Remember December 2015 when Congress hastily passed a 'cromnibus' bill so they could leave town for their holiday break? It was called by some a "poison pill" spending bill and as time goes by we'll be discovering several reasons why. For one reason, it turns out that...
Washington DC's sorry so-n-sos masquerading on Capitol Hill as the US government followed their transnational masters' orders and slipped overreaching, draconian spying provisions into the current omnibus bill. In part this is signified astrologically by the Sabian Symbol for '18 Capricorn'-- "The Union Jack Flies from a British Warship" = "smug or strong-armed paternalism...POLITICAL POWER, its value and its dangers"--Rudhyar; Jones) where 'new world order' planets Uranus and Neptune met in Great Conjunction three times in 1993--and creepy underworld saboteur, assassin, and spy, Pluto, now conjoins this degree for draconian potentials such as: the big picture demands a certain course of action which must be followed, very little option to do otherwise (Tyl), and: remaining at the mercy of external conditions and circumstances without taking a firm stand (We the People didn't), abandonment of resistance (are we wimps?), necessity to given in, calamities, catastrophes, great losses (Ebertin).
As you recognize, these are some of the current themes manifesting in society (though there are plenty of positives ones, too, and other difficult ones described by transiting aspects such as the Saturn-Neptune and Uranus-Pluto squares) which will continue over the next few years as Pluto plods through the Saturn-ruled sign of government, law, and business until the 'god of Hades' reaches approximately 23 Capricorn (18Cap + Pluto's 5-degree orb = 23Cap) and stops doubling back to that degree via retrograde motion. And of course 23Cap is within orb of America's natal Pluto Rx @27Cap33 (3 times in 2022).
And of course when it comes to Spying in America on innocent people we can always depend upon our national Mercury-Pluto opposition across the Cancer-Capricorn axis of security and the secrets it contains and the ones it's so desperate to uncover--and to hide. Like sneaking anti-American spying provisions into the cromnibus bill and keeping their perfidy hush hush.
Here is more from Dane Rudhyar on the 18Cap degree:
"Alas, this power can easily be misused under the pretext of preserving 'law and order'. Justice and compassion must balance social power, and especially the power of privileged groups. Where this symbol appears, the need for protection may be in evidence--or it may be a warning against using power for selfish advantage." (An Astrological Mandala, DR).
And now on the topic here is David Pakman: