I pray for them, that God will have mercy on them and help them to know Him."
"Only God knows why I made it through," he said later. "It's been the most horrible experience of my life."
Nancy and Sam singing the gospel of Christ
Davis believes the gunmen wanted his truck and weren't targeting him and his wife, a registered nurse who helped deliver newborns in clinics they built through their Gospel Proclaimers Missionary Association.
But now, after speaking publicly about the shootings, Davis knows he's a target.
He said a friend called to tell him that his home in Mexico was being watched by drug cartel members. A Mexican prosecutor plans to interview Davis.
"I know it's the drug cartel and the Zetas and the guys who shot at us, shot up my truck and killed my wife," Davis said. "They know who I am."
The couple was returning from a visit to one of their churches when they encountered an illegal roadblock Jan. 26, on a highway just south of the border city of Reynosa.
The couple had been pursued 15 times before during their years in Mexico, and Sam Davis decided not to stop.
He then heard gunfire from semiautomatic weapons.
The back window of the truck shattered - and the woman he married more than 38 years ago, whom he described as perfect, fell motionless.
"I felt and heard the impact of the bullet that hit her in the back of her head," Davis said.
"She instantly slumped over unconscious... blood began pouring out all over the console and seat. I laid my hand on her neck and could feel her heart was still beating. But I still had over 70 miles to get to the border."
He drove 137 mph, "but it still seemed like forever" before they made it to Texas. Nancy was pronounced dead at a hospital. She was 59 years of age.
The pickup Sam Davis Sr. and wife Nancy were is in Pharr police custody. A bullet entered the rear window, passed through the passenger seat head rest and fatally wounded Nancy Davis.
Image: Courtesy Pharr Police Dept.
Because of escalating violence, Davis was able to convince his wife to stay behind for the last few weeks when he went into some remote villages to check on their pastors and congregations.
After his last trip, his wife told him she couldn't stand being without him.
They'd been working in Mexico together for nearly four decades.
"We've been together through thick and thin. She said, 'please let me go, take me with you,'" Davis recalled. Granting that request, he said, is something he'll always regret.
He acknowledged that the shooting "was simply one more in a long chain" of drug-related violence in Mexico.
If he could go back in time, Davis said, he maybe would have packed up his family and fled Mexico with other missionaries, then waited for the violence to quell before returning to their work.
Through donations, their Gospel Proclaimers Missionary Association supports 15 churches on a 2,000-mile circuit through Mexico.
"We had counted the cost and were very aware that it was going to take our lives, but I didn't know what that would mean," he said.
He has found some solace speaking with Tiffany Hartley, the Colorado woman whose husband was shot by pirates as the couple rode Jet-Skis on a Texas-Mexico border lake. His body was never found.
"To know and sense what we've been through, the trauma of watching your mate be killed, the suffering of that.
The agony is beyond words," Davis said.
Yet he wants to continue the mission for which his wife died. The couple has two adult sons and seven grandchildren, and Davis said both his sons have decided to help.
The scene of his mother's fatal shooting came to Sam Davis Jr. via his cell phone. “Momma and I were texting,” Davis remembered from the porch of his rural home, next to the place his parents used to rest and resupply for the next mission into Mexico.
It was a Wednesday morning. “She texted and said, ‘We're being followed. Pray for us.'”
The next messages came as his parents pulled over at a diesel stop, knowing that the young men following them were likely going to radio for an ambush.
Their pickup, the presumed target in a carjacking gone out of control, sits in a police garage in Pharr, Texas, the passenger seat blood-stained from the head wound to Nancy Davis.
The generations-old nondenominational family ministry to Mexico was likewise dead, Davis Jr. said, though that hadn't yet set in for his dad, who was interviewed by state of Tamaulipas police officers.
“Dad says, ‘I'm going back,'” Davis Jr. said. “I pray that he wakes up.”
Amid escalating violence during the past two years, the family continued making trips, weighing the dangers against what they saw as spiritual poverty in the poorest and most remote regions of Mexico.
They relied on a mix of faith, prayer and premonition. But the drug war just continued to get worse, with Nancy, a nurse, seeing a few of the many babies she delivered end up working for the cartels.
“I believe it's a lost cause due to the fact that the people and places that could do something about it won't,” Davis Jr. said of his adopted country.
“It's like a rattlesnake. They're cutting off a rattle at a time. You don't kill it that way.”
The Davises were boxed in by two white pickups. Davis Sr. broke away and sped up, and someone fired. He raced the truck some 70 miles to the U.S. border. Nancy was pronounced dead at a McAllen hospital.
Pharr police have been handling the U.S. end of the case, but the incident itself was in Mexico's jurisdiction, Pharr police Sgt. Santiago Solis said. Police met with their Tamaulipas state counterparts for several hours.
Davis Jr. said he knew cartels had impunity in Mexico. He himself had been pursued, once phoning his mom to “talk to the Lord and tell them to fix it because they're about to kill me.”
He said he's seen shot-up vehicles, burned buildings and bodies on the street, yet continued to live and work there because he thought he was needed.
It was his grandfather who started what became the Gospel Proclaimers Missionary Association Inc. A pastor and contractor in Indiana, he drove down to Mexico after reading a newspaper article that troubled him and found himself in a village with people who had never seen a Bible.
He sold his business, bought a bunch of Bibles and headed south of the border with his family and $50.
Sam and Nancy raised their children in Mexico, sometimes each night in a different village.
Sam preached; Nancy motored around on a three-wheeler. They found their calling in the backwoods missioning to the poor.
Davis has established a memorial fund to build a new church honoring his wife.
He has seen lives transformed as people come to embrace faith, and he wants to keep experiencing that beauty.
"I am not angry with God that my wife is gone," Davis said. "I don't understand why he took her. But I know that he has a plan that is working out and it's part of that plan. And so, I remain committed and surrender to His will even though my heart is hurting and I'm grieving."
February 15, 2011 - between Mexico City and Monterrey:
A U.S. federal agent was shot dead and a second wounded when they were intercepted by gunmen as they drove from Mexico City into a part of central Mexico increasingly under the influence of violent drug traffickers, officials said.
The two special agents were with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and were apparently ambushed at the kind of fake roadblock often set up by traffickers and their henchmen.
The agents were attached to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. The agent who was killed was stationed in Laredo, Texas, according to a U.S. source. He was on temporary duty at the embassy in Mexico City.
The pair were driving from the capital toward the northern city of Monterrey when they were attacked in the state of San Luis Potosi, U.S. authorities said.
There were conflicting reports on exactly where in San Luis Potosi state the agents were shot. Several Mexican sources put the shooting on Highway 57 between the cities of Queretaro and San Luis Potosi, roughly a third of the way from Mexico City to Monterrey.
The attack occurred about 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 15. The gunmen apparently blocked the road, placed their vehicles across the highway and forced the agents to stop. Then they opened fire.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the second ICE agent was in stable condition with gunshot wounds to an arm and leg.
A group of women take part in a performance during a protest against the killing at a commemoration of International Women's Day in Mexico City, Mexico, on March 8, 2011.
Image: Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images
February 26, 2011 - The Reyes Salazar family has become a case study of the unrelenting violence. First they killed activist Josefina Reyes Salazar who was murdered on Jan. 3, 2010, in the town of El Sauzal outside of Juárez.
Then they killed her brother.
Then they burned down her mother's house.
Gunmen dressed in black kidnapped Reyes' sister, sister-in-law and another brother. On Feb. 22, 2011, their bodies were discovered, shot and dumped on the side of a windswept road in Chihuahua state.
The Reyes family has become a case study of the unrelenting violence ravaging northern Mexico. Surviving relatives angrily blame government authorities for failing to protect a family "so historically aggrieved."
"This is part of a growing wave of systematic harassment of the Reyes family by the state" and by criminal forces, the family said in a statement.
Carlos Gonzalez, spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general's office, said the bodies of Maria Magdalena Reyes, 45; Elias Reyes, 56; and his wife, Luisa Ornelas, 54; were discovered with handwritten signs suggesting that they had worked for drug traffickers - an allegation the family vehemently denied.
Other members of the Reyes family said they have been targeted because they are resisting a campaign by "outsiders" - presumably drug traffickers - to drive them and other families from their homes in the Juarez Valley around the town of Guadalupe, south of Ciudad Juarez.
The region is coveted by organizations smuggling drugs into the United States, and Juarez has become Mexico's deadliest city as rival drug gangs battle for control despite a stepped-up presence of federal police and army forces.
"There are powerful interests that want to silence the Reyes family," Josefina's sister, Marisela, 39, said in an interview this week. She had come to Mexico City and erected a protest tent in front of the Senate to draw attention to her relatives' disappearance.
As is so often the case in Mexico, the story of the Reyes family's suffering is complex and not written in black and white.
Josefina Reyes became an activist after the 2008 kidnapping and slaying of her son. She openly blamed the army occupying parts of the Juarez Valley for her son's death. There were persistent reports at the time that he worked for one of the drug cartels disputing territory around Ciudad Juarez.
March 7, 2011 - Thousands of people have vanished without a trace – some caught up in violence, others for no reason anyone can fathom. Relatives remain in agonized limbo.
They had scraped together money for a vacation in the port city of Veracruz. Four couples, owners of small fruit and taco shops, from the quiet state of Guanajuato.
After checking in to their hotel and spending the day by the pool with their children, the husbands wandered off, still in their shorts, to buy ice at a nearby 7-Eleven. Maybe they decided to pop into a bar, one the hotel guard recommended.
At first, the wives weren't too worried when the men didn't come back. Even the next morning, the women figured they had tied one on and slept it off somewhere. They took their children on a tour of the city.
But by nightfall, the wives became nervous, and as cellphone calls went unanswered, they became terrified.
Where were their husbands?
That was nearly a year ago. The four men have not been seen since. Their families have received no ransom demand, no information, no clues whatsoever. Their bodies have not turned up.
"It was as if the earth swallowed them," one of the wives said in an interview.
In a chilling byproduct of the drug war raging in Mexico, thousands of people have disappeared. Not killed, as far as is known; not taken for ransom. Simply vanished, leaving families desperate and broken, and a society confused and frightened.
Some are low-level drug gangsters "lifted," to use the local vernacular, by rivals, then killed and dumped in secret mass graves.
Some are last seen in the hands of the military or police, picked up for questioning, fates unknown. Thousands of others are immigrants who can't pay their smugglers.
And some, in the most unsettling instances, disappear for reasons no one can fathom.
Families tell themselves their loved ones were taken by traffickers and forced into slave labor in marijuana fields and methamphetamine labs. It may be true in some cases, but more often it is a form of self-deluding comfort.
The disappearances are a disturbing echo of a tactic employed by dictatorships in the so-called dirty wars that plagued parts of Latin America in the last half of the 20th century.
Whether practiced by governments or by criminals, it is a form of control and intimidation that in some ways has an even more profound effect on society because it is an "ambiguous loss," said psychologist Carlos Beristain, a Spaniard who has counseled families of the missing throughout the region.
Police, bus companies failed to act as unearthed graves filled in Tamaulipa
April 25, 2011 - A worker transfers the body of a victim discovered in a mass grave from a refrigerated truck into the morgue in Matamoros, Mexico, this month.
Image: Alexandre Meneghini/AP
There were clues but nothing was done and now at least 177 bodies have been unearthed. Demand grows for dismissing the state's elected but apparently ineffective officials.
By Tracy Wilkinson
Los Angeles Times
April 25, 2011 - Matamoros, Mexico - Suitcases started piling up, unclaimed, at the depot where buses crossing northern Tamaulipas state ended their route.
That should have been an early clue.
Then the bodies started piling up, pulled by forensic workers from two dozen hidden graves in the scruffy brush-covered ravines around the town of San Fernando, 80 miles south of this city that borders Brownsville, Texas.
At least 177 corpses have been recovered in the last few weeks, most of them, officials now say, passengers snatched from interstate buses, tortured and slaughtered.
Women were raped before being killed, and some victims were burned alive, according to accounts from survivors who eventually overcame their fears and came forward.
The slayings have horrified a Mexican public already awash in violence and led commentators to call them "our Auschwitz" and a "Mexican genocide."
Worse yet is the realization that the killing in Tamaulipas state has been going on for months - including the brutal slayings of bus passengers - and no one, not the bus companies, nor the police, nor the officials in charge, acted to stop it.
Elida Martinez, a gray-haired woman in her 60s, was one of dozens of mothers, fathers and siblings of the missing who were waiting in the morgue here the other day to offer blood samples for DNA testing.
The slayings have horrified a Mexican public already awash in violence and led commentators to call them "our Auschwitz" and a "Mexican genocide."
Worse yet is the realization that the killing in Tamaulipas state has been going on for months - including the brutal slayings of bus passengers - and no one, not the bus companies, nor the police, nor the officials in charge, acted to stop it.
Elida Martinez, a gray-haired woman in her 60s, was one of dozens of mothers, fathers and siblings of the missing who were waiting in the morgue here the other day to offer blood samples for DNA testing.
Two of her daughters disappeared in February, one kidnapped from the hotel in San Fernando where she worked and the other seized from her home in the middle of the night a short time later. Between them they left behind four children.
"You pray to God you won't find them here," she said. Yet the gut-wrenching uncertainty tears her apart. "You don't sleep. You can't work. You live in anguish."
After the massacre last year of 72 mostly Central American immigrants near San Fernando, the government of President Felipe Calderon promised the world, including angry Central American authorities, that justice would be done and the popular routes through northern Mexico toward the United States would be guarded.
It now appears, however, that the killings continued, and not just of immigrants but Mexican citizens and, perhaps, a handful of Americans.
On Wednesday, April 20, 2011 authorities said they rescued a group of 68 Mexicans and Central Americans who had been seized by gangsters from buses or from bus stations in the same area.
The motives behind the bus kidnappings remain unclear. Gangs may seize the passengers hoping to extort money from them, to forcibly recruit them or because they are searching for rivals.
The killings have galvanized an unusual if belated consensus, even among conservative commentators and politicians, that parts of Mexico have indeed been lost to criminal gangs such as the Zetas and the Gulf cartel that control (and are battling each other to dominate) the northeast.
The motives behind the bus kidnappings remain unclear. Gangs may seize the passengers hoping to extort money from them, to forcibly recruit them or because they are searching for rivals.
The killings have galvanized an unusual if belated consensus, even among conservative commentators and politicians, that parts of Mexico have indeed been lost to criminal gangs such as the Zetas and the Gulf cartel that control (and are battling each other to dominate) the northeast.
What does it mean, they ask, when the federal government cannot keep the nation's highways safe from brazen predators?
Even worse is the near-certainty that the police who are meant to be protectors have been involved.
Even worse is the near-certainty that the police who are meant to be protectors have been involved.
Among the more than 50 people arrested in connection with the latest killings are 17 local police officers accused of providing protection to the cartel gunmen believed responsible.
There is growing demand for a new government strategy and that the national Senate take the highly unusual step of dismissing the state's elected but apparently ineffective officials, a move that would also involve Calderon suspending civil rights in the region.
"If Tamaulipas is not a failed state, or a narco-state, it sure looks like one," political analyst Alfonso Zarate said. "The institutional powers are incapable of upholding the law."
Calderon has steadfastly resisted that characterization.
The top official in Tamaulipas is something of an accidental governor. Egidio Torre Cantu was elected last year, standing in at the last minute after his brother, a shoo-in for the job, was assassinated by a drug gang.
"We are prisoners in towns that we cannot leave," said Mario Alberto Alejandro, 43, who came to the morgue looking for his brother, Rigoberto, a U.S. citizen who vanished Feb. 23 on the road to Matamoros. "In whose hands are we?"
Alejandro echoed other families in saying authorities were giving them the runaround, sending relatives from the morgue to one government office after another and even in some cases to Mexico City, where most of the bodies have been taken, in part because the Matamoros morgue was full.
There is growing demand for a new government strategy and that the national Senate take the highly unusual step of dismissing the state's elected but apparently ineffective officials, a move that would also involve Calderon suspending civil rights in the region.
"If Tamaulipas is not a failed state, or a narco-state, it sure looks like one," political analyst Alfonso Zarate said. "The institutional powers are incapable of upholding the law."
Calderon has steadfastly resisted that characterization.
The top official in Tamaulipas is something of an accidental governor. Egidio Torre Cantu was elected last year, standing in at the last minute after his brother, a shoo-in for the job, was assassinated by a drug gang.
