Politics & Rick's Health
Who Will be the next President of the USA? Al Gore or George Bush?
November 09, 2000 --- What Fun! First some extended election chatter, then please note the discussion of my astrology work coming to an end due to my terminal illness. (This was Rick's last article).
This is what a Washington, DC-based astrologer enjoys the most --- an election in which he has invested a forecast because this is where the metaphysical rubber hits the reality road!
Let me recap seven (7) statements I’ve made since April (all extracted from my text further down) which readers should find interesting in the context of the current election mess:
April 3, 2000 (one website extract when the polls were dead even):
1.) “Nevertheless, I think that G. W. Bush is going to win the election. However, I must say that the chart of GWB has, by far, the strangest win pattern for a political election that I ever recall seeing. To my eye, there is no traditional, sharply defined “smoking gun” pattern that one might expect to signal a win on Election Day, and that’s very weird….”
August 17, 2000 (four website extracts):
2.) “If I am wrong and Gore wins, it will only be because of this powerful astrological factor (the tertiary progressed Pluto station) in Lieberman’s chart early on election month.” [Current Note: Gore assigned Lieberman almost exclusively to Florida because of the Jewish connection and because of how positively the older people respond to him there. With the race now coming down to Florida, we see again that Lieberman‘s chart has indeed been the critical power factor for Gore as I’ve said all along.]
3.) “I will continue to hold to my long-time forecast that Bush will win.”
4.) “One odd thing is that I have the charts of Bush’s father and mother, but they really do not show a win pattern on Election Day as I would expect them to. And with regard to both Bush and Gore, I just continue to be really shocked at the general lack of contact angularity on election day in a way I am accustomed to seeing it. This fact continues to have me very perplexed since it is SO unusual. Still I will stick with my Bush forecast.”
5.) “Tipper Gore’s chart went off like an absolute rocket when Al Gore was elected VP in 1992; check it out. We have a quite decent TOB on her, so what do you see? I see almost nothing. HOW can Tipper’s chart be essentially flat on Election Day if her husband has just achieved his life’s ambition?”October 13, 2000 (two website extracts):
6.) “I posted the Lieberman Progressed Pluto Station comment to this website a while back, and well before that I posted my comments that it really strikes me that NEITHER presidential candidate's chart has the traditional powerful KARMA to win - as indicated by the absence of a single Killer Indicator. Astrologers generally don’t realize that there really is just ONE indicator for a political win - just one; everything else is just confirmation and support.”
7.) “The only reasons I won’t give the exceptional current power in Lieberman’s chart 100% odds of overcoming Bush are: 1) This time the P3 Pluto station is just a very tiny bit early. The station culmination is very technically a few weeks before the election, which will lead to a slight drop-off in Lieberman’s torqueing power. 2) There is still the question of whether a VP’s chart, no matter how strong, can pull a Presidential chart across the finish line - particularly, as noted, since Lieberman is simultaneously running for another position.” [Current note: Lieberman won his Senate seat in Connecticut.]
(End of extracts).
So I went out on a limb on April 3, with the polls being exactly tied at the time, forecasting that Bush would win on November 7 (the old write-up is still below). A monster progressed Power Factor in Lieberman’s chart definitely gave me a major scare, but now it looks like GW Bush will be in the White House in January (but perhaps not – the sands keep shifting – and my forecast comments were based upon election day). If he does get in, it keeps my perfect record going – not only of election forecasts, but also of spontaneous forecasts such as Bush’s completely unexpected crash in the first (NH) primary (and 4 months ahead of time), the fact that Clinton would never be thrown out of office (despite a fierce headwind that suggested the opposite), and so on.
But this was definitely the strangest year I have ever seen for picking a winner astrologically (and I think I whined about it all year!). No wonder none of the polls could conclusively forecast the winner - even the day before the election. These charts were very strange indeed. A lot of the current mess has to do with the Mercury reversal dead on the evening of the election - at the same time that Gore was also entering his new Mercury Bhukti on the evening of the election (using the Houck ayanamsha).
While it’s nice to be right (and I may yet be wrong), I personally take more pleasure in my approach to this. As you know, I pound on the idea that anyone who claims to be an astrologer should be willing to:
1) make such forecasts at least six months ahead of time (to prove it’s astrology and not poll reading),
2) make the forecast clearly in writing (nothing vague or implied),
3) make such forecasts as often as new, good data allows (to prove other than 50/50 luck),
4) put himself at personal risk of embarrassment by always doing it in a very public and well distributed medium (telling your mother or a few email pals doesn’t do it), and
5) aggressively draw attention to his forecast in arenas outside of small astrology groups (so that the word might make it to the outer world). Ideally he should also be willing to gamble (financially) substantially on his forecast if he has great confidence in it. I believe this six-step way is the ONLY way that astrology will EVER earn the respect of the “outside world,” and I wish that all respectable astrologers would adopt it as a standard of behavior.
No matter who wins, I think we will have a real mess. If Bush wins, it could be argued that he has no claim to legitimacy due to his failure to win the popular vote by an absolutely microscopic amount (even if he did win the largest number of states and did win the largest number of electoral college votes). I do think he would have done a better job than most people would have expected. If Gore wins, even though he’s clearly stronger, smarter, more knowledgeable, and has the more popular policies, I thing we’ll have a catastrophe. He’s just not the right kind of leader. He’s Jimmy Carter with testosterone, and that’s not good. (My apologies to the many people who will obviously think otherwise, and that’s what YOUR website is for!). And even if Gore wins, the margin of victory will be so razor thin, he also will have no claim to a mandate. A very weak situation no matter how you slice it.
Anyway, with Gore’s temperament (stationary Mars with Pluto in his 1st, etc.), I think he will have nothing but non-stop fighting with Congress – and especially with the upcoming Pluto/Saturn opposition, a brutal opposition, which will be hitting three times in 2001. (This could actually bring real war in the world at large.) Both Al and Tipper Gore’s charts look terrible for the upcoming period, and that’s not a good sign for the US. Clearly, Gore could be shot. In addition, since the mid1990’s I’ve said that 2002 and 2004 will be quite difficult years for the US. This would actually match closer to Gore’s chart than Bush’s. In any case, I’ve also written that only Lieberman had the actual karma for winning, so he will probably ultimately end up as president (that’s not a forecast at this time, just an advanced speculation). If I were Bush, and if it were legally possible (which it’s not), I’d concede to Gore. This would give Bush four more years to mature and gain knowledge, while Gore is being beaten to death and destroyed. Then Bush should be able to walk into the Presidency in 2004.
[Actually I’ve been quite happy with nearly every President the US has elected over the past 50 years – especially versus the alternative. The only one I really couldn’t stand was Jimmy Carter, but the alternative was Gerald Ford so I can’t get too excited about that. I think the US gets the President it’s supposed to get every single time. This is probably true of all countries.]
Now enough about politics. Normally we could all take a rest from this, but alas, not this time! Still, I wish I had had more birth data on more candidates. Just not enough opportunities to stick my neck out to see if it gets chopped off! As a little something to watch for, I expect Barbara Bush to have some massive difficulties in exactly one year (Oct/Nov 2001), but I haven’t had the time or energy to look at it in detail. Keep an eye out for that. Meanwhile, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving celebration!
Rick speaks of his terminal Illness just before his passing:
The other item: I’m going to be closing up shop (timetable somewhat unknown). As many of my closer friends and associates know, on 4/12/99 I was diagnosed with rectal cancer that had metastasized to my liver, lungs and lymphatic system (there is a lot of cancer on both sides of my family). I did some radiation and chemo before the rectal surgery on 7/27/99 (mostly because this would assist the excellent German surgeon who had an outstanding connection to my chart). The surgery went very well, but after that I have refused all orthodox medicine. This metastatic condition is considered invariably terminal (generally there are no surgical possibilities regarding the liver and lymphatic system, and this is particularly true in my case).If one pursues the standard approach, statistically one is supposed to be dead within 13 months (i.e., after 13 months of misery on useless chemo). Some people I personally know have developed colon cancer way after I did, and they are already dead. Truly people die faster from the chemo than if they refused it, as I did, but most are too scared and uninformed to know this until it is too late. I’ve dropped about 50 lbs. since the bearded photo on my home page, but that’s due as much to macrobiotics as cancer (I still have quite a good appetite). I actually look healthier in some ways (may change my photo to a snapshot taken at the beach last year a few months after my surgery so you can see what I mean).I am now at the 19-month point and still feel really quite good, although my energy overall is well down. This is because I have put together a program of natural methods and techniques that seemed to make sense to me. This has worked really quite well, and is wildly superior to what I would have gone through using orthodox processes. I still do minor biking, yard work, travel, what have you. So far, I have zero cancer-related pain, but the liver is twice its normal size. I haven’t more widely propagated this information before this point in time because:
1) I did not want to be inundated with more email than I already get,
2) I did not want to get everyone’s Hot Tip, no matter how well intentioned, on how to cure cancer (I already have a huge stack of these),
3) I did not want everyone emailing me their theory about my chart (especially since they often get my chart wrong anyway),
4) I did not want to have to explain the natural things I am doing which have blocked all negative symptoms (too much work and time), and so on.
I just wanted peace and quiet to enjoy life, and I spend too much time on email already. But now the information is apparently propagating into the world of astrologers at large, and I see a lot of wrong information about me being passed around. So time to announce and give the facts.My most recent MRI now shows five tumors in the right side of the liver, each of which averages out to be about the diameter of a baseball. Others are forming. There is also cancer elsewhere, such as in the lymphatic system, wrapped completely around my aorta, in the lungs, and so on. Thus I need to accelerate realistic end-of-life planning since my condition could start to severely drop off at any time. For example, a piece of the cancer could break off and go to the brain, putting the person into an immediate coma. More typically, when the liver can’t cope any more, one then either becomes heavily focused upon pain management, or one starts to see a serious drop-off in mental acuity and physical ability. Confusion and slow thinking typically results as the blood quality deteriorated. Then the coma typically sets in. At this point, one is usually in a hospice. Count on the fact that I won’t have my portable laptop computer with me! So now seems to be the time to write about this, to let my many existing fans, potential purchasers of my products and services, potential email correspondents, and so on, to know what is going on and what is likely to transpire. This is what will be going on:
1. My books will not be reprinted. Thus if you want to buy them but haven’t yet, you better buy them sooner rather than later (not from me, please, but from a store – if they don’t have them in stock make them order them from a distributor such as New Leaf, BookPeople or Samuel Weiser). Of course, Amazon always carries them as well as The Astrology Center of America.
2. My current inventory of books will be transferred to a friend who will feed the wholesalers and distributors. We’re not quite sure when yet, but this will probably be by the first of the year. Her name is Rebecca Mayo. Her phone number is 703-971-5028. Her email address is: MayoBecky@aol.com. Her address is: 5610 Farmwood Court in Alexandria, VA 22315-4127. She will not be selling my books directly – except for maybe my sidereal ephemeris (for this, make out a $10 US check or postal money order to her name). There will be no more chart services offered, no more conference tapes, no more nakshatras cards, etc. Of course, consultations are also over.
3. You will not be able to order anything directly from me since I will be closing my PO Box. Actually I’ll probably just let it expire. Please do not mail anything there because it will disappear. For whatever use it is to you, my wife’s name is Paula, and our home address is: 11324 Rambling Road in Gaithersburg, MD 20879-3412. Our phone number is 301-353-0212 (same as on the web site).
4. Starting now, no more checks should be made out to ARC Associates, Inc. (it is being dissolved). Make all checks out to Groundswell Press, or more ideally, Rebecca Mayo. (Actually, I shouldn’t be receiving any more checks.)
5. The fax is being taken down. No more faxing will be possible.
6. I have a quite interesting personal astrology library. It’s a mix of eastern and western, mostly western. Quite a few of my books are quite rare, a few quite expensive, and I’d guess most are out of print. Since I have several hundred of these (I’m guessing) I may sell this library all at once via auction on eBay. At this time, I can’t imagine who such a buyer might be. Maybe a group? I’ll try to make sure that the astrology community is aware ahead of time that this auction is coming up (via discussion group postings, announcements to newsletters, etc.), but I can’t guarantee it.
7. My web site will be expiring. But before that, I hope to have a friend keep readers informed of what is happening with me whenever anything major occurs.
8. At some point I will stop answering email. When is unpredictable. Thus if I don’t reply, please don’t think I’m being rude. Due to various pressures and constraints, my wife will not be answering email on my behalf. Well, this is all I can think of at the moment in this regard. Maybe I will add more as I think of it. I’ve wildly enjoyed the thousands of friends, clients and fans I’ve developed over this past decade as a result of my lecturing and writing in the field of hybridized eastern/western astrology. (Another astrologer who is very good and thorough at this synthesis is my friend Edith Chuhta.) The enthusiasm for what I do is very great, so astrologers who are purely eastern or purely western in technique might take note of that. Also, people either really like, or really hate, my extremely straightforward style of writing and commentary. Logically, the “really hate” ones don’t hang around, but many of the “really like” ones have become, hard-core fans. This has made what I do (shine a bright flame and see what happens?) a whole lot of fun. I’m also deeply grateful to find out how much, and how many, people really care about me and my work. Who knew? Truly I’ve been very amazed by the depth of caring and support that is out there. It’s just hard to believe, and makes me look at myself, and my afterlife possibilities, in a much more positive light! My very best wishes to one and all. I’m sure we will meet again!
Prior Comments Proving to Be True Thus far
October 13, 2000 --- Well, people are “harassing” me for not posting anything in the past two months (okay! okay! don’t hurt me!), so I’ll make a few points about evolving political developments. As forecast in my prior posting below, Gore did indeed get a big bounce after his convention, but at this point Bush is again slightly in the lead. The polls however will probably continue to jump around. Now, for whatever interest it may hold, I’m going to post here a response I wrote a month ago (early September) to two questions emailed to me by a member of one of the Vedic astrology discussion sites where my political forecasting work was being discussed. Since I’m not a member of the site, my responses were then passed on for posting to their discussion site. What I will now do is post some additional remarks which further supplement this month-old email. (Sorry, general readers, but this is again a more technical discussion for astrologers.)
Question #1: “Was Lalia's memory correct about your comment on outer planet sidereal sign changes corresponding to party changes? And if it was, then aren't you going against yourself by not sticking with your prior point (i.e., there are no outer sign changes this time, but nevertheless you are forecasting a political change)?”
“Lalia's memory of my comment about outer planet sidereal sign changes being correlated to party changes is essentially true. It probably came from commentary in my sidereal ephemeris which I think she purchased. Political changes associated with outer sign changes have more to do with the idea of a sea change occurring in the INTENT of the electorate to change parties (i.e., Reagan and Gingrich "revolutions," etc.). But I think the president's mere party affiliation CAN shift back and forth IF their pitch to the electorate is essentially the same (nibbling around the edges and not particularly revolutionary), which this time they are since people are basically happy with the way things are, and if there is no big impact at the congressional level. Note that there really aren't that many outer sign changes that hit near elections, but we do have more shifting back and forth than that. Thus I am saying that outer sign changes bring about political changes, but the absence of outer sign changes does not necessarily preclude political party changes (if they are relatively modest).
Secondly, as I mentioned to you a long while back, ALL of the political scientists who use mathematical formulas to forecast the election (formulas which have always worked, at least retroactively) have said that the party in power will remain in power for this election. So at great risk, my April Bush forecast is going against that also. BTW, part of what has gone into my thinking about the probabilities for change has been the long-range forecast that sunspots (and solar flares?) are supposed to be hitting an 11-year cyclic peak right around election month. These always disturb the terrestrial atmosphere (perhaps the world's building gas crisis?), so I figured these might be a decent proxy or substitute for outer planet sign changes in this particular election cycle.”
[Related remark being added today (10/13): Not only do we have the oil/gas crisis continuing to spike, but we also now have the very wild swings in the stock market, the alarming major outburst in Middle East violence, the terrorist attack on the US naval carrier, etc. To me this building collection of events shows the power of sunspots, which are something we can know about years ahead of time. Some readers may be too young to remember the Ayatollah Khomeni jerking Jimmy Carter around for a full year in 1980 with US hostages in Iran. This brought about the “Reagan Revolution” – and this was indeed during a sunspot peak! So now here we are again.]
Question #2: “So are you going to do a re-take in light of the fact that Lieberman has now entered the picture and changed the whole mix of the soup? Or are you going to stay with your original prediction?”
I really can't risk a re-forecast without Lieberman's total chart, but I have not yet seen a decent TOB for him (nor Cheney). So I'm stuck in limbo even though, as I have written earlier, his tertiary progressed Pluto station arriving dead on election month is indeed one of the true Killer Indicators for political triumph (as actually mentioned somewhere in my books, I think). I posted the Lieberman Progressed Pluto Station comment to my web site a while back, and well before that I posted my comments that it really strikes me that NEITHER presidential candidate's chart has the traditional powerful KARMA to win - as indicated by the lack of a single Killer Indicator. (Astrologers generally don’t realize that there really is just ONE indicator for a political win - just one; everything else is just confirmation and support.) Thus I stated that one of the VP's charts is likely to contain the Killer Indicator. Note that Gore was absolutely dead in the water, like a puppet without its puppeteer, until the day he selected Lieberman. From that day forward Gore's destiny took on oxygen and upward momentum. So it looks like it's Lieberman's chart that's doing it. (He’s also single-handedly pulling in massive amounts of money for the Democratic side.) Whether his chart has the power to propel Gore over the finish line remain the big question hinging upon inadequate data. Meanwhile, to aggravate deduction even more, Lieberman is still running for the Senate in Connecticut!”
[Related remarks being added today (10/13): I find that many technical readers are still not familiar with the concept of tertiary progressed stations, which, to me, is so important in forecasting. A chapter is devoted to this topic in my 1994 book “The Astrology of Death,” but let me try to briefly explain here. Calculate the number of days a person has been alive up to “X” point. Divide that number of days (don’t forget leap days) by 27.321661. That will give you the number of tertiary progressed months the person has passed through. Go back to the date of birth (for Lieberman that’s 02/24/42) and count forward the number of days in the ephemeris from his date of birth using the number you just calculated. For Lieberman for the 11/00 election, that tertiary progressed date is: 04/19/44. Look in your ephemeris and you will see that Pluto is stationary on 4/18/44. This is not a fluke; I see it all the time (and closely related patterns) at election wins.
Now guess what? You can even see it AGAIN for Lieberman alone. When he won his US Senate seat for the first time (he just squeaked in against a powerful incumbent on 11/88) tertiary progressed Pluto was AGAIN stationary. Look up: 11/10/43. That’s the exact date of an earlier Pluto station. Considering how rarely Pluto stations, I hope I make my point that this is hardly coincidence. This gives tremendous torqueing power to any such candidate since Pluto rules raw power. The only reason I won’t give Lieberman 100% odds on this are: 1) This time the station is just a very tiny bit early. The station culmination is very technically a few weeks before the election which will lead to a slight dropoff in the torque. 2) There is still the question of whether a VP’s chart, no matter how strong, can pull a Presidential chart across the finish line (particularly, as noted, since Lieberman is simultaneously running for another position).
As a closing note: Everyone knows I’m a big fan of the power of ashtakavarga bindus. It may be of interest to note that on Election Day, Bush will be running 208 bindus, but Gore will be running 240. So this is yet another hurdle that Bush will have to overcome if my political forecast is not to go down in flames for the first time. As noted in my 1998 book “Digital Astrology” (where Gore and this election are discussed at length), just based upon bindus alone Gore should start to come across stronger as the transiting Sun enters sidereal Libra around October 17-18 (i.e., in about 4 days) and all the way through Election Day. Watch for this. (It should positively affect the 3rd debate after Gore was considered the unexpected loser of the 1st and 2nd.) BTW, if Gore wins I will at least have the pleasure of a book whose chief thematic example (Gore) will stay relevant for four more years!]
Current Status of Bets, the VP’s, and other matters
August 17, 2000 --- Today is the day of Al Gore’s convention speech. Presumably he will get a good statistical bounce from this, thus bringing the race back into closer statistical balance. I know it’s been over four months since I last updated this page, but the problem is: without any new birth data, I really have little to add. I don’t like to blather for its own sake. But I keep getting queries, so I will comment on four (4) matter that people have been asking about and discussing:
1. The Current Status of Political Bets
2. Any Impact of the VP’s
3. The Logic Behind my Presidential Forecast
4. The Media Continues to Ignore Real Astrology
The Current Status of Bets
Some people seem confused on this matter, perhaps because I have been spreading this discussion over almost two years (much of which is documented below if you want to read through it all). Here is the current status:
1) The 1999 Presidential Projection: In 1999, even before the primaries, I was selling “inside information” indicating whom I thought would win the Presidential Election. People who purchased this information in 1999 could do with it whatever they wanted, and this also had certain guarantees associated with it. As projected at the time, this offer expired on 12/31/99 due to its fragile and time-dependent economic value. It was for people who really wanted my best possible advanced projection and knew what to do with it.
