The Tiger is about to bear it's fangs.Sunday, in case you missed it, was The Aquarian New Moon. It's the first new moon of the chinese new year, which means that it's officially the "Chinese New Year." Back in 1998, I was part of the great dragon in the San Francisco, China Town, New Year's Parade. I think I was part of the alimentary canal. It was great fun. The dragon is organized by one of the Kung Fu schools in Chinatown and I knew one of the instructors there. We all got together back at the YMCA in Chinatown afterwards and feasted on great Chinese food and ice cold Tsing Taos. It was a great memory and I was really struck by the power of the community which was mostly Asian, and how they embraced non-Asians with equal, open arms. I felt a lot better about humanity after I emerged from the belly of that paper-mache beast.
But that's not what's happening with The US and Japan in what is rapidly decaying into the first open conflict of corporate warfare of the 21st Century. To understand what's taking place, we have to zoom out again to get the 50,000 foot view.
We're dealing with Pluto in Capricorn. This is the rise of the coporatocracy and I have banged out against it over the space of this blog from it's inception. Everything that manifests now in third dimensional reality either reflects it's expansion and influence or defines itself against it.
On the mundane level, we have the thoroughly controlled, supposedly grassroots, Tea Party rising up and shaking it's collective, weathered and vain popping fist at the establishment. The Tea Party is the echo of the past, a reanimation of this country's roots, when the so-called American Revolution was set into motion. Remember, Pluto was in Capricorn during those revolutionary times and as such, it was in opposition of The US Cancer Stellium (Sun, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter). So we're seeing the ghost dance of liberty being awkwardly staged across our lives as paid and played figureheads like Sarah Palin and Joe Farah are quickly escorted into positions of leadership, all there to control and stage manage the rage. Gate keepers. Bad shepherds.
But the American mind-set has been so entrained in Hegellian dialectic (problem/reaction/solution), they are ready pounce, frothing, mouth foaming as the Pavlovian ring of the Tea Party bell is sounded. Tea baggers don't question who or why certain people are there, steam pressed, wrinkle free and ready to lead them in cheers that ring hollow and yet advance agendas at light speed.
Palin gets in her "gosh," "gollies," and "geeze" then tells the crowd that they aren't going to take the terrorists shit anymore and that we'll wipe them out at every turn, including Iran. That's why she's there. If you are a tea bagger and you happen to stumble upon this site, rid yourself of any notion that Glen Beck, Sarah Plain or Joe Farrah has your backs (they'll quickly have what's left of your bucks though). But back to the corporate wars of Pluto In Capricorn.
At the beginning of last year, The US government was buying companies like my kid was buying Monopoly properties the other night. In case you missed it, they "saved" GM. But did they really save GM and to what end did they make such a magnanimous gesture?
Steve Rattner was appointed Obama's Auto Czar. First off the whole "Czar" thing, which basically started with conservative darling, Bill Bennet being appointed as "The Drug Czar" is borderline illegal. These are not elected posts and don't even have a formal title like "Attorney General" or "Secretary Of The Treasury." These are semi-official titles for departments that don't exist, Czars emerge from the private sector and act swiftly and decisively when it comes to enacting some form of policy, often without the same oversight or vetting some other positions might actually incur.
Rattner came out of the private sector where he worked for Quadrangle, an equity fund, read hedge fund, read highly capitalized gang of marauders that throw their financial weight around to influence and dominate markets. So Rattner comes into the early stages of the Obama admin, when he essentially nails patsy CEO Rick Waggoner to the wall, forces him to step down and then orchestrates the government purchase of GM/Chrysler. Almost as soon as he does his dirty work, he resigns and then floats back into the private sector, crossing that moving, Maginot Line which is supposed to demarcate the private form the public sector. Once Rattner was paid for his hit, he was gone, scurrying back into "private life" with a
little pension scandal looming over his head.
While being in the car business shouldn't be a front-line assembly for a government "By The People, For The People," one of the reasons that The Gov got into the purchase of Chrysler/GM was, according to Greg Palast,
to have access to their pension funds, which of course could be tapped to help out their pals at Morgan and CTI who were the main lien holders on the GM/Chrysler debt. Pensions are something that Steve Rattner seems to specialize in. Then there's the whole Eliiot Sptizer saga, which, while on the surface looks simply like a bad indiscretion and stupid move on his part, he had The New York pension issue squarely in his crosshairs. Again, Greg Palast delves into the Spitzer case and comes up with the fact that Spitzer was getting ready to pounce on Bernanke, and of course the NYC pension fund, which became a showdown item between him and Andrew Cuomo.
