Does the First Amendment right to free speech protect political bald-face lies? If a so-called “leak” is involved in revealing that the president’s words are unreliable, deceptive or outright calculated manipulations (as in the leaked transcripts of his conversations with Mexico’s president and Australia prime minister), who’s speech is protected and who’s isn’t?
Last time I checked, telling
the truth was a matter of socially-acceptable behavior in general—what some would call morality.
Telling the odd fib to save a social situation from going sour usually
feels okay, but vicious lies told at the expense of other people to promote
some selfish aim (say when Trump spreads blatant lies about his opponents and
many “enemies”) are still offensive to our collective consciousness.
In traditional terms, lying
to hurt another person is immoral—Catholics
used to go to confession for the sins of slander and defamation. But now we have to wonder if it’s even
the job of government to be truthful, moral or ethical. What about fair and
just? The Trump administration seems
to be dismantling any preconceived notions we might have had about ethics,
justice and moral government before our very eyes.
The big questions are: can
democracy survive this dismantling in the end? Does democracy require these virtuous underpinnings to
function, or not? We know that the free press was conceived very early on as a
way to hold public officials accountable to We the People—their employers, after all. What does Trump’s
war against the mainstream media and the truth
tell us, in light of all this?
Needless to say, we’re
grappling with deep, dark Neptune/Pluto survival issues as a
nation, as Pluto edges closer and closer to its 27°+ Capricorn return point in the Sibly chart, while Neptune
drifts within the final 10 degrees of its Pisces half-return to Sibly Neptune
(22°+Virgo), and Trump is looking
more and more like Neptune-Pluto’s “useful idiot” (a term translated from the
Russian).
He and his administration have forced us to think deeply about the difference between “fake news” and “real news,” a difference that has deep implications.
He and his administration have forced us to think deeply about the difference between “fake news” and “real news,” a difference that has deep implications.
The difference between real
and fake may not sound like the end of the world (Trump and No. Korea are
working on that), but the problem deepens when we realize how Trump and company
use “real/fake” to challenge our democratic system of checks of balances.
Ethics and accountability issues play out differently
in the corporate and government worlds—if we think Congress gets away with a
lot, consider what happened to the CEOs who brought the economy down in 2007-8.
Basically nothing!
Democracy can’t function as a corporation does because
corporations are fundamentally non-democratic. There are no checks and balances
between distinct, equal power centers in a corporation, so it’s no surprise
that Trump chafes at those checks every time Congress people decide to answer
to their constituents instead of to him. Do we really want an unfettered
CEO-in-Chief who is also Commander-in-Chief
and answers to basically no one?
More importantly, Trump is
attempting to transform the government into a business by specifically blurring
the distinction between his businesses
and the business of government. He
moves between our public properties and his private properties as though they
are continuous and interwoven—do his properties get paid for his weekend get-aways, golf outings and high-profile
meetings? The White
House is a “dump?” Maybe
if you look at it as just another piece of property. Hopefully it’s not being
turned into a Trump property as we
speak.
By extending the physical
reach of the Executive Branch to include his
properties (a working vacation at his New Jersey golf club is the latest
travesty), Trump is probably violating the Constitution’s Emolument Clause on a
daily basis. This is especially true for his Trump International Hotel in D.C. Since
his brazen disregard for ethical norms is enabled by a number of overly vague
loopholes, our legal system may or may not be able to force him to choose
between public service and private enterprise because he wants it both ways.
This desire is not surprising
for his rebellious natal Gemini Sun-Uranus conjunction (chart not
shown), opposite his ambitious (and perhaps greedy) Sagittarius Moon.
I’m hopeful this gross overreach will be challenged, but so far our system is
batting zero.
Trump’s admiration for
Putin’s Russia suggests that he would himself prefer a transactional, kleptocratic-style
government in which business interests (especially those of the chief executive
and his family) reign freely and perpetuate themselves into the future. We
forget at our peril that left up to their own devices, capitalist businesses answer
to stockholders first (the wealthy,
in other words), and everyone else only tangentially. Corporations have all the
rights of a legal “person” under the Constitution (a clause that I bet Trump is
not planning to dismantle), yet few
of the responsibilities.
A
wake-up call
So, here’s the dystopian
vision ahead, if these “run the government like a business” ambitions are
allowed to flourish: Trump finishes rolling back existing regulations, which
allows the newly liberated kleptocrats to have no labor laws to rein in their abuses, no environmental regulations to rein in their greed and hunger for
natural resources, and no responsibility
to pay more than scant taxes.
This all becomes a dreary Neptune-Pluto
game of diminishing returns for the nation’s coffers, which creates the pretext
for further suffocating any human and social priorities. Modernized
infrastructure? Health care for all? In our dreams.