2) The $5,000 Single Bet: I have offered to bet $5,000 that I can selected the winner of ANY 11/7/00 election at any time IF I have a valid and certified time of birth on both candidates. This bet will stay open until a few days before Election Day – although, of course, it’s much more interesting BEFORE the polls start to harden closer to the election (when people will say it was “obvious” who was going to win). For example, I’d love to do Hillary and Lazio right now as they are tied in the polls, but alas – no decent birth data.
3) The 1,000-to-1 Composite Bet: I have repeatedly solicited the general media (via hardcopy press releases) on this one. I am willing to bet $10,000 that I can correctly conclude who will win 10 out of 10 elections (Senate, Congress, Governor, etc.). The random odds of doing this correctly are less than 1 in 1,000. The burden would be on the media to come up with the correct birth data. Quite bizarrely, there has been no interest in this at all. Perhaps this is because A) success would make all the professional pundits look completely ridiculous (as did my running commentary that Clinton would never be knocked out of office), and B) it would statistically prove the validity of astrology. I assume both of these possibilities are intolerable to the mainstream media? However, the bet stands if anyone can stir up any interest in some area of the media I have not gotten to. But time is starting to run very short – since gathering the data, validating it, and then analyzing it will take TIME.
Any Impact of the VP’s?
I’m going to get mildly technical in this discussion. My apologies to my more generalist readers.
At this point, we simply don’t have a time of birth on either Cheney or Lieberman. Without that, only fools will forecast (and some will, but not at personal risk as I do it). However, it IS of GREAT interest to me that Lieberman will be having a tertiary progressed Pluto station DEAD ON election month. This has to do with the “torqueing up” of the drive towards power. I can’t tell you how often I see this (including secondary Pluto stations also) in the charts of politicians (including outside this country) who win elections. For example, when Yeltsin was first elected President of Russia, it was the exact month of BOTH a secondary and a tertiary Pluto station! (Reagan was a bit of a variation on this with transiting Pluto dead on his MC.) Historically, if the station peaks before the election (see Dole, McCain, etc.) then their star rapidly drops off by Election Day (loss of torque). When both candidates have the Pluto station happening, and one peaks somewhat before, and one peaks somewhat after, Election Day, then the “after” one almost invariably wins (because he is still “torqueing”).
But Pluto is “just” raw power. It includes assassination, and all the rest. Thus theory drives me to conclude that it shouldn’t necessarily always imply a political win. There should also be a supporting win pattern in any such chart. But since we don’t have Lieberman’s chart (just his birth date), we cannot say at this time. For example, it would logically seem to me that such a station could also imply massive rejection (as indeed was the case when Nixon was booted from office). So seeing the supporting patterns is always mandatory. Nevertheless, this is such a profound astrological fact (the exact progressed Pluto station), and I HAVE seen it so often in powerful election wins, that I CAN say that IF I am wrong and Gore wins, it will ONLY be because of this fact in Lieberman’s chart.
I note that Dick Cheney will be having tertiary progressed Venus conjunct his natal Uranus AND his minor progressed Venus conjunct his minor progressed Uranus within a week or two of the election. Further, he will also be having his minor progressed Moon exactly opposite his minor progressed Uranus – dead on Election Day. And his minor progressed Mercury will also be paralleling his natal Jupiter very close to the election. Without the chart, this is quite a bit like trying to read tea leaves in the air, and yet these strong Uranian patterns must be explained away if he is going to lose. Losing charts do not look excited; losing charts look disconnected and flat. So at this time I will continue to hold to my long-time forecast that Bush will win. (By the way, from the VERY DAY I indicated that Bush would win – when he was dead even with Gore – he began to rise in the polls, and from that point to today has never fallen below Gore. But presumably things will tighten up now as Gore unleashes his guns and the electorate starts to really focus in the Fall.)
The Logic Behind My Presidential Forecast
I was amused when someone recently wrote to me that they liked my analysis of who would win the election. The reason is because I have provided no such analysis! I have made a few passing remarks (and won’t repeat them since they are in the older material down below), but that is nowhere NEAR the kind of analysis that should go into such a conclusion! And this would be too technical for this general web site. But anyway, whose chart should we look at first to confirm if Al Gore is going to win? Answer: Karenna’s. But this is not available. Who’s should we look at second? Answer: Tipper’s. Tipper is a non-clinical manic-depressive with high highs and low lows. Her chart went off like an absolute rocket when Gore was elected VP in 1992; check it out. We have a quite decent TOB on her, so what do you see? I see almost nothing. HOW can Tipper’s chart be essentially flat on Election Day if her husband has just achieved his life’s ambition? In the next two paragraphs let me again get more technical than I usually prefer to on this site.
In Al Gore’s chart I’ve already mentioned that he will be going into a Mercury Bhukti exactly on Election Day. This is ruler of 3rd and 12th in 8th. Not only is this not very appetizing in its own right, but get this: His natal Mercury we are now discussing is at 23-AQ. Well, where are tertiary progressed Pluto, Saturn & Neptune on election day? At 23-CA, 23-LE & 23-VI respectively! (No orb.) Do these three exact daggers suggest a happy Mercury on its first Bhukti day? Not to me. (Transiting Uranus will also have stationed at 23-CP.) And why has his tertiary MC progressed onto a degree of “suffering and limitation?” (Jain) Why has his secondary Mercury (during Mercury Bhukti) progressed onto a degree of “unraveling?” (Jain) Why is his secondary Moon on an “unfortunate” degree? (Jain) What is the implication of transiting Neptune dead on his Descendant (which, oddly enough, is also George Bush Sr.’s IC)? To me, this is weakness and unraveling. Otherwise, he either has a mistress (Al?) or Tipper is on drugs or alcohol. If either of these later two possibilities were likely, then I’d think much better of Gore’s chances. But I don’t think they are. BTW, my intuition is that Tipper really doesn’t want him to win. She’s had it. These are just a few thoughts.
Bush is running a Mars Bhukti. Mars rules his 5th and 10th making it automatically a strong rajayoga planet for election victory. It is also vargottama (i.e., strengthened by being repeated again in the same sign – a friend’s sign - in his navamsha chart). Gore’s ashtakavarga bindus run very high – but Bush’s run even higher (except his Mars is definitely in a weakish house by ashtakavarga). Bush has a secondary Moon/Mars conjunction on a “strong” degree (and secondary Pluto sextiles it – all three to the same degree). Bush has secondary Mercury exactly conjunct natal Venus (both at 28-CA), and secondary Uranus (28-TA) and secondary Venus (28-VI) are sextile this conjunction from both directions. This theme is repeated with tertiary Mercury exactly conjunct tertiary Venus. If this doesn’t suggest he is receiving “positive messages” on election day, then what does it suggest? His tertiary progressed MC is on a degree that has to do with “rising to a position of responsibility.” (Jain) It will enter his 10th house in three months (i.e., on Inauguration month). The minor progressed Sun will be dead on his Ascendant. Transiting Uranus will have just gone stationary direct at 23-CP; Bush’s Moon is at 23-VI (an exact trine), and keep in mind that his ruling Moon is only one applying degree from natal Jupiter (which the Uranus station thus also trines). I should mention that I normally don’t give much weight to sextiles and trines, but I do with Uranus – and particularly when it is nearly stationary AND in perfect aspect. This suggests loss?
