April 13, 2006. The book sales at the Hanford branch of the Kings County Library was a record breaker. $3,055.00. Every book, CD, DVD, audiobook, and video was sold for $1.00. The Friends of the Library handled all of the sales. The library staff set up the tables and laid out the merchandise.

The VitaMix unit. Old model. Don't let the size fool you. This unit is as loud as an outboard motor and has a destructive capacity that has to be seen to be believed. If any of you saw one of their tv commericals decades ago, they showed someone dropping in a few wooden blocks into the mixer, turned it on for a few seconds and producing a nice, tidy pile of sawdust. Trust me when I say this unit is capable of such an act. I have not been to the company's Web site lately, but expect the price to be well over $300.00.

Don't Cry For Me, Argentina. From the Daily Reckoning:
The Daily Reckoning PRESENTS: Eva Peron was a favorite of the poor of
Argentina. She had a warm heart, it was said. But like that other great
champion of the masses, Che Guevara, Eva realized her greatest glories
after she was stone cold dead. Bill Bonner explores...

DON'T CRY FOR EVITA
by Bill Bonner

"One cannot accomplish anything without fanaticism."
- Eva Peron

One of the strangest of the world improvers to appear in the 20th
century
was the wife of Argentina's Juan Peron, Evita, as the "descamisados" -
or
'shirtless ones' called her.

We went to visit her grave on our recent trip there. It is in the
Recoleta
cemetery, a short walk from our apartment near the French Embassy.
There,
you will find a whole city of the dead, laid out in tiny houses of
marble
or granite, often with statues on the roof, sometimes with glass domes
and
elaborate carvings. Most of the mausoleums have glass doors. Some of
the
doors are even open. You can look in at the cobwebs and caskets.

People wander around, down one street, up another - often looking for a
family tomb, or if tourists, just looking. It is a huge place, with a
thousand stories, some of them chiseled in stone.

"Did your father die?" begins a Marx brothers' routine.

"We hope so," Groucho replies. "Because we buried him."

Here, it is no joke. One of the tombs tells the story of a poor girl
who
was entombed alive. Cemetery workers found her coffin ajar, and
realized
the mistake - but too late.

While most inscriptions tell us of the dead, some recount the stories
of
the living. One father was so grief stricken that he gave away all his
fortune and traveled the pampas begging.

"Here it is," Maria called out to us. After roaming the streets in the
ciudad de los muertos (city of the dead) for half an hour, she had
finally
found the corpse she was looking for, that of Eva Peron.

We had expected more: A fountain maybe, or a giant statue of the woman.
Maybe even crowds of poor people, crossing themselves, vowing revenge
on
the rich and plotting revolution. But the tomb is like any other, only
less attractive in many ways...plainer than you'd expect, just gray
granite with no particular style or flourish. All that sets it apart
from
those around it are the flowers - there were several bouquets - along
with
candles and a few notes. There were a few other people visiting the
monument, but they seemed no more interested in it than we were; they
were
just casually curious.

Eva Peron was a favorite of the poor of Argentina. She had a warm
heart,
it was said. But like that other great champion of the masses, Che
Guevara, Eva realized her greatest glories after she was stone cold
dead.
That was when the common people really took to her. For that she can
thank
her embalmer, a man who worked on her corpse like Rembrandt on canvas.
You
can check for yourself. Eva was pretty enough, but no great beauty,
even
when she was young, warm flesh.

Still, it seems she had something going for her. She got a tango singer
to
take her to Buenos Aires when she was only 15, and if she gave herself
to
him in exchange, as her upper class critics whispered, would that have
been so bad? After that, she managed to make something of a career for
herself and by 24 was already a popular radio actress. She did most of
her
real work in the bedroom, went the jealous rumors. All we know is that
she
must have had talents that don't show in a public photograph. She
managed
to get one colonel fall for her and then, at a charity event, she got
her
hands on another one, Juan Peron, and never let him go.

Juan Peron was then 48 years old. His first wife had died. He has spent
his career in the army and greatly admired the way Mussolini had
handled
Italy, some of which he had seen firsthand during officer training in
the
1930s. In 1943, when he met Eva, Peron wanted to do in Argentina what
Mussolini had been able to do in Italy - line up the support of the
working classes and take control of the government. But, he desperately
lacked one thing - the Duce's charisma and powerful personality.
According
to most biographers, Peron had no personality at all. On the other
hand,
he was a calculating, conniving kind of guy.

When he met Eva, he must have realized that she could supply what he
lacked. Here was a woman with the gumption to elbow her way through a
society crowd so she could sit down to dinner next to him...and then,
yes,
he hardly had to say a word...she was in his bedroom before his soup
got
cold. What a woman! And besides, she had the right credentials. She was
born poor, and even illegitimate. She had had to make her own way in
the
world - we won't dwell on the details - and now could stand before the
lumpen as one of their own. Publicly, she could be Evita...the Princess
Di
of Argentine fascism...the peoples' princess of the pampas. Privately,
she
was more than that - she was a tough and determined arriviste.

In 1945, Peron was arrested. While he wobbled and even considered going
into exile, Evita kept her nerve. She used the money she had embezzled
from an earthquake relief fund and went directly to the unions to rally
support, arguing that Peron was the man they needed in the Casa Rosada,
Buenos Aires' equivalent of the White House. By October of that year,
she
could field 200,000 demonstrators, and forced the authorities to back
down. A year later, she helped Peron win a landslide election victory;
he
was well on his way to realizing his ambition of being an Argentine
Mussolini. Later, after Il Duce - and his mistress - were strung up by
fickle followers, Peron would amend his ambition, saying that what he
really wanted was "a fascism that is careful to avoid all the errors of
Mussolini."

Evita burned hot, but she burned fast. By 1952 she was burned out and
burned up. She appeared at Juan Peron's side for his second
inauguration
in an open car, held up, like El Cid, by a plaster support under a long
fur coat. She was not yet dead then, but almost. Cancer had eaten away
at
her and the radiation with which doctors had burned her to try to kill
the
cancer. Between the doctors and the cancer, she was left with not much
time. She died seven weeks later, weighing only 80 pounds and only 33
years old, younger than Elvis, the two Kennedys, or Che...but older
than
Joan of Arc.

