LBJ's War On Poverty: 1964 v 2014 planets

January 8, 2014: the 50th Anniversary of LBJ's War On Poverty

Since Republicans and their wealthy backers have their 'hearts' set on more cuts to our nation's safety net programs, many of which were created by President Johnson (Medicare, Food Stamps, Head Start, increased Social Security benefits for the elderly, etc), it may be good to reflect astrologically on January 8, 1964 v January 8, 2014. See Pressured on poverty programs, GOP divided on defense (as if assuring that more children go to bed hungry can be defended.)

Plus, NPR is featuring For LBJ, The War On Poverty Was Personal (click for text or audio) that is quite informative concerning Lyndon Johnson's childhood which was blighted by poverty--a failed father, the constant threat of the bank taking away the family's house, often no food in the cupboard--just how millions of Americans live today.

On January 8, 1964, Johnson addressed Congress and the nation and announced his War On Poverty initiative. Poverty was "explored under Kennedy" (see article linked, above) but set in motion by President Johnson with the help of Walter Heller, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. JFK had been assassinated just 7 days prior to LBJ's announcement.

Here are the noon EST positions for Jan 8, 1964, Capitol Building with any January 8, 2014 transits included:

Sun (leadership) @17Cap26 (18Cap = the POLITICAL POWER degree of 1993's Uranus-Neptune conjunction/s...the NWO); the noon chart's Solar Return 2014 was actually yesterday;

Moon (We the People) @9Sco53--Scorpio, sign of regeneration;

Mercury @8Cap05 (Rx and conjunct South Node indicating the utilizing of previous ideas, or implementing the ideas/plans of others--here, JFK's; Mercury, planet of oration, also conjoins fixed star Facies--ruthlessness or, the victim--LBJ is well known for his ruthlessness, and was a victim of poverty in childhood);

Venus @19AQ40;

Mars, planet of war, @26Cap26 and nearing US natal Pluto Rx, a transit of intensity and purpose when new uses for old things may be found, projects that require patience may begin, and something karmic that is meant to be done is on the to-do list;

Jupiter @11Ari30 has been and will be conjoined by radical Uranus, a time when religious, educational, political, and/or social spheres of life are broadened or altered completely, and events may be unexpected and/or out of anyone's control;

Saturn @21AQ13 approaches US natal Moon in 1964, a depressive, restraining contact that on one level denotes elderly and/or poverty-stricken people;

Uranus 9Vir49 Rx conjoins fixed star Zosma, another of the 'victim stars';

Neptune @17Sco22, planet of the masses and associated with loss, grief, and misery (and the media who in 1964, considered this Johnson's uranium speech--they ignored its poverty message as they prefer to do now);

Pluto @14Vir05 Rx, near its mid-1960s Great Conjunction with electrifying Uranus in mid-Virgo, a pair whose energies include tyranny, obsessions with the manipulation of people and processes, and a 'secret need to change the lifestyles of others (Munkasey).

North Node (public contact; future direction) @11Can11 was in the midst of America's natal planets in Cancer (Venus, Jupiter, and the Sun), and the Sun in Capricorn, near SN, indicates a man morphed into The Leader of a nation via the loss and separation (SN) of the previous president.

It seems to me that LBJ's War On Poverty and its announcement 50 years ago today put a lot of stress on his relationships, alliances, and group affiliations because it occurred during a 1 North Saros Series whose themes include such stress and the advice to 'make no hasty decisions because information is distorted and possibly false' (Brady). 1N is the series that ushered in the 21st century with a Solar Eclipse on August 11, 1999--the one Nostradamus warned us about--the 'Mother of All Eclipses.'

And yes, as all you Chiron fans noticed right away, the War On Poverty has had its Chiron Return recently thanks to Chiron's approximately 50-year orbit--Chiron, of Wounded Healer fame--then and now traversing Pisces, the sign of compassion!

Here are the dates of the War On Poverty's Chiron Return/s to 11Pis18: March 30, 2013, September 6, 2013, and January 28, 2014--the date of President Obama's next SOTU address! Mr. Obama was born with a 1st house Chiron in Pisces, and with the synchronicity of 1964's Chiron Return, and, considering current social conditions in America affecting millions of citizens, we may be certain to hear him speak of poverty in America.

After all, poverty has hardly been spoken of in public for 50 years so it's way past time to stop whispering as if our down-on-their-luck-ers don't exist!

Now here's a link to Lyndon B. Johnson's natal data and chart if you're interested. You'll note that his natal Sun @3Vir46 and natal Moon @9Vir32 were trampled upon by 1964 Uranus (@9Vir49 Rx, as noted above) so sudden residential and lifestyle changes had most definitely occurred for LBJ due to the assassination of President Kennedy.

So if you're wondering if this reluctant astrologer believes the ruthless Mr. Johnson had anything to do with the assassination of his predecessor, yes. I do.

Occupy Wall Street Protests: Corralling the Bull (video)

It's been a busy couple of weeks here and since I'm feeling remiss for not blogging about the Occupy Wall Street protests that have been going on since Saturday September 17 in Zuccotti Park, NYC, here are two video reports on the situation.

It makes me proud to say that several hundred+ Americans are acting on their principles and though it's become quite novel these days for justice to triumph in America, it's way past time that the Bailouts of Big Banks become Jailouts.