Well, I could go on (and a lot more goes into this), but I just wanted to give a slight bit more flavor for my thinking. One odd thing is that I have the charts of Bush’s father and mother, but they really don’t show as I’d expect them to. And with regard to both Bush and Gore, I’m just really shocked at the general lack of contact angularity in a way I am accustomed to seeing it (exact activity by and to the angles). This fact continues to have me quite perplexed since it is SO unusual. Still I will stick with my Bush forecast - supplied last April when they were dead even in the polls (which seemed like the fairest time to supply it).
The Media Continues to Ignore Real Astrology
As my readers know, since it was clearly documented on this site at the time, I had forecast, in quite precise detail, the total collapse of Bush in the 2/1/00 New Hampshire Primary four months ahead of time (on 10/4/99). At this time, Bush was cruising towards his coronation across a cloudless sky, and John McCain was not even a blip on the radar screen. As it turned out, even a week before the 2/1 primary, the big name pundits STILL could not forecast his loss. Unbelievable - but true. In fact, Bush was buried by 19 points, which totally shocked the media, and made the Republican Establishment go berserk for months, thinking maybe they didn’t have a sure winner on their hands after all.
In October, I had sent a hardcopy press release to many political writers at The Washington Post exactly forecasting this as per my web site. Some of the people there I sent this release to are: David Broder, Lloyd Grove, David Ignatius, Linton Weeks, E.J. Dionne, Jr., Richard Morin, David VonDrehle and Mark Shields. I also sent it to other outlets. After it occurred exactly as forecast, I sent a follow-up hardcopy press release reminding them of this in detail. Result: no interest nor response. Conclusion: Don’t bother the slugs of the media; they are too busy feeling self-important to be bothered by mere facts and success.
I did end up corresponding with one writer at The Post, and on July 5 he admitted that his colleagues are both “ignorant of, and hostile towards, astrology.” He included himself in the completely ignorant group. Ah, well. At least a little rare honesty from The Post - even if it doesn’t begin to address the real problem of WHY they are so close-minded, WHY they all think in such a pack mentality (fear of deviation from the uniformly clever and cynical pose), and WHY they have no intellectual integrity in overcoming this gross prejudice (this from one of the world’s most “liberal,” “inclusive” and “politically correct” newspapers). This proves that some people still love to discriminate unfairly when nobody is watching them, and they can still legally get away with it.
End of comment on 8/17/00.
1. The Current Status of Political Bets
2. Any Impact of the VP’s
3. The Logic Behind my Presidential Forecast
4. The Media Continues to Ignore Real Astrology
The Current Status of Bets
Some people seem confused on this matter, perhaps because I have been spreading this discussion over almost two years (much of which is documented below if you want to read through it all). Here is the current status:
1) The 1999 Presidential Projection: In 1999, even before the primaries, I was selling “inside information” indicating whom I thought would win the Presidential Election. People who purchased this information in 1999 could do with it whatever they wanted, and this also had certain guarantees associated with it. As projected at the time, this offer expired on 12/31/99 due to its fragile and time-dependent economic value. It was for people who really wanted my best possible advanced projection and knew what to do with it.
2) The $5,000 Single Bet: I have offered to bet $5,000 that I can selected the winner of ANY 11/7/00 election at any time IF I have a valid and certified time of birth on both candidates. This bet will stay open until a few days before Election Day – although, of course, it’s much more interesting BEFORE the polls start to harden closer to the election (when people will say it was “obvious” who was going to win). For example, I’d love to do Hillary and Lazio right now as they are tied in the polls, but alas – no decent birth data.
3) The 1,000-to-1 Composite Bet: I have repeatedly solicited the general media (via hardcopy press releases) on this one. I am willing to bet $10,000 that I can correctly conclude who will win 10 out of 10 elections (Senate, Congress, Governor, etc.). The random odds of doing this correctly are less than 1 in 1,000. The burden would be on the media to come up with the correct birth data. Quite bizarrely, there has been no interest in this at all. Perhaps this is because A) success would make all the professional pundits look completely ridiculous (as did my running commentary that Clinton would never be knocked out of office), and B) it would statistically prove the validity of astrology. I assume both of these possibilities are intolerable to the mainstream media? However, the bet stands if anyone can stir up any interest in some area of the media I have not gotten to. But time is starting to run very short – since gathering the data, validating it, and then analyzing it will take TIME.
Any Impact of the VP’s?
I’m going to get mildly technical in this discussion. My apologies to my more generalist readers.
At this point, we simply don’t have a time of birth on either Cheney or Lieberman. Without that, only fools will forecast (and some will, but not at personal risk as I do it). However, it IS of GREAT interest to me that Lieberman will be having a tertiary progressed Pluto station DEAD ON election month. This has to do with the “torqueing up” of the drive towards power. I can’t tell you how often I see this (including secondary Pluto stations also) in the charts of politicians (including outside this country) who win elections. For example, when Yeltsin was first elected President of Russia, it was the exact month of BOTH a secondary and a tertiary Pluto station! (Reagan was a bit of a variation on this with transiting Pluto dead on his MC.) Historically, if the station peaks before the election (see Dole, McCain, etc.) then their star rapidly drops off by Election Day (loss of torque). When both candidates have the Pluto station happening, and one peaks somewhat before, and one peaks somewhat after, Election Day, then the “after” one almost invariably wins (because he is still “torqueing”).
But Pluto is “just” raw power. It includes assassination, and all the rest. Thus theory drives me to conclude that it shouldn’t necessarily always imply a political win. There should also be a supporting win pattern in any such chart. But since we don’t have Lieberman’s chart (just his birth date), we cannot say at this time. For example, it would logically seem to me that such a station could also imply massive rejection (as indeed was the case when Nixon was booted from office). So seeing the supporting patterns is always mandatory. Nevertheless, this is such a profound astrological fact (the exact progressed Pluto station), and I HAVE seen it so often in powerful election wins, that I CAN say that IF I am wrong and Gore wins, it will ONLY be because of this fact in Lieberman’s chart.
I note that Dick Cheney will be having tertiary progressed Venus conjunct his natal Uranus AND his minor progressed Venus conjunct his minor progressed Uranus within a week or two of the election. Further, he will also be having his minor progressed Moon exactly opposite his minor progressed Uranus – dead on Election Day. And his minor progressed Mercury will also be paralleling his natal Jupiter very close to the election. Without the chart, this is quite a bit like trying to read tea leaves in the air, and yet these strong Uranian patterns must be explained away if he is going to lose. Losing charts do not look excited; losing charts look disconnected and flat. So at this time I will continue to hold to my long-time forecast that Bush will win. (By the way, from the VERY DAY I indicated that Bush would win – when he was dead even with Gore – he began to rise in the polls, and from that point to today has never fallen below Gore. But presumably things will tighten up now as Gore unleashes his guns and the electorate starts to really focus in the Fall.)