"We are prisoners in towns that we cannot leave," said Mario Alberto Alejandro, 43, who came to the morgue looking for his brother, Rigoberto, a U.S. citizen who vanished Feb. 23 on the road to Matamoros. "In whose hands are we?"
Alejandro echoed other families in saying authorities were giving them the runaround, sending relatives from the morgue to one government office after another and even in some cases to Mexico City, where most of the bodies have been taken, in part because the Matamoros morgue was full.
Alejandro said his brother Rigoberto has lived for 13 years in Texas, where he works as a forklift operator. He was in Tamaulipas to visit family, a trip he makes often.
"He never thought it would be this dangerous," Alejandro said. "There is no security."
So many families have shown up at the Matamoros morgue that locals set up a tent with chairs and a table offering coffee and water. Doors have been plastered with dozens of pictures of missing people.
Francisco Garcia's nephew Jose was on his way to Chicago from central Mexico when last heard from in early March. He was traveling with two friends, who are also missing, and all were going to join family in the U.S.
"We have not received any information, no phone call asking for ransom, nothing," said Garcia, a farmer. Too terrified to travel to Matamoros, Garcia was among scores of people who instead went to the morgue in Mexico City.
"Jose is just gone."
"He never thought it would be this dangerous," Alejandro said. "There is no security."
So many families have shown up at the Matamoros morgue that locals set up a tent with chairs and a table offering coffee and water. Doors have been plastered with dozens of pictures of missing people.
Francisco Garcia's nephew Jose was on his way to Chicago from central Mexico when last heard from in early March. He was traveling with two friends, who are also missing, and all were going to join family in the U.S.
"We have not received any information, no phone call asking for ransom, nothing," said Garcia, a farmer. Too terrified to travel to Matamoros, Garcia was among scores of people who instead went to the morgue in Mexico City.
"Jose is just gone."
The Times reported in early March that several thousand people have disappeared since Calderon launched the crackdown on drug gangs in December 2006.
Most vanished without a trace. Families nurse the hope that their loved ones were taken as forced laborers on marijuana farms or in meth labs.
But the mass graves, here in Tamaulipas and in other parts of the country, are slowly destroying those hopes. At least 58 bodies were recovered last week from clandestine graves in Durango state.
The main bus companies that run through Tamaulipas have altered their schedules and eliminated nighttime trips through San Fernando. But they have not spoken publicly about the killings.
One manager, speaking through a representative but insisting on anonymity, confirmed the existence of unclaimed suitcases but would not discuss why authorities were not informed about them.
"Maybe it's fear, or they didn't want to lose the business," said Jose Javier Saldana, a regional human rights official. "Maybe the drivers didn't report it up the chain [of management], either."
Although some of the families said the bus companies' failure to sound the alarm was unconscionable, most put the blame on authorities. Several families said authorities tried to pressure them not to speak to reporters.
Although some of the families said the bus companies' failure to sound the alarm was unconscionable, most put the blame on authorities. Several families said authorities tried to pressure them not to speak to reporters.
Furthermore, officials in three central states, Guanajuato, Queretaro and San Luis Potosi, say they have been asking the Tamaulipas government about numerous missing citizens as far back as 2009.
In the San Fernando case, in addition to the police officers, the arrested include Martin Omar Estrada, a.k.a. "El Kilo," whom authorities describe as a ringleader responsible for the latest dead as well as last summer's migrant massacre.
In the San Fernando case, in addition to the police officers, the arrested include Martin Omar Estrada, a.k.a. "El Kilo," whom authorities describe as a ringleader responsible for the latest dead as well as last summer's migrant massacre.
If true, that means Estrada, who was arrested this month, and his gang continued to operate with impunity for months.
Calderon recently promised to take back Tamaulipas and flood the zone with troops. It was virtually the same promise he made five months ago.
Calderon recently promised to take back Tamaulipas and flood the zone with troops. It was virtually the same promise he made five months ago.
~
The Cardinal Crisis
Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
By Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.S
The nuclear crisis at Fukushima, Japan, caused by a massive March 11, 2011 9.0-magnitude earthquake is by no means out of the news.
Although mainstream media continues to avoid overall coverage of the crisis - it is by no means over.
As of late April 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, says it aims to begin disposing of highly radioactive water in June.
The contaminated water is hampering efforts to reactivate the cooling systems in the plant's reactors.
On April 26, TEPCO announced it would set up a treatment system to eliminate radioactive materials.
The utility firm says 87,500 tons of contaminated water has accumulated in the No. #1 to No. #4 reactors.
TEPCO estimates up to 200,000 tons of the highly contaminated water will be produced by the end of year - if all the water used to cool the reactors becomes highly radioactive.
The company also says it plans to start installing the system in early May which will begin operating in June.
It hopes to dispose of 1,200 tons of highly contaminated water per day once the system is in place.
Radioactivity from the nuclear plant continues to be picked up worldwide with radioactivity exceeding safety limits detected in fish and spinach from the Fukushima Prefecture.
On April 26,2011, it has been estimated that 2,600 to 3,200 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium was detected in two samples of a fish species called sand lance that was caught off Iwaki City.
That is 5 to 6 times higher than the permissible level.
Spinach harvested in Otama Village, Japan was found to contain 960 becquerels of cesium and 510 becquerels of cesium was detected in spinach from Tamura City, Japan.
The Japanese government set the safety standard for the leafy vegetable at 500 becquerels.
The government has already banned shipments of some kinds of vegetables and fish harvested or caught in Fukushima Prefecture and is warning people not to eat them.
click on graphic to enlarge
The crisis that began with the March 11, 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami that damaged the nuclear facilities will continue for years.
Sadly, reading and interpreting the astrological transits over the stricken site, it is clear to me that there are very good reasons to leave Japan.
Moreover, the radioactive transfer continues to spread around the world.
Several meltdowns at the nuclear reactors have already taken place in March into early April and radioactivity continues to be emitted into the natural environment.
The longer it takes for TEPCO and the Japanese government to seal the site the more radiation will escape.
Fukushima
Review of Japan's INES Class 7 Nuclear Accident
By Stoneleigh
The Automatic Earth
The Fukushima disaster continues and will do so for a long time to come. This is hardly surprising given the overwhelming force the plant was exposed to, which far exceeded the worst case scenario it was designed to withstand.
Photo of Fukushima Dai-Ni
Photo of Fukushima Dai-Ni as tsunami strikes
The immediate devastation from the earthquake and tsunami was immense, even before the accident began.
As we have seen over the past several weeks, the loss of power to the site, and subsequent inability to circulate coolant in the reactors and the spent fuel pools, led to explosive consequences.
We saw a series of hydrogen explosions at Units 1, 3 and 2 and 4, and have seen at least three partial meltdowns, with varying degrees of apparent containment breach.
Hydrogen is produced as an exothermic reaction when the fuel cladding reacts with water steam at high temperatures (Zr + 2 H2O -> ZrO2 + 2 H2), indicating damage to the reactor core from loss of coolant.
The first image below shows the four units, with Unit 4 on the far left and unit 1 on the far right.
The second image below shows a close up of Units 3 and 4, where the buildings sustained the greatest visible damage.
Unit 4 is particularly interesting, since the reactor had been offline for maintenance at the time of the earthquake, with its fuel removed and stored in the spent fuel pool.
The explosion in this unit must have been related to this accumulation of fuel.
The pool is believed to have been damaged, leading to loss of cooling water and partial exposure of the fuel rods.
The first overhead image below is of Unit 4.
The second image below is a close up view inside the unit taken by helicopter:
It is not difficult to see how the spent fuel pool, which is situated above the reactor, could have come to be damaged.
Operators have been spraying the ground surrounding the plant with resin in order to prevent radioactive dust from the debris from becoming airborne:
Engineers have been working intensively to restore power to the site under very difficult conditions:
In the meantime, essential cooling has been ad hoc through the use of seawater, but this results in a salt build up that leads to further difficulty cooling the plant and also to rapid corrosion at high temperatures.
Salt accumulation will need to be flushed out with fresh water.
Seawater spraying into cracked vessels has also led to the accumulation of large quantities of radioactive water.
As a result, 10,000 tons of contaminated water (measuring about 500 times above the legal limit for radioactivity) were emptied into the sea in order to make room for much more highly contaminated water.
The world's largest concrete pumps are being sent to Japan, first to pump water and later perhaps to create a concrete sarcophagus. Here’s one that arrived on an Antonov plane:
Pumps used at the site would have to be abandoned there as they will be too radioactive to recover.
The dimensions of a sarcophagus entombing at least four (4) reactors would have to be truly gargantuan - considerably larger than the pyramids at Giza, per reactor.
This would be no small undertaking. Alternatively, Japan may attempt to drape the plants with fabric.
There are clearly no easy long term solutions.
The accident process is being reconstructed, often from foreign sources through nuclear forensics.
French nuclear company Areva initially (inadvertently) provided a particularly detailed explanation of the accident sequence in the early days, indicating a more serious accident in Unit 2 than in Units 1 and 3.
At Unit 2, the condensation chamber at the base of the reactor appears to have been damaged, leading to the loss of highly radioactive water into the environment.
Thus, while unit 2 appears to the least damaged from the outside, the internal damage poses a larger threat than units 1 and 3.
This analysis fits with subsequent events:
Operators faced a leak of highly radioactive water from a maintenance pool associated with Unit 2.
This took desperate measures to plug.
Concrete initially failed to harden, whereupon operators resorted to sawdust, shredded newspapers, special polymers and screens were used.
According to TEPCO, the leak was plugged on April 6th.
The leak caused radiation levels to spike in the sea surrounding the plant. according to the L.A. Times:
"The operator of Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant said Tuesday that it had found radioactive iodine at 7.5 million times the legal limit in a seawater sample taken near the facility, and government officials imposed a new health limit for radioactivity in fish.
The reading of iodine-131 was recorded Saturday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. Another sample taken Monday found the level to be 5 million times the legal limit.
The Monday samples also were found to contain radioactive cesium at 1.1 million times the legal limit."
It has also caused diplomatic difficulties with neighbors:
Regarding the release of radiation contaminated water into the ocean from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, the South Korean government conveyed its worries to Japan's Foreign Ministry through its Embassy in Japan at night of April 4 [when TEPCO started dumping], that "this may cause problems in international law."
India has already banned the import of produce from Japan, and other countries are likely to follow suit.
Seafood is likely to be the most affected.
The Japanese authorities are still saying this is safe, although they have imposed new standards:
The plant operator insisted that the radiation will rapidly disperse and that it poses no immediate danger, but an expert said exposure to the highly concentrated levels near the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant could cause immediate injury and that the leaks could result in residual contamination of the sea in the area.
The new levels coupled with reports that radiation was building up in fish led the government to create an acceptable radiation standard for fish for the first time, and officials said it could change depending on circumstances.
Some fish caught on Friday off Japan's coastal waters would have exceeded the new limit.
Nuclear analyst Arnie Gundersen more recently identifies Unit 2 as the reactor of most concern. There is a combination of temperature above boiling point and no additional pressure inside the reactor.
The implication is that Unit 2 is not currently water cooled and likely contains hot air or hydrogen instead.
There is also not pressure in the containment system at Unit 2.
A containment breach in the bottom of Unit 2 would be consistent with these observations.
Unit 1 has both high temperature and elevated pressure inside the reactor, indicating perhaps a water/steam combination. Unit 3 has low pressure and a temperature at boiling point, indicating relative stability.
Both these units have somewhat elevated pressure inside the containment structures.
Operators at Fukushima have sent robots (see two photos below) into the damaged units to assess the radiation currently present:
The data released by TEPCO for Units 1 and 3 are translated as follows:
Reactor Unit 1 building:
Date and time: 4:40PM to 5:30PM, April 17, 2011Radiation (1st floor, through the north door): 10 to 49 milli-sievert/hr
Reactor Unit 3 building:
Date and time: 11:30AM to 1:30PM, April 17, 2011Radiation: 28 to 57 milli-sievert/hr.
According to TEPCO, there were a lot of debris inside the Reactor 3 building, and the robots had a hard time moving forward and didn't go much beyond the door.
Part of the reason why they had the robots enter through the north door was because of the high radiation level at the south door.
On April 16, the radiation level at the south door to the Reactor 1 building was measured at 270 milli-sievert/hr.
The distance between the north door and the south door is about 30 meters, according to TEPCO. The radiation right outside the north door was also measured on April 16, and it was 20 milli-sievert/hr.
Apparently, the Unit 2 building was too steamy for the robots to record readings. This is also the location where readings are most urgently needed.
Official Japanese radiation data have shown some disturbing values over the last couple of weeks. See for instance this screen shot for Unit 1 taken April 9th:
click on screenshot to enlarge
On April 17th the same site had the following radiation levels recorded for units 1-3:
Reactor 1
Dry Well: 121.4 Sv/hr
Suppression chamber: 97.5 Sv/hr
Dry Well: 121.4 Sv/hr
Suppression chamber: 97.5 Sv/hr
Reactor 2
Dry Well: N/A
Suppression Chamber: 131 Sv/hr
Dry Well: N/A
Suppression Chamber: 131 Sv/hr
Reactor 3
Dry Well: 253.2 Sv/hr
Suppression Chamber: 103.9 Sv/hr
Dry Well: 253.2 Sv/hr
Suppression Chamber: 103.9 Sv/hr
A single dose of about 5Sv would be fatal in about 50% of cases according to the IAEA.
The allowable emergency dose for nuclear workers has been climbing recently.
It was originally 100 mSv/yr, was raised to 250 mSv/yr and is now to be raised again, likely to 500mSv/yr.
Translated from Nihon Television News 24 on April 18, 2011:
"The radiation exposure limit for workers at nuclear power plants is 100 milli-sievert/year, but the limit has been raised to 250 milli-sievert/year to deal with the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident.
According to the government sources, the higher limit is being considered because it is getting increasingly difficult to have enough workers to work on the plant.
Also, the radiation inside the Reactor buildings is high, and the annual limit of 250 milli-sieverts may not be high enough to achieve the goals laid out by the TEPCO road map.
The international standard allows 500 milli-sievert/year in an emergency work, but it hasn't been decided how high the new limit will be.
The government will carefully assess the timing of announcement, keeping in consideration the health concerns of the workers and the public opinion."
It continues to be difficult to secure skilled and experienced workers at Fukushima, likely because they know what happened to their counterparts at Chernobyl.
In my view the Japanese government is being far too sanguine about the risks in the neighborhood of the stricken plant, while risks far from the plant are often overstated.
The evacuation zone may be extended in light of continuing aftershocks, but probably not by enough, for logistical reasons:
One reason for the reluctance of the Japanese government to widen the evacuation from 20km to 40 km is because it will need to relocate another 130,000 people from the affected zone on top of the 70,000 people who are already evacuated from the 20km zone.
So where are they going to resettle this 200,000 people as they can never return to their homes for the next few hundred years.
If the evacuation zone be enlarged to 80 km as recommended by the IAEA, it is estimated that they need to evacuate another 1.8 million people or making the total of 2 million residents out from the danger zone.
Where are they going to put those 2 million refugees?
Another reason for the reluctance to widen the evacuation zone is due to logistics.
The Tohoku expressway is a national expressway in Japan and links Tohoku region in the northernmost region in the Honshu Island with the Kanto region and Greater Tokyo.
So if the government decided to entomb the Fukushima reactors, it will need to cordoned off an area with a radius of 50km from Fukushima.
Hence the cost of not being able to move people and goods from Tokyo to Northern Honshu will be staggering.
Moreover it will also prohibit traveling using train services as the main train track passes through the region in Sendai-Fukushima-Iwate and runs parallel to the coast.
The risk of further adverse events at the unstable plant will remain high for months, if not years, to come, and the reactors at Onagawa and Fukushima II may also be vulnerable.
Many other locations should urgently review their safety standards and design-basis accident scenarios in light of the catastrophe that is unfolding in Japan.
~
The transits of the Cardinal Crisis will be with the world for most of the Twenty-Tens.
One of the major problems associated with planetary transits are that often, people and policymakers make things worse by clinging to outworn and outdated views and methodologies, which often emerge in the world through dysfunction and neglect.
We can observe this in North Africa, where geopolitics plays out inclined by the cardinal crisis transits.
Since January 2011, the world has witnessed massive uprisings in Bahrain, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.