Eliot Spitzer was crucified on the altar of infidelity, while Steve Rattner skulks back and forth Wall Street and K Street without impunity.
So where does that leave us now, as a corporation, I mean a country that is in the auto-business? Well we have to take care of our product, don't we? Build a better, more efficient and affordable car than anyone else? Isn't that the American way? Not in the 21st century. Nope, the new business model is to use the iron hand of the government to slander and then enforce recalls, thus wrecking a long standing brand, essentially your competitor and one of the main sources of income from a foreign country. I'm talking about what's happening with Toyota.
This battle is just getting started. It's full on corporate warfare, only one of the corporations is also wearing a badge with 50 stars on it. The US and GM/Chrysler have gone full contact against Japan/Toyota. First it started with the sticking accelerator. Now it's other issues. Obama has actually stepped in and forced recalls on all Toyotas. The President of Toyota has refused to go before congress. Now Honda is being dragged into the fray as well. What the hell is going on here?
Well both companies are direct competitors to Chrysler/GM and the production of the their troubled Chevy "Volt" line, a car that was designed to compete head on with Prius and The Accord hybrids. I'm not the only one thinking along
these lines. Would it be too far fetched to have introduced glitches in the products at the assembly line level? Could a glitch in a chip been programmed to throw a monkey wrench in Toyota's generally solid and bullet proof reputation? What's to be gained here?
Getting back to the theme of the "Year Of The Tiger." the
"Metal Tiger" at that, it's creating a deeper socio-economic conflict between The US and Japan. Obama is already pissing off China by meeting with The Dalai Lama. Now The Chinese are selling US Treasury bonds. It's East vs. West. Next to be drawn into this socially engineered, street-fight, will likely be Russia. So on one side, there will be Russia, China and Japan, forging an alliance, with The US. Israel and Europe on the other side. The Asian community, especially The Chinese, no matter how much communist gruel they've ingested over the years have built-in Mao inhibitors and that is culture, tradition and superstition. This is not a year for the type of timid display that the Chinese (and Japanese) are mostly noted for. The Metal Tiger is a badass. It rules cars, machinery, technology, currencies, metals and armaments. The Tiger is the equivalent of Aquarius in the western system and since The Chinese New Year broke in February (Aquarius) under an Aquarian New Moon, we're dealing with very cool, calculating and detached energies. Sentimentality will not play a huge role in the Chinese and Japanese mindset. The gloves will be off. Sides will be chosen and with cool detachment and reserve, The Chinese and The Japanese will do whatever it takes at some point to bring the circus tent down. Perhaps this is the cold light behind the illumination of shadow puppets moving across the screens of our minds. Perhaps the Chinese and the Japanese are being provoked, having sharp sticks being jagged at tigers in a cage. Maybe the whole idea is for them to dump all that bad paper they're sitting on and shove the whole damn thing right off the cliff it's tenuously hanging from. It's subversive as hell and of course the blame is always pointed elsewhere; "Look at what those heartless people just did!" Rarely do the real perps ever get nailed. Some other judas goat is there for the hanging. Speaking of Judas Goats . . . .
I've always had this sneaking suspicion that Judas was not the betrayer Christ spoke of. No, I always though that the real betrayer was "Paul" formerly "Saul Of Tarsus." It was Paul that took the teachings to the world and started the franchise of churchianity, expressly against the wishes of Yeshua/Emmanuel. That's another entry altogether.
So it really comes down to the big cardinal cross that will align itself in June, with Saturn in Virgo, Jupiter/Uranus in Aries, Pluto In Capricorn, Sun in Cancer. This is a very tricky time, especially with the Uranus/Jupiter Aries conjunction. What happens during late June in the skies will have a powerful effect on human affairs. The energies of conflict, nurturing, efficiency and critical thought will all be in play and I doubt that the Metal Tiger will likely be caged to the extent it is right now.