The Logic Behind My Presidential Forecast
I was amused when someone recently wrote to me that they liked my analysis of who would win the election. The reason is because I have provided no such analysis! I have made a few passing remarks (and won’t repeat them since they are in the older material down below), but that is nowhere NEAR the kind of analysis that should go into such a conclusion! And this would be too technical for this general web site. But anyway, whose chart should we look at first to confirm if Al Gore is going to win? Answer: Karenna’s. But this is not available. Who’s should we look at second? Answer: Tipper’s. Tipper is a non-clinical manic-depressive with high highs and low lows. Her chart went off like an absolute rocket when Gore was elected VP in 1992; check it out. We have a quite decent TOB on her, so what do you see? I see almost nothing. HOW can Tipper’s chart be essentially flat on Election Day if her husband has just achieved his life’s ambition? In the next two paragraphs let me again get more technical than I usually prefer to on this site.
In Al Gore’s chart I’ve already mentioned that he will be going into a Mercury Bhukti exactly on Election Day. This is ruler of 3rd and 12th in 8th. Not only is this not very appetizing in its own right, but get this: His natal Mercury we are now discussing is at 23-AQ. Well, where are tertiary progressed Pluto, Saturn & Neptune on election day? At 23-CA, 23-LE & 23-VI respectively! (No orb.) Do these three exact daggers suggest a happy Mercury on its first Bhukti day? Not to me. (Transiting Uranus will also have stationed at 23-CP.) And why has his tertiary MC progressed onto a degree of “suffering and limitation?” (Jain) Why has his secondary Mercury (during Mercury Bhukti) progressed onto a degree of “unraveling?” (Jain) Why is his secondary Moon on an “unfortunate” degree? (Jain) What is the implication of transiting Neptune dead on his Descendant (which, oddly enough, is also George Bush Sr.’s IC)? To me, this is weakness and unraveling. Otherwise, he either has a mistress (Al?) or Tipper is on drugs or alcohol. If either of these later two possibilities were likely, then I’d think much better of Gore’s chances. But I don’t think they are. BTW, my intuition is that Tipper really doesn’t want him to win. She’s had it. These are just a few thoughts.
Bush is running a Mars Bhukti. Mars rules his 5th and 10th making it automatically a strong rajayoga planet for election victory. It is also vargottama (i.e., strengthened by being repeated again in the same sign – a friend’s sign - in his navamsha chart). Gore’s ashtakavarga bindus run very high – but Bush’s run even higher (except his Mars is definitely in a weakish house by ashtakavarga). Bush has a secondary Moon/Mars conjunction on a “strong” degree (and secondary Pluto sextiles it – all three to the same degree). Bush has secondary Mercury exactly conjunct natal Venus (both at 28-CA), and secondary Uranus (28-TA) and secondary Venus (28-VI) are sextile this conjunction from both directions. This theme is repeated with tertiary Mercury exactly conjunct tertiary Venus. If this doesn’t suggest he is receiving “positive messages” on election day, then what does it suggest? His tertiary progressed MC is on a degree that has to do with “rising to a position of responsibility.” (Jain) It will enter his 10th house in three months (i.e., on Inauguration month). The minor progressed Sun will be dead on his Ascendant. Transiting Uranus will have just gone stationary direct at 23-CP; Bush’s Moon is at 23-VI (an exact trine), and keep in mind that his ruling Moon is only one applying degree from natal Jupiter (which the Uranus station thus also trines). I should mention that I normally don’t give much weight to sextiles and trines, but I do with Uranus – and particularly when it is nearly stationary AND in perfect aspect. This suggests loss?
Well, I could go on (and a lot more goes into this), but I just wanted to give a slight bit more flavor for my thinking. One odd thing is that I have the charts of Bush’s father and mother, but they really don’t show as I’d expect them to. And with regard to both Bush and Gore, I’m just really shocked at the general lack of contact angularity in a way I am accustomed to seeing it (exact activity by and to the angles). This fact continues to have me quite perplexed since it is SO unusual. Still I will stick with my Bush forecast - supplied last April when they were dead even in the polls (which seemed like the fairest time to supply it).
The Media Continues to Ignore Real Astrology
As my readers know, since it was clearly documented on this site at the time, I had forecast, in quite precise detail, the total collapse of Bush in the 2/1/00 New Hampshire Primary four months ahead of time (on 10/4/99). At this time, Bush was cruising towards his coronation across a cloudless sky, and John McCain was not even a blip on the radar screen. As it turned out, even a week before the 2/1 primary, the big name pundits STILL could not forecast his loss. Unbelievable - but true. In fact, Bush was buried by 19 points, which totally shocked the media, and made the Republican Establishment go berserk for months, thinking maybe they didn’t have a sure winner on their hands after all.
In October, I had sent a hardcopy press release to many political writers at The Washington Post exactly forecasting this as per my web site. Some of the people there I sent this release to are: David Broder, Lloyd Grove, David Ignatius, Linton Weeks, E.J. Dionne, Jr., Richard Morin, David VonDrehle and Mark Shields. I also sent it to other outlets. After it occurred exactly as forecast, I sent a follow-up hardcopy press release reminding them of this in detail. Result: no interest nor response. Conclusion: Don’t bother the slugs of the media; they are too busy feeling self-important to be bothered by mere facts and success.
I did end up corresponding with one writer at The Post, and on July 5 he admitted that his colleagues are both “ignorant of, and hostile towards, astrology.” He included himself in the completely ignorant group. Ah, well. At least a little rare honesty from The Post - even if it doesn’t begin to address the real problem of WHY they are so close-minded, WHY they all think in such a pack mentality (fear of deviation from the uniformly clever and cynical pose), and WHY they have no intellectual integrity in overcoming this gross prejudice (this from one of the world’s most “liberal,” “inclusive” and “politically correct” newspapers). This proves that some people still love to discriminate unfairly when nobody is watching them, and they can still legally get away with it.
End of comment on 8/17/00.
Selection/Discussion of Next President
April 03, 2000 – It’s still over 7 months until the November 7 election, and the two leading candidates are widely considered statistically even at this point in the race. So now seems like a good time to post my forecast, particularly since I can’t stand the tackiness of astrological “forecasts” two weeks before the elections when the trends have obviously locked in. All of my forecasts have been in writing, many have been very “high-wire” (i.e., well against the prevailing trends), and some were in national publications written many years ahead of time. And, as people who track me know, none have ever been wrong.
Bush and Gore have strangely similar charts. Both are Cancer-rising with their (chart-ruling) Moon conjunct Jupiter (Bush’s is tighter and applying). Both have a very strong Mars in their charts. Both have Saturn in their 1st house. Both have high bindus in their 10th (where Saturn/Jupiter will be transiting until June), and even higher bindus in their 11th (where Saturn/Jupiter will be transiting until the election). [For more background on this concept, see discussion of Gore’s bindu distributions – ashtakavarga – in my 1998 book titled Digital Astrology.]