The uprisings signify the inability of one generation to step aside from the halls of power in their failure to feed, shelter and provide jobs to younger generations who say they want to direct their own future.
The new cycle of Uranus in Aries has ended the last vestiges of the old order of the late 20th century, but many of the oligarchy and outgoing establishment continue to refuse to accept their failures over the last 42 years.
Nonetheless, as Uranus moves closer within orb of its first series of cardinal world squares to Pluto in Capricorn, we can expect to witness ever more battles between the 'old' and the 'new' - with the 'new' being young people who are killed simply for demanding the right to determine their own futures.
We go to Syria, another North African nation inclined powerfully by world transits.
[Editor's Note - The following report contains disturbing images of violence from Syria.]
The Cardinal Crisis
Attack On Dissent In Syria
In this video frame a young man is shown dead after being shot in the back of the head. The victim is said to be among other people killed by Syrian plainclothes security forces who also conducted hundreds of illegal arrests of citizens across the country since March 2011. AFPTV obtained this horrific image from YouTube. I have been able to verify the videos were indeed shot in the Syrian cities of Zabandani, Douma, Maaret al Nouman and Homs. I can confirm these images were filmed in April 2011 and are from Syria.
Syrian Security Forces Kill Their Own Civilians In Bloody Crackdown
By Bassen Mroue & Diaa Hadid
AP
April 26, 2011 - Filed From Beirut - Residents of the southern Syrian city of Daraa braved sniper fire to pull the bullet-riddled bodies of the dead from the streets and hide them from security forces, a day after a brutal government crackdown on the popular revolt against President Bashar Assad, witnesses said.
As heavy gunfire reverberated through Daraa, a Syrian human rights group said authorities detained dozens of people across the country, mainly in several Damascus suburbs, including the town of Douma and in the northern coastal city of Jableh.
A relentless crackdown since mid-March has killed more than 400 people across Syria, with 120 dead over the weekend, rights groups said.
That has only emboldened protesters who started their revolt with calls for modest reforms but are now increasingly demanding Assad's downfall.
The Syrian army, backed by tanks and snipers, killed at least 22 people in a raid launched before dawn Monday on Daraa, where the uprising began more than a month ago. Security forces also conducted raids in the towns of Douma and Jableh.
Rocks versus Tanks: A video grab released by AFPTV from YouTube shows a Syrian youth throwing a stone at an army tank in the flashpoint town of Daraa. AFP is not authorized to report from Syria, so is using photos from alternative sources. AFP has been able to verify that the pictures were shot in Daraa.
World leaders expressed concern at the mounting bloodshed, with the United States starting to draw up sanctions against Assad, diplomats hoping to send a strong signal to Damascus from the United Nations, and the prime minister of neighboring Turkey telephoning the Syrian leader to urge restraint.
The assault on Daraa appeared to be part of new strategy of crippling, preemptive action against any opposition to Assad, rather than reacting to demonstrations.
It took more than a day for residents of Daraa to start pulling many of the bodies off the streets of Daraa, with rooftop snipers and army forces firing on people who dared to leave their homes.
click on graphic to enlarge
One man, Zaher Ahmad Ayyash, was killed as he tried to retrieve the bodies of two brothers, Taysir and Yaser al-Akrad, said a resident, who asked to be identified only as Abdullah for fear of reprisal.
The corpses were hidden away after they were retrieved from the streets, Abdullah said, suggesting that residents might face reprisal if troops discovered they had taken the bodies.
A Syrian protester shouts slogans next to a picture of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad during a protest in front of the Syrian embassy in Amman April 24, 2011.
Image: Muhammad Hamed/Reuters
As he spoke on the phone, gunfire popped in the background.
"We can't bury the dead in the cemetery because it's occupied by Syrian soldiers," said Abdullah.
"We are waiting to find another place to bury them."
Snipers also targeted water tanks on rooftops in Daraa — the last source of clean water for many desperate residents of the parched region of 300,000 people, Abdullah said.
Even as the military crackdown intensified, Abdullah said there was quiet, defiant resistance. He said some soldiers were disobeying orders and allowing residents to pass through military checkpoints.
Palestinian refugees - generally the most hardscrabble of all Syrian residents - smuggled flour, water, bread and canned food into town. "We are so grateful to them," the resident said.
Earlier in the day, another resident said Syrian special forces were in the streets of the impoverished city, and tanks had opened fire in the city.
Soldiers take up position near a tank on a street in a location given as Deraa on April 25, 2011, in this still image taken from an amateur video. Syrian troops in tanks and armored vehicles poured into the southern town of Deraa and opened fire, residents said. This is the latest bloodshed in a crackdown on protests that has escalated sharply.
Image: Reuters
"We are being subjected to a massacre," another resident screamed over the telephone above the sound of gunfire. "We have been without electricity for three days. We have no water."
The witness, contacted via a Jordanian cell phone, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, as did other witnesses and residents contacted across Syria.
Scenes similar to those in Daraa took place in Jableh, with residents hiding their dead from Friday's assault and then furtively burying them in private plots of farmland - some as late as Tuesday - out of fear that the families of those killed might be arrested, a resident said.
Also like Daraa, gunmen had shot holes in water storage tanks on rooftops in a form of punishment, he added.
In a continuation of the crackdown, hundreds of people were targeted and arrested by Syrian secret security forces operating on the streets Tuesday, he said.
Syria has banned nearly all foreign media and restricted access to trouble spots since the uprising began, making it almost impossible to verify the dramatic events shaking one of the most authoritarian, anti-Western regimes in the Arab world.
In Douma, which saw an intense crackdown Monday, houses were raided again at dawn Tuesday, with forces detaining anyone suspected of participating in demonstrations.
Soldiers at sandbagged checkpoints also held men deemed suspicious. Phone service was cut off, a resident said. The streets of Douma were almost empty, with schools and most shops closed and uncollected garbage piling up.
Security was heavy, with agents at checkpoints asking people for their identity cards.
Another resident said Syrian authorities closed the private Hamdan Hospital after ordering all families of patients to take them home.
A distressed man prays for the life of his wounded brother in Syria
No reason was given for the closure, and three doctors there were detained, the resident said.
A protester bleeding from the head is carried away during a protest in Damascus in this still image taken from an amateur video footage uploaded to social networking websites on April 23, 2011.
Image: social media/Reuters
In the seaside city of Banias, divided between Sunni Muslims and Alawites - the sect of the ruling Assad family and many key officials - about 5,000 people demonstrated peacefully in support of the citizens of Daraa, and there was no interference from security forces, activists said.
Life was almost back to normal in the central city of Homs, except for intense security, a witness said. A few hundred people demonstrated there Monday in support of Daraa, the witness said
Daraa has seen some of the worst bloodshed in the past five weeks as the uprising gained momentum. Recently, the city has absorbed many rural migrants who can no longer farm after years of drought.
The White House has stepped up its condemnation of Assad's regime, but stopped well short of demanding his ouster.
U.S. officials said Washington has begun drawing up targeted sanctions against him, his family and his inner circle to boost pressure on them to halt the repression.
Washington was conferring with European countries and the United Nations about options.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain also was working with other members of the U.N. Security Council "to send a strong signal to the Syrian authorities that the eyes of the international community are on Syria."
The U.N. says they will discuss Syria.
In Rome, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed concern over the crackdown.
Sarkozy said the current situation was "unacceptable."
The United States told all its nonessential staff and the families of all its embassy workers to leave the country, but kept the facility open for limited services.
It also advised all Americans to defer travel to Syria and advised those already in the country to leave. Britain urged its citizens to leave Syria.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Assad and urged him to show "restraint."
Turkey's ambassador met Syrian Prime Minister Adel Safar to express "deep concern and sorrow" over the many lives lost, the prime minister's office and the Turkish media reported.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, who provided the death toll of more than 400 people since the uprising began last month.
He also said that figure did not include those killed in the raids on Daraa and the Damascus suburb of Douma.
It did, however, include Syrian troops.
Abdul-Rahman couldn't provide a precise figure for those arrested Tuesday because it was difficult to get through to Daraa after authorities cut telephone service in the city 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Damascus, near the Jordanian border.
The uprising was touched off by the arrest of teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a wall, with protesters inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world.
Last week, Assad fulfilled a key demand by abolishing nearly 50-year-old emergency laws that had given the regime a free hand to arrest people without cause.
But he coupled the concession with a stern warning that people would no longer have an excuse to hold mass protests, and any further unrest would be considered "sabotage."
When protesters defied his order and held demonstrations Friday - the main day for rallies around the Arab world - they were met with a gunfire, tear gas and stun guns.
The attack on Daraa was by far the biggest in scope and firepower. Video purportedly shot by activists showed tanks rolling through streets and grassy fields with soldiers on foot jogging behind them.
Image: Reuters
State-run television quoted a military source as saying army units entered the city to bring security "answering the pleas for help by residents of Daraa."
Syria has a pivotal role in most of the flashpoint issues of the Middle East - from the Arab-Israeli peace process to Iran's widening influence.
Instability has thrown into disarray the U.S. push for engagement with Damascus, part of Washington's hopes to peel the country away from Hamas, Hezbollah and Tehran.
~
The Cardinal Crisis
Why North Africa?
A protester outside the Syrian Embassy in Cairo in April 2011 holds a poster with a picture of Syrian President Bashar Assad with the Arabic words, "Bashar, his highness the Killer."
Image: Misam Saleh, AFP/Getty Images
By Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.S
In mundane astrology we always look to the bigger picture to gain a better sense of what happens on the local, regional, national and international scales.
For years I have been monitoring the now present Cardinal Crisis world transits, as I knew that the configurations of the outer planets would incline towards historic events taking place.
The most recent developments in North Africa as of early May 2011:
- SYRIA -
The Syrian military intensifies its assault on Daraa, the besieged city at the center of the country's uprising. Defiant residents who have been pinned down in their homes for nearly a week struggle to find food, pass along information and bury their dead.
Syrian tanks shell the city's old quarter as reinforcements roll in. Snipers nesting on rooftops and hiding in high mosque minarets keep people cowering in fear inside their homes.
The death toll has soared to 545 nationwide from government forces firing on demonstrators.
- LIBYA -
Angry mobs attack Western embassies and U.N. offices in Tripoli after NATO bombed Moammar Gadhafi's family compound in an attack officials said killed the leader's second-youngest son and three grandchildren.
Russia accuses the Western alliance of exceeding its U.N. mandate of protecting Libyan civilians with the strike.
The vandalized embassies are empty and nobody is reported injured, but the attacks heighten tensions between the Libyan regime and Western powers, prompting the United Nations to pull its international staff out of the capital.
- YEMEN -
A deal to end Yemen's political crisis nears collapse after the country's embattled president refuses to personally sign it, leaving a deadlock that threatens to plunge the impoverished Arab nation and key U.S. ally deeper into disorder and bloodshed.
The opposition says it will not sign it unless Saleh does too and the loose alliance of oil-rich Gulf Arab nations sponsoring the deal indefinitely postpones the signing ceremony, blaming Yemen's president for the impasse.
Under the deal, President Ali Abdullah Saleh would step down within 30 days in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
The January 4, 2011 total eclipse of the Sun was observed over North Africa and the Middle East. The eclipse in Capricorn extended from England to Spain in the north and west.
The eclipse cast its shadow over North Africa.
Soon after the January eclipse, the uprisings began in Tunisia and Egypt which spread throughout the region.
click to enlarge
This region of the world of North Africa lies along the 35-degree parallel north latitude, which happens to be the latitude where we observe planetary crossings incline strongly to the regions on this latitude.
The 35th parallel north is a circle of latitude located 35 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane beginning at the Prime Meridian.
Heading eastward, this latitude crosses Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America and the Atlantic Ocean.
It includes the same countries in North Africa at this latitude experiencing major accidents, violence and uprisings - among them:
Algeria
Afghanistan
Tunisia
Iran
Iraq
Greece
Pakistan
South Korea
Syria
Morocco
Japan
World transits over North Africa signaled by the January 4 total eclipse, brought to a peak the feelings which underpinned the Arab regimes of the region. High food prices caused by rampant speculation added to the distrust of repressive governments that were routed in Tunisia, then Egypt.
The Cardinal inclinations of the outer planets: Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto - are all in play into this new astrological year.
We see with Uranus in Aries the violence of injuries to the head, mostly by military-grade weapons, from snipers and the handguns of secret security officials threatened by the demonstrations and calls for change.
Moreover, we will gain a taste of more to come with the near exact square between Uranus-Pluto this year with their strongest squares between 2012-2015.
Overall, the cardinal crisis transits ensures that the transition from the era of the late 20th century into the early 21st century will take wisdom and careful navigation to avoid the historic mistakes of the past.
~
Generation X And The Economy
– Abraham Lincoln, November 12, 1864
By Theodore White; mundane Astrolog.S
Some people have been under the false impression that I hate all baby boomers. I do not. I despise what their generation has wrought, so no, a hater I am not, but I am not a fan of boomers as a generation - at all.
The writer James Quinn says: "Whenever I direct any blame for our economic woes towards the Baby Boom generation they react as expected. They blame the GI Generation for creating the welfare state. They declare that Generation X and the Millenials are just as greedy and self centered as the Boomers.
The writer James Quinn says: "Whenever I direct any blame for our economic woes towards the Baby Boom generation they react as expected. They blame the GI Generation for creating the welfare state. They declare that Generation X and the Millenials are just as greedy and self centered as the Boomers.
"Boomers are great at blaming, ridiculing and acting pompously, while taking no responsibility for their actions and more importantly their inaction. This generation cannot avoid their responsibility for the state of affairs.
They like to take credit for their stand against the Vietnam War and their protests against "the man" during the 1960s. They don't like to take credit for turning into materialistic, greedy, selfish, short-term focused bastards.
While blaming FDR and the GIs who stormed the beaches of Normandy for creating the unfunded Social Security and Medicare liabilities, the Boomers have been voting since the mid-1960s and have been in control of corporate America and the levers of government since the early 1980s."
You can read the rest of James Quinn's view in this edition further below.
You can read the rest of James Quinn's view in this edition further below.
I have watched this generation all of my life and the one thing which is clear to me about their transits and what they've done to society is that they are clearly the 'worst generation.' There is no disputing this as many individual baby boomers themselves agree with the assessment of their own generation.
What some people call 'capture' of the government, financial, media and financial industries by a small group of wanna be baby boomer oligarchs is simply another version of "I do not want to get old because I think I have too much money."
The regulatory capture of government agencies over banks and Wall Street finance has been from outright corruption, fraud, greed, neglect and fleecing of huge amounts of money - all by groups of connected baby boomers who think they will never be brought to justice.
They ought to try to learn to read astrological transits because nothing could be further from the truth.
In short, many people have been observing, taking names and planning to kick much ass in the wake of what can only be seen as massive theft. The situation in many countries, including the United States, is a direct result of widespread corruption by dying oligarchs and rich baby boomers who believe they will be able to continue their plundering of society.
Again, these people should take a look at their own astrological transits because what they have coming they will not believe. There is a major culture change underway. It has just started and is generational - and millions of people are totally pissed off at what has been going down for years on end.
The cultural era of the Baby Boomer generation, according to world transits, has come to its end with the passage of Uranus into Aries. The last 42-year era has closed and a new era has begun.
The oligarchs of the world's business communities who once controlled economies and society through interlocking directorates on the boards of banks, brokerage houses, social and cultural institutions are either long gone or dying.
Their children, the baby boomer generation, who once fought against their parents in the 1960s and 1970s became the establishment in the 1990s.
Today, the corporate and financial powerhouses they controlled have been and continue to be fleeced from within by baby boomers who mismanaged entire banks, companies and public institutions into massive red ink - like the U.S. Post Office, the real estate market and the entire American Education System - from kindergarten to college. Just think of it.
Through boards, committees, judgeships, administration and the bureaucracy, the baby boomer generation as establishment in the 1990s and 2000s dictated to American and world economics, its cultural agenda, its politics and economic life.
From within, the baby boomer generation then set out to fleece whole companies, institutions, cities, counties and states while either destroying or neglecting outright the legacy of protecting future resources that do not belong to them.
Rather, this generation destroyed what had taken prior generations to build. You can find many 100-year-old businesses that have not survived the 'management' of the baby boomer generation. Many firms that survived a great depression and two world wars could not survive the corruption and malfeasance by baby boomers.