She may have died young, but she did not leave a good-looking corpse.
The
burnished beauty that hundreds of thousands of mourners admired,
sobbing
into white handkerchiefs...touching her coffin...even kissing it, were
not
those given to her by God. No they were the handiwork of the mysterious
Spaniard who embalmed her.

Doctor Ara was a bit of a miracle worker. Jesus Christ himself only
managed to change water into wine, but Dr. Ara all but resurrected
Eva's
worn-out corpse. He laid on the waxes, the paint, and the rouge with a
touch nearly divine, and somehow transformed the gutter girl into a
veritable saint.

If Evita was a humbug and a scalawag, it no longer showed. Bargain
basement when she started out, her price had skyrocketed with her
ascent
to power. By the time she flamed out, she was pure Tiffany's. Yet, this
was a woman who looted the "charitable" foundations that were meant to
serve the poor and who helped hundreds of Nazi war criminals escape to
the
pampas. Peron himself made 1,000 blank passports available to the
defeated
Germans after the war - again, it was for a price. You see, Eva and
Peron
were classic world improvers of the better sort - they could be bought.

On June 6, 1947, Evita began a triumphal tour of Europe. It was even
called a "Rainbow Tour," anticipating the great celebrity promenades
later
in the century. She visited heads of state. She visited Pope Pius XII.
She
visited her Swiss bank. She even made the cover of Time magazine. It
was
about that time that Argentina became a refuge for war criminals on the
lam. Thus, it was that Juan Peron won reelection in 1951 with money the
provenance of which no one was quite sure, but many thought came from
the
grateful Nazis.

The truth is, Argentina may be a hard place to govern, but for such as
they, it has always been a good place to disappear. Debtors, criminals,
and political refugees have always run off to the pampas; a few Nazis
could hardly make much difference one way or another. And the krauts
turned out to have their uses. Later, when the Argentine generals
needed
to "disappear" others, it is said they turned to squads of
professionals,
trained and originally organized by those who had disappeared
themselves
after World War II.

The Perons learned quickly that the masses could be manipulated with
vulgar demagoguery. Evita even gave away Christmas presents to the
poor,
and brought in poor orphans so they could be photographed with her,
before
they were tossed back onto the streets. But the masses needed to be
controlled, too, and that was the hard part. The collapse of commodity
prices in the '30s had made them restless and had initially led them to
support Peron. But Mussolini's economic meddling worked no better on
the
banks of the Rio Plata than it had on the banks of the Tiber. In 1949,
the
stock market collapsed and made the mobs restless again. The incomes of
the working class fell 30%. And this time, Juan Peron could not pose as
an
outsider. This time, he was in power; the plebs held him responsible.
At
first, Evita tried grander gestures to appease them, but then the lace
gloves came off. Troublemakers were arrested, and drawing on the
talents
and training of Argentina's new immigrants from the Third Reich, many
were
tortured.

And then, when Evita's corpse had finally cooled and Juan was thrown
out
of the Casa Rosada, it was Evita herself who disappeared. The generals
were afraid her dust might provide a rallying point for the mobs, so
they
shipped her casket to Germany, then to Italy, and didn't return it to
Juan
until 16 years later. By then, he was living in Madrid and had
remarried.
His new wife, Isabel, was ambitious, too. When Evita's coffin was put
in
the living room, Isabel lay on top of it (some say she lay down inside
of
it) to draw power from the dried-up corpse.

And what happened to Evita's Swiss bank account? That disappeared, too.
After her death, Juan Duarte, her brother, who had rushed to
Switzerland,
died suddenly and mysteriously on his return in his apartment in Buenos
Aires. Authorities were never able to figure out whether it was murder
or
suicide, but either way, the money never turned up.

Epilogue: Juan Peron and his new wife returned to Argentina and retook
power in 1973. But the poor man died the following year, leaving
Isabel,
his vice president, to run the country. Naturally, she ran it into the
ground and was overthrown by the army in 1976.

Bill Bonner
The Daily Reckoning

From today's issue of the Daily Reckoning:


Yesterday, driving back from a horse show in Bath, we stopped for gas.
Britain has gone metric in order to stay in harmony with her European
trading partners, but she still lists distances in miles. Gasoline is
measured out in liters, just as it is in France, but it is priced in
pounds.

The price for a liter of diesel fuel was 99.9 pounds. If we did the
math
right, this is equivalent to about $6.50 per gallon.

By comparison, we read today that the average price per gallon in
America
is $2.92. Gasoline is so cheap in the U.S. that Canadians are flocking
across the border to fill up their tanks.

If the British are confused about how their gas is priced, the Yanks
are
certain they know where it should be - at rock bottom. The U.S. economy
is
set up for much cheaper gasoline. People have organized their lives and
habits around the expectation of cheap fuel and cheap credit. They're
understandably disappointed to see prices rise.
But now, prices are rising; the dollar is falling; inflation is
increasing. And we begin to see how the great Credit Bubble Boat ends,
don't we? It runs into the iceberg of inflation.

It seems obvious.

College tuition, health care, commodities - all seem to be going up
quickly. Last week brought news that even salaries are going up. Pay
levels are said to be 3.8% above those of a year ago, despite very
sluggish job growth. Why would salaries go up when there is no apparent
pressure to recruit new employees or hold onto old ones? The answer is
simple: salaries are responding to inflation, not to job market. And on
Friday, even stocks went up. The Dow rose 138 points. Are business
conditions suddenly much better? No? Maybe it is just inflation.

Way up high, in the staterooms and luxury suites of this Titanic, the
price increases are even more dramatic. One painting by Picasso sold
for
$95 million. Another sold for $34 million and still another sold for
$18
million. That's a lot of money to pay for crude paintings of people
with
their noses in the wrong place.

But now, some fellow in China has figured out how to create his own
gimmick. He's picked up the advertising cartoon, Joe Camel, and turned
him
into an art-world icon. Look, he explains, this modern art is simple;
anyone can do it. In fact, you don't even have to do it yourself. He
pays
others to do the actual work. He just comes up with the idea.

You'd think the art world would be annoyed at the chutzpah; the Chinese
hustler is clearly pulling someone's leg. But it doesn't seem to
matter.
Aficionados are either too dumb to notice or too rich to care. They're
buying up the paintings of Joe Camel and hoping to score as big a coup
as
people who bought Picassos.

While prices rise, the dollar falls. Against yen, it dropped to a
seven-month low on Friday. Against the euro, it fell again, last week -
to
$1.27 per euro. And against gold, the dollar plummeted. June contracts
for
gold sold over $684 on Friday. Overall, the dollar has lost 4.5% of its
value in the last three weeks.

There is no question that prices are increasing. Nor is there doubt as
to
why. Central banks are desperate to keep up with the expanding supply
of
dollars. Remember, they can control either the quantity of their
currencies, or the quality of it, not both at the same time. As the
United
States emits billions and billions more dollars, the foreign central
banks
have to produce more of their own currencies. Otherwise, the falling
quality of the U.S. dollar will make the foreign currencies go up in
price. This will put their export industries at a disadvantage.

All over the world, central banks are favoring quantity over quality.
They
are inflating their currencies. Consumer price inflation is sure to
follow.

There might be more to the story. Yes, all central banks favor
inflation.
And yes, Americans would vote for inflation, if they could; they are
deep
in debt and would welcome inflation as a way out.

But for every debtor, there's a creditor. And for every fool who
borrowed
money to buy something he couldn't afford and didn't need, there's a
lender who lent to someone who might not be able to pay him back. The
big
question is: who will turn out to be dumber - the lenders or the
borrowers? We don't know the answer, but we suspect there is enough
dumbness to go around. When the ship goes down, there will be plenty of
losses for everyone.

John Hogue is an expert on Nostradamus and written more than a few books on the man and the topic of predictions. He will be George Noory's guest on tonight's Coast to Coast AM Show. Unlike some of the guests who do predictions on the show, he is not a psychic, nor is he a remote viewer. He does not receive visions and he is not visited in the dead of night by aliens. His predictions come from hard research or, if you prefer, scholarly studies. Below is something pulled off of his Web site. It is quite lengthy.

Hogue Prophecy Bulletin
..... (31 December 2005)

PREDICTIONS
FOR 2006
AND BEYOND

Friends,
A clear sense of the spirit defining a decade often manifests in its latter half. The 1960s didn't fully achieve their tumultuous quintessence of free love, pop music revolution, hippies, psychotropic drugs, eastern gurus, civil rights protests nor gain the full measure of its tone of social experimentation and upheaval until after 1965. Forty years later the "00" decade has taken its time revving up to its place in history. It will come out of the gates in 2006 defining itself as the "uh-oh!" decade.

Uh-Oh! Global crisis. Here it comes.

William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book The Fourth Turning propose a theory that modern history, just like nature, passes through cycles of seasons--what they call generational "turnings"--lasting around 20 years each. The cycle repeats itself or undergoes a crisis era, a "fourth turning," every 80 years or so.

I highly recommend this book and it's detailed theory how history, like nature, has its repetitive seasons. In brief summary, let's look back at the last cycle in American history. The previous Fourth Turning came during the late 1920s with the Stock Market Crash and a decade long global depression. The latter perpetuated a climate of chaos and economic disasters that aided the rise of Fascism, the attack on Pearl Harbor and eventually climaxed with America entering and ultimately winning Second World War.

Rallying to the crisis gave birth to a new 80 year cycle in what Strauss and Howe call The First Turning: the American High (1946-1964). It was an era marked by America's confident expansion as the leader and pioneer of a new world order in all forms of art, technology economics and politics.

The Second Turning (1964-1984) was defined by the authors as "an Awakening, a time of spiritual exploration and rebellion against the now-established order." Interest in alternative medicine, Eastern religions, and rebellion against the government (Vietnam, Watergate, etc.) erupted during this time.

The Third Tuning from 1984 through 2005 is called the Unraveling. It is marked by growing malaise in the people, the spread of government incompetence, and a deepening division of the nation in cultural wars between liberal and conservative, evangelicals and secularists. Strauss and Howe describe it as "an increasingly trouble era in which individualism [I would add selfish-ism, or the meanness of me-ness] triumphs over crumbling institutions."

New Year's Day 2006 brings us to the Fourth Turning--a new twenty-year era of crisis and calls for renewal lasting to the mid-2020s.

Strauss and Howe, in 1997, introduced a set of scenarios extrapolated from their understanding of Unraveling-era trends for the dawn of the current Fourth Turning. I present some of them in a much abbreviated form below:

*

1.) Fiscal crisis, tax rebellions and demands for a new Constitutional Convention.
2.) A global terrorist group blows up an aircraft and says they possess weapons of mass destruction.
3.) The US launches a preemptive strike. Terrorists threaten to blow up an American city.
4.) War is declared and in the name of homeland security many personal freedoms of Americans are threatened. Many opponents charge, and I quote, "That the president concocted the emergency for political purposes."
5.) Whether rumor or fact, this accusation leads to a nation wide strike and foreign capital flees the US.
6.) An economic and constitutional crisis ensues. The president declares emergency powers rescinded by Congress.
7.) A new communicable virus spreads adding to the anarchy and lawlessness across the nation.
8.) The people demand the president declare martial law. Meanwhile, anarchy in former Soviet republics leads to a crisis between the US and Russia. Iran allies itself with Russia. "Gold and oil prices soar. Congress debates restoring the draft."

*

Some of this may sound familiar. Some of it has already happened, although not exactly in the same sequence described by their forecast eight years before.

The current Bush administration has attempted tax reform with mixed and politically partisan results. The global terrorist group, al-Qaeda exploded planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Al-Qaeda sought weapons of mass destruction, so far without success. America did launch a preemptive war against Iraq on the suspicion that its strong man, Saddam Hussein, did possess an arsenal and was about to use it on the US. The threat of a mushroom cloud destroying an American city didn't come from a terrorist, but from those in the G.W. Bush administration arguing for a rush to war.

The US Patriot Act used to flush out terrorist cells inside the country has many Americans concerned that their privacy and freedoms are being sacrificed. The year 2005 ends with yet another new scandal besetting the US president over charges of an illegal use of wire taps. Conspiracy theories thrive in an atmosphere of growing suspicion and doubt. A wild belief gathers strength even among the mainstream Americans that the president and the neo-Con movement exploited 9/11 and went to war in Iraq to advance their global, political agendas.