Or, maybe we’ll wake up from
this feverish dream, realize we’re hitting bottom and that the only way to go
is up. Maybe we’ll take charge by
applying some socially-responsible Jupiter-Saturn principles to Neptune-Pluto’s
game and proactively shaping what happens next. Every expansion—of corporate
and Executive branch power, for instance—needs to be kept in balance with
judicious regulations, checks and balances, and strategic long-term goals.
IMHO, when corporate power is allowed to get out of balance with the rest of
society’s power centers, the corporate sector becomes a toxic parasite (Neptune-Pluto!)
on that society.
What happens when the Executive branch plays a key role in
that imbalance?
There’s a reason that
governments issue charters to corporations—such organizations are meant to
serve a positive public purpose, and
when they cease doing so, those charters can (theoretically) be withdrawn. Or
so it used to be—there’s no denying that Government/Business power dynamics
have been flipped since the 1993 Uranus-Neptune cycle launched in
Capricorn.
This cycle (still very much
with us) is an interesting case that drives so much of what we’re seeing today
with the Trump administration. In Capricorn, Uranus and Neptune
are all about Wall Street’s mantra, “greed is good,” and thus they
undermine ruler Saturn’s natural affinity for balance. This affinity is due to Saturn’s
exaltation in Libra—a rational air sign that can seem indecisive, but when public
affairs (and forces like Wall Street) need to be drawn back from the fringe
extremes and rebalanced, the “middle path” of carefully weighing both sides of
the story before acting is useful.
On the other hand, Saturn’s
Libran tendency to work two sides of a problem en route to a solution
can become toxic if we aren’t vigilant. Which leads me to a key player in the
Trump administration: “wonder boy” and Trump son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The New York Times’ Frank Bruni calls Kushner the “Prince of Having it
Both Ways” in his July 22, 2017 opinion piece (published just before Kushner
was scheduled to testify in a Congressional committee). A quick excerpt captures
the picture very well:
“On Monday, Jared Kushner is set to appear before the Senate
Intelligence Committee, but not so that we can listen. Not so that we can
watch. It’s a closed-door affair, meaning that unlike Jeff Sessions, Kushner
gets to dance in the dark.
How fitting. We always see his fingerprints but never hear
his voice. He throws his weight around, then floats above it all. No wonder the
president’s lawyers and various White House aides and advisers are fed up with
him. He’s there but not there: a meddlesome ghost. A puff of smoke.
He got the emails about emissaries of a foreign adversary
bearing dirt, but — what do you know? — read
right over the subject line that said “Russia - Clinton - private and
confidential.” No flashing lights in those proper nouns. No blaring sirens in
those particular adjectives.
He attended the Trump Tower meeting, but stayed for only 10
minutes, a grace period that apparently doesn’t count. I guess it’s like
canceling the on-demand movie rental shortly after the opening credits roll. No
fee. No foul.
He failed to inform the F.B.I. about dozens of meetings with
foreign officials during the campaign and the transition, but that was
ostensibly a harmless oops. Someone prematurely hit ‘send.’ Happens with Amazon
orders. Can happen just as easily with an application for the highest level of
security clearance.”
Considering that Trump has
placed Kushner—who has no political or diplomatic experience whatsoever—in
charge of key imperatives like peace in
the Middle East (how’s that
going?), the faintly corrupt whiff we get from the above excerpt should concern
us. As we might expect, no firm birth time is available for Kushner, but the
noon chart for his published birth date of January 10, 1981 in Livingston, New
Jersey speaks volumes, despite a imprecise Moon placement and unknown angles.
For the record, the Moon was happily swimming in nebulous Pisces that day,
transiting from 8°-22°, which fits the image Bruni portrays of this Neptunian
Trump protégé: the cosmic Fish also likes to swim “both ways.”
As we’ll see, however,
Kushner’s chart features an interesting mix of Saturn and Neptune
influences, with powerful Jupiter-Venus highlights that
probably explain his “royal” marriage to Ivanka Trump. It’s not surprising that
the press frames them as glowing, near equals to the UK’s William and Kate.
Importantly, Kushner is a member
of the Pluto-in-Libra generation and a child of the 1980 Jupiter-Saturn
conjunction, also in Libra—an anomalistic air cycle that interrupted the long
series of earth-signed cycles finally completing in December 2020. This is the
cohort for whom the original Star Wars trilogy
was more than a fantasy—they are endowed with “Jedi” souls and they instinctively
know how to wield the “Force” from both the Dark and the Light sides.
To place Kushner’s chart into
a current context, I’ve placed his chart next to an important upcoming ingress:
Saturn’s
entry into its Capricorn comfort zone on this upcoming December 19th.
