Region:  Mid Atlantic (Delaware, New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Washington D.C.)

Date(s):  Wednesday June 7, Thursday June 8 and Friday June 9, 2017

Deck:  Renaissance Tarot

Cards Drawn:  2 of Cups (or chalices),  Queen of Staves (inverse), The Lovers (6 Major Arcana), 6 of Cups (or chalices), Knight or Coins (or pentacles) and The Sun (19 Major Arcana).

Forecast:  The 2 of Cups, a card low in the suit so I’d like to think that it would be closer to a root power as opposed to a more subtle influence definitely encourages me to think of rain though I have to keep in mind that many states in this region are also coastal so those waters may be mildly unfriendly to humans.  So, think on and off rainy conditions with partly to mostly cloudy skies watch for high surf and potential rip currents along the coast.  Temperatures should be at or slightly below seasonal averages with a mild warming trend over Wednesday and Thursday winds mild and variable with off shore breezes during the day and on shore breezes at night speed averaging some where between 10 – 20 mph.  Conditions should be improving on Thursday with the rain showers becoming more isolated and skies tending towards still mostly cloudy conditions changing to partially cloudy by afternoon.  Temperatures should build to about seasonal averages with higher than normal temperatures at night especially if clouds persist.  Winds should begin to slow though still manage to maintain a pleasant 10 to 15 mph through out the day and evening.  Look for dry conditions on Friday with a general settling of the waters along the coast.  Skies should continue to clear and a warming trend may be setting up for the week end and Sunday as winds begin to shift to a sustained southerly flow.

Look forwards to a warm and sunny Saturday and if that is the case try and get out an enjoy a bit of it.

Have a better than average day.

Before I begin and as I have stated before I believe that every human being has the right to self defense.  This in no way includes the right to preemptive self defense.  Preemption is the idea that some one or some thing represents a threat to you, or may at some later date possess the means to be a threat to you there fore you will attack first as a form of self defense.  The best defense is a good offense is how the quote goes but I can’t remember whom to attribute it to.  I see this argument as a pretense for aggression and nothing else.

This portion of this hopeless ramble of bullshit deals with great power.  Great power, for the sake of this discussion is defined by the ability to protect force in a transnational sense.  Force here is defined as the ability to influence another nations attitudes in a profound manner so force could be military (The simplest and easiest to understand), economic or through political/cultural influence.

In this world of great powers not all are equal so first you have are great nations which have the ability to project power along one or maybe two of the previously listed metrics into a transnational space that might be referred to as a sphere of influence.  The greatest of these, called a Super power, can project power along all metrics across the globe which is not, in my limited experience, referred to as a sphere of influence.

It had been in my examination of these systems here in my own country, the United States of America that I began to  notice something quite peculiar.  These great systems or structures, be they government, corporate or religious often behaved in ways that seemed contrary to their rhetoric, advertising and or philosophy/theology.  I must admit I found this quite vexing especially when taking in consideration along with the whistle blower phenomena.

I realized, through sort of a visual model, that these huge systems where much like human bodies.  If you see the base living component of the human body as the cell which bears little actual resemblance to the body as a whole and realized that there was a parallel in these systems, the individual human which also bore little resemblance to the whole system be it government, corporate or religious sort of created an odd space in my thinking.  The cells that compose the lungs are different from those that compose the muscles or the brain just like the people, their background and education, even their attitudes vary whether they are the FBI, CIA, HUD, the Executive or even the Legislative and so on.  But this isn’t how these systems are generally depicted, they are illustrated as a face, a person, like the leader of the government.  When we think of out government or a religion or a corporation what do we see in our minds eye.  I know what I see in mine and I now what we are shown on television and the web, the face of a single person, male or female.  We do not see all the human beings who make up the systems just like when we see a person, we see their face, maybe their arms and legs and the clothes they might be wearing but not all the cells that make up their body.

This struck me with a strange fascination, I mean was it possible to draw a parallel between a single living human entity and a complex social system?  I immediately saw, see, one commonality at least symbolically.  A Human’s body runs on blood like a car runs on gasoline.  Though the processes are chemically different they are effectively similar.  So our blood feeds our muscles, all the cells of our body with oxygen and other nutrients that allow us to function, to move to work or go about our day yes even to be happy.  A system has a circulatory system as well but this system is powered by currency, cash.  It could be powered on some other system of trade like barter but this effectively stunts a systems ability to project power plus in inflicts an odd lethargy upon the system in question.  So a system, that is capable of projecting power, like our government, a religion or a corporation has cash coursing through its veins.  It is these massive systems that oversee or manage the larger mass of people that live with in and about the base and compose the geography of the system.  There is a relationship between the human geography and the system that manages it known as the social contract.  The social contract can mean many things and we will skip it now and simply leave it as the arrangement between the governed and the governing.  A good fair contract benefits all parties involved but as one studies the behavior of these large systems over time (History) at some point there is a shift in social policy which is reflected in the aforementioned contract.  It is during these critical shifts in the underlying philosophy that tension begins or magnifies between the system and the human geography it manages.

