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Apr 8, 2011

11:04 pm Obama on TV: Shutdown Avoided 4.8.11

Did I just hear a Breaking News announcement from President Obama that a government shutdown has just been avoided less than one hour before it would happen? A temporary spending bill has passed, says his nibs, yet with Mercury Rx and Pluto turning Rx at 4:51:03 am - in a few hours - who can know such a hapless and wispy bill's ultimate fate?

No time to put up the chart of his announcement (it's late) but my Solar Fire software is showing 00Sag47 rising at 11:04 pm edt in Washington DC. And my local CBS channel was featuring military families who wouldn't get paid during a shutdown - and then the President's special announcement broke in with the mercurial good news.

Interesting because the Sabian Symbol for '1Sag' = "A Grand Army of the Republic Campfire" which may have awakened Dems and Repubs to how both parties would be perceived by the general public if they proceeded with their shutdown script. How can they ask our valiant soldiers (many families of which live paycheck to paycheck) to keep fighting on behalf of Imperial America if they're not being paid?

As you may have heard in the news earlier today, lack of pay makes it difficult for them to concentrate on their warring efforts if they have to worry about their loved ones - and bills - at home.

But you know already know one of my favorite quotes which is allegedly from FDR:

"In politics nothing happens by accident. If it happens you can bet it was planned that way."

Yet here's someone who disputes that FDR actually said those words. Still, after living in DC twice in my life (many moons ago) and soaking up the cynical atmosphere of our premiere city so full of blackmail, cynical politics, and intrigue, I shall stand by the sense of the utterance if not its purported utterer's attribution.

You may wish to check this blog's sidebar for a quote that is from FDR to Colonel House...two grand poobahs with their noggins together. It's quite a doozy.

~:~

Previous post on a similar topic from 2007: Homelessness Rising where I unhappily had to predict soup lines across America.

And how about a blog with insightful Astrology articles: Starstruck Astrology - enjoy!

Jon Stewart deals w Glenn Beck's departure (video)

Now I've always thought Jon Stewart looks good wearing glasses...



Glenn Beck is being phased out of his FOX hole? Thanks a bunch for your efforts, Color of Change!

Gov Shutdown and a Mystery at Stars Over Washington 4.8.11

Author of Stars Over Washington Stumped (more than usual)

by Jude Cowell

As a US government shutdown looms large, Stars Over Washington has to wonder if the stars will dim tonight over our nation's capital at 12:01 am edt. Both sides will look bad in this stalemate though which party takes most of the blame remains to be seen. Republicans adding social issues to the budget agreement seems calculated to guarantee a shutdown since the GOP knows the Dems won't accept its passage with such controversial riders attached.

Plus, the upcoming debt limit debate seems stalemated before it gets a good start.

Astrologically Speaking

Can the current Mercury retrograde period have something to do with the impasse? Mercury rules agreements, bills, voting, orating, thinking, planning, and all manner of things which are intricately involved in the situation as Washington moons we-the-people and acts out like unruly children.

Yet Mercury won't make a Direct Station and change directions until Saturday April 23 and then must leave its shadow (May 11) before mercurial things can really move forward again. Well, Mercury did turn Rx at a critical-crisis degree (click for my notes on Mercury's schedule.)

If you missed it, here's my post on the possible April 8/9th shutdown at midnight showing America's natal horoscope with tonight's transits added.

So now I sit here typing and wondering - both noble mercurial pursuits - why in the last couple of weeks or so, the page views for SO'W have quadrupled and then some. That any of my posts could receive thousands of views in one 24-hour period is gratifying of course, if true, so yesterday I took time to add up pvs of individual posts. As expected, they did not add up to the total...not even close.

Then is SO'W under hack attack? Or is increased readership good news for my 6 years of blogging here? Mercury is the planet of Good News, after all, and rules my natal Ascendant and Midheaven.

Well, if the page view increase is for real, perhaps it's due to a blog link a kind person added to a forum on Planet Waves, an brilliant Astrology site containing much astro-info from expert astrologer Eric Francis and friends.