I do not see therefore what has been positive about this generation and its effect on world society. Now, the pessimism of society will undoubtedly continue in 2011. As economists and those with vested interests continue to use the word 'correction' and promise that we are now in 'recovery' - the truth of the matter is that common folks just aren't feeling it.
Double-digit unemployment, high levels of debt and the very misplaced sense of entitlement by the baby boomer generation has made for tens of millions of pissed off Generation X and Generation Y.
Over the last 42-years, baby boomers, after confronting the establishment of the 1960s and 1970s, received abundant employment and were allowed their social freedoms.
Along with this the boomers also gain a free education without the concern for the heavy debt loads placed on the youth of today's era.
Along with this the boomers also gain a free education without the concern for the heavy debt loads placed on the youth of today's era.
Protected by the state they once challenged, the boomer generation, by way of culture, health and welfare became the establishment in the 1990s.
From that era they went on to fatefully mismanage economies of scale and society itself - even to the extent that entitlements boomers say are theirs comes at the expense of everyone else.
From that era they went on to fatefully mismanage economies of scale and society itself - even to the extent that entitlements boomers say are theirs comes at the expense of everyone else.
For instant, do Generation Xers know that the Dot.com crash of 2000-2011 was an orchestrated event that ruined what was a legitimate technological boom?
An anonymous insider said, "I met a market maker in a bar and he told me he naked shorts all OTC companies and never covers and I asked him why.
He said he knows some are good, but that there is a conspiracy that only makes those stocks go down and who is he to fight it? His idea was that everyone is in on the conspiracy.
Insiders issue themselves shares, market makers naked-short to protect themselves and the stocks always go down for some unknown reason.
I asked about insiders that would look after their own investors and resist taking the company private, rolling them back or doing a dilutive financing because of loyalty to the owners that made the company successful and he said those insiders are chumps that don’t live in the real world.
The real world is about insiders, market makers and hedge funds sucking the retail investor dry. He referred to the Dot Com crash as an orchestrated event to let Wall Street re-load after naked shorting to sucker Netscape and Pets.com investors. Remind me again how small business is the driver of the economy and the secret to job growth?
There is a criminal conspiracy and the financial mafia has captured both the Republican and Democratic parties, the media, the regulators, the educational and the court system. These criminals are the same ones that sells arms and drugs, then launder money through their own financial instruments and they make so much money that they are kings and we are their sucker serfs."
For many months, I've been hearing from clients who say they are very worried about the future. And, I often reply that this is only natural and that they should be.
I continue to state that until the current generational establishment of baby boomers and their parents, the oligarchy, are no longer managing - that is when the economy will improve.
And yes, the blame can be placed on both generations. They screwed up - big time - and cannot expect to be rewarded for their neglect and failure, nor should they be.
My overall mundane analysis of the decade of the Twenty-Tens clearly shows a world economy suffering.
The configurations of the outer planets relative to the Earth over the next 9-10 years reveals the need to clean-up the diverse levels of messes left behind by two generations.
Geopolitical and socially, the result of the failures and neglect by the dying oligarchy and the baby boomer generation will be with the world throughout the Twenty-Tens until Generation X finally announces that the clean-up is complete.
One of the biggest lies perpetuated is that baby boomers are the largest generational demographic in the United States.
Here are the facts:
Generation X - 1961-1975 = 56 million people
Post Gen X - 1975-79 = 23 million people
Generation Jones (Post boomers) - 1953-1960 = 28 million people
Baby Boomers - 1939-1953 = 38 million people
What is clear is that the incoming establishment Generation X, including those born in the Gen X post years of 1975-79 comprise the largest generation in the United States - not the baby boomer generation.
What happened is that the establishment of boomers, in an attempt to make their generation appear larger, co-opted the birth numbers of first-wave Generation X, born in the early 1960s, thus tacking on millions more people who are not of their generation.
For instance, just how was a person born in 1962-63 able to take part in the Baby Boomers Cultural Revolution of 1968-69 when these children were five and six-years old respectively?
All the children born in the 1960s were schoolchildren in the 1970s and did not come of age until the 1980s.
They are far from baby boomers as no baby boomers were born in the 1960s - not one.
It's amazing to witness some organizations, media and stats claim that the baby boomer generation was from 1946 to 1964 (it use to extend to 1966) when the numbers clearly show, as do the lives of those born, that no boomers were born in the 1960s.
It seems in their effort to remain 'forever young' the boomer generation continues to claim otherwise as they attempt to hold off the ravages of old age.
For instance, just how was a person born in 1962-63 able to take part in the Baby Boomers Cultural Revolution of 1968-69 when these children were five and six-years old respectively?
All the children born in the 1960s were schoolchildren in the 1970s and did not come of age until the 1980s.
They are far from baby boomers as no baby boomers were born in the 1960s - not one.
It's amazing to witness some organizations, media and stats claim that the baby boomer generation was from 1946 to 1964 (it use to extend to 1966) when the numbers clearly show, as do the lives of those born, that no boomers were born in the 1960s.
It seems in their effort to remain 'forever young' the boomer generation continues to claim otherwise as they attempt to hold off the ravages of old age.
Now, we know that aging is a sensitive subject with the baby boomer generation; however, there never has been - in the history of the world - a generation that has broken the generational contract which passes from one generation to another, that is, until the Baby Boomer generation.
What is a generation? In astrology, the outer planets of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto signify the boundaries of each generation. The transit of Pluto over 14 years clearly shows that it is a generational planet.
Pluto takes 248 years to orbit the Sun once. The erratic orbit of Pluto has the planet spending 32 years in one Zodiacal Sign: Taurus; yet Pluto spends 12 to 14 years in the signs of Libra and Scorpio.
A generation is the aggregate total of all persons, born over roughly the span of a phase of life, who share a common location in history and common collective persona.
Like a person but unlike a gender, culture or religion, all generations are mortal.
All of members of a generation understand that in time, they must pass on.
So all generations surely feel the same historical urgency individuals feel in their personal lives. This dynamic of aging and dying enables society to replenish its memory so as to evolve over time.
Every time a younger generation replaces an older generation, the societal life cycle changes and becomes something new and this fundamentally changes the behavior, outlook and mood of the entire society.
Generation X: A View
What is the future I'm often asked?
As a mundane astrologer, I answer with another question:
What do you want the future to be?
In this way, I also answer the same on the economy.
Waiting for the old establishment of baby boomers to somehow revive the economy they broke is not going to lead to a recovery. So, if you are out work and under the age of 50, then believe it or not, you are actually in the best possible position you can be.
Yes, a surprising comment. How, with double-digit unemployment and anemic economic news, just how can this be good news?
Well, consider this:
In my analysis of the next 20 years by way of mundane astrology we are just entering the transition from the outworn methodologies of the late 20th century, but entering what is effectively a new age.
Every new age has its challenges and trends; yet most people looking forward do so optimistically.
The clue to who is not optimistic will be those who look back, are not spiritually, emotionally and mentally balanced and settled.
The new era we've emerged into may not be yet apparent to everyone, but will be in a few short years.
The economic 'status quo' as it stands in 2011 is really about the last decade. Though there is light at the end of the tunnel, that 'light' is for those who have suffered the most in the economic downturn. Better times are ahead for them.
The transits of the outer planets show that the corruption, greed, lies and rampant theft of trillions in money and resources must be seen in light of the forced austerity and revolts against it that follows.
How the generational transition plays out by the passage of time, will also depend on the ability of the incoming establishment of Generation X to break free of the ignorance and blind adherence to materialism and back to the principles and truths of the Founding Fathers which are not bent by mere opinion, ideology, nor thirst for power.
In 2011 and 2012, we see a generational transition is underway from the establishment of baby boomers to that of Generation X.
One of the big problems for those just reaching out to Gen-Xers in their 30s and 40s is that it may be simply too late. They are pissed off - and for very good reasons.
Again, this generation has endured five recessions which always left Gen Xers on the wrong end of the stick while the Boomer establishment altered data and stats to attempt to make Generation X smaller than it actually is in reality.
So just how can you expect Generation X to 'not worry, be happy' when they've been screwed over royally many times in succession?
Again, Generation X is the generation born in the 1960s and 1970s. You hear in the mainstream media how that although they are confident and knowledgeable that they still need guidance."
Usually those lines come from boomers who ignored Generation X for decades because this generation was younger. Moreover, the mathematical unknown "X" was assigned to the generation of children born in the 1960s and 1970s because boomers did not want to know them. How could they since it was boomers who were perpetually young?
Consider this:
Generation Xers, all of whom are in their 30s and 40s, say that they are very disgruntled with their financial advisers than any other generation, and for good reason. Those with boomer advisers saw less growth in their portfolios than Gen Xers who did their own advising.
First-wave Gen Xers born in the early to late-1960s say they are very angry about the mismanagement of the economy and society by the baby boomers, so they are not apt to trust anyone over the age of 60.
Second-wave Generation Xers born in the late 1960s to 1970s say the same as they are among the generation suffering high rates of unemployment during the beginning of their own prime earning years.
A recent survey found that Gen X investors who relied on their own judgment, rather than the conventional boomer adviser, ended up ahead in terms of portfolio growth.
What this continues to prove is the fact that while one generation looks back, the incoming establishment looks ahead.
While 2011's world transits reflect is that billions of people are starting their economic lives over, from scratch, due to the corruption and outright theft of trillions. So we see generational transition taking place and it will lead to significant changes in the world.
The cultural, economic, social and geopolitical implications of generational transition are always the same as it has been since the dawn of time itself.
Each generation has a responsibility to those behind it to improve upon the resources each establishment inherited from the previous one.
Worldwide, the dying oligarchy and their children, the baby boomer generation, have broken the generational contract.
They have done so by way of corruption, greed, warped ideologies, dysfunction, maladaptive behaviors and outright neglect that now threatens the economic, cultural, social and geopolitical continuity of nations and the planet.
So it cannot be any surprise as to the reasons for the seething anger directed at the boomer generation which will become ever more evident in the months and years ahead.
The Cardinal Crisis
Impending Economic Collapse:
Why All Baby Boomers Are To Blame?
A Gen X man and his wife ride their bicycles past yelling baby boomers who protest against bicycle lanes that have greatly reduced cars striking and killing pedestrians in New York City. The odds of a pedestrian being killed by a moving car going 20 miles per hour (mph) is 5 percent. At 30 mph the odds of death rise to 40 percent. When a car moving 40 miles per hour hits a pedestrian the odds of death rises to 85 percent. Yet these baby boomers, who clamor against more bicycle lanes in New York City, hold signs which say "Safety First" and protest that bicycle lanes threatens the lives of seniors? The chances of a pedestrian dying after being hit by a bicycle is less than .0000000001 of a quarter-percent. And you wonder why the world is in such a pickle about Baby Boomers these days?
Image: New York Times
By James Quinn
Whenever I get an idea for an article I plan to keep it short and sweet. But it never seems to work out that way. Once I start typing, the articles tend to grow exponentially.
One of the big problems for those just reaching out to Gen-Xers in their 30s and 40s is that it may be simply too late. They are pissed off - and for very good reasons.
Again, this generation has endured five recessions which always left Gen Xers on the wrong end of the stick while the Boomer establishment altered data and stats to attempt to make Generation X smaller than it actually is in reality.
So just how can you expect Generation X to 'not worry, be happy' when they've been screwed over royally many times in succession?
Again, Generation X is the generation born in the 1960s and 1970s. You hear in the mainstream media how that although they are confident and knowledgeable that they still need guidance."
Usually those lines come from boomers who ignored Generation X for decades because this generation was younger. Moreover, the mathematical unknown "X" was assigned to the generation of children born in the 1960s and 1970s because boomers did not want to know them. How could they since it was boomers who were perpetually young?
Consider this:
Generation Xers, all of whom are in their 30s and 40s, say that they are very disgruntled with their financial advisers than any other generation, and for good reason. Those with boomer advisers saw less growth in their portfolios than Gen Xers who did their own advising.
First-wave Gen Xers born in the early to late-1960s say they are very angry about the mismanagement of the economy and society by the baby boomers, so they are not apt to trust anyone over the age of 60.
Second-wave Generation Xers born in the late 1960s to 1970s say the same as they are among the generation suffering high rates of unemployment during the beginning of their own prime earning years.
A recent survey found that Gen X investors who relied on their own judgment, rather than the conventional boomer adviser, ended up ahead in terms of portfolio growth.
What this continues to prove is the fact that while one generation looks back, the incoming establishment looks ahead.
While 2011's world transits reflect is that billions of people are starting their economic lives over, from scratch, due to the corruption and outright theft of trillions. So we see generational transition taking place and it will lead to significant changes in the world.
The cultural, economic, social and geopolitical implications of generational transition are always the same as it has been since the dawn of time itself.
Each generation has a responsibility to those behind it to improve upon the resources each establishment inherited from the previous one.
Worldwide, the dying oligarchy and their children, the baby boomer generation, have broken the generational contract.
They have done so by way of corruption, greed, warped ideologies, dysfunction, maladaptive behaviors and outright neglect that now threatens the economic, cultural, social and geopolitical continuity of nations and the planet.
So it cannot be any surprise as to the reasons for the seething anger directed at the boomer generation which will become ever more evident in the months and years ahead.
The Cardinal Crisis
Impending Economic Collapse:
Why All Baby Boomers Are To Blame?
Image: New York Times
By James Quinn
Whenever I get an idea for an article I plan to keep it short and sweet. But it never seems to work out that way. Once I start typing, the articles tend to grow exponentially.
It happened again with my attempt to make sense of how the United States of America managed to screw our finances up so badly, that an epic collapse is within view to people with their eyes open to facts and the truth.
You don't end up in the predicament we find ourselves in today due to a couple minor mistakes over a short time frame. It took thousands of horrible choices, colossal doses of delusion, a heaping of stupidity, and a mountain of denial over decades to put us on the brink of economic collapse.
An unholy amalgamation of demographics, fiat currency, debt, taxes, power and greed have led us to this point.
Next we experience collapse, revolution and ultimately, retribution.
Since I've identified four major rationales for our impending doom, I've decided to write a four part series that can be read in small doses, rather than one enormous article.
I don't want anyone to miss tonight's episode of Dancing With the Stars, get distracted from the Royal Wedding preparations, or skip the best reality TV show ever - Ben Bernanke's press conference, while reading an 8,000 word article about the end of America. The four part series will have a Clint Eastwood theme.
Since I've identified four major rationales for our impending doom, I've decided to write a four part series that can be read in small doses, rather than one enormous article.
I don't want anyone to miss tonight's episode of Dancing With the Stars, get distracted from the Royal Wedding preparations, or skip the best reality TV show ever - Ben Bernanke's press conference, while reading an 8,000 word article about the end of America. The four part series will have a Clint Eastwood theme.
For a Few Dollars More will address the Baby Boomer impact on America's decline.
A Fistful of Dollars will examine how the creation of the Federal Reserve and the income tax in 1913 set us on a path to ruin.
The Outlaw Josey Wales will scrutinize the looting of America by a small group of powerful, connected, super rich men lurking in the shadows, but pulling the strings on our puppet politicians.
Lastly, Unforgiven will detail the impending collapse of our economic system and the retribution that will be handed out to the guilty.
Over the last few weeks there seems to be consensus among many financial bloggers, whose credibility is far more trustworthy than the corporate mainstream media, that the country is teetering on the verge of economic collapse due to the complete capture of the government, financial, regulatory, and media by a small group of oligarchs.
Over the last few weeks there seems to be consensus among many financial bloggers, whose credibility is far more trustworthy than the corporate mainstream media, that the country is teetering on the verge of economic collapse due to the complete capture of the government, financial, regulatory, and media by a small group of oligarchs.
They have also been described as the super rich, plutarchs, ruling elite, and scum sucking leeches.
The bloggers that I have the utmost respect for, including Jesse, Charles Hugh Smith, Mike Shedlock, Yves Smith and Gonzalo Lira have all come to the logical conclusion the horrific economic situation of the country is a direct result of the greed, corruption, fraud, and plundering by a powerful connected group of rich financiers operating without fear of being brought to justice by the authorities.
The bloggers that I have the utmost respect for, including Jesse, Charles Hugh Smith, Mike Shedlock, Yves Smith and Gonzalo Lira have all come to the logical conclusion the horrific economic situation of the country is a direct result of the greed, corruption, fraud, and plundering by a powerful connected group of rich financiers operating without fear of being brought to justice by the authorities.