The US economy though slowing down in growth still ranks as the most powerful on earth, yet there are worrying signs that a reckoning is coming. Wealth is increasing for the economy at a record rate, but fewer Americans are sharing in the bounty. The middle class shrinks. CEOs undermine its future by out-sourcing jobs. The symptoms of The Unraveling are in full swing in the first five years of the new century. The president and congress seem unable to solve problems. They squander the public fund throwing money by the hundreds of billions on a string of failures such as nation building abroad in occupied Iraq. At home, FEMA is a pathetic nation rebuilder in places like New Orleans and the Mississippi coastline ravaged by Hurricanes Katrina, and Rita.

There is a new virus on the horizon, as Strauss and Howe predicted. But Avian Flu, fortunately, has not spread its contagion to humans just yet. Nevertheless, their scenario about Russia and former states of the Soviet Union falling into anarchy has not happened. Iran has not sent an economic earthquake through the global oil economy by allying to Russia.

Not yet at least, though 2006 may see Iran send a similar shock through the oil marketsbecause of a new conflict in the Middle East.

We hear more calls for constitutional reform, new amendments to the Bill of Rights, election reform, etc., but a full blown constitutional crisis still seems like a distant nightmare for most. Back in the 1970s, the late Chicago psychic, Irene Hughes, predicted a new Constitution for America as late as the mid-2020s. I doubt Strauss and Howe are aware of her prediction but it coincides with their forecasted end of the current Fourth Turning in 2025.

Draft and rumors of military draft abound though. I do not see it happening in 2006.

Now let's move forward from the extrapolation of futurologists to the realm of divination.

Though I agree with most of the work of Strauss and Howe, my territory of prophetic study also includes more paranormal "research" into the shapes of things to come in 2006 and beyond.

The two gentlemen like to call this "00" decade the "Oh-Oh" decade. I would augment this term slightly and define our times as the "Uh-Oh!" decade from 2005 onwards. The first five years of "00" saw us pass through the phase of "Oh" look at this, "Oh" look at that potential danger lurking on the future's horizon. One can draw parallels to future gazers in the 1920s who had foreboding "Oh-Ohs!" of their own, such as signs on the horizon of economic crisis, Fascism, Japanese Imperial expansion and the rise of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

Think of times like 1936 when you look at the future of 2006. The danger of world crisis and war was clear to those not in denial of it. Perhaps times in 2006 will be more than foreboding. With the new year, and by the end of March, we start the rapid descent into crises that no longer loom on the horizon but beset us.

The Oh! Oh! decade now becomes "Uh Oh!" The danger is no longer far away. It has arrived. So has the time to positively rally in response to crisis.


THE PREDICTIONS FOR 2006

Let us begin from the earth and the seas. The prediction I published back in 1998 was on the mark when it came to New Orleans:

"The destruction of a major southern US metropolitan area, such as Miami or New Orleans, by a global warming enhanced superhurricane will take place in one of the first five hurricane seasons of the new millennium."

1000 for 2000: Startling Predictions for the New Millennium, p. 16


Four months have passed since Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans and the Mississippi coast. Except for the French Quarter and the Garden District most of New Orleans at night is an unlit and fetid ghost town. It is now expected that by next Mardi Gras celebration less than a third of the half-million former citizens will be living in "the Big Easy."

Many in the news and mainstream leadership of America openly question whether New Orleans will ever recover from the damage. Luckily my prophecy had suffered a near miss for Miami. It survived the unexpectedly strong visitation of Hurricane Wilma at the end of the 2005 Hurricane season, even though the damage across Northern Miami and the central east coast of Florida was extensive. Much of it lies unrepaired.

This is only the end of the beginning.

I wasn't implying in my 1998 prediction that what could destroy New Orleans or Miami was some random disaster. It marks the beginning of an annual ordeal with hurricane disasters lasting for decades. As far back as 1994, in The Millennium Book of Prophecy I warned that hurricanes, tornadoes, warmer and rising oceans can take down the American superpower. Terrorists are not the primary danger to the homeland security of this nation.

Global warming can be controlled and America will survive as a great nation if it leads the way in a campaign to reduce fossil fuel emissions from 2006 through 2030 by 60 percent.

However, I predict Americans will not rise to the occasion just yet. More frequent thrashings from the real King of Terror--Hurricanes hyper charged by global warming--may be necessary.

I predict there will be threats to Miami, what's left of New Orleans and other southeastern cities along the US coast at least once or twice ever year for the next 30 years. The current president will continue to shirk the challenge to stop auto and industrial pollution's part in exacerbating the coming era of tropical storms. It will be left to the next president elected in 2008 to begin the long a arduous process that could fulfill a prophecy I logged in 1998:

"The leveling of a major U.S. city by globally warmed storms will galvanize the American people to bring their resources together to fight global warming, as Americans fifty years earlier united to fight Hitler and Japan during World War II."

1000 for 2000: Startling Predictions for the New Millennium, p. 18


What of America's economic future in 2006?

Ben Bernanke--Alan Greenspan's successor as Chairman of the Federal Reserve--will become the great Inflator. Be warned. This is the man who said, "The US government has a technology, called a printing press--or, today, its electronic equivalent--that allows it to produce as many US dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost."

The Bush administration that throws money at problems today will print more money--made more worthless--to throw at problems in 2006 when their representative at the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) becomes the successor to the Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan.

America will become an even greater Debtor nation under Bernanke's watch. His four-year tenure will see the US dollar end its domination as the world's premier reserve currency. Russia, China, and Japan will sell off their dollar reserves at a record breaking pace. As early as sometime in the next presidential term, the US "top" dollar might descend to third as a secure global currency.

Now to something a little birdie told me...

Strains of Avian Flu will be discovered in American poultry in 2006. The press will make a huge Donald-duckian freak out about it. Perhaps the White House will fuss and feather it too as a means to inject more fear and distraction from the coming scandals and wars.

Don't be taken in by any of it, unless you run cock fights or don't properly protect yourself as a laborer in the poultry business.

The mutation of Bird Flu into a form spread by human to human contact is not coming for 2006.