This timing could be critical for him personally, and for the Trump administration.
Biwheel
#1: (inner wheel)
Jared Kushner, January 10, 1981, 12:00 p.m. ST (noon chart, no time available),
Livingston, NJ; (outer wheel) Saturn Capricorn ingress, December 19, 2017,
10:07:12 p.m. ST, Washington, D.C. Tropical
Equal Houses, True Node.
Interchart
T-Square: Ingress Uranus-Eris (Aries)
opposes Kushner Pluto (Libra); this axis squares Kushner (JK) Sun-Mercury
(Capricorn) conjoined Ingress Moon-Pluto (Capricorn). A
cardinal t-square is always intense, but with Uranus and Eris
involved (Eris, not pictured unfortunately, is at 22°+Aries here), it should be doubly so. And doubly upsetting
for a Neptunian Moon type—Uranus and Eris trine Kushner’s Sagittarius
Neptune, and transiting Uranus also trines his Sagittarius Venus. As
friendly as trines sound, in fire signs they often “unleash the fury” in ways
that feel far from friendly.
Among other pressures, transiting
Uranus-Eris
here reflect the tension that frequently spills out of the White House
into the news via “leaks”—Kushner was reportedly instrumental in getting former
FBI Director James Comey fired, he’s been at odds with Bannon from the get-go,
and now Kushner is implicated in Donald Trump’s Jr.’s ill-considered, alleged
meeting with a Russian lawyer promising Russian government “dirt” on Hillary
Clinton during last year’s campaign.
And, there were other ill-considered meetings with Russians he conveniently
“forgot” when filling out his security clearance paper work. Bruni points out
that Kushner also “blessed” his father-in-law’s hiring of Anthony
Scaramucci—that went real well.
It took a Congressional
Intelligence committee hearing to prompt Kushner to speak out loud to the
American public—to excuse himself from all wrongdoing before the hearing, of
course. As Bruni points out, Kushner tries to float above the fray and be just
nebulous enough to remain untouchable—his father-in-law and high-powered
lawyers have undoubtedly coached him well—but the big question Uranus
transiting square his Sun raises is whether he’s pursuing his
list of sketchy activities willingly, or whether he’s feeling trapped by the
circumstances of his marriage.
Pluto is also transiting conjunct his Sun, which is natally square
Libra Pluto—more about that impending Pluto-square-Pluto
transit in awhile!
The possibility that Kushner
is feeling trapped is where Uranus-Eris’s trine to his Venus
figures in, but this is not a new development. These Aries points have been
transiting trine Kushner’s Sagittarius points all year, and Saturn
has been transiting conjunct his Venus-Neptune. Perhaps Kushner
thought he was just helping his father-in-law run for president, and when Trump
lost (as most expected he would), he could get back to cultivating his real
estate billions? Surprise, surprise—Uranus, Eris and Saturn
had other plans.
The pressure may reach some
type of crescendo after the August 21st eclipse, as well, when all
these fire-sign points form a grand trine that includes his Venus-Neptune. Will his marriage begin to show
stress fractures? Could he be “thrown under the bus” by the administration when
the Mueller investigations get around to him? The limits of Trump’s loyalty to
family members are untested thus far, but if the choice is between his
son-in-law and Donald, Jr, who gets the shove?
Ingress Venus-Sun-Saturn
(Sagittarius-Capricorn) conjoin Kushner’s Neptune-Venus (Sagittarius) and square
Ingress Chiron (Pisces). The potentially disruptive force of
the fire trines discussed above is likely to produce a dull ache in Kushner’s
soul that may or may not influence what’s next. It’s possible that transiting Chiron
is also conjunct Kushner’s Pisces Moon (or just past), indicating that
this dull ache has probably been with him for awhile—perhaps explaining his
almost “dead eyed” demeanor in so many media pics. Great wealth, political
power and a fairy-tale marriage may or may not fill the void he’s experiencing.
That being said, the Venus
transit to his Neptune could still feel
refreshing—perhaps easing up on the emotional stress (Neptune disposes his
Pisces Moon) for a bit, even though Saturn will
simultaneously conjoin his Venus. He’s not likely to be a very
happy camper during this period, on balance, and there may be financial causes
for this malaise. It’s hard to be more specific without chart angles and houses
to analyze, but Kushner’s Venus disposes his Libra Jupiter-Saturn
conjunction and his Libra Pluto,
so Saturn’s
restrictive transiting force will impact the areas of his chart that
are ruled by these points.
We know that Kushner must be
paying enormous legal fees—if his father-in-law’s re-election
campaign isn’t covering those, but like everything Kushner-related,
this is also vague.
Ingress Saturn (Capricorn) squares