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The Pandora Papers and Facebook’s face-plant

On 4 Oct 2021 the Pandora Papers were released amidst much hoopla about exposing some of the most corrupt leaders and billionaires on the planet. Featured in Western mainstream news, unsurprisingly, was Vladimir Putin. Putin’s face loomed the largest in The Guardian’s coverage of the papers, yet he was not directly singled out as one of the soiled leaders. That automatically raised suspicions amongst the independent media. Then, later that day Facebook and its subsidiaries (WhatsApp and Instagram) went down as well. So the big question is, what was really going on and what does the astrology for the day say about it? Continue reading “The Pandora Papers and Facebook’s face-plant”

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AUKUS takes on NATO

The AUKUS pact has faded from the news feed for now. But the effects of it will be felt across Europe for months to come. It is apparent at this point the Anglo nations, minus the Kiwis, are circling the wagons in preparation for a showdown with China – or so they seem to think. But what is that going to mean for Europe? Well, it seems the EU is not the superstate than many people thought it was, nor as important as the European Atlanticists thought they were to Uncle Sam. AUKUS has sent a shudder up the spine of the NATO alliance, and as a result, of the EU itself. We will examine what this event means for Europe in this post and some of the wider implications for the future of Europe, of NATO and the West in general. Continue reading “AUKUS takes on NATO”

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The AUKUS ruckus

This is a story that will not be going away any time soon. We all might live in a yellow submarine, as the Beatles would have it, but Australians now get to try their hands at nuclear submarines. Well, ‘Yellowcake’ is part of the process, isn’t it? And we aren’t talking about Betty Crocker here. Jokes aside, the AUKUS – Australian, United Kingdom and United States – agreement has many threads running through it, which we will unpack to a degree here. The general world view is that AUKUS is a sub-standard deal (pardon the pun) for Australia, a win for the United States and UK, a loss for the EU and France, and otherwise an unwise decision on the part of the Australian government. There again, opinions differ, depending on one’s geopolitical stance. So, let’s start unpacking. Continue reading “The AUKUS ruckus”

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The Libra ingress 2021

Welcome to the balance pole of the zodiac, the Libra ingress of the Sun. From here the daylight hours get shorter in the north and longer in the south. It is also a time when life gets weighed in the balance. Are our hearts up to the task? Do we move forward with confidence or shrink from what may seem to be a dark future and seek refuge in the realm of fantasy? To have a heart lighter than a feather can be a challenge in these times, but in the end we are weighed as to our intentions and actions. More to the point, we are weighed as to our ability to show compassion and express love. And sometimes, love means taking a stand, for ourselves, for our communities and for the future good of all. This is what the West is facing now, and our future will depend upon the actions we take in these days in line with the decisions we make about how we want to live. Continue reading “The Libra ingress 2021”

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Iran at the crossroads

On 17 Sep 2021, the procedure was started for Iran to become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). This comes as the culmination of what will come to be known as one of the most terrible months in foreign policy for the Anglo West in recent memory. But first, one of my faves from Cream, which will give a hint to the purpose of this post:

Continue reading “Iran at the crossroads”

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The 2021 Kabul airport bombings and what comes next

The world was gripped by the recent bombings at the Kabul international airport, coming amidst the evacuations of many thousands of foreign nationals and Afghanis seeking to leave Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover. The airport was jammed with people trying to leave. It was a situation that was a security nightmare, with a government not yet formed, panic among the people seeking to leave and warnings of an imminent attack just hours before the event. At latest count, over 182 people were killed with at least 150 injured. Many questions have been raised and as yet are unanswered. But this event will change the face of Afghanistan. And as an effort to possibly sow wider chaos in that country, it has already backfired. But another specter has raised its head, one that is all too familiar for us now. Continue reading “The 2021 Kabul airport bombings and what comes next”

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The Saigon moment v 2.0

Def: Epic fail – Slang: a spectacularly embarrassing or humorous mistake, humiliating situation, etc., that is subject to ridicule and given a greatly exaggerated importance.

The entire world is now riveted on the news coming out of Afghanistan. The Taliban, in a few short weeks, have taken over all but the whole of the country after a 20-year occupation by American and NATO forces. Fingers are pointing everywhere: How could this have happened? Who is to blame for this disaster? How could we abandon Afghanistan like this? If we had just waited a few more weeks Afghanistan could have been saved…and so on. Some commenters are calling this Biden’s ‘Saigon moment’, and people are wringing their hands about the plight of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. What is the truth, why has this happened and what does the astrology of Afghanistan say? Read on to find out… Continue reading “The Saigon moment v 2.0”

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After the Saigon moment v 2.0, what now?

Now that the dust is beginning to settle a little after these historic few days in Afghanistan, we begin this post paraphrasing the immortal words of Roger Daltrey: “Meet the new boss. He’s not the same as the old boss.” Western media is in full flight at the moment with disaster porn, frightening pictures of people falling from airplanes as they try to flee Afghanistan, sensational pictures of mobs scrambling to get on those planes, claims of people fearing for their lives under the Taliban, and on and on. To hear the media tell it, Afghanistan is facing dystopia and regression into a new Dark Ages. What is the truth on the ground there now, though? We’ll explore that here in this second part along with the astrology of the event. But we can be sure that recriminations will resound in the NATO halls of power for years to come over what was clearly an epic fail in intelligence, among other epic fails. Continue reading “After the Saigon moment v 2.0, what now?”

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The 2021 riots and looting in South Africa

An uneasy calm now exists in South Africa since earlier this month after having seen the worst violence since apartheid. The violence and looting followed upon the jailing of the President Jacob Zuma, who was sentenced to 15 months in jail for contempt of court on 29 June this year. That was after he refused to appear before a commission investigating corruption during his nine years in office. He handed himself over to police on 7 July. His arrest led to protests, violence and looting in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng and consequently spread to Gauteng province. Zuma was a controversial figure to say the least. But that is not what concerns us here. What led to the protests and why, and what is it about South Africa that would lead to such large riots? We’ll have a look at those matters here and South Africa’s astrology. Continue reading “The 2021 riots and looting in South Africa”

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Bolton’s Thanksgiving wish

Insanity: Def – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

The ‘Stache is up to his old tricks again. This time he wants a Thanksgiving turkey, as in regime change in Turkey. John Bolton, America’s favorite neocon, has decided Turkey doesn’t have enough democracy, so he has put together a little project to help Erdoğan see the errors of his ways and play nice with NATO. There is the Middle East to subdue, more mercenaries to train and well, NATO has to be united and strong to be able to go up against China and Russia. Oh, and let’s not forget Iran. Turkey must be on board, like fully on board. But The Sultan has other plans, it seems. To help things along, then, we have the latest in regime change projects: The Turkish Democracy Project. We can be certain the Turks will be most appreciative for ‘Big Mo’ Bolton’s help. Continue reading “Bolton’s Thanksgiving wish”