While pondering the ruminations of these dedicated truth tellers, I was reminded of the Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western For a Few Dollars More. The quotes above are representative of living in the USA today.
There are supposed to be courageous, loyal and honest sheriffs that protect the citizens from crime, corruption and evil doers. But, just as we saw in the Old West of Clint Eastwood movies, the sheriffs are always corrupt and bought off by the evil cattle barons.
In a world where life has no value and you can't rely on law enforcement to protect your interests, the citizens eventually will need to turn to bounty hunters to take care of the bad guys.
The bounty hunters of truth reside on the internet. They reside at Zero Hedge,Jesse's Café Americain, Of Two Minds, Mish, Chris Martenson, and dozens of other anarchist websites. When you can't trust your government, your bankers, your church, your media, or mega-corporate CEOs, you need to seek the truth where it can be found.
The insightful bloggers who courageously print the truth on a daily basis have unanimously concluded that a small band of powerful elite have accumulated undue influence and control over this country, having brought it to the verge of economic collapse.
How did this happen?
Who is responsible?
Why were they permitted to gain this power?
Baby Boomers Come Of Age?
"If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves." - Howard Zinn
Whenever I direct any blame for our economic woes towards the Baby Boom generation they react as expected.
They blame the GI Generation for creating the welfare state. They declare that Generation X and the Millenials are just as greedy and self centered as the Boomers.
Boomers are great at blaming, ridiculing and acting pompously, while taking no responsibility for their actions and more importantly their inaction.
This generation cannot avoid their responsibility for the state of affairs. They like to take credit for their stand against the Vietnam War and their protests against "the man" during the 1960s.
They don't like to take credit for turning into materialistic, greedy, selfish, short-term focused bastards. When a generation of 76 million people decides to go in a particular direction, the country will go in that direction.
While blaming FDR and the GIs who stormed the beaches of Normandy for creating the unfunded Social Security and Medicare liabilities, the Boomers have been voting since the mid-1960s and have been in control of corporate America and the levers of government since the early 1980s.
The U.S. Congress is dominated by Baby Boomers today and has been dominated by this generation since the 1990s. The Senate has 60 Boomers out of 100, while the House of Representatives has 254 Boomers out of 435 members.
Boomers occupied the White House from 1992 through 2008.
They have had the political power and control of the agenda for two decades and have failed miserably.
Rather than do what was best for the country for the long-term, they took the expedient, easy, vote getting route.
Promise more than you could ever deliver and let future generations worry about the consequences.
Not one true noble statesman has arisen from this generation of myopic, self centered "Me Generation" political hacks.
Even as the country nears the precipice, they continue to address the great issues of the day with talking points supplied by other Baby Boomer PR maggots from Park Avenue.
These weasels care not for the country, but worry only about poll numbers and the next election cycle.
An apathetic public, dominated by the Baby Boom generation, has the attention span of a gnat.
As long as they can make the lease payment on their Escalade, use one of their 15 credit cards at the Mall, be entertained by 600 cable TV stations, play with the latest iSomething, live in their McMansion for two years without making a mortgage payment and consume massive quantities of fast food, then any thoughts of future generations or civic duty are unnecessary.
Live for today has been the rallying cry for the Boomer generation. Pot was their drug during the 1960s.
Debt has been their drug since 1980.
The drug (debt) dealer for the Baby Boom generation has been the Wall Street mega-banks, coincidentally, run by Boomers.
The entire corrupt financial industry is being run by Boomers.
The CEOs, CFOs, and the thousands of Harvard MBA VPs that created the fraudulent derivative scheme to bilk billions from clueless municipalities, pension funds and American taxpayers are all Boomers.
It is no coincidence that the great debt delusion began in the early 1980's. Jim Kunstler captured the essence of Boomer transformation:
"The Baby Boomers came back from the land, clipped their pony tails, discovered venture capital, real estate investment trusts, securitization of "consumer" debt, and the Hamptons. Greed was good."
The Boomer CEO hall of scam has been built on the brilliance and financial acumen of Lloyd (god's work) Blankfein, Charlie (keep dancing) Prince, Jamie (friend of Obama) Dimon, and the king of the Boomers, Hank (the system is sound) Paulson.
Hank ("the system is sound") Paulson
"The Baby Boomers came back from the land, clipped their pony tails, discovered venture capital, real estate investment trusts, securitization of "consumer" debt, and the Hamptons. Greed was good."
The Boomer CEO hall of scam has been built on the brilliance and financial acumen of Lloyd (god's work) Blankfein, Charlie (keep dancing) Prince, Jamie (friend of Obama) Dimon, and the king of the Boomers, Hank (the system is sound) Paulson.
These mainstays of crony capitalism led the Boomer charge of greed, greed and more greed.
The Baby Boomer generation has been the proverbial pig in a python working its way through the decades as presented below.
By 1985, Boomers had entered the work force in full force with the entire generation between the ages of 25 and 42. It will be a great day when the python craps this pig of a generation out the other end.
It is not a coincidence the National Debt growth has far outstripped GDP growth since 1980. Boomers had been spoiled their whole lives and felt they deserved the goodies today while passing the bill to future generations.
They voted for politicians who promised them more benefits, more programs, more subsidies, more tax breaks, more military adventures, and more pleasure.
And this was "paid for" with more debt. Thirty five years of government debt declining as a percentage of GDP was reversed over the next thirty years starting in 1980, pushing it past the 90% tipping point in the last year.
The country is over-indebted to the tune of $9 trillion on a current basis and $100 trillion on a long term accrual basis.
There is no better picture of Boomer decadence and myopia than an historical view of the national savings rate. The parents of the Boomers understood the meaning of sacrifice and investing in the future of the country.
The country is over-indebted to the tune of $9 trillion on a current basis and $100 trillion on a long term accrual basis.
click to enlarge graphic
During World War II they bought US War Bonds to support the cause. From 1950 through 1985, the savings rate consistently ranged between 7% and 12%. Americans had this odd notion that if you saved more than you spent, you actually got ahead in life.
Excess savings were used to invest in new plants and equipment that were used to produce goods and employ more Americans.
By 1985, the Boomers considered these notions as quaint and old fashioned. The savings rate methodically declined until it went negative in 2006, just prior to the worldwide financial conflagration.
Our inspirational Boomer president George (Mission Accomplished) Bush while waging two wars of choice, asked for the ultimate sacrifice from the Boomers. He solemnly urged them to buy a GM SUV with $0 down and 0% interest for 7 years - so we could defeat the terrorists.
The Boomers who ran GMAC were more than happy to make loans to people with no income so they could "purchase" a $40,000 ostentatious gas guzzling hog. They were doing their patriotic duty for the good of the nation. It brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it.
click to enlarge graphic
The Boomers not only heeded George's call, but they did him proud by buying 8,000 sq ft McMansions with $0 down and negative amortization ARMs.
Luckily, the executives at the mortgage origination sweatshops were Boomers. They found no good reason to verify income or assets before loaning someone $600,000, because they knew their fellow Boomers at the rating agencies would rate the bundles of these toxic shit loans as AAA so the Boomers on Wall Street could sell them to greater fools.
GMAC's exemplary subprime mortgage arm - Ditech, did a bang up job getting migrant Mexican workers into $450,000 homes in California's inland empire.
As the tsunami of bad debt swept toward shore, delusional Boomers across the land borrowed $500 billion against the inflated value of their McMansions and installed granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances, home theatres, elegant patios, Olympic sized pools, and with the excess home equity, leased a BMW or two.
The first devastating tsunami wave hit in 2008 and wiped out billions in faux Boomer wealth. Instead of learning a brutal lesson and reverting back to saving and frugality, the "never say sacrifice" Boomers ventured out to where the waves had subsided looking for more trinkets and treasures.
The next tsunami wave is on its way. The delusional Boomers will be surprised again.
The Boomer persona has been formed over the last five decades and the country will deal with the consequences for decades to come.
This Boomer debt orgy over the last thirty years would have made Caligula blush.
U.S.
Back in 2003, the writer Robert J. Samuelson added another voice to the drumbeat of fiscal catastrophe that was looming in deficit shadowing the retirement of the "worst generation” - this was eight years ago and very few baby boomers listened -
By Reggie Middleton BoomBustBlog
High Inflation, slowing Capex investment and rising interest rates are eating in toIndia
The impact of higher rates is sure to be felt at once in theU.S. 
Saturn's long transit in tropical Scorpio reflects a time of austerity for nations, this much we now know.U.S.
By 2011,U.S.
The Boomer persona has been formed over the last five decades and the country will deal with the consequences for decades to come.
The clean cut Beaver Cleaver children of the 1950s...
...Turned into the pot smoking Dobie Gillis of the 1960's...
...Then into the slimy Gordon Gekkos of the 1980s ...
...And ultimately into the eternal wealth seeking Gollums of today.
This Boomer debt orgy over the last thirty years would have made Caligula blush.
Of course, none of this could have happened without the Creature from Jekyll Island. I will address this aspect of our fate in Fistful of Dollars - Part Two.
Now for the righteous indignation from the Boomers that think I have unfairly lumped them all together as one.
Now for the righteous indignation from the Boomers that think I have unfairly lumped them all together as one.
Their reactions are predictable. Even though they have had the means, the power and the time to reverse the course of USS Titanic, they plowed full steam ahead into the abyss. The GI Generation is dead.
Generation X doesn't hold the reins of power (yet.)
The Boomer generation needs to look in the mirror to recognize who is to blame. I'm sure there are a few good Boomers out there somewhere, but as a generation they have failed this country and our unborn generations miserably.
~
And people say I am too hard on the baby boomer generation?
We can see the eyes opening worldwide about the truth of the blatant generational hegemony, ideology, corruption, disdain and neglect by the boomer generation in the world transits of the cardinal crisis.
We also can see this in the coming transit of Saturn in Scorpio, which we now examine.
~
And people say I am too hard on the baby boomer generation?
We can see the eyes opening worldwide about the truth of the blatant generational hegemony, ideology, corruption, disdain and neglect by the boomer generation in the world transits of the cardinal crisis.
We also can see this in the coming transit of Saturn in Scorpio, which we now examine.
Mundane Forecast:
Saturn in Scorpio - 2012-2015
Saturn in Scorpio - 2012-2015
Our Economy Versus Their Economy, Real Estate, Generational Change & The Coming Rise Of Interest Rates
By Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.S
For a long time now, we’ve been living in an age where common sense has been a misnomer. There was nothing ‘common’ about having ‘sense’ – especially over the last 18-20 years.
From generational hegemony to political correctness, to cultural sarcasm, ideology, neglect, mistreatment of the young and extreme generational self-indulgence - society has been under attack by a baby boomers generation that claimed it was 'enlightened.'
From generational hegemony to political correctness, to cultural sarcasm, ideology, neglect, mistreatment of the young and extreme generational self-indulgence - society has been under attack by a baby boomers generation that claimed it was 'enlightened.'
That is now changing with the help of world transits. So, if you have not been in the habit of applying common sense to the important matters of the world – you’d better quickly get into the habit.
In the ‘signs of our times’ we continue to see and hear people propagandized by those who do not have the public’s best interests in mind – at all – and never did.
Nowhere is this most evident then in the economy - by way of banking, finance and real estate market.
We are in a time where a generational establishment, fueled by its angst over aging and fear of the future, continues to live in a fantasy world of their own creation – expecting everyone else to simply exist as zombies gulping down their ideological fantasy kool-aid while they continue to rip off the economy.
By the time Saturn transits Scorpio – fantasy time will be over.
In October 2012, transiting Saturn will make ingress into Scorpio. This is a significant ingress as Saturn leaves the Sign of its exaltation, Libra, which it will have been for two-and-one-half years.
Saturn’s transit in Scorpio can mean many things on a wide scale, as transpersonal planets so often do. From economics and finance, to professional and personal affairs, the transit of Saturn in Scorpio form autumn 2012 to summer 2015 will feel longer than normal.
Saturn will enter tropical Scorpio on October 5, 2012, just during the run-up to the 2012 presidential general election. After a two-year transit in Libra, this ingress of Saturn into the water sign of Scorpio is one to prepare for overall. I will explain why.
A planet like Saturn tends to crystallize the tone and tenor of the Sign it will transit, in this case, Scorpio.
Prior to Saturn’s entry, the planet Mars, exalted here, will transit Scorpio from late August 2012 to October 6-7, 2012, just as Saturn enters Scorpio.
Let’s go back a bit more.
The time cycle we are in right now in late spring 2011 extends to the end of August 2012.
While we are in the midst of the Cardinal Crisis transits in this decade, these interim transits are important, as they are helpful for those looking to make adjustments in the medium-range so that things can go smoother.
This cycle now, through to late August 2012, features the influence of the Jupiter-Saturn opposition: which is unfavorable for business and professional advancement as much as it is for better employment rates.
In the wake of the housing boom ponzi scheme and the bust of that market, real estate values continue to plummet – dragging the general economy down with it.
Unemployment rates remain stubbornly high.
Salaries & Wages Are Not Increasing
Struggling states & municipalities raise taxes
Crushing new mortgage rules repels first-time buyers
What Saturn’s coming transit in Scorpio shows is that interest rates are going to rise – and will have powerful implications for the world economy, including that of the United States and western nations.
It is my assessment we have only been in the first two (2) phases of the severe economic crash - with the next two phases occurring in 2012-2014 – which raises the stakes because of the inability, neglect and outright stupidity of a generational establishment that ruined what took many decades to build.
Now, all this goes down as the Baby Boomer generation, consumed with heavy debt and ever shrinking equity in properties they own, come closer to having to bail out of ownership entirely for the lack of buyers who refuse to dish out nearly eight times their earnings on properties that are overpriced. It costs twice as much to own as to lease the same house in a struggling market.
So, the incoming establishment of Generation X isn’t biting.
What is happening is that it is a case of ‘our economy against their economy,’ due to the fact that Generation X have been the victims of what continues to be the fleecing of public and private institutions by the boomer generation.
This is the fifth – count ‘em – the fifth major recession this generation has endured since 1981.
Gen X has seen and tasted it all before.
Then, you have Generation Y in their 20s and 30s, just starting out - millions of younger people with crushing student debt loads hanging like mallets around their necks.
Young couples put off starting new families because they are out of work, unable to pay the interest payments on gargantuan student loans – so much so that they don’t even think about ever wanting to own a house.
So just who is going to buy all those millions of properties on the banks books and owned by Boomers?
We can also see what age group is sucking up all the jobs in the economy.
According to US News & World Report, those over the age of 55 years and older account for 1.3 million of the 1.9 million total job gains in the last 15 months.
Moreover, this age group, which accounts for all Baby Boomers (there are no boomers in their 40s or under the age of 55) are now at, or about to reach retirement age, where they will demand pensions and entitlements that will consume all resources.
In effect, the baby boomer generation 'wants it all now' - at the expense of three generations now on Earth - and that includes Generation X, Generation Y and the children born in the decade of the 2000s.
According to US News & World Report, those over the age of 55 years and older account for 1.3 million of the 1.9 million total job gains in the last 15 months.
Moreover, this age group, which accounts for all Baby Boomers (there are no boomers in their 40s or under the age of 55) are now at, or about to reach retirement age, where they will demand pensions and entitlements that will consume all resources.
In effect, the baby boomer generation 'wants it all now' - at the expense of three generations now on Earth - and that includes Generation X, Generation Y and the children born in the decade of the 2000s.
So, if you want to know why the middle class and poor are on the verge of outright rebellion, threatening to not only vote out every baby boomer and their supporters out of office and company positions, but considering treason trials and hangings to hold to account all involved - then the complete rip-off of every man, woman and child of three generations - in effect society itself - could be one powerful reason why.
Digging into the numbers reveals how baby boomers have been trying to employ younger people to serve them at deplorable wages while they have fired tens of millions of people in their 20s, 30s and 40s to mid-50s – people who constitute the largest productive workforce of the world.
For instance, in the United States, most of the new jobs created since the end of 2009, for one thing, went to a small minority of workers under the age of 34 and the great majority of people over the age of 55.
Employment levels for youth and middle-aged work are stagnant and continue to plummet. So, to understand this, the boomer generation is effectively giving the adults who are raising families and in their prime earning years the middle finger.
Really? The generation immediately behind boomers, whom the boomer generation will depend on fully to take care of them in their elderly years - are telling Generation X to blow off?
Not smart at all.
