CHINESE NEW YEAR – BAD NEWS FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP?

By Lowell Ponte

Chinese New Year, the “Year of the Rooster (or Chicken),” on Saturday kicked off more than two weeks of celebration across much of Asia.

It could, warn Chinese astrologers, bring economic and other major problems for President Donald Trump.

Few in the West believe in this ancient occultism – but our intelligence agencies should study it, because two billion people with historic links to China do in varying degrees believe. The portents of this new year can influence the investment decisions and other actions of almost a third of humankind.

The Chinese calendar is based on a 12-year cycle of a dozen animals, each with its own characteristics, and a 60-year cycle of influences such as fire, water, and gold. We are entering a lunar year of the “fire rooster,” shaped by earth and metal, usually gold. The year’s most lucky color will be gold, according to ancient Chinese divination.

The “Fire Rooster” influence is to be practical and plan carefully, while keeping its temper under careful control. President Trump will have a successful spring and summer, says Hong Kong Chinese zodiac diviner Priscilla Lam, who told CNN a year ago that he would win the 2016 election.

But as the Year of the Rooster cools this coming autumn and winter, fortune teller Lam warns that President Trump will “run into difficulties.”

January-February 2018 will begin a new “Year of the Dog.” President Trump was born June 14, 1946, in a Year of the Dog. According to Chinese astrology, people born under a particular animal sign tend to have serious difficulties during a year of their sign. The final three months of 2017 and all of 2018 could be bad news for President Trump.

At the same time, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin – born October 7, 1952 – is a “Water Dragon,” extremely incompatible with “Dog” Trump. “Putin’s going to have a good year,” says Lam’s divination. “The element of metal in the latter part of 2017 means money for Putin – and for Russia. The Russian economy will prosper.”

At the same time, the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, is predicted to have a great Year of the Rooster. Xi, born June 15, 1953, under Western astrology, would seem quite compatible with fellow Gemini Donald Trump.

Both would be compatible with Putin, born under another air sign, Libra, the scales, which, as we discuss in our latest book Money, Morality & The Machine: Smith’s Law in an Unethical, Over-Governed Age, is the origin of the giant “L” symbol for the British Pound, £.

But in Chinese astrology, Xi was born in a Year of the Water Snake – as was the founder of Communist China Mao Zedong, born December 26, 1893. Snakes can be dishonest, deceptive, untrustworthy, and brutal.

Xi in recent years began a major crackdown on human rights in China and continued his policy of seizing and militarizing islands claimed by other nations in the South China Sea. According to Chinese astrology, he is far more compatible with fellow reptile Vladimir Putin than with dogged Donald Trump, who may find Xi hard to negotiate with.

“China, under Xi’s leadership, is going to make a lot of money” in the new Year of the Rooster, predicts Lam, despite China’s current economic difficulties.

And how will you do in this New Year? China keeps buying gold, as do the Chinese to give to their children in traditional red envelopes on Chinese New Year. It is surviving wisdom that has led the Chinese culture to celebration of this, their Year 4,714.

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For a fascinating interview with Lowell Ponte, contact: Sandy Frazier at sandy@mystic-art.com or call 516-735-5468.

For a media copy of Craig R. Smith’s and Lowell Ponte’s latest book, Money, Morality & The Machine: Smith’s Law in an Unethical, Over-Governed Age, contact: David Bradshaw at 602-918-3296.

Sources:

Chieu Luu, “Year of the Rooster: What’s in Store for World’s Top Leaders?” CNN, January 26, 2017. URL: http://www.cnn.com/20017/01/26/asia/chinese-lunar-new-year-world-leaders/

Reiss Smith, “Chinese New Year 2017 Predictions: Year of the Rooster Could Bring War and Terror,” U.K. Express, January 27, 2017. URL: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/759760/chinese-new-year-predictions-year-zodiac-war-terror

HUMANS GET A MONEY-FOR-NOTHING “UNIVERSAL INCOME”

ROBOTS GET RIGHTS AS “ELECTRONIC PERSONS”
“IT’S ALREADY BEGUN TO HAPPEN,” SAY EXPERTS

President Donald Trump may save thousands of jobs, but such rescues are likely to be temporary.

The reason is that American jobs will soon be lost not to foreign countries but to domestic robots.

Robots with Artificial Intelligence could replace humans in up to 47 percent of today’s jobs, from hamburger flippers and factory workers to truck drivers, according to a report issued December 20, 2016, by the White House.

Many millions of people will be unemployed and in need of money. The government at the same time will lose trillions in revenue from jobless, broke former taxpayers.

This could devastate the world economy. Government will increase reckless printing of money out of thin air, destroying the dollar’s value. Taxes will skyrocket.

In their latest book, Money, Morality & The Machine: Smith’s Law in an Unethical, Over-Governed Age, Craig R. Smith and Lowell Ponte predicted that the European Union would turn to strange measures – and in early 2017 they have.

The EU, exactly as Smith and Ponte warned, moved in January to make robots “electronic persons.” It did this so that all kinds of robots can be made to pay tax – especially the steep retirement tax – that the robots, which never “retire,” will never receive as retirement benefits.

These robot taxes can be used to keep government fat as well as to provide part of a guaranteed “universal income” that all people could receive, whether they worked or not. A test of such “universal income” just got underway with thousands of people in Finland.

Few European politicians believe that taxing robots will deter companies from replacing human workers. Robots boost productivity so dramatically – working 24 hours a day without pay, strikes, getting sick or making human errors – that in 10 or 20 years a company, or country, without robot workers will be unable to compete. The robot revolution is inevitable.

A “universal income” for all citizens is surprisingly applauded by some across the political spectrum in the United States. Radical labor leader Andy Stern believes it “would make people more secure and give them more human dignity.”

On the right, Libertarian Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute calculates that giving everyone a basic income of $850 to $1,200 per month would save money if it replaced today’s welfare state.

Welfare gives the poor as little as 19 cents of every dollar spent in their name – the rest being taken by social workers, political appointees, and other government retainers who make their living by keeping others in poverty.

What about making robots into “electronic citizens”? Smith and Ponte ask if robots will acquire other human rights: “The right to vote and elect robot lawmakers? Free speech? Marriage? Choice of gender identity? … Freedom not to be fired when they become old, slow, and obsolete?”

“Will robots have the right to move and work anywhere…?” ask Smith and Ponte. “Have maximum daily work hours? Vacations? A guaranteed minimum wage? The right to keep and bear arms?” No, say Smith and Ponte, “Nobody in the EU has that right….”

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For an Interview with Lowell Ponte, contact: Sandy Frazier sandy@mystic-art.com 516-735-5468

For a free media copy of their book Money, Morality & The Machine: Smith’s Law in an Unethical, Over-Governed Age, contact: David Bradshaw, ideaman@myideafactory.net 602-918-3296

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Sources:

Craig R. Smith and Lowell Ponte, Money, Morality & The Machine: Smith’s Law in an Unethical, Over-Governed Age. Phoenix: P2 Press, 2016. Pages 159-175.

Executive Office of the President, Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy. Washington, D.C.: The White House, December 20, 2016. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/documents/Artificial-Intelligence-Automation-Economy.PDF