There are signs that a successful use of prophecy as an agent of prevention greatly modifies the effects of the Avian Flu when it comes. We have already seen the apocalyptic warnings of seers goad mainstream science and technology to prevent the potential of a computer Millennium Bug shutting down the cyber and electrical grid of the world in 2000.

Bird Flu as a pandemic is coming. However, my "oracle" is happy to report that by the time it arrives in the human sneeze closest to you (no sooner than 2008) the ability may exist to vaccinate all of Europe and North America against it. The longer the Bird Flu delays fluttering down into human kind, the better will be the chances that developing nations will also avert its worst effects. There could come in time a new vaccine regimen that will make a shot of bird flu anti-virus serum one cell at a time, rather than one cumbersome egg at a time in inadequate numbers stored in vast warehouses.

From birds we look to the stars and seek to understand the defining astrological force influencing the new year 2006.

Saturn began its transit of the constellation Leo back in July 2005. The new year will see this symbol of the Grim Reaper for some, the Reality-revealer to others, exert greater effect primarily on the Cancerian born country and president of America.

Saturn will pass through Leo in a square aspect with Jupiter in Scorpio. Scorpio is the sign calculated as the ascendant in many versions of the United States birth chart.* It will be a time to question, to rise up, a time for those seeking wisdom to rebel against rigid dogma, be it political or religiously inclined.

*For a good overview of all the versions
of the US Birth Chart, Click HERE)


Staying the course on any dysfunctional path will lead to harsh karmic realities and crises for the country and its leaders in 2006.

What I said about the latter-half of 2005, in my last New Year prophecy report will be magnified this year. It will not be a time to hold onto old and habitual ways and resist adapting new ideas to meet the challenges of a new era. A leader or people not heeding Saturn's transit through the next 23 degrees of Leo will face the coming challenges looking backwards. They will become more bellicose rather than diplomatic, more self-righteous and dismissive when criticized. They will seek to end wars in 2006 only to widen them because they will be stubbornly blind to their part, their unconscious contribution, to the problems of the world. They will be closed when they should be open, wax dictatorial when they ought to conciliate.

They will ignore the frustration of the people. They will beat and tear-gas the protesters in the streets. Saturn in Leo dispenses a reality that all Americans must now face and creatively transform: We are a very angry nation that has elected into power a very angry administration. What travails will we face before this anger in nation and leader alike can become true compassion?

There's more time left in G.W. Bush's presidency than JFK had in his entire term. That's a long time in such a fast-paced era as ours. Many TV commentators at the end to 2005, predicted the president had more than enough time to improve his political lot.

I predict he has more time to make his presidency a catastrophe.

I said it before he won the disputed election in Florida 2000 and I still say it. Bush is a disaster in the making for America and the world at large. I hope I'm wrong, because I used to be a Republican. Call me prejudiced perhaps (many do) but let me document the following prediction:

There is no good future for America as long as it remains under the political swindle of the Dumbopublican-Donkeycrat two-party system.

But I digress into hot Saturn-in-Leontine linguistics. The tone of the times to come in 2006 are hot with passion. If words of fire burn to purify illusions then let them erupt and cinder.

The fire of Saturn in Leo burns deep to expose political scandals and there will be many.

The Enron trial is on for 2006 and the trial to seek justice and revenge will reach all the way to the White House.

What of Valery Palme and Spy-Gate? Many of you write asking me if the scandal will go away.

I wonder if this scandal "can" go away for the very reasons many of you voiced. It keeps reflecting on the greater scandal, the baseless decision to go to war in Iraq.

The only thing that can save President Bush and his chief political adviser and brain trust, Carl Rove, from an impeachment crisis in 2006 would be a perception of success in Iraq. In the first few months of this year, White House spin will twirl fast and hard to present an Iraqi political process and Iraqification of its security forces making a great leap forward. The White House will play up the promise to send the first sizable numbers of US troops home.

No spin can save a stubborn illusion with time. I have always said from the beginning of the US occupation of Iraq that the Sunni insurgency is a minor prelude to the real disaster coming: the break up of Iraq into a civil war.

It will either happen in 2006 while we're there in full force building permanent bases outside Iraqi population centers; or, it will happen "after" the bases are finished and occupied by a smaller US garrison in Iraq.

In short, we are not leaving and we will be in the middle of a civil war.

When that civil war erupts, and US forces have to re-invade Iraq, then the shadow of the Palme scandal might loom again over the Bush administration's future. Look to this happening between late March to Summer 2006 or at the end of 2006.

There will be calls for impeachment in 2006, but they will have no political bite unless the Republican Party should lose its majority in the House and Senate to those who can only pull things down and not offer an intelligent alternative to Bush's failed policies.

Impeachment of the president is a danger waiting after 2006 ends.

Then perhaps we will see if the cryptic final line of the two "Dubiya" prophecies of Nostradamus hints to the cause:

As stated in my earlier bulletin, THE "W" PROPHECY (21 January 2005), Century 6, Quatrain 13 of Nostradamus' prophetic masterpiece from the 1550s may have identified President Bush by his nickname, "Dubiya":

Vn dubieux ne viendra loing du regne,
La plus grand part le voudra soustenir:
Vn Capitole ne voundra point qu'il regne,
Sa grande change ne pourra maintenir.

A doubtful (dubious) one will not come far from the realm,
The greater part will want to support him:
A Capitol, will not want him to rule at all,
His great burden he will not be able to maintain.

If "dubieux" stands for "Dubiya" then President Bush's remaining years in the White House will see his slight majority (the greater part) won in the second term evaporate because he'll make more "dubious" domestic, economic and foreign policy decisions. Those of the Capitol are the Congress--both houses will not want him to remain. This might imply the Democrats will take back the House and Senate in the 2006 elections. It could mean the President's own party will rebel against him. In either case, Bush's will not see his ambitions fulfilled in his remaining years in office. The president and his congress could be deadlocked in a constitutional crisis--one side calling for impeachment, the other saying, "Over my dead body."

Saturn in Leo will see him try to achieve is goals, no matter what cautions cry. And in doing what he thinks is good, he will make things worse, in the Middle East, in Korea, in the American economy and in the domestic life of his people. In 2006, he will inject appointees into the Supreme Court a politicized, intolerant interpretation of the Constitution that will lead to an era of constitutional crisis in America for 20 years.