Employment levels for youth and middle-aged work are stagnant and continue to plummet. So, to understand this, the boomer generation is effectively giving the adults who are raising families and in their prime earning years the middle finger.
Really? The generation immediately behind boomers, whom the boomer generation will depend on fully to take care of them in their elderly years - are telling Generation X to blow off?
Not smart at all.
Workers over 55 and older are grabbing the new jobs, which tells us much about the very sorry state of baby boomer retirement planning in the U.S.
Numerous surveys show that more than half of all baby boomers now heading to retirement do not have enough savings to maintain their current standard of living as they age.
Numerous surveys show that more than half of all baby boomers now heading to retirement do not have enough savings to maintain their current standard of living as they age.
Obviously, this is due to the plunging drop in real estate that continues to fall along with the household wealth of baby boomers. Many boomers lost much of their investments when the stock market fell in 2008 and 2009.
It is not a wonder that U.S.
Saturn's transit in Scorpio, which will square the boomer's generational Pluto in Leo, is a sign of things to come for those baby boomers who have been in long denial about aging, retirement and the generational contract.
Saturn's transit in Scorpio, which will square the boomer's generational Pluto in Leo, is a sign of things to come for those baby boomers who have been in long denial about aging, retirement and the generational contract.
Companies will not be able to turn a profit with senior citizens dominating the workforce.
This has happened to theU.S.
This has happened to the
Back in 2003, the writer Robert J. Samuelson added another voice to the drumbeat of fiscal catastrophe that was looming in deficit shadowing the retirement of the "worst generation” - this was eight years ago and very few baby boomers listened -
Samuelson said that, “The federal budget is drifting into a future of unprecedented tax increases, huge deficits or both. This is no secret, because the great driving force of change is the impending retirement of millions of baby boomers and their heavy claims on federal retirement programs.
But in Washington
'Forget about it.'
'Forget about it.'
Back then, Samuelson sketched out scenarios that might have prepared boomers for their fiscal apocalypse, but he noted that it would have required both foresight and will on the part of legislators and the baby boomer generation - neither of whom had the stomach for making tough choices, instead preferring to postpone the final reckoning.
His conclusion is leavened with a remarkably spiteful sentiment, considering the fact that Samuelson himself, a baby boomer, is a member of the demographic he dams in question:
“The longer choices are postponed, the harder they become - and they've already been delayed so long that they can't be easy, he says.
Prospective baby boomer retirees may assume that younger generations will pay the costs of the boomers' pensions and entitlement programs.
This may be an illusion, he said. as one potential response to any future economic and budgetary crisis would be for policymakers to “abandon or suddenly scale back on commitments to Baby Boomers."
Prospective baby boomer retirees may assume that younger generations will pay the costs of the boomers' pensions and entitlement programs.
This may be an illusion, he said. as one potential response to any future economic and budgetary crisis would be for policymakers to “abandon or suddenly scale back on commitments to Baby Boomers."
Abrupt benefit cuts may seem to be "arbitrary and unfair," Samuelson noted, but given the boomer generational role in sanctioning today's neglect, indifference and denial of aging during their 19 years as establishment, he says this outcome for baby boomers “is richly deserved."
There is no stopping the passage of time, nor aging, but it seems this particular generation just will not accept it. Inspired by an article about "managing" the generation gap between boomers and Generation X, writer Victor Lam says -
"The real reason Gen X and Boomers can't get along is that the Boomer generation was the first generation to really selfishly turn on the next generation (my generation) and try to wipe it out through the holocaust of abortion and contraception.
The boomers looked/do-look at the very existence of the Gen Xers as a threat to their youth ("Who are these youngsters? I'm the kid! I get the sex and the toys!") and when exterminating us failed (completely failed, I mean - the Boomers have succeeded in severely crippling the welfare and future of this country) they robbed us of our innocence by, among other things, over-sexing schools and media and tried to turn us into adults as quickly as they could.
There's a cold logic at work here: if we, the Gen Xers, are the adults, then we have to support the Boomers as they get older and live out the rest of their pathetic, childish existence, " he said.
Saturn's coming transit in Scorpio really opens a can of worms for the baby boomer generation who have not prepared for retirement.
Saturn's coming transit in Scorpio really opens a can of worms for the baby boomer generation who have not prepared for retirement.
Let’s hear the perspective of Reggie Middleton of BoomBustBlog –
Bubble, Bubble, Real Estate Toil & Trouble
Macro Climate for Real Estate Still Sucks, Despite New Bubbles
A reader wrote me complaining about the nonsensical bubble blowing in multi-family properties before the last bubble was even finished bursting. I feel his pain.
Let’s run through a quick pictorial of how I see the macro climate for real estate as of right now.
Everybody is getting squeezed, businesses, consumers, homeowners. Everybody!
click on graphic to enlarge
Businesses have been pressured by wage inflation, but have managed due to growing revenues. The growing revenues portion has slackened considerably after the government bubble blowing wore off.
click on graphic to enlarge
I know many of you are saying, “But wait a minute!!!” You said the employment market was weak!
Yes, I did say that and yes - it is.
We have historically high and stubborn unemployment, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.
That high unemployment crams more dollars into the ‘average’ hour worked, but many less hours are worked by less people in the aggregate.
click on graphic to enlarge
The reported unemployment numbers materially understate the amount of actual real unemployed there are in this country for it does not include the labor force participation.
If you are not actively (or more to the point, have given up looking) for a job you are not included in the count.
click on graphic to enlarge
The amount of people no longer counted in the labor force has been steadily growing, thus steadily underestimating true unemployment.
click on graphic to enlarge
Add to all of this the fact that banks had practically halted foreclosures, thereby significantly exacerbating the shadow inventory problem and you have a mess on your hands.
Add to this the fact that interest rates are going up around the globe, in some places eventually by force.
Sound gloomy enough yet? Don’t worry. Despite all of this, guess what?
The government/central banking cartel has successfully re-blown yet another bubble in real estate by messing with the circle of economic life.
click on graphic to enlarge
According to his outlook, Middleton says that central banks worldwide have interrupted the 'economic circle of life,' under the mistaken impression they can override the Business Cycle and thus skip over the contraction phase, highlighted in the graphic above.
This is most apparent in equity markets where excess liquidity has pushed all equities straight up, as well as bond markets where yields have been suppressed to artificial (ZIRP) levels.
The truth cannot be concealed in real asset markets where properties are still dropping.
It was the real asset markets that bring us back to reality. The extended contraction that has been exacerbated by the folly of this central economic planning experiment central bankers in concert attempted on a global scale by trying to defeat natural economic laws.
So how does a person protect oneself against a sovereign debt crisis in their country?
Middleton says to stay cautious of interest rate sensitive products.
"I believe that real estate will get hit hard if rates spike," he says. "And rates will probably spike with serial defaults. There’s one avenue but you have governments who are trying to artificially inflate real estate. I doubt it can last, but you never know."
"I believe that real estate will get hit hard if rates spike," he says. "And rates will probably spike with serial defaults. There’s one avenue but you have governments who are trying to artificially inflate real estate. I doubt it can last, but you never know."
~
Under the influence of the 2010-2012 Jupiter-Saturn opposition, I do not expect the situation to get any better – but worse.
that 'contraction phase' that the baby boomer establishment wants to 'skip over' is them not taking responsibility for their own choices. Thus, banks that participated in the ponzi scheme real estate market continue to pretend that their bad books return value when they do not.
Boomers who have not been paying their mortgages for years have been allowed to remain in their homes despite the fact that they drained the life - called equity - out of their properties which continue to lose value, dragging communities and the economy down with it.
Baby boomers continue to live in dreamland under the illusion that they will be able to continue to eat their cake and have it too.
that 'contraction phase' that the baby boomer establishment wants to 'skip over' is them not taking responsibility for their own choices. Thus, banks that participated in the ponzi scheme real estate market continue to pretend that their bad books return value when they do not.
Boomers who have not been paying their mortgages for years have been allowed to remain in their homes despite the fact that they drained the life - called equity - out of their properties which continue to lose value, dragging communities and the economy down with it.
Baby boomers continue to live in dreamland under the illusion that they will be able to continue to eat their cake and have it too.
The reasons for this are that the Boomer generation’s real estate bubble creation from the late 1990s through the 2000s are still deflating rapidly.
What will happen, according to world transits, is that the boomer generation will bail out of the real estate market, leaving behind yet another fine mess for everyone else to clean up since the boomers will not do it themselves, while pretending that they had nothing to do with the severe economic decline.
What will happen, according to world transits, is that the boomer generation will bail out of the real estate market, leaving behind yet another fine mess for everyone else to clean up since the boomers will not do it themselves, while pretending that they had nothing to do with the severe economic decline.
The drag on the economic health of nations is directly tied to the creation of a bubble economy in real estate via derivatives traded worldwide. In effect, the biggest banking corruption in the history of the world.
In the meantime, unemployment rates are in the double-digits and has effectively lowered the living standards of the middle-class. While wages did not rise during the 2000s, many people were enticed to purchase overpriced houses at the top of the bubble market with no-money down or 5% interest loans that collapsed in the Wall Street derivatives ponzi scheme.
Rising Interest Rates Ahead?
Saturn’s coming transit in Scorpio, in my view, confirms that interests rates are about to rise since they have no where to go but up.
Currently sitting at 0% - and lowered to zero to allow the ‘too big to fail’ banks to save themselves on the public tab – what we have been witnessing since the start of the banking crisis in 2007 has been an outright disaster.
The era since the 1990s was a time of fleecing public and private institutions, high consumer prices, low wages that led to double-digit unemployment and a stagnant economy - all horribly mismanaged by a baby boomer establishment that does not want to pay its own bills.
Currently sitting at 0% - and lowered to zero to allow the ‘too big to fail’ banks to save themselves on the public tab – what we have been witnessing since the start of the banking crisis in 2007 has been an outright disaster.
The era since the 1990s was a time of fleecing public and private institutions, high consumer prices, low wages that led to double-digit unemployment and a stagnant economy - all horribly mismanaged by a baby boomer establishment that does not want to pay its own bills.
Workers between the ages of 34 and 50 are still losing jobs across the board.
This age group - in their prime earning years and at the peak levels of expertise in their fields and careers - have been blocked by the outgoing boomer establishment from participating in the economy.
This age group - in their prime earning years and at the peak levels of expertise in their fields and careers - have been blocked by the outgoing boomer establishment from participating in the economy.
We wonder why.
Many of the baby boomer generation say they plan to postpone retirement or work indefinitely - and the data shows they're doing just that.
Over the last decade, the overall labor-force participation rate - the percentage of the population that wants to work - has been gradually shrinking.
Many of the baby boomer generation say they plan to postpone retirement or work indefinitely - and the data shows they're doing just that.
Over the last decade, the overall labor-force participation rate - the percentage of the population that wants to work - has been gradually shrinking.
But for workers 55 and over it's been going straight up. At the beginning of 2001, for instance, 33 percent of seniors counted themselves as part of the labor force. Right before the recession started in 2007, it was 39 percent.
In a time of rampant double-digit unemployment and underemployment - would you believe the unemployment rate for baby boomers - seniors who are 55 years old and over – is a paltry 3.1 percent?
click to enlarge
The graphic above tells the whole story and proves that the baby boomer generation continues to fleece everything at the expense of everyone else.
Yet the participation rate dropped sharply for all other age groups during the economic recession, as people gave up looking for work, went back to school, or were forced to stay home.
This constitutes the bulk of all workers who should be active participants in the economy because that is how the economy is truly going to recover.
Yet the participation rate dropped sharply for all other age groups during the economic recession, as people gave up looking for work, went back to school, or were forced to stay home.
This constitutes the bulk of all workers who should be active participants in the economy because that is how the economy is truly going to recover.
But the participation rate for boomer seniors rose and is now at 40 percent and rising – which is 7+ points higher than a decade ago. These are jobs that should go to younger workers.
The numbers prove that the economic stress created by the baby boomer generation came as a result of their failure to manage.
The numbers also show that the baby boomer generation has never respected or even acknowledged Generation X, those who are now supposed to be in their prime earning years if not for the baby boomers who believe that they are entitled to the salaries which are not theirs to take.
Not surprisingly, these numbers also show just how much the baby boomer generation despises young people between the ages of 16-24 – effectively siphoning away basic jobs away from this demographic as well.
Black is white, peace is war, old is young? Orwell never imagined this.
Deplorable behavior by a generation who are supposed to be ‘seniors.’
It is therefore no wonder that the economic darkness and angst reflects the baby boomer generation.
When an aged generation is in denial of aging while also living under the illusion only they are entitled - then you have an economy, culture and society that is wholly dysfunctional.
And that is exactly what we've seen in the world.
Deplorable behavior by a generation who are supposed to be ‘seniors.’
It is therefore no wonder that the economic darkness and angst reflects the baby boomer generation.
When an aged generation is in denial of aging while also living under the illusion only they are entitled - then you have an economy, culture and society that is wholly dysfunctional.
And that is exactly what we've seen in the world.
So with the Boomer generation nearly out of the way as establishment, who will be charge?
Boomers want to believe that Generation X, those born in the 1960s and 1970s are somehow going to be passed over in favor the Boomer’s children, Generation Y.
Nothing could be further from the truth according to world transits.
Generation Y, those born 1981-95 - are not the next incoming establishment, though the boomers would like this to be so because they falsely believe that their own children will guard their backs.
If you examine world transits this much is clear - anyone who denigrates or ignores Generation X does so at their own peril.
The U.S.
Despite the fudging of demographics to the contrary, Gen X is the largest consumer group in U.S.
Generation X is larger in size and in the Twenty-Tens and 2020s, will be fueling the global economy back to recovery and health.
It will have more spending power than any other generation, giving its members the ability to make or break brands simply by paying attention to them.
Saturn’s transit in Scorpio confirms that just after the 2012 General Election, we can expect interest rates to go up. This will most likely occur in the year 2013, when Saturn begins to settle more in Scorpio for a long transit to summer 2015.
Saturn transiting the Eighth Mundane House of Scorpio, a fixed sign, surely points to the coming of a sustained period of rising interest rates. During the early-to-mid 1980s, when Saturn was last in tropical Scorpio, interest rates were also high.
This forecasted shift in interest rates is certain to come as a shock for people with past spending habits that were wholly shaped by the 30-year decline in the cost of borrowing.
However, it is impossible not to see what will be an inevitable result from rising national debt amid threatening signs of inflation in Asia for the American economy to recover from the greatest recession since the Great Depression years.
For instance, in May 2011, the country of India , a hot economy for years like China,
According to reports, there are dark clouds on the horizon for India 's economy say analysts who forecast growth in gross domestic product (GDP) to fall below 8 percent thanks to high inflation. This prompted the Reserve Bank of India
CNBC reported May 2, 2011 that India India
Credit Suisse expects Indian economic growth to slow to 7.5 percent this year from 8.6 percent last year. That is lower than RBI’s forecast of 8 percent and the government’s projection of 9 percent.
High Inflation, slowing Capex investment and rising interest rates are eating in to
Industrial output growth slowed to 3.6 percent in February from 3.9 percent in January. Inflation accelerated to 9 percent in March from 8.3 percent in February and the RBI said Tuesday that corporations are concerned about sluggish demand ahead.
“There are definitely challenges to continue the growth of the economy in the current year,” says Jigar Shah, Senior Vice President and Head of Research at Kim Eng India
While the RBI has been raising rates regularly to deal with inflation, the battle is far from won. According to Prior-Wandesforde, it takes about 12 to 18 months for rate hikes to take effect. Therefore this year will see the cooling effect from the buildup of previous tightening measures.
According to Vishnu Varathan, Asia Economist from Capital Economics, the RBI is expected to raise interest rates at least one more time before the end of the year - even though it said Tuesday after its policy meeting that it was seeing “a deterioration in the availability of finance and working capital requirements and the cost of external finance was rising.”
“The real cause of concern is that underlying inflation is also rising,” says Varathan. India
“The main worry, especially from a policy standpoint, is that inflation is not purely a supply side phenomenon. Along with rising core inflation, non-food manufacturing inflation has also picked up significantly,” says Varathan.
Falling investor confidence is also reflected in the Indian equity market, which has been the worst performer in Asia this year. The benchmark Bombay Sensex has lost about one tenth of its value since the beginning of this year, worse than the Japan
“I can’t argue against the fact that sentiment towards Indian equities is poor,” says Sarah Lien, Senior Research Analyst from Russell Investments. The company surveys investor sentiment by interviewing money managers.