Arrests and police brutality accompanied their peaceful demonstrations...and NY police 'corralled the Wall Street Bull'--to protect the statue from peaceful protestors, Americans to whom the sculptor Di Modica dedicated the beastly statue when it was installed in the middle of Broad Street on December 15, 1989!

How tragic that no one in authority has corralled the financial crooks of Wall Street to protect us from their bull.



And how interesting that the Pre-Natal Eclipse Series of the Bull's installation on December 15, 1989 is the 9 New South which repeated @ 19Virgo (not too far from US natal Neptune 22Vir25--Virgo, sign of Work and Employment) on *September 11, 2007 and is one background factor that timed the subprime mess leading to Financial Crash 2008.

9 New South = 'long term worries, paperwork, or communications issues are brought to the surface; a worrying piece of news arrives which may feel fated or karmic; responsibilities with paperwork come home to roost'. (Brady's Predictive Astrology.)

Oh, and another thing: 9 New South is the Pre-Natal Eclipse Series of Fedhead Ben Bernanke and since eclipses are 'wild cards' of the Universe--able to change conditions in a flash--he might have been waiting patiently for that solar card to be laid on Wall Street's table.


~:~

*Horoscope shown; post is sans edits. jc

Bailout more but not the poor

Yes, I noticed! Such things hath Bush wrought...

Left Out of the Bailout: The Poor

By Mark Kukis

"Recent data show poverty is already rising quite substantially," says Robert Greenstein, the executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "There is a strong potential for more hardship and destitution than we have seen in this country in a number of decades."

~:~

You know it's odd how mainsteam media goes on about Bush being 'checked out' and like he's almost out the door, or that he 'doesn't care.' Dubya's second term is set to expire in 50+ days, it's true.

Stick a fork in 'im!

So now a large part of America has joined New Orleanians on the rooftop and are needing help, answers, and a lift from the same government who played a large part in getting our nation into the several quagmires we're in.

Bailout efforts seem misdirected (unless Paulson's 'new plans on Tuesday' should eventually hit some sort of appropriate mark - hope so.)

Rewards seem to be granted to the very gangsters on the take who implemented the over-arching plan and perpetrated the very acts from which we suffer. Jobs and the loss thereof are held over our heads like blackmailers' threats - put the bailout money in a suitcase or all employees will be fired, the doors closed for good.

To reject a one-world-government theory of what the power elite are up to and why is to admit that financial and business 'experts' of our day don't know jack merde and can't look ahead long enough to see the eventual results of their faulty practices - as if they were totally unaware they were using fuzzy math and promoting its use by underlings in order to reach economic collapse so that putting in place eventual restructuring goals seems the only way to go.

Yet Barack Obama says not to bet against America...we've gotten out of messes before and will do so again. Many of Obama's uplifting statements sound awfully good about now - but desperate is the name of the game, fear and loss the method - and is the true goal being honestly divulged? Is he in on the game as well?

So before Bush checks out of the fancy Nest-Feathering Hotel, let me say what I haven't said here in quite a while - that no one wanted George Bush to be good for America any more than I did.

Didn't vote for him either time, but I was willing to be dazzled by the love of America he (kind of) professed, and was prepared to be impressed by his protecting, upholding, and defending the Constitution as he took an Oath to do in front of the world.

What oaths he may have taken in private that superseded the public Oath, I don't know, but crossing his fingers behind his back could not have been enough to justify wimping out on his Presidential Oath as he has.

Doing what he thinks is right is another way of saying he listens very little to others - unless they're his masters. He cannot cross them but he certainly has crossed we-the-people numerous times.

Now 2008 is ending and we're to be left by this man with more problems than we can shake a stick at while he moseys into the sunset to enjoy his retirement. Barack Obama is willing to let him do it, too. Are we watching a baton-passing marathon on more levels than we know?

Do you think Bush will spare one thought for the millions of hard working folks who've lost their retirements in a multitude of ways during his over-long tenure?

Because I do not. No more than for the victims on the rooftops of New Orleans, the ones his pretty mind so easily and purposefully ignored. George Bush has drowned America with the weight of lofty plans and left us all to tread water as best we can - or hitch a ride from a passing helicopter, if we dare make the arrangements.


Well, kickin' back on the porch isn't an option when your house has floated away.

And I haven't mentioned the dead and maimed in the Bush-Cheney wars.

Yet even now I'd like to be wrong about the man. It's difficult to credit him with all the misery and loss he, his cronies, and handlers have caused.

After all, if one person on this earth could feel all the pain in the world at any given moment - truly feel every bit - it would crush him or her out of existence.

But a complete list of George Bush casualties will take a very long time to fully gather or appreciate (unless the historical record is manipulated. That's a boatload of manipulating, isn't it? Yet they can hardly leave it as-is.)

And so after the New Year we will be saying good bye to George W. Bush as White House denizen, a man whose 2001 Inauguration chart looked menacing enough with Chiron, Moon, and Pluto in Sagittarius and in the 8th house of Transformation of the sort where things will never be the same.

There we see Pluto-Chiron's oppression, corporatism, and primal violence crushing the Moon, the luminary which represents 'the people' in a national chart.

So, all turkeys aside, please pardon me if sometimes I think back to those SCOTUS-installed days and wonder: did we-the-people ever really stand a chance?