Nostradamus may resume the prophecy in Century 6 Quatrain 95 hinting why those of the "Capitol" do not want him to finish his second term. It reads:

Par detracteur calumnié à puis nay.
Quand istront faicts enormes & martiaux:
La moindre part dubieuse à l'aisnay,
Et tost au regne seront faicts partiaux.

By the detractor calumny (lodged) against the younger born.
When enormous and warlike deeds will go on:
The least part doubtful for the elder one,
And soon in the kingdom there will be patrician deeds.

G. W. Bush is the "younger born," the successor to his father, the 41st president G. H. W. Bush. The son will endure many more vicious political attacks. He waged a great war against terrorism, with shock and awe he invades and occupies Iraqi. He has an Axis of Evil to destroy and time is running out. Perhaps Iran is next in 2006, then North Korea later?

As I said in my earlier bulletins, history already views the father, the "elder" Bush, as an accomplished unilateralist better able to establish and sustain military and economic alliances. The younger Bush is a unilateralist who in four short years has abandoned treaties and isolated the US from its allies and friends more thoroughly than any modern US president in history. Does this dubious accomplishment earn an outcry for impeachment? The clue is hidden in divining Nostradamus' meaning for "Patrician" in the final line:

...And soon in the kingdom there will be patrician deeds.

The word "partiaux" is a classic Nostradamian double-entendre for the old French "partial"--partisan, but it also means "patrician." A number of you have pointed out in your emails that the Irish name, "Patrick" is derived from the Latin "Patrician."

The special prosecutor investigating the Valery Palme case is "Patrick" Fitzgerald.

Perhaps the Palme case is Bush's Watergate scandal. It may take years before the full weight of investigation and the cover-up of evidence leads, like Nixon, to another president forced to leave office before the end of his term. If the Palme case is Bush's Watergate then we are at the beginning of the fall. The years 2005-2006 are more like 1972-1973 and the hammer of impeachment may not come down on the president until 2007 or 2008.

In the mid-term elections of 2006, we will see the clearest indications yet that the American people are tired of being victims of ideologues of the Left and the Right. You will hear them clamor for a third party, a rebellion of the independent voter. Arguments about the usual themes of our times will continue in the political debate of 2006: the future of the economy and the future of war in Iraq, etc. Add to this a spirited and politically partisan debate about global warming and what to do about it as a nation. The Left will be spineless. They will not promote the draconian measures needed to curtail our fossil fuel use. The Right, especially the religious right, will remain in denial of global warming. The Middle East has its "Islamists." We have our "Christianists" in powerful places. They believe the world is soon going to end in Judgment Day anyway so why not exploit its resources to abandon when the world is preordained to die? The year 2006 will expose more Americans to this insane and cultish stance held by powerful business and political leaders.

Frustration at the polls in November 2006 will give birth in two more years to the next great call for a third political party. It will be an "American" party, whose platform will include finding common ground across the entire American spectrum of political issues. They will promise to work through consensus--not through division--to solve a set of national and economic crises left in the wake of eight years of the Bush Administration.

Now to the Middle East in 2006.

The trial of Saddam Hussein in Iraq "has" become a show trial as I predicted. The former dictator in 2006 will successfully promote a myth of defiance that radical Arab movements will admire for decades to come.

In November 2004, I had predicted that if Bush became president America would be in a major Middle Eastern war with Iraq half way through his first term. I said Saddam would soon fall in the invasion, but the US occupation would become a second Vietnam.

Commenting on that prophecy a year ago in December 2004 in the HogueProphecy Bulletin SATURN'S PRESIDENT (21 December 2004), I documented the following observation that is even more pertinent for the year 2006:

"One aspect of my prophecy of four years ago [November 2000] is right on schedule: The war and occupation of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship 'have' destabilized the Middle East. It would seem Nostradamus' 27-year war of the Third Antichrist has indeed begun. The timing of Saddam's quick fall and quick lynching soon next year gives his dark destiny one last claim to be the 'first to fall' in Nostradamus' Third Antichrist prophecies.

"Consider how the near future could worsen, by design or by chance when Saddam dies. His execution will come in 2005 or 2006 at the latest, just when the US military occupation of Iraq is most likely to collapse and a three-way civil war erupts between Kurds, Sunni and Shia Iraqis. The Middle East begins to sink into a widening chaos. Shortly after Saddam's execution, American forces in Iraq find themselves flanked by terrorists undermining the Saudi Arabian rulers to the West. To the East, Shia dominated Iran, a burgeoning nuclear power, openly finances and arms Shia Iraqis in their fight against Sunnis, Kurds and American occupying troops. In the year that Saddam is executed, or shortly afterwards, tensions between the US and Iran lead to a US-Israeli air strike of Iranian command centers, missile and air bases and nuclear weapon manufacturing sites. Iran pumps thousands of troops and irregulars into Afghanistan and Iraq to fight Americans there. Iranian Shahab and Fateh missiles rain down on US bases around the Persian Gulf, in Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait. They fall on the Green Zone in Baghdad. They fall on Israel--a nuclear power with approximately 200 to 400 atomic warheads. When Saddam falls forever, and the war widens, will dreams of Israeli and Palestinian peace be dead? Will Israel strike Iran with her own weapons of mass destruction?

"If all these escalations should transpire and consume the entire Middle Eastern region, the land of biblical Armageddon, in the year or shortly after the year of Saddam Hussein's execution, what then can Nostradamus watchers conclude about the timing?

"Would Saddam Hussein yet become 'Mabus' [the Third Antichrist] the 'first to fall' from which 'shortly after' comes a 'terrible destruction of people and animals' across the Middle East? Was this what Nostradamus saw?"

The year 2006 will find Saddam making the most out of being a false martyr. The name "Saddam" in Arabic means "the one who confronts." Saturn in Leo is Saddam's time. He will exploit his final act on history's stage to the fullest unto his end.

Now a word on the stars and war.

Mundane astrology is another name for the art of predicting world events and the destiny of nations by using star and planetary configurations. This prophetic art cautions us to heed the danger of war erupting whenever Mars is in either in the constellations of Aries (God of War) or in Leo (the God of egomania if in negative aspect). With this in mind, let us examine quickly two astrological prophecies of Nostradamus to see if new war or a widening war in the Middle East could happen in 2006.