Right now, Al Gore actually has more money in the bank than George Bush; quite the reverse had been expected at the beginning of this race. Further, some well known “pointing formulas,” successfully used by various political scientists to predict election wins, now definitely favor the incumbent. However, unknown to them, this is going to be a much more turbulent year politically and financially, which will scramble the factors in their formulas. And did you know that Venus will be transiting Tipper Gore’s natally stationary Jupiter (ruler of her 7th house of the husband) only a few days before the election?
There is no doubt that Gore is showing a lot of strength right now. He’s respected for his knowledge and experience, and his policies would seem to offer certain very large “issue constituencies” nowhere else to go. Meanwhile, there is increasing mocking of GWB’s apparent lack of general knowledge and “gravitas.” This is combined with an increasing concern that he cannot seem to communicate lucidly and authoritatively whenever he is forced to deviate from his canned speeches – particularly on television.
Nevertheless, I think that G. W. Bush is going to win the election. This assumes 1) that this is basically a two-person race, i.e., that the currently unknown Reform Party candidate cannot actually win, and 2) that Bush & Gore will remain their respective party nominees until November. However, I must say that the chart of GWB has, by far, the strangest win pattern for a political election that I ever recall seeing. To my eye, there is no traditional, sharply defined “smoking gun” pattern that one might expect on Election Day, and that’s very weird. Without getting technical, let’s just say that I’m referring to the absence of “angular hits” on Election Day, and that’s just unprecedented in my experience.
[Most oddly, Bill Bradley, who couldn’t win even one primary election, actually has the chart with the best set of standard factors for winning on Election Day, but he could not first get himself from A to B. Perhaps he should have run for Prime Minister. Curiously also, his basically socialist message will have a lot more appeal closer to election day than it did during the primaries.]
Apparently this unprecedented lack of transiting and progressed angularity means that Bush already knows he is going to win, and/or the chart of the winning VP aspirant will be the powerfully persuasive one (cyclically speaking). If I can gain access to valid VP birth data before the election, I’ll be quick to comment. [Speaking of VP’s, “long-time” readers of my work may recall, relative to the last election, that I wrote an article in an international magazine in 1993 (!) that “if Jack Kemp is in the 1996 election then he will definitely lose.” Thus, as soon as Bob Dole picked him for VP in 1996, Dole sealed his fate to lose.]
Astrologers may wish to note three interesting things they might not otherwise spot. First, the solar eclipse dead on GWB’s Ascendant only four days before the Republican nomination is very interesting. Secondly, transiting Mercury is going to go stationary direct exactly on Election Day, and that is going to be exactly conjunct the Ascendant of GWB’s father (see the rectified chart I developed for him on page 147 of my 1994 book, The Astrology of Death). And indeed, some deep political insiders have reasons to think that this election is just a proxy for his father. Finally, Vedic astrologers who use the Lahiri ayanamsha will not see Al Gore progressing into his Mercury Bhukti until a few weeks after the election. However, if you use the “Rick Houck” ayanamsha (explained and promoted inThe Astrology of Death, and now specifically available in various software packages), your judgment will not be clouded because you will see him going into his Mercury Bhukti… on Election Day!
PS: I STILL WANT TO BET MONEY ($5K PER RACE) ON OTHER CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS WHERE THERE ARE NO INCUMBENTS RUNNING. THERE ARE AT LEAST A DOZEN OF THESE. IF ANYONE CAN WAKE UP THE MEDIA ON THIS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. THE NY SENATE RACE (CLINTON/GIULIANI) WOULD BE ESPECIALLY FUN!
Bush and Gore have strangely similar charts. Both are Cancer-rising with their (chart-ruling) Moon conjunct Jupiter (Bush’s is tighter and applying). Both have a very strong Mars in their charts. Both have Saturn in their 1st house. Both have high bindus in their 10th (where Saturn/Jupiter will be transiting until June), and even higher bindus in their 11th (where Saturn/Jupiter will be transiting until the election). [For more background on this concept, see discussion of Gore’s bindu distributions – ashtakavarga – in my 1998 book titled Digital Astrology.]
Right now, Al Gore actually has more money in the bank than George Bush; quite the reverse had been expected at the beginning of this race. Further, some well known “pointing formulas,” successfully used by various political scientists to predict election wins, now definitely favor the incumbent. However, unknown to them, this is going to be a much more turbulent year politically and financially, which will scramble the factors in their formulas. And did you know that Venus will be transiting Tipper Gore’s natally stationary Jupiter (ruler of her 7th house of the husband) only a few days before the election?
There is no doubt that Gore is showing a lot of strength right now. He’s respected for his knowledge and experience, and his policies would seem to offer certain very large “issue constituencies” nowhere else to go. Meanwhile, there is increasing mocking of GWB’s apparent lack of general knowledge and “gravitas.” This is combined with an increasing concern that he cannot seem to communicate lucidly and authoritatively whenever he is forced to deviate from his canned speeches – particularly on television.
Nevertheless, I think that G. W. Bush is going to win the election. This assumes 1) that this is basically a two-person race, i.e., that the currently unknown Reform Party candidate cannot actually win, and 2) that Bush & Gore will remain their respective party nominees until November. However, I must say that the chart of GWB has, by far, the strangest win pattern for a political election that I ever recall seeing. To my eye, there is no traditional, sharply defined “smoking gun” pattern that one might expect on Election Day, and that’s very weird. Without getting technical, let’s just say that I’m referring to the absence of “angular hits” on Election Day, and that’s just unprecedented in my experience.
[Most oddly, Bill Bradley, who couldn’t win even one primary election, actually has the chart with the best set of standard factors for winning on Election Day, but he could not first get himself from A to B. Perhaps he should have run for Prime Minister. Curiously also, his basically socialist message will have a lot more appeal closer to election day than it did during the primaries.]
Apparently this unprecedented lack of transiting and progressed angularity means that Bush already knows he is going to win, and/or the chart of the winning VP aspirant will be the powerfully persuasive one (cyclically speaking). If I can gain access to valid VP birth data before the election, I’ll be quick to comment. [Speaking of VP’s, “long-time” readers of my work may recall, relative to the last election, that I wrote an article in an international magazine in 1993 (!) that “if Jack Kemp is in the 1996 election then he will definitely lose.” Thus, as soon as Bob Dole picked him for VP in 1996, Dole sealed his fate to lose.]
Astrologers may wish to note three interesting things they might not otherwise spot. First, the solar eclipse dead on GWB’s Ascendant only four days before the Republican nomination is very interesting. Secondly, transiting Mercury is going to go stationary direct exactly on Election Day, and that is going to be exactly conjunct the Ascendant of GWB’s father (see the rectified chart I developed for him on page 147 of my 1994 book, The Astrology of Death). And indeed, some deep political insiders have reasons to think that this election is just a proxy for his father. Finally, Vedic astrologers who use the Lahiri ayanamsha will not see Al Gore progressing into his Mercury Bhukti until a few weeks after the election. However, if you use the “Rick Houck” ayanamsha (explained and promoted inThe Astrology of Death, and now specifically available in various software packages), your judgment will not be clouded because you will see him going into his Mercury Bhukti… on Election Day!
PS: I STILL WANT TO BET MONEY ($5K PER RACE) ON OTHER CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS WHERE THERE ARE NO INCUMBENTS RUNNING. THERE ARE AT LEAST A DOZEN OF THESE. IF ANYONE CAN WAKE UP THE MEDIA ON THIS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. THE NY SENATE RACE (CLINTON/GIULIANI) WOULD BE ESPECIALLY FUN!
Follow-Up Comments on the GWB 19-Point Crash in New Hampshire
(Written February 4, 2000)
Okay, folks, way back on October 5, when George Bush was flying high without a tiny cloud in the sky - and John McCain was barely on the radar screen - I posted the following text (which is still down below):
- At the end of January, GWB is going to be in the midst of a VERY serious mess.
- It will be VERY mucky and implosive.
- It suggests he will LOSE the February 1 New Hampshire Primary.
- It's significant enough that it might knock him seriously off track.
- It's a crash!
It all came true in spades. And guess what? I even promised a further scandal focusing in the Jan 20-22 period. Thus it was no surprise, when I opened up the “Sunday Times” on the morning of Jan. 23rd, just before my lecture in London that day, to find a large article wherein a reputable journalist quotes GB Sr.'s former Chief-of-Staff that GWB had a big cocaine, womanizing and alcohol problem with “lost weekends” in Mexico. How did this play in the US? I don't know; I wasn't here. But my associates tell me it seems to have been almost totally suppressed. What a surprise. But you can bet there was frenzy in the Bush camp trying to dampen this item since it now extends to reputable people.
All my comments could have been even more precise if I had a documented time of birth for John McCain and didn't have to use my rectified one. Alas, the bane of astrology. As usual, no pundit was remotely close to what I wrote at the time I wrote it. Their endless stack of words was as irrelevant as usual. They didn’t have a clue even the week before the NH primary when McCain blew Bush out of the water! Amazing. I'm traveling for the next 10 days or so. When I get back I hope to post a bit more commentary. My offer to bet $5,000 on any election still holds.
11/07/2000 Continuing Election Review (Posted 11/04/1999):
Please see my important October 5 Forecast (noted way down below). It definitely remains in effect without qualification.
For this date, two new points:
First: On 10/27 I sent a Press Release to a lot of the political heavyweights in the media issuing a challenge that "I will bet $5,000 on any race/candidate - at any point in time - IF the media will get a certifiably correct time of birth on both candidates." It will be interesting to see if anyone in the media will pick up this challenge to their meager and fragile forecasting hegemony. Right now, NO ONE has the slightest clue whether, for example, Clinton or Giuliani will win the Senate race in NY. I'd be happy to tell them.
Second: Exactly one year before the election - in other words, in the next few days - I plan to issue another performance-based challenge. I have now determined who will be the next President of the US. I am going to SELL that information for $1,000 each to a maximum of 200 people with a close-out date of 01/31/2000. By then, things may start to get a little more obvious, whereas right now the shifting dynamics are such that any one of the four main candidates could still easily win. Polls, trends, articles, etc. mean nothing at this point. It will be in each purchaser's interest to keep this information confidential (which will leverage its value).
Why would someone spend $1,000 on this information? Because if they have reason to believe in my work, as many do, then they can turn around and make use of this unique "insider" information in a number of clever ways that could more than recoup their speculative investment. Remember: the random odds are currently working against this forecast, and that can be leveraged and exploited, for example, in betting parlors around the world. Think about it and be creative. Of course, this information cannot be absolutely guaranteed, but there is risk in everything. The real question is: how informed is the risk?
Now what if I'm wrong? In that case, EVERYONE will get ALL their money back PLUS a 10% performance penalty (which is basically DOUBLE what they would otherwise get in a current money market account). I have already pre-funded the $20,000 in "interest" that will be required for this, and I am now in the process of setting up a CPA or legal intermediary who will manage the escrow account and the simple performance contract with each "investor" (so people will be confident that I'm not running off to Tahiti with their money, nor spending it on pork belly futures). So it seems to me that ANY purchaser of this information should feel free to put at least $1,100 at risk. This is also a GREAT opportunity for cynics & skeptics, since the current random odds definitely favor them. In this case, it should be VERY easy for them to put their money where their mouth is. And just think how much pleasure they will have if I AM wrong!
Ain't it grand? EVERYONE is a winner! Please help me to get the word out on this to people who might find it interesting and fun, and who have the discretionary funds to play with. And tell them about the prior Bush forecast (below) - preferably before the end of November please! When (who said "if"?!) it comes true, this should help to stir up more interest in the concept of REAL astrology - and in this second challenge of November 3.
REMEMBER: THE DEADLINE TO GET IN ON THIS PERFORMANCE CHALLENGE IS JANUARY 31, 2000!
The Following Forecast was posted 10/05/99:
Being a Washington, DC-based astrologer, my long-time interest, as many of you know, is political forecasting. I like to do it in writing, in a public arena, unequivocally, and as much ahead of time as good birth data will permit. I haven't been wrong on an election forecast in 20 years, and I look forward to again putting my reputation at risk well in advance of this coming election. As many of your know, I don't take positions backed by polls and existing trends - as many "astrologers" seem to, and which are generally pretty meaningless until quite near the election itself. I only use pure astrology. As usual, my forecasts will show how meaningless is the ongoing blathering of the many overpaid political "talking heads." It's truly pitiful in our current society that what is meaningless is considered important, and what is truly important is considered a joke. Amazing.
I'm scheduled to be giving a lecture in London on January 23, 2000 at the British Association for Vedic Astrology (BAVA). We'll probably end up discussing politics there, so anyone who might be interested in attending please check the BAVA web site.
More "recently," you may recall Sam Donaldson's assertion, and that of many other highly-paid political "experts," that Clinton would be going down within a week of when the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke! This web site (apparently just about alone except for Robert Koch and perhaps one or two others) held to the solid written conviction during that entire year that Clinton would NOT be knocked out of office even when the wind was blowing very hard against us. We even picked exact reversal dates. But hey, astrologers are supposed to be cranks - "it can't be possible therefore it isn't" - while the political talking heads are not considered useless, repeated factual evidence to the contrary.
Now, for this posting (10/5/99), let me just put this "little" forecast "out there" as George W. Bush is cruising along seemingly without a cloud in the sky as of this date. BUT: I think that in January, 2000, GWB is going to be in the midst of some VERY serious mess. It could very well involve a scandal or maybe just some major weakness just before the early primaries - but it's VERY mucky and implosive! Despite his huge pile of cash and charming ways, this will be significant enough that it MIGHT knock him seriously off track. [Despite what we see at this time, I'm instinctively assuming we are now down to just four serious presidential contenders (Gore, Bradley, Bush & McCain) with Buchanan as spoiler, but I'll be re-checking all this again during the coming month.] So it's a crash, but I can't say for sure, as of this date, that it's a total burn.
From a certain technical point of view, Bush should hit bottom on this matter around January 20-22, i.e., a day or two before my lecture in London, but technically part of this problem also extends to the end of the month. The New Hampshire primary is February 1, so while this is a little after the main fireworks for GWB, it suggests he will lose this primary (the timing is very tight). It will be fun to watch for this to flare up "out of the blue."