That, possible Blogger miscounting, or hacking are the 3 best explanations I can think of for this mysterious uppage of SO'W's readership. And this is where in my text a bemused 'head scratch' should be inserted...

~:~

Perhaps you'd be interested in reading Jesse Ventura's open letter to the ruling elite as provided by the excellent dProgram.net where you'll find information on topics the US government doesn't want you to know or think critically about.

Apr 7, 2011

Sun Aries-Moon Gemini 4.7.11 and a peek at April 16th

Today with Sun in Aries and Moon just entered Gemini, let's look at the Sun-Moon blend to get a sense of the Fire-Air combo of energies now influencing our atmosphere. Perhaps even Capitol Hill will lighten up!

But first, a word about the Moon. Luna has quite a journey to go to conjoin a planet given the many that are lined up in Aries, the sign she left this morning after the April 3rd New Moon @ 13Ari30. In fact, it won't be until Saturday, April 16, 2011, before our lovely satellite catches up with lonely Saturn Rx @12Lib52.

When the Moon-Saturn conjunction occurs, the pair will oppose Mars 11Ari35 and Mercury Rx 14Ari32, another duo now engaged in joining together. The Mercury-Mars pair has a 'power of thought' and 'realization of plans' theme; Moon-Saturn, a 'self-control, depression, ambition and strategy' flair. (Either, or, or all.)

Mercury, Mars, Saturn, and the Moon will form four T-Squares on April 16 which point to an apex Pluto, the master controller...in a Cardinal T-Square, apex Pluto uses hidden strengths to confront and overwhelm his opposition forcefully and ruthlessly when he feels challenged or threatened; crisis situations demand his immediate, decisive action, and apex Pluto doesn't share his power with others; he tends toward a chip-on-shoulder attitude and resentment and contempt may be prevalent; explosive endings cannot be ruled out.

Moon/Mars = Pluto: one-sided outlook; fanaticism; moodiness; a woman who stands alone in the world.

Mars/Saturn = Pluto: necessity to rely on oneself; inclination to rise in life by using force and to go one's way alone; depression; separation.

Midpoint pictures will simultaneously form from the other direction as well...

Mercury/Mars = Moon: thinking and acting are strongly influenced by feelings; 'clearing the air' by arguing and talking it out; a quarrelsome woman.

Mercury/Mars = Saturn: good powers of concentration; a slow or sluggish mode of thinking; a tendency to say bad things; a desire to harm others; bringing harm to oneself through exaggeration; quarrels cause separations.

Now let's get back to today's Sun Ari-Moon Gem blend which is a purposeful v scattered combo full of wit, creativity, and musical talent. Variety is the spice of life for this combo so society's mood should improve for a day or so with this immensely dynamic blend (until the Moon enters her own sign of self-protective yet nurturing Cancer.)

Sun Ari-Moon Gem has a sharp mind, yes, but focus may be lacking for this starter-not-finisher pair of energies as brilliant ideas abound. This blend has a joie de vivre which makes mortals feel more alive. (If you, dear reader, are susceptible to falling in love at the drop of a pin, beware: for Sun Ari-Moon Gem encourages falling in love at top speed!)

Zest, enthusiasm, the gift of gab, entrepreneurial skills, and an eye for opportunity are evident during a Sun Ari-Moon Gem reign of influence though brash impatience, unreliability, and insensitivity to others may be noticed as well, along with an unfortunate tendency not to learn from experience. (Such as politicians learning lessons from Government Shutdown 1995/96? The White House is calling for another meeting today on the budget impasse at 1:00 pm edt and I hope they consider how stupid and ineffectual they all look to us and to the rest of the world.)

Sun Ari-Moon Gem's "Images for Integration: A fencing master carries off the prize...A racing driver plays the piano to relax...Hayden's Farewell Symphony." (Sun Sign-Moon Sign, Charles & Suzi Harvey.)

Note: since this is the natal blend of Iran (April 1, 1979 3:00 pm Tehran, Iran), the country may be highlighted in the news over the next couple of days; the above description applies to modern Iran but not necessarily to ancient Persia whose natal horoscope is lost in the mist of time.

~:~

Further reading: The Combination of Stellar Influences, Reinhold Ebertin;
Dynamics of Aspect Analysis, Bil Tierney.

~:~

FYI: April 7, 2011 marks the beginning of a Free Access week on the Ancestry.com site, if you're interested in your roots! But you'd better have plenty of time to devote to genealogy research for it's very diverting. (April 7 - 14.)

Apr 6, 2011

Seriously: Who Takes "President Trump" Seriously?

A recent poll suggests that someone does take NYC's serial-bankrupt mogul seriously in his bid for the US presidency in 2012.

Not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with bankruptcy with its safety valve capacity, of course: except that when it's done on that level of a playing field (where the wheeler-dealers scamper while risking other people's money), a definite whiff of scalliwaggedness must waft about prospective voters' heads if they have any deliberative capacity at all.

And as many people have asked, if Mr. Trump is a serial filer, how good can he be for America's already-shaky financial prospects?

I mean, if America's debt ceiling isn't raised by May 2011, bankruptcy will be knocking loudly on our collective door like a Landlord Trump collecting way-overdue rent.

For me a Trump prez candidacy is on the same shaky rung as the 2008 campaign of Sarah Palin, with John McCain riding close on their pseudo-presidential coat tails. It's amazing how US political campaigns have risen into the stratosphere costwise, and ballotwise there's no telling whose name might turn up for our consideration. Very Jupiter-Neptune, I think: the grand schemers with pie-in-the-sky-esque antics (and those who flatter them!) yet whose talents must in the end have some practical motivation and application within the vicious world of politics.

And with diversion so prevalent in society these days (a handy tool for political operatives everywhere), perhaps a Donald Trump candidacy in tandem with "That thing on his head," as David Letterman has repeatedly and endearingly said (a hairstyle that often defies description or belief), may at some point prior to the November 2012 election, bring us a much-needed chuckle as we watch the jester cavort for the cameras while spouting outrageous ideas that he hopes will catch the public's attention.

(Note: there is nothing presidential or crazy that Mr. Trump can say that can force me to watch The Apprentice, flagging ratings or no. Just sayin'. jc)

Okay, But Let's Take Trump Seriously One More Time on This Blog

(And as my mother used to say, "Now let that be the last.")

On the downside for candidate Trump, being known for barking the phrase, "You're fired!" has a particularly bad vibe for US families and the millions of unemployed voters who have watched Congress argue amongst themselves, grandstand, and read the US Constitution (as if we-the-people don't know how) lo these many months since the Republican-Tea Party majority took over the House in January 2011.

After the November 2010 elections, even I could see the Washington gridlock coming from hundreds of miles away! They've 'served' in Congress barely three months and a Friday shutdown of the US government is said to loom large as I type.

But all I really know is that if shutting down the US government for good is the ultimate intent of certain factions operating within the US (and their antecedents who administered on behalf of an over-arching agenda before the current crop of Hegelian scoundrels, shills, and Chaos Utopians arrived), they're doing an annoyingly excellent job of it as 2012 nears. They may have latched on to the overly-PR'd 2012 New Age-Mayan Prophecy gold mine of Fear and are using it to good effect for their power-and-wealth-grabbing purposes with a side order of mass manipulation.

Or...perhaps the cosmically advanced Mayans knew what they were carving about.


Well, I say, Hurrah! that Wisconsin voters today in their Supreme Court race beat back a little the draconian creep instituted by the state's current gaggle of GOP strong-arming soldiers (like Gov. Scott Brown and his brethren) who seem to have never met what they consider to be a lesser being whom they couldn't stifle, hoodwink, or disenfranchise.

~:~

For further reading try NWO 2012.

Wisconsin: 19 counties flip for Dems in Supreme Court Race!

Hurrah, Wisconsin!

19 Counties Flip To Democrats In Wisconsin Supreme Court Race

Significantly, 19 counties that went for Walker in the 2010 elections this time flipped and went for Kloppenburg, including LaCrosse (59 percent), Sauk (56 percent) and Dunn (56 percent).

Nearly 1.5 million people turned out to vote, representing 33.5 percent of voting-age adults -- 68 percent higher than the 20 percent turnout officials had expected.
#


So does this mean that Gov. Scott Walker has had a speck o'mud thrown in his eye?

Peter Schiff on the US financial condition (Alex Jones video)

March-April 2011: Alex Jones speaks with economist Peter Schiff on finances, capitalism, bailouts for the super-rich, unions, scapegoating the Middle Class, class warfare (Pluto/Chiron's baby), taxes, Fortune 100 corporations like GE and Google which helped write loopholes into Obama's financial reform bill, the Fed, and much more.



Part 1 of 2




Part 2 of 2

(Personally, I'm unable to say that the Fed's actions have been "incompetent" since my belief is that the Federal Reserve Bank creates bubbles and crashes on purpose - for, "He who controls the money supply of a nation controls the nation." - James Garfield.)

~:~

Published this morning on a similar topic: a dual chart image of our US natal horoscope with transits for the possible shutdown of the US government at midnight on April 8, 2011.

Plus, Woolly Mammoth Chronicles has recently been updated with a nod to Fringe Science and a new Ode to a Woolly Mammoth, in case you tire of the financial shell game now being played by Washington. jc

US Gov Shutdown? US natal chart w Apr 8, 2011 transits

UPDATE 4.6.11 6:07 pm edt: NPR just reported that if there is a government shutdown at the end of the week it would happen at "12:01 am Saturday morning." This is one minute one second later than what I used to set up the horoscope below yet the charts' (cusps') time link remains the same.

Original column begins here:

America's Natal Chart with Transits for April 8, 2011: Midnight on Capitol Hill

by Jude Cowell

As the US government's budget impasse continues, with raising the debt ceiling soon on our national menu as well, I'm feeling as if the American people and our tattered social fabric are being held hostage to Washington's ideology-driven Capitol Hill Theater antics as the ruling class pushes its 'higher agenda' of world domination upon US taxpayers' tab.

Therefore, the US war budget, a bottomless pit of financial irresponsibility which funds wars on behalf of global war profiteers, will not be put upon the chopping block - but your Aunt Granny Fanny's Medicare probably will.



Here you see dual charts with US natal inside (July 4, 1776 5:10 pm LMT Philadelphia, PA), center, and transits for April 8, 2011 @ 11:59:59 pm Capitol Hill DC, outer. My usual messy scribbles are included so click to enlarge the charts for better viewing, if you wish.

One thing that immediately pops out to the eye is that the transiting cusps are the same as our nation's natal cusps! This makes it easy to see which houses (life departments) contain transiting planets at midnight of April 8, 2011 when the national budget effectively ends.

Anger Management MIA

Missing in action (besides common sense) may be anger management with the tr Moon 21Gem00 conjoining US natal Mars 21Gem23 in 7th house. Moon/Mars contacts indicate anger, intense emotions, impulsive actions, and emotional excitement and with the Moon in a mundane chart signifying The People, one may assume that most if not all Americans will be po'd big time at Congress even more than usual if a shutdown occurs.

The Moon Hour is good for fluctuations and changes though the April 8th Moon is out-of-bounds (OOBs) and thus feeling insecure and perhaps inferior concerning our needs (Moon) - as if the Political Theater now being played out in Washington is more important to DC politicians than our needs are. (Well, to me it's a given that DC pols think this, but maybe some of us still believe that sending reps there to "do the people's business" remains The Deal.)

Tr Pluto 7Cap30 is in 1st house showing massive transformation and as-yet unknowable power issues which are being revealed as Pluto plows through America's house of Identity and opposes US n planets in Cancer. When it comes to money - what the shutdown is purportedly about - Pluto (the dragon guarding the riches) opposing our national Sun/Jupiter midpoint is doing just fine, thanks...

Natal Sun/Jup = tr Pluto: pursuit of fortune; acquiring wealth; an expectation of good luck. (Ebertin.)

But most of us? Not so much.

Another contact between the charts is tr Mercury 20Ari06 Rx playing about our natal Chiron. The Mercury/Chiron duo indicates a superlative ability to suss out what's really going on and to instinctively understand what others are thinking in relation to the situation. This contact describes a negotiator, teacher, counselor, orator, trader, or reporter, (or blogger?) and may signify President Obama since House Majority Leader John Boehner said this week that the President has been out of the mix on budget issues - yet '21Ari' = "A Pugilist Entering the Ring." We'll see if anyone else is better described as a "pugilist" in this matter though Republican Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is a very likely candidate, isn't he?

And since US n Chiron conjoins our natal Sun/Pluto midpoint, a picture forms...

Natal Sun/Pluto = tr Mercury: consciousness of objectives; a nerve crisis; a public speaker with suggestive power.

In 10th house of Career and Public Status, there's lesson-bringer Saturn 13Lib29 in the midst of our nation's Saturn Return with the last of three conjunctions exact on August 28, 2011. (Note: in the outer chart, I neglected to add 'Rx' to Saturn 13Lib29.) Current budget battles and the debt limit issue are part of our Saturn Return for if the US doesn't raise the debt ceiling, we will be forced to reneg on our debts and promises rather than take responsibilities as seriously as Saturn demands.

(Then natal Saturn-in-10th-house's 'fall from grace' implication will follow. Will the GOP sacrifice America for the sake of - they hope - winning the White House in 2012 by refusing to raise the US debt limit?)

Rebellious Uranus 1Ari36, planet of sudden events, is just within US natal 4th house of Home, Homeland, and Domestic Scene and we feel The Awakener's disruptive influence on the monetary stand-offs in Washington. At 5Ari25, warring Mars has made his quarreling self 'at home' and Jupiter 17Lib04 has recently (March 30) opposed US natal Saturn 14Lib48, a time when rules, regulations, and restrictions are in direct conflict with the freedom to do as one wishes and success is blocked. However, Jupiter makes no more oppositions to our Saturn for another 12 years.

April 8, 2011's Moneybags Jupiter

Meanwhile, Jupiter, significator of the Republican Party and chart-ruler (of both charts), applies to conjunction with tr Mercury Rx, a combo of grand plans, good ideas, and sound common sense. The Mercury/Jupiter duo represents businessmen, orators, and scientists.

A minor irritation is described by Jupiter's applying semi-square to Neptune: reality and the facts take a brief holiday and victimization may occur; we should avoid those who tout 'the big picture' which, to me, includes global government promoters and 'free' traders the world over...but especially those in Washington.

Neptune 00Pis08 Still in Range of US natal Moon

Neptune to US n Moon: sense of rootlessness, homelessness and foreclosures, water disasters, and fraud to the people. Yes, Neptune will eventually be beyond influencing our Moon though the planet's dissolving conditions will linger a while. But what will linger longer is radiation crossing the ocean from the Japan Nuclear Meltdown with Neptune now in her favorite sign, Pisces (oceans, fish, poisons, gases, contagions.)

Also, with tr Neptune @ 00Pis08, America's Pre-Natal Eclipse Series, the 12 South, is affected; 12S repeated on July 11, 2010 @ '19Cancer' which conjoined a difficult Fixed Star, Castor. 12S = 'successful outcomes to long term worries or illness; a draining issue will at first seem worse, then clear with successful outcomes.' (Brady's Predictive Astrology.)

You'll remember the 12S last July which I held out to bring improvement in the BP-Gulf Oil Blowout disaster and 4 days after the Solar Eclipse occurred, the well was successfully capped. And the news from Japan this very morning is that the radiation leak stopped at "around 5:38 am", as reported by Democracy Now!...success? ;p

So will our national PE's influence help with current budget battles? Hopefully so especially with tr NN (destiny; future direction) in 1st house of this chart (a good portent) and conjoining Fixed Star Aculeus, keywords: enduring attacks but success.

For our children's sakes, may it be so.

~:~

Astro-Note: though I'm not fond of spending time studying and posting horoscopes for events which may not come to pass, it seems instructive to consider the midnight chart of April 8, 2011 since a government shutdown will affect us all in a myriad of ways. Some of those ways are mentioned above, many are not. Now if only congressmembers' paychecks stopped being direct-deposited during a gov shutdown, the budget impasse would end very soon if it happened at all! Even so, this post describes current transits to the US natal chart, shutdown or no. jc

Apr 5, 2011

Ron Paul 1988: drug trafficking by the CIA, Bush Sr, & the Ds (video)



In 1988, Rep. Ron Paul was interviewed and mentioned the CIA, Bush Sr (CIA Director once upon a time), Ronald Reagan, and the Democratic Party and their involvement in drug trafficking to finance illegal CIA operations which Congress wouldn't fund (or didn't want its fingerprints on as a body.)

Then in August 1988, George H. W. Bush gave his thousand points of light" acceptance speech in New Orleans (text or audio), if you wish to remember the words of a drug-trafficking 'president' who later affirmed that his "mission" was to establish a New World Order, the dire effects of which become clearer every day.

Paul Ryan's Roadmap to America's Future (of Serfdom)

With Mercury's current retrograde condition in Mars-ruled Aries, a review of Paul Ryan, poster boy for austerity cuts, and his "Roadmap to America's Future" may be in order.

It amazes me that any self-interested American can believe the austerity plans of the GOP as touted by Paul Ryan will lead to anything but complete government take-over by fascist elements - their goal perhaps, but not the goal of average Americans who'd like to raise their families in peace and freedom - as other families in other nations also want.

Perhaps you disagree. If so, please leave a courteous comment here for I'd like to know how placing budget problems on the backs of the little man makes any sense at all - unless complete collapse of a society is the ultimate aim - while it's the rich 1% - 2% who have the funds that could keep America in business! Obviously, the plan is to break the little man's back and thereby exercise population control upon the weaker and weakest while creating a nation of serfs begging for crumbs from the totalitarian table of a morally deformed power elite.


2008 Brought Major Change to America's Prospects

Guess America's Secondary Progressed Full Moon (@ 4Vir10 opposite US Sec Sun 4Pis10) of December 24, 2008 did signal something important after all: that we as a nation had expanded as far as we could in the world and the time to retract financially had come - which includes the Pentagon's quixotic notions about world domination, aka, the new world order.

And of course, Financial Collapse 2008 was in its full regalia by the time of our nation's Sec Full Moon (or, SP Full Moon, if you prefer; I use 'Sec' to distinguish between Minor and Tertiary Progressions)...synchronicity in action.

Click the link above to read my older post on the US Sec Full Moon, chart image included, but I shall post the horoscope here as well (as is, no edits):



As you see, there is a Hard Rectangle pattern formed between the opposing Moon and Sun and opposing Venus and Mars. The Hard Rectangle was given its name by Charles Jayne and it suggests that the oppositions are more pressured to activate reconciliation because of the subtle, indirect pressures of the semi-squares and sesqui-squares involved.

A greater application of will to accomplish balance and harmony is indicated yet the stand-offs can spark further antagonism (Washington's stock in trade) and a lack of compromise (now a dirty word on Capitol Hill: President Obama has invited certain vipers to the White House this morning to talk of ways to keep the US government open and running past April 8th - or, to rehearse the script they will all be following.) The antagonism and lack of compromise between our alleged 'two' parties act as handy diversionary tactics to keep the people divided and conquered.

However, the dynamic tension within a Hard Rectangle pattern can add a dose of strength and purpose when its planetary energies are well-managed. Venus here is ruled by Mars and Mars is ruled by Venus in a mutual reception which may not have been enough to counter the victim/savior conditions of the Moon (we-the-people) in critical, hard-working Virgo while the Sun (the leader; leadership) remains in elusive, often deceptive, Pisces, sign of many a military general.


Further reading: a natal chart astro-peek at Paul Ryan.