Remember that notion of simple power I referred to as the hand gun or the fire arm or even the assault rifle?  It should be understood that the Systems has weapons of its own but not like a poor man or woman’s lone rifle.  The systems weapons include the military, army, navy, marines and air force along with federal, state and local law enforcement as well as various intelligence agencies and to some considerable degree the mass media.  The question that one has to ask one’s self is why does the system need all this power?  Its is a simple answer really, like you, the system wants to survive, it possesses and instinct to survive just like you and I.

The first thing that needs to be understood when a systems goes awry is why.  Problem number one, and this is an important problem, corruption.  This form or corruption should not be thought of as rot, at least not in the early stages.  Instead it should be though of more like hardening of the arteries or a narrowing of the flow of cash to a key regions or organs of the system.  IT is the preferential allocation of cash based on a personal bias that leads to problems with in the system.  Suddenly individual organs inside the system find themselves struggling with one another in order to stay healthy.  This struggle is most clearly understood through the rhetoric of the various representatives and parties involved.  This type of corruption can lead to an imbalance that if not properly addressed can lead to rot in the system proper.  This type of corruption begins with a simple shift in philosophy lets say from a land that is free for all or all people a equally free to a philosophy where some are more free than others.  If the system started in a place that lacked an equity between people that the system it self stated as god given,. for example, them it begins in a hole of corruption which makes the on set of real rot harder to resist.  The second thing to understand, al least as far as I can tell, is inertia.  A system is like any other body in space, it resists change in state.  The longer, farther and faster it heads in a particular direction the harder and harder it is to institute any change in the systems state.

To fully understand the situation the student must make the effort to separate the advertising about the system and try to grasp what the original intentions of the builders of the system where and this my friends is far more difficult that it sounds, but, if insight can be gained then it may become clear how to change the course, the path of the system, to change its state, with a simple efficient application of a minimum amount of force.

Its worth a try, anything is better than armed conflict.

Everyone else is doing it so why shouldn’t I?

What do I see in the Future, and I do see things in the future…Well.  Lets start with that war Between Iran and Isreal so many seem to be looking so forward to.  Every Great Nation or Empire needs a great enemy, for The United States of America Iran’s image has been carefully crafted and cultivated, with considerable help from what ever supreme leader we have had to deal with.

There appears to my eye, from where I sit, that a considerable amount of pressure is being placed on both countries by groups from the outside whether they be elected or otherwise.  First things first, there is the Quartet or The U.S., the U.N., the E.U. (U.K.) and Russia, it took me some considerable time just to figure out what the Quartet was.  Then we have different activist groups from across the political spectrum, some praying to God top destroy those Jews for not beating on the palestinian or any other arab group for that matter.  Pro palastuinian protesters messing with the Isrealie Blockade, not the smartest manuever and Isreal firing on them.  That last thing was most unexpected and I was honestly surprised, the government of Isreal stumbled into a massive PR trap.  It sounds callouse but that is what it was and I am sure the protesters understood the risk, either way how could they loose?  If the Isrealie people feel a little paranoid, considering their history I cvan’t say I blame them.  As for Iran with all the nuke Iran rhetoric bubbling from the US politic and popular media its hard to imagine they too are more than a bit pensive.  For some bizzarre reason, I feel Isreal and Iran may yet fool us all and keep the peace regardless of the physical cost.

As the United States wades in and continues to rattle their sabre which, of course, will provoke a great deal of trash talk from Iranian hardliners expect the American media, the only media I know, to pay more attention yet, as hard as that maybe to believe.  I’m am sensing an increase in rhetoruic and manuevering up until somewhere between June’s new moon and July’s new moon.  There is a potentail tipping point here, rather than watching the direct story istead watch for the stranger stories that circle around the fringes.  The topics being surprisingly humaniatrian for two countries about to go to war.  I don’t see the straights of Hormuz being closed by any human hand from any country.  Regardless, oil, in the futures market especailly will begin to creep upward, I’ll be watching the summer and fall delivery prices on initial contracts and continued trading.  Fall out in the cash price market won’t be felt until the June/July tipping point already mentioned.  This time there is a strong possibility of investors fleeing the oil market, mostly small investors and a few very conservative institutional traders meaning the effect on cash oil prices, especially gasoline will be more severe than to date.  I am expecting that pressure to continue until the end of the year, mostly due to increasing demand in asia as the cold season starts.

June/July is when things get a bit strange.  Some considerable volitility can be expected in currency and stock markets, not only from the price of oil/gas but the fall out in the food and energy sector also putting intense downward pressure on retail growth and a increase in unemployment.  Unemployment rates will in all likely will begin to climb upwards post vernal equinox of course none of this takes a true visionnary to predict, practically every one is in one way or the other.  The weirdness is in the value of the dollar, now I am not an economist and I can’t say any rational train of thought takes me to this point it is just a feeling.  There will be, I feel, a deflationary trend developing that will become quite obvious post the June/July tipping point.  I realize that this is to some extent counter modern logic from the world of academics and economics and I don’t understand how it could happen but as I write this I am gettting a bad case of The Creep.

I guess the only way I could imagine it happening is that if a very large precentage of the global population begins to buy dollars as a sfe haven.  Gold and other hard commodituies will take a huge hit and will stabilize some time post halloween.  Now deflation is when the dollar gains value, buying power, rather than the steady trend of loosing value.  The Fedral Reserve doesn’t have a lot of room to move on this as the prime rate and the short term rates are already so low.  The dollar gaining value will make servicing the public debt nearly impossible, in other words the amount of dollars/resources the debt is worth will climb relative to the value of dollars/resources from the time the debt was aquired.  Shorting capital in the system will only drive the value of the dollar higher.  Can’t borrow, can only print, but if the presses add more paper dollars or the computers add more cedit too quickly the system will crash.  All those guys in banking know this though and there will be considerable almost quiet finagling in the background to keep the ball rolling until after the november presidentail election.  keep a watchful eye for odd news stories dealingwith the financail sector, follow up on the ones that seem incomplete.

Obama will be reelected, this potato is too hot which is why the republican’s haven’t mustered a serious social conservative candidate.  The world hasn’t gotten bad enough for Ron Paul to stand a serious chance but I am expecting a serious showing from his campaign through super tuesday.

Don’t get depressed, you maybe unemployed, but the dollars you have will possess more buying power.  The combination of rising commodities prices and a rising dollar will produce some bizarre activity in retail, dropping prices for consumer goods, the new luxuries, with patience, thought, attention, and a willingness to learn how to make the most out of less the lower 80% of the american population can get through this with less pain then they anticipate.

Obama will win, even Meta agrees and she has been watching elections since she was small.  He will be forced to deal with Public debt, however many trillion it actually ends up being.  There are also issues with global and private debt, especailly with respect to loans that were aquired by financail entities under pretenses that would have been illegal before 1999.

Somewhere after triple witching, the last friday of October, most likily after the election I suspect the federal government will burn short term debt ergo…savings bonds and 90 day note, (T-strips) possibly Fanny Mae although I feel that is less likely, which will eliminate about half the public debt load.  This will signal a global purge of fraudulent or toxic debt forcing a major readjustment in resource allocation.  Don’t worry Conserative Libertines, the incredibly wealthy will still be pretty damn wealthy.  Currency reform won’t be an issue until 2013 and even then I find it doubtful.  Debt moratorium’s have happened before but this go around won’t be a total moratorium.  The money that has been rapidly shifting hands over the last few years and finding it way into hidden pockets and bank accounts will simply stop.

To put it mildly it will be a mess of herculean porortions and I fear we will watch Barack Obama our president age more each time we see him.

So what about 2012?  Is it the end of the world?   No, That would be too easy.

Why is it that when anyone talks about a shift in paradigm its always choosing light over dark, love over hate, compassion over opperssion,peace over war or sustanability over greed?  These all are poles, diameterically opposed, in our already existing paradigm, or spectrum.  We live in a dualistic world where all things are arranged in opposition in a way that makes sense too us as human beings.  Choosing one or the other changes nothing.  This is a possible shift into a reality we are unaware of, that’s what paradigm shift means.

So with all that pressure, mostly economic, and with the looming threat of traumatic climate change will we be watching as the great house has it windows and doors flung open, letting in the air and allowing each of us to more clearly see the greater world outside?  The unknown is always terrifying which why we hear things like “Kill Shot”, “Planet killer”, “civil war”. “nuclear war” and so on.  It is much like death another great rite of passage.  This great cycling down is the leading into The End Of The Age Of Empires whether they be military, economic, religious or philosophical.  If we managed to see past our individual hatred to find comon ground, work to keep the doors and windows open and allow the existance of unknowable possibilities.  Will we continue on only allowing for one issue or two maybe to cause our blood to run hot and the breath of war to fill our nostrils?

We can go back into the chaos or we can move forward on a great adventure into a reality which is entirly unknown.  We can blaze the trail in the great untouched wilderness. Either back or forward is equally easy, or difficult depending on the individual.

I’m probably wrong anyways, wouldn’t be the first time.

Just call me Crazy.