Century 1, Quatrain 15 says:

Mars nous menasse par la force bellique,
Septante foys sera le sang espandre:
Auge & ruyne de l'Ecclesiastique,
Et plus ceux qui d'eux rien voudront entendre.

Mars, you menace by the force of war,
Seventy times will he cause blood to be shed:
Increase and ruin for the Clergy,
And more for those who will desire to hear nothing from them.

Here are the possible windows for World War III appearing as a plague of 70 ethnic wars on Earth when the Catholic Church is besieged by secularists and jihadist who do not listen to their teachings. I published the following in 1997 on pp. 79-80 of my book Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies:

"In the 21st century I would expect the highest potential for war when Mars enters Aries at the same time Saturn enters its two-year transit of Leo (2005-2007) and again when Mars is in Leo in June-July 2006, and in Aries again at the end of the Saturn transit of Leo in May-June 2007."
I still remain hopeful, as I did in 1997, that the prophecy above is about a time window for war a few decades from now. Back then I finished my dissertation on 1 Q15 with this coda:

"The next time Mars aspects Aries and Leo several times during a Saturn-Leo transit (August 2034-October 2036) is during the final degrees of Neptune's transit of Aries. In my opinion, this is the most dangerous time for a third world war in the next century because this would come when the planet's ecology food and water sustainability reached a critical stress point due to pollution and overpoulation. This final and deadly scenario can be avoided if humanity gets now serious about pollution control and zero population growth."
A more specific astrological prophecy calculating the times of war comes from the right interpretation of Century 4, Quatrain 67 of Nostradamus:

L'an que Saturne & Mars esgaux combust,
L'air fort seiché, longue traiection:
Par feux secrets, d'ardeur grand lieu adust
Peu pluye, vent chault, guerres, incursions.

In the year when Saturn and Mars are equally fiery,
The air is very dry, a long comet:
From hidden fires a great place burns with heat,
Little rain, hot wind, wars and raids.

Let us review what I wrote in 1997 about Saturn and Mars being the triggers for new wars or the escalation of current wars on p. 350 of Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies:

"When Saturn and Mars are 'equally fiery' that means they are conjoined in a fire sign, preferably one of those most responsible for wars and raids, Aries or Leo. Many 20th century wars and military offensives parallel this aspect. For example, in September through early November of 1917 Saturn and Mars were in Leo during the climax of several campaigns during the third year of World War I. This time window gave us a view of the Third Battle of Ypres, the first and second battles of Passchendaele on the Western Front, the eleventh Battle of Isonzo and the Battle of Caporetto on the Italian Front. In addition, Allenby's campaign in Palestine against the Turks was reaching its climax.
"In World War II Saturn entered Aries about the time Hitler's forces entered Warsaw in late September 1939 and was "equally fiery" with Mars in Aries all through the terrible Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland in 1939-40.

"Mars and Saturn were again together in Leo during the Indian Partition of autumn 1947, when over 10 million people were displaced and forced to wander over the dusty tracks of the dry months of autumn to find new homes in the newly divided countries of India and Pakistan. The two planets passed through Leo exactly during the same time period that the bloody riots and sectarian strife of the partition killed an estimated one million Hindus and Moslems. Mars joined Saturn in Aries at the onset of the Tet Offensive in January and February of 1968, when Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops made a surprise attack on 30 towns in South Vietnam, including the capital, Saigon, and Hue.
"Mars was in Leo and Saturn in Sagittarius during the great Iranian human wave offensive of early 1987 during the First Gulf War (Iran vs. Iraq). Saturn and Mars were in Aries in April of 1996, when hundreds of katyushka rockets launched by Hizbullah rebels in southern Lebanon unleashed the greatest Israeli air, sea, and land bombardment since their invasion of Lebanon in 1982."
The next "equally fiery" configuration of Mars and Saturn comes in June-July of 2006 when both planets are equally fiery in the sign of Leo.

Ten years ago my contacts to the Israeli Cabalist community told me that in 2006 Israel might face crisis and a major war.

Dr. Louis Turi recently came to a similar conclusion calculating the stars using a medieval astrological discipline most likely practiced by Nostradamus himself. One that marks the significance of aspects with the natal position or transit of the earth's north and south nodes in a chart--otherwise known as the Dragon's Head and Dragon's Tail. In his recently released predictions for the New Year , Dr. Turi explained that the Dragon's head transit into Pisces will spark a Middle Eastern war.

This transit happens in June 2006!

If only level heads in Israel, Iran and the Arab nations would use Saturn in Leo's fire to launch new peace initiatives rather than war. So many astrological factors conspire against a peaceful passage through June-July of 2006 because of the collective unawareness of our leaders and people to the influential forces of Saturn and Mars "equally fiery" in Leo. Ultimatums, dictatorial stubbornness, reactive passions rule the hot days of the next summer. One hopes that they will be a time for peace, but it looks more like a time for war.

Here is the list with the planet and the constellation noted of other times to come when Mars and Saturn are "equally fiery.

Dec 2006, Jan. 2007--Mars (Sagittarius) Saturn (Leo)
May/June 2007--Mars (Aries), Saturn (Leo)
Feb/Mar 2015--Mars (Aries), Saturn (Sagittarius)
Sept/Oct 2016--Both in Sagittarius
Jan-Mar 2017--Mars (Aries), Saturn (Sagittarius)
July-Sept 2017--Mars (Leo), Saturn (Sagittarius)
May-June 2025--Mars (Leo), Saturn (Aries)
April/May 2026--Both in Aries!
Oct/Nov 2026--Mars (Leo), Saturn (Aries)
The final three times show these planets in the strongest aspect for setting the world on fire in wars. May we avert that future now by beginning the process of transforming anger into compassionate deeds.

On this New Year's Eve the great forces of history pause before the first hour for a new and decisive year strikes in human destiny.

Dan Oldenburg, my astrological consultant on a number of my earlier books, reminded me of the following, just a few days ago. He said, "The grand cross in (Tropical) mid-Fixed [signs] is happening right now. Mars in Taurus, Saturn in Leo, Jupiter in Scorpio, Neptune in Aquarius. It's close to the so-called Occult Gates (15 degrees Fixed), so there's a lot of HIDDEN but very powerful stuff going on in all secret societies right now... Big decisions being made regarding direction and emphasis that will reverberate for a long time."

What positive resolutions can an individual make to turn crisis into transformation while living through such a new year as 2006?

I would like to give an answer to all of your most frequently asked questions on this matter. I tenderly invite you to consider only those observations that resonate in your hara-heart.

QUESTION: What do you see next for the coming decades?

AN ANSWER:
A century of evolutionary crisis for the human race. The time has finally come to begin growing. We have not evolved much beyond the physical. Now consciousness must evolve or it will vanish from this earth. We enter the travail of a hundred years. Bear down on the contractions with joy and expectation of the coming birth of a new humanity, rather than dwell upon the pain of that birth process.

QUESTION: It feels like the world is just spiraling out of control...is it?

AN ANSWER:
The old human being is dying. Let him die in peace. Let not the old human drag down into his grave those who want to grow and evolve. He will try. He will not succeed.

QUESTION: Do you have any words of comfort or advice in this time?

AN ANSWER:
Comfort is a sentiment of the old man. Leave it behind. Be challenged and excited, not burdened and fearful, of the coming times. Comfort nourishes our habit to be unconscious and mechanical personalities seeking the fulfillment of false dreams that ever turn into nightmares.

The sleeper must awaken from comfort and from habit. Rise and spread your wings of reality. Bright is the daylight of human reality in consciousness. Bright and blissful is the reality that dispels the shadows of our personalities and their murky "comforting" dreams.

QUESTION: What can we do to stop this dire future and turn it all around?

AN ANSWER:
Flow with the awakening new era of the Aquarian Age. The dying age of Pisces was an era overshadowed by superstition and blind belief. Aquarius is about science and experiencing truth. It will not be an age for "believers" but for "knowers," "experiencers" and spiritual "explorers." Faith will pass away and in its place will be "Trust."

Faith and Trust aren't the same thing. Faith is borrowed from the outside. We are trained to have faith in this or that. Trust, however, is something from within. It is a force, and expression of our consciousness and innate love. It needs no one to be trustworthy of its trust. It can even trust the unknowable. Trust gives wings to the soul's flight through pathless awareness of its being.

QUESTION: So many people are in so much pain...What can I do?

AN ANSWER:
Become a meditator, a practitioner of the spiritual science of Self-Observation. If you wish to end pain and suffering, then look first within and understand the mechanics of your own adopted and programmed pain and suffering. Society in its unconsciousness makes us habituated to being divided and fearful personalities--we wear "persona" (masks)--over the original face of our being.

Meditation techniques are available to help us catch a glimpse of a world that is right here, right now--existing in pure "effect" without a need for a "cause." I can share with you links to the books and meditation techniques of my own teacher, if you but give me permission. These techniques have helped me weather these stormy times with more joy and serenity than I could ever possibly imagine.

I wish to conclude by wishing you all a happy and centered spirit that celebrates the challenges and trials of the new year and years to come.

Always remember...

Out of chaos, stars are born. Out of travail comes a new child. Summer's bloom of summer past must die so that new spring growth flourishes. Seasons of the cosmos are like seasons of the year. Pisces leaves fade and are underfoot in the winter of crisis. We enter that change now. Celebrate the passage as best you can, for dying winter leaves of Pisces passing, seed the flowers of the coming Aquarian "spring."

John Hogue
Rogue Scholar/Author:

Nostradamus: A Life and Myth

Nostradamus: The New Millennium

Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies

The Last Pope: The Decline and Fall of the Church of Rome

Messiahs, The Visions and Prophecies for the Second Coming

Essential Nostradamus: Prophecies for the 21st Century and Beyond

The Millennium Book of Prophecy

Exotic Mortgages Begin to Reset - Look Out Below!

The Daily Reckoning - Weekend Edition
April 28 - 29, 2006
Baltimore, Maryland
by Kate "Short Fuse" Incontrera

VIEWS FROM THE FUSE: EXOTIC MORTGAGES BEGIN TO RESET - LOOK OUT BELOW!

For those still not convinced that a real estate bubble exists in the
United States today, consider this fact:

Last year, more than 40% of the buyers in the real estate market were
in
it for the first time.

That means almost half of all home purchasers have never previously
owned
a home - and with good reason. They couldn't afford to.

But lack of money and knowledge never stopped the masses at the height
of
a bubble. Especially when lenders were waving the promise of "creative
financing" under these subprime borrowers noses. Few could resist the
lure
of adjustable-rate mortgages or interest-only loans.

And the evidence of the aftermath of this 'buy now, think later'
mentality
is everywhere. The number of foreclosures is up nationwide. Rising
interest rates have made it harder for homeowners to keep up with their
mortgage payments. After all, ARM's increase monthly payments right
behind
interest rates, pushing a once-affordable mortgage payment just out of
reach.

No one has been more affected by defaults on loans and subsequent
foreclosures than Wayne County, Michigan. The Detroit News reports:

"After recording more than 9,000 foreclosures in 2005, Wayne County
ended
January with 3,364 homes in active foreclosure, the highest of any
county
in the nation by more than 1,000.

"Katherine Ben-Ami...an attorney for the Wayne County Sheriff's
Office...supervised the auction of 379 foreclosed Wayne County homes in
35
minutes on Wednesday."

These foreclosures don't just affect the homeowner. The lenders are
then
stuck with the home, and can lose up to $50,000 per house as they sell
them at below-market prices. That, in turn, lowers property values in
the
neighborhood, pushing more homeowners out, and eventually hurts
property
tax collections for local governments.

379 foreclosed homes. In ONE day. This would make Wayne County ground
zero
for the real estate bubble, an example of the absolute worst-case
scenario. But watch out for the ripples of defaults to be felt
throughout
the country.

Short Fuse
The Daily Reckoning

P.S. The only thing that continues to keep this real estate bubble
afloat
are the overseas lenders who have socked away nearly $2 trillion worth
of
U.S. Treasuries and dollar reserves. Unfortunately, these foreign
investors are starting to give up on America - already, the Chinese are
talking about "shifting away from exposure to the dollar." Once they
do,
we will be in full economic crisis mode