However, Lien noticed some improvement in the sentiment. “Many money managers that we speak to are warming up to this market again on the belief that bad news and bad sentiment have been factored into stock prices. They are using this as an entry point to invest back in India
The Indian equity market saw a net inflow of $1.5 billion from financial institutional investors in March, after negative FII flows in January and February.
Yet many still believe the market will need to consolidate before bouncing back again. “[Tuesday’s] rate hike means the worst is not over yet,” says Credit Suisse’s Prior-Wandesforde.
The cooling of the Chinese and India
The impact of higher rates is sure to be felt at once in the
In the near-term, the rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage has risen half a point since December 2010 and rose to 5.31 in late April 2011 - the highest level since summer 2010.
Because mortgage rates are unlikely to go lower, that plan to increase sales in a housing market still overpriced by Boomers means that more weight will be added to the complete collapse of the real estate bubble.
A severe contraction along with the further deflation of the housing market will continue. It was merely slowed-down in 2009-10 by measures out of the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department.
Each increase of one percentage point of interest rates adds as much as 19% to the total cost of a home.
So with interest rates having nowhere to go but up, this means that declining values of properties, along with declining equity, heavy debt loads and foreclosures, will expand so that the housing market, as it has been known its boomer-bubble form will not recover for many more years.
The rampant mismanagement of public and private institutions by the baby boomer establishment will continue to affect many nations – until finally this generation is removed from all policy and decision-making and replaced so that a true economic recovery can start.
The reason I continue to press this point is because it is true. The dying oligarchy and the boomer generation establishment cannot remain in decision-making positions simply based on the facts that they have utterly mismanaged finance, economic and society.
What has been happening in 2010 and 2011 is the continued fleecing by this generational establishment.
Consider these facts -
· Another area in which higher rates are likely to affect consumers is credit card use. In April 2010, the Federal Reserve reported that the average interest rate on credit cards reached 14.26 percent in February 2010 - the highest since 2001. That is up from 12.03 percent when rates bottomed in the fourth quarter of 2008 - a jump which amounts to $200 a year in additional interest payments for the typical American household.
· Losses from credit card defaults continue to rise with capital to back credit cards harder to come by. The banking issuers are likely to increase interest rates to near 17 percent by Fall 2011. This means the banks are running out of pricing options and will target any customers who carry their balances from month-to-month.
· Car loans have become significantly more expensive. Interest rates at auto finance companies rose to 4.72 percent in February 2010 from 3.26 percent in December 2009. Mortgage rates and car loans are linked to the yield on long-term bonds.
· Washington D.C.
What happened is that the run-up in rates is quickened in 2010 as investors steered more of their money away from bonds as policymakers in Washington
The Jupiter-Saturn opposition reflects all of this. Credit remains tight as banks with billions of debt on their books, now flushed with TARP money not lending.
What are they waiting for?
Well, according to my astrological calculations, they are waiting for interest rates to rise so they can once again fleece everyone else.
Saturn’s transit in Scorpio forecasts hiking of interest rates and rising taxes amid austerity – meaning that the economic recession will deepen even more - with longer years of housing declines expected, as well as the resulting social upheaval and discontent.
Anyone who remembers the deep recession of the early-to-mid 1980s when Saturn was last in Scorpio may be able to gain a sense of the financial and social atmosphere just ahead.
That era was also one of austerity for many nations.
That era was also one of austerity for many nations.
However what makes this coming Saturn transit in Scorpio different are the Cardinal Crisis transits.
The Uranus-Pluto world square, gradually building since 2010-2011 will enter the scene 2012 to 2015 with seven (7) exact squares. This adds a new planetary inclination on top of Saturn’s transit in Scorpio.
What I have seen is that banks have been hoarding cash waiting for interest rates to rise so that they can make more profits. This will cause a major backlash from society when it happens – but most will just simply wait to see that.
I already have and it’s not pretty.
Consider this May 2011 report from the Wall Street Journal –
"The willingness of banks to lend money to consumers rose more than it has in 17 years, but sluggish loan growth is weighing on a key measure of profitability.
Big banks eased lending standards and businesses sought more loans in the first quarter of the year, the Federal Reserve said. In its quarterly Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey, the Fed said the share of banks "that reported having become more willing to make consumer installment loans rose to its highest level since the first half of 1994."
But consumer demand for loans is spotty. Demand for auto loans increased, but credit cards and other installment loans remained flat while mortgage demand continued its slide, according to the survey.
The slack demand has kept a lid on banks' top-line revenue growth. While banks have been reporting solid profits, much of that has come from the release of reserves to cover bad loans. Revenue growth remains elusive and has been shrinking at most major banks.
That is one reason why bank stocks have performed poorly over the past year, with the KBW Bank Index falling 7.9% while the broader market as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 16%.
Such low revenue squeezes one key measure of bank profitability, net interest margin, or the difference between what they earn on assets minus the cost of deposits and other liabilities.
Last year, aided by the Fed's reduction of short-term interest rates to close to zero in 2008, depositors received the lowest interest rate—0.86%—since the 1950s, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Net interest margin for big banks hit an eight-year high of 3.77% in 2010.
But the NIM has been declining steadily since last year's first quarter. When loans mature they are either being replaced with lower-interest loans, or not being replaced at all.
As a result, while first-quarter net interest margin rose slightly at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., it was flat at Bank of America Corp. and fell at Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co.
Banks are "running harder to stand still," said Brian Foran, an analyst at Nomura Securities International Inc.
The challenges of making more loans are obscuring the benefit of holding depositors' cash at rock-bottom interest rates, which should raise net interest margins.
Customers are keeping a record 75% of their $5.9 trillion in bank deposits in liquid accounts, which pay just 0.44%, instead of in certificates of deposit which tie up the money for up to five years, says Dan Geller, executive vice president of Market Rates Insight.
With short-term rates expected to rise over the next few years, banks' NIM is "going to expand as rates go up," says analyst Richard Bove of Rochdale Securities. When rates rise gradually, banks can boost the rates on loans faster than on deposits, analysts say.
When big banks reported their first-quarter earnings last month, some executives were peppered with questions about when their NIM would resume rising.
On Citigroup's April 18 earnings call, four out of 11 analysts asked about Citi's projection that NIM of 2.91%, down from 3.34% a year earlier, would continue to fall in the second quarter.
"I am probably going to disappoint a whole bunch of NIM-ites out there,' he said. "But…I don't wake up in the morning and actively worry about what is going on with my NIM."
But when another analyst asked about it, too, Mr. Gerspach backpedaled. "I do think about NIM every day. I just don't wake up thinking about it," he said. Later, he said, he expects Citi's NIM to "stabilize" in the second half.
Executives at Bank of America painted that same picture in their own analyst call. After BofA beat its own 2.5% NIM projection by coming in at 2.67%, down slightly from 2.69% in the fourth quarter, Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said the result could be even better if rates start rising.
If the rate on Fed funds, currently just 0.25%, rises to 2% or more, Mr. Moynihan said, that "ought to push us back up to 2.75% and higher in the margin."
Wells Fargo could boost its NIM if it can replace some loans with higher-interest debt while keeping its rock-bottom consumer deposit costs of just 0.35%, compared to 0.75% for its peers.
Analysts also grilled Wells executives about holding more than $100 billion in safe short-term funds that earn just 0.29%.
Wells CFO Tim Sloan said keeping the high cash-reserve level positioned the bank to invest the money more profitably when rates rise.”
And rates will rise. Saturn’s coming transit in Scorpio will make sure of it.
Saturn in Scorpio:
October 2012 – September 2015
October 2012 – September 2015
Saturn's long transit in tropical Scorpio reflects a time of austerity for nations, this much we now know.
The position of Saturn relative to its waning square aspect to Pluto for the next nine (9) years is a time of transitioning for the economies of nations; therefore the geopolitical shifts taking place in the early Twenty-Tens will be challenging to say the least.
Saturn's transit in Scorpio, or the mundane Eighth House brings the boomer establishment to the end of its time as establishment.
For years, I have been warning baby boomers who would listen to not ignore the passage of time, nor to believe in the illusions of 'forever youth' which has stagnated this generation into the depths of self-indulgence and hegemony at the expense of others.
Economically, the austerity measures forced on nations by debtors involved in the economic crash also highlights the Uranus-Pluto square of the years 2012-2015.
For years, I have been warning baby boomers who would listen to not ignore the passage of time, nor to believe in the illusions of 'forever youth' which has stagnated this generation into the depths of self-indulgence and hegemony at the expense of others.
Economically, the austerity measures forced on nations by debtors involved in the economic crash also highlights the Uranus-Pluto square of the years 2012-2015.
This period of time, about three years, includes some of the most powerful cardinal transits involving Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto.
Saturn's curious transit in Scorpio, a 'fixed' water sign will be reminiscent for some who remember the years 1983, 1984 and 1985. Economically, those years were also recession years mired in austerity with wide disparities of wealth.
Saturn enters Scorpio in early October 2012, this signifies a strong economic year with Jupiter in Gemini - reflecting wider effects on populations from the severe economic decline that began with the banking crisis of 2007.
The atmosphere of the world with Saturn in Scorpio from October 2012 to September 2015 shows a very nebulous era of fixed economic circumstances for some while others will want to protect that which they have.
A strongly economic period, the lingering effects of the economic crash continues in society with darer consequences than during Saturn's transit in tropical Libra from 2010-2012.
The mundane co-rulers of Scorpio are Mars and Pluto, with the public mortality, suicides, or death rates highlighted as are national economic matters and financial relations with other nations.
The decades of the 1990s and 2000s will also be put under the microscope by privy councils who will attempt to determine what to do with the corrupted officials and players who caused the economic decline.
Saturn's position in the mundane Eighth House of Scorpio is believed to be a malefic position with high mortality rates among the elderly; especially those of the oligarchy who formerly held high positions.
A strongly economic period, the lingering effects of the economic crash continues in society with darer consequences than during Saturn's transit in tropical Libra from 2010-2012.
The mundane co-rulers of Scorpio are Mars and Pluto, with the public mortality, suicides, or death rates highlighted as are national economic matters and financial relations with other nations.
The decades of the 1990s and 2000s will also be put under the microscope by privy councils who will attempt to determine what to do with the corrupted officials and players who caused the economic decline.
Saturn's position in the mundane Eighth House of Scorpio is believed to be a malefic position with high mortality rates among the elderly; especially those of the oligarchy who formerly held high positions.
The seasonal nights will tend to be long, wet and warm under Saturn's influences in Scorpio with cold wet blasts during the winter seasons.
The social atmosphere broods, is under the radar as populations struggle with the effects of the past economic crash and continuing recession with interest rate hikes further adding to pricing concerns that forces consumer demand to stagnate.
Those of Generation Y who will experience their fist Saturn Return between 2012 to 2015 will be coming close to their 30th birthdays.
This era of Saturn in Scorpio for the world is also for them a kind of personal awakening that will not become fully apparent until Saturn has left Scorpio and entered Sagittarius in 2015.
This era of Saturn in Scorpio for the world is also for them a kind of personal awakening that will not become fully apparent until Saturn has left Scorpio and entered Sagittarius in 2015.
Saturn in Scorpio will call into question who can be trusted and who cannot as betrayal is a feature of Saturn's transit in this tropical sign. Both personal and professional relationships are highlighted amid brooding, emotional and mysterious circumstances in Scorpio.
The social and geopolitical impact of the economic crisis that began in the decade of the 2000s will clearly be negative in these years from the early to mid-Twenty Tens.
There is a need to associate with people one already knows, as the emotional nature of Scorpio is refined by Saturn's detachment - but with a sharp emotional and penetrating edge.
There is a need to associate with people one already knows, as the emotional nature of Scorpio is refined by Saturn's detachment - but with a sharp emotional and penetrating edge.
The placement of Saturn in Scorpio shows that the nights are strongly highlighted as Mars co-rules Scorpio. Saturn's nature prefers the cold, so nights are powerfully stressed.
My past observations of Saturn in this sign proves that this is true as the years of Saturn's prior transit in Scorpio during the mid-1980s were indeed a brooding, mysterious, nocturnal age of sorts.
My past observations of Saturn in this sign proves that this is true as the years of Saturn's prior transit in Scorpio during the mid-1980s were indeed a brooding, mysterious, nocturnal age of sorts.
Psychologically, expect the social atmosphere to be one of a cold, detached but emotional era where groups will tend to stay amongst themselves rather than to freely congregate with others they do not know.
There can spread of sexual diseases crystallized by Saturn, so it is important to use protection when having sexual contact.
There can spread of sexual diseases crystallized by Saturn, so it is important to use protection when having sexual contact.
The decline in the lifestyles of people as a result of the prior economic recession can lead to breakdowns of law-and-order in neighborhoods, so it is wise to be careful where you live and through what neighborhoods you travel as Saturn's transit of Scorpio can lead to increases in criminal activity.
The lawlessness inclined by Saturn in Scorpio is reflective of the breakdown of the baby boomer generation's hold on the establishment and their horrid neglect of managing society during their time as establishment in the 1990s and 2000s.
The lawlessness inclined by Saturn in Scorpio is reflective of the breakdown of the baby boomer generation's hold on the establishment and their horrid neglect of managing society during their time as establishment in the 1990s and 2000s.
One of the keys to surviving the time of Saturn’s transit in Scorpio is to remember that what once worked for Baby Boomers will not work for you – so avoid the trap.
The Baby Boomers played a critical role as establishment which has led to the austerity years of Twenty-Tens. Boomers consumed much more than they ever produced. They borrowed more than they could repay.
Their expectations help to bring inflation into the mix. They created negative equity that infected tens of millions of Americans (and many more worldwide) with rampant personal debt while causing government deficits to balloon outright – causing outright sovereign debt.
The boomer generation forecasted bubble-growth forever along with dreams of every-rising riches for themselves but they forgot that they gave up independence for more wealth and toys.
They turned their homes into ATM machines – assets that are now liabilities with no shrinking equity – drowning in three years of missed mortgage payments and declining property values.
The arrogance and stupidity of their own self-worth and that of their toys made them believe their own fantasies – at the expense of everyone else.
Whole communities worldwide, sit empty, while construction projects were abandoned in the wake of the 2007-08 crash. Meanwhile, boomers who are desperate to sell their properties cannot find buyers and are now on fumes by 2012.
Many baby boomers are discovering that without buyers and shrinking equity in their houses that they have no wealth and continue to sink deeper into debt as the values of their McMansions fall like a rock. This is what a generation brought on themselves and everyone else with greed, selfishness and ignorance.
By 2011,
Some cities, like Miami are down 42 percent and the city of Phoenix , Arizona U.S.
Real estate is now a horrible place to put money and buyers know it.
This is obviously a chronic decline of the real estate market – effectively a generational grand decline. We have a constant stream of deterioration that cannot be allowed to last.
There are an estimated one million+ bank owned homes in the inventory - a huge unsold overhang of shadow supply prevents any recovery of housing prices.
Home equity is draining and the balance sheets of banks will continue to erode. There are over 11 million American homes that are in negative equity – about 23.1% of all households.
Moreover, in a climate where the average worker is pushing 63 years old, the U.S. Economy cannot and will not benefit from export surge. This is because the dying oligarchy and their baby boomer spawn sold the US
What happened is that two kinds of people were ruined by the housing bubble created by Wall Street bankers and hedge fund moguls - People who bought properties at any point in the last two years of the bubble and people who thought real estate hit bottom in 2007-09.
There are many sellers now in 2011 – but no buyers.
The longer the boomer generation lies to themselves that their real estate Ponzi schemes can go on; as long as they think interest rates will never rise; that their incomes will continue to expand beyond all common sense; that their right to overpriced houses is an entitlement – the worse things will get.
The Boomer generation lives in a dream world where they get to eat their cake and have it too and where there are no consequences in the near future.
That future is nearly here.
Baby Boomers borrowed tons of money, repeatedly, against their homes to then invest in more properties overpriced from the start. Now that the party is over – they do not know how to ready themselves for a retirement that has already begun.
One-third of all Baby Boomers cannot pay their mortgages and monthly bills. Nearly 42% have zero savings – yet the great majority of baby boomers own properties.
This means that their one hope for financial freedom in retirement is their houses – and constitutes their only financial strategy. That is why their houses remain overpriced.
This means that their one hope for financial freedom in retirement is their houses – and constitutes their only financial strategy. That is why their houses remain overpriced.
Some boomers continue to be certain that what they had in the 2000s – cheap mortgages, flipping houses with ever rising boomer-bubble prices – will last eternally.
The bank-real estate crisis experience of 2006-2011 with the transits to come this decades means at least 7.5 years of deep losses – all because the boomer generation got a ponzi-scheme hard on for housing to the point of the ridiculous.
At this rate, by the time we see a rise in properties from the 2004 period it will be the year 2021.
At this rate, by the time we see a rise in properties from the 2004 period it will be the year 2021.
The fact is that the Boomer generation cannot continue to believe that their fantasies did not screw it all up.
They killed jobs, left the economy in shambles with tens of millions of people in debt while ruining whole communities, cities, counties and states via corrupt and greedy real estate practices. This only goes to prove my point that the boomer establishment was an outright failure.
They killed jobs, left the economy in shambles with tens of millions of people in debt while ruining whole communities, cities, counties and states via corrupt and greedy real estate practices. This only goes to prove my point that the boomer establishment was an outright failure.
It is long past the time to move on.
By the time Saturn enters transiting Scorpio a month from the 2012 General Election, it will become clearer to most people that interest rates are about to go up. By the year 2013, rates will have already risen and will continue to rise.
This will be the crushing blow to the real estate market which should have happened several years before until the government stepped in to halt the slide in 2009.
That slide was slowed, but not halted, so that the years 2010 and 2011 were only a respite from what is sure to come – another housing crash and the end of the Baby Boomer establishment.
All of this could have never happened if not for the immensely selfishness of a generation that believe it could do no wrong and would live forever.
The fleecing of resources both public and private along with the destruction of institutions by a mix of theft, rape and neglect – as effectively ended the party for boomers and the late 20th century economy.
How to Prepare For Saturn in Scorpio
Saturn will enter tropical Scorpio on October 5, 2012 just as transiting Mars will be leaving Scorpio, so expect this ingress of Saturn to be strong, in the nature of Mars, which co-rules the Sign.
The transit of Saturn in tropical Scorpio will last for nearly three years from October 2012 to September 2015. The economic and financial stresses in the wake of the years 2007-2012 will have spread worldwide and affected many lives, careers and communities.
Because Saturn is in a waning transit to Pluto, the economic realities of the era 2012-2015 will be one of strong financial concerns in light of the widespread corruption of the baby boomer establishment over the previous 20 years.
However, by October 2012, what will be most evident will be the anger of populations - especially the middle class - over the losses of jobs, opportunities and resources - that will be unleashed during the Uranus-Pluto square years of 2012-15.
Psychologically, as Saturn prepares to leave tropical Libra and enter Scorpio by October 2012, expect the social atmosphere and mood to become even more distant and objective.
This is the result of tens of millions of people forced into the position of having to make up for lost time and opportunities because of the baby boomer hegemony.
Saturn's transit in Scorpio will meet in water trine to transiting Neptune in Pisces in 2013, which helps those with astrological placements that are favorable:
Those with these favorable placements may be able to discover practical uses for their creative projects with the ability to focus and concentrate that the Saturn-Neptune trine offerss.
The water trine is especially favorable for discipline to attain spiritual advancement along with the ability to gain ever deeper insights into the cultural, economic and geopolitical in operation, both of the past, and present time.
Preparing for Saturn's transit in Scorpio before October 2012 involves understanding that the early to middle years of the Twenty-Tens are to be used to discipline oneself in these areas:
Economics and finances
Personal and professional relationships
Generational transition and change
Social gatherings
Spiritual growth
The transit of Saturn into Scorpio can sometimes lead to the breakdown of parts of society due to the previous corruption, ideology and lack of common sense practiced by the former baby boomer establishment.
Be wise about whom you associate with and watch those who do not mind their manners. Do not be afraid, remember, love is strong and can certainly place a serious bruise on the asses of those who get out of hand.
I have fought criminals before and won each and every time. One of the essential things I learned from my police officer father; from study of world history and from reading thousands of The Batman comics is that when you fight back against criminals - make certain that you inflict pain - "Mr. T-style."
There is simply too much at stake to allow our children to continue to suffer under the current economic climate, nor to allow those to use that depressed climate in order to exploit, hurt and oppress others. All you bad people out there: beware, as a sure to come ass-kicking will be in order so that Mr. T's prediction will certainly be felt under Saturn's inclinations.
Prior to Saturn's ingress in Scorpio, the transiting Lunar Nodes will shift from mutable to fixed on August 30, 2012 and enter the Scorpio-Taurus axis where they will remain until mid-February 2014.
That means the era from August 2012 to February 2014 will also reinforce Saturn's role in Scorpio.
This "fixed" era is one of serious financial concerns and has ramifications for those who participated in the fleecing of companies and nations via the stock markets and banks.
Monies between partners and spouses are highlighted, as are general financial obligations which include all economic affairs of debts, loans, losses. Saturn's transit in the mundane Eighth House will see lenders attempt to co-opt the borrower, so it is important not to accept loans which lead to even more debt.
One can expect serious investigations to ensue around the true causes of the world economic depression connected to the generational fleecing of society by the baby boomer generation.
Now, there is no getting around this as Saturn's transit, along with that of the North Lunar Node in Scorpio, calls for in-depth examination of the forces that caused the economic contraction.
Corporate secrecy and attempts to obfuscate and hide past and present illegal activities will backfire according to Saturn's crystallization of Scorpio so anyone associated with so-called 'dark forces' are bound to discover that, in the end, only you will be held responsible for the evil things you have done.
The economic crisis will have also led to the deterioration of communities in previous years, so be careful what neighborhoods you travel - especially at night. Saturn will rule over the nights as it transits Scorpio, so it is necessary to use caution during 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.
The breakdowns in law and order in various regions of the world, as well as communities and neighborhoods comes as a direct result of the failure of the boomer establishment to manage the economy. So cutbacks in law enforcement results, leading to societal fractures that will require renewal by Generation X, the new incoming establishment.
However, during Saturn's transit in Scorpio, this will take time to bring about due to the prior neglect. Remember that the one thing all criminals respect is strength - so when confronted by those who break the law - fight back - think 'Batman' in this respect and you will not have any problem.
Saturn in Scorpio will shed light on all matters associated with anxieties, fears, losses, decay and the nature and fear of death.
Understand that Saturn in Scorpio is a powerful transit through the mundane Eighth House and reinforces the need to accept aging in life and to leave behind matters that are no longer valid or useful. Saturn's inclinations encourages 'want' and 'loss' and that of 'economy' and in Scorpio strongly influences the elderly.
The years of late 2012, into 2013, 2014 and 2015 of Saturn's transit in Scorpio along with the cardinal crisis transits show a need to adjust and envision a better world without the weight and outworn methods of the past. The former establishment of the baby boomers will have led to the neglect and fleecing of society to the point of outright rebellion and potential revolution.
However, what is most likely to occur is that the elderly, that is, those of the baby boomer generation who are at fault for the serious problems facing these times, will not get off Scott-free and will be forced to clean up the mess they made - and for free.
There will be no payment for theft and creating massive damage to society and its institutions. Moreover, those who claim that they played no part in the corruption and fleecing had better be able to prove it under the world transits to come - especially those of Uranus and Pluto.
Saturn's transit in Scorpio shows that be facing one's fears and taking responsibility for one's errors and faults then one may be able to come to terms with the transits of the near future.
The Eighth Mundane house with Saturn in play does not lead immediately to growth since the worries are the barriers which stand in the way.
the cardinal crisis transits are those that will force the matter, so to speak for baby boomers who refuse to accept the truth of the times. Those of that generation who fail to 'get it' will not be happy with what Saturn is about to bring.
Those who do get it will be better off as wisdom visits with them and stays awhile, rather than eluding those who choose to live in ignorance and continued generational self-indulgence.
Saturn's transit in Scorpio can also encourage false fears. This will emanate from an aged boomer establishment in angst over getting older. It is important not to fall into that trap of thinking because it leads to even more failure against progress into the future.
Those who desire to focus on positive matters that help others will find Saturn's transit in Scorpio useful to overcome barriers that formerly were put in place by a generational establishment wholly self-indulgent and neglectful of their responsibilities to society.
Though the general atmosphere and mood of Saturn's transit in Scorpio between October 2012 to September 2015 can be dark and brooding, the inclinations of Scorpio also provide spiritual benefit for those who seek to make progress by helping others as they help themselves.
It is important not to waste time. Saturn's transit in Libra in 2011 and most of 2012 until its entry into tropical Scorpio by October 2012, shows a need to get down to brass tacks and get to work. Yet, the frustrations over the delayed progress of society by the boomer generation's hegemony remains.
The way to navigate this is to simply continue planning for the decade of the Twenty-Tens as a whole.
Time does not stop for anyone - including the baby boomer generation - so it is essential not to fall into the bad habit of allowing the 'status quo' and rampant corruption and neglect to go unchallenged and unchanged.
In this light, we remember to follow the advice of Manly P. Hall as we gain wisdom by seeing through things.
~
The fleecing of resources both public and private along with the destruction of institutions by a mix of theft, rape and neglect – as effectively ended the party for boomers and the late 20th century economy.
How to Prepare For Saturn in Scorpio
Saturn will enter tropical Scorpio on October 5, 2012 just as transiting Mars will be leaving Scorpio, so expect this ingress of Saturn to be strong, in the nature of Mars, which co-rules the Sign.
The transit of Saturn in tropical Scorpio will last for nearly three years from October 2012 to September 2015. The economic and financial stresses in the wake of the years 2007-2012 will have spread worldwide and affected many lives, careers and communities.
Because Saturn is in a waning transit to Pluto, the economic realities of the era 2012-2015 will be one of strong financial concerns in light of the widespread corruption of the baby boomer establishment over the previous 20 years.
However, by October 2012, what will be most evident will be the anger of populations - especially the middle class - over the losses of jobs, opportunities and resources - that will be unleashed during the Uranus-Pluto square years of 2012-15.
Psychologically, as Saturn prepares to leave tropical Libra and enter Scorpio by October 2012, expect the social atmosphere and mood to become even more distant and objective.
This is the result of tens of millions of people forced into the position of having to make up for lost time and opportunities because of the baby boomer hegemony.
Saturn's transit in Scorpio will meet in water trine to transiting Neptune in Pisces in 2013, which helps those with astrological placements that are favorable:
Those with these favorable placements may be able to discover practical uses for their creative projects with the ability to focus and concentrate that the Saturn-Neptune trine offerss.
The water trine is especially favorable for discipline to attain spiritual advancement along with the ability to gain ever deeper insights into the cultural, economic and geopolitical in operation, both of the past, and present time.
Preparing for Saturn's transit in Scorpio before October 2012 involves understanding that the early to middle years of the Twenty-Tens are to be used to discipline oneself in these areas:
Economics and finances
Personal and professional relationships
Generational transition and change
Social gatherings
Spiritual growth
The transit of Saturn into Scorpio can sometimes lead to the breakdown of parts of society due to the previous corruption, ideology and lack of common sense practiced by the former baby boomer establishment.
Be wise about whom you associate with and watch those who do not mind their manners. Do not be afraid, remember, love is strong and can certainly place a serious bruise on the asses of those who get out of hand.
I have fought criminals before and won each and every time. One of the essential things I learned from my police officer father; from study of world history and from reading thousands of The Batman comics is that when you fight back against criminals - make certain that you inflict pain - "Mr. T-style."
There is simply too much at stake to allow our children to continue to suffer under the current economic climate, nor to allow those to use that depressed climate in order to exploit, hurt and oppress others. All you bad people out there: beware, as a sure to come ass-kicking will be in order so that Mr. T's prediction will certainly be felt under Saturn's inclinations.
Prior to Saturn's ingress in Scorpio, the transiting Lunar Nodes will shift from mutable to fixed on August 30, 2012 and enter the Scorpio-Taurus axis where they will remain until mid-February 2014.
That means the era from August 2012 to February 2014 will also reinforce Saturn's role in Scorpio.
This "fixed" era is one of serious financial concerns and has ramifications for those who participated in the fleecing of companies and nations via the stock markets and banks.
Monies between partners and spouses are highlighted, as are general financial obligations which include all economic affairs of debts, loans, losses. Saturn's transit in the mundane Eighth House will see lenders attempt to co-opt the borrower, so it is important not to accept loans which lead to even more debt.
One can expect serious investigations to ensue around the true causes of the world economic depression connected to the generational fleecing of society by the baby boomer generation.
Now, there is no getting around this as Saturn's transit, along with that of the North Lunar Node in Scorpio, calls for in-depth examination of the forces that caused the economic contraction.
Corporate secrecy and attempts to obfuscate and hide past and present illegal activities will backfire according to Saturn's crystallization of Scorpio so anyone associated with so-called 'dark forces' are bound to discover that, in the end, only you will be held responsible for the evil things you have done.
The economic crisis will have also led to the deterioration of communities in previous years, so be careful what neighborhoods you travel - especially at night. Saturn will rule over the nights as it transits Scorpio, so it is necessary to use caution during 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.
The breakdowns in law and order in various regions of the world, as well as communities and neighborhoods comes as a direct result of the failure of the boomer establishment to manage the economy. So cutbacks in law enforcement results, leading to societal fractures that will require renewal by Generation X, the new incoming establishment.
However, during Saturn's transit in Scorpio, this will take time to bring about due to the prior neglect. Remember that the one thing all criminals respect is strength - so when confronted by those who break the law - fight back - think 'Batman' in this respect and you will not have any problem.
Saturn in Scorpio will shed light on all matters associated with anxieties, fears, losses, decay and the nature and fear of death.
Understand that Saturn in Scorpio is a powerful transit through the mundane Eighth House and reinforces the need to accept aging in life and to leave behind matters that are no longer valid or useful. Saturn's inclinations encourages 'want' and 'loss' and that of 'economy' and in Scorpio strongly influences the elderly.
The years of late 2012, into 2013, 2014 and 2015 of Saturn's transit in Scorpio along with the cardinal crisis transits show a need to adjust and envision a better world without the weight and outworn methods of the past. The former establishment of the baby boomers will have led to the neglect and fleecing of society to the point of outright rebellion and potential revolution.
However, what is most likely to occur is that the elderly, that is, those of the baby boomer generation who are at fault for the serious problems facing these times, will not get off Scott-free and will be forced to clean up the mess they made - and for free.
There will be no payment for theft and creating massive damage to society and its institutions. Moreover, those who claim that they played no part in the corruption and fleecing had better be able to prove it under the world transits to come - especially those of Uranus and Pluto.
Saturn's transit in Scorpio shows that be facing one's fears and taking responsibility for one's errors and faults then one may be able to come to terms with the transits of the near future.
The Eighth Mundane house with Saturn in play does not lead immediately to growth since the worries are the barriers which stand in the way.
the cardinal crisis transits are those that will force the matter, so to speak for baby boomers who refuse to accept the truth of the times. Those of that generation who fail to 'get it' will not be happy with what Saturn is about to bring.
Those who do get it will be better off as wisdom visits with them and stays awhile, rather than eluding those who choose to live in ignorance and continued generational self-indulgence.
Saturn's transit in Scorpio can also encourage false fears. This will emanate from an aged boomer establishment in angst over getting older. It is important not to fall into that trap of thinking because it leads to even more failure against progress into the future.
Those who desire to focus on positive matters that help others will find Saturn's transit in Scorpio useful to overcome barriers that formerly were put in place by a generational establishment wholly self-indulgent and neglectful of their responsibilities to society.
Though the general atmosphere and mood of Saturn's transit in Scorpio between October 2012 to September 2015 can be dark and brooding, the inclinations of Scorpio also provide spiritual benefit for those who seek to make progress by helping others as they help themselves.
It is important not to waste time. Saturn's transit in Libra in 2011 and most of 2012 until its entry into tropical Scorpio by October 2012, shows a need to get down to brass tacks and get to work. Yet, the frustrations over the delayed progress of society by the boomer generation's hegemony remains.
The way to navigate this is to simply continue planning for the decade of the Twenty-Tens as a whole.
Time does not stop for anyone - including the baby boomer generation - so it is essential not to fall into the bad habit of allowing the 'status quo' and rampant corruption and neglect to go unchallenged and unchanged.
In this light, we remember to follow the advice of Manly P. Hall as we gain wisdom by seeing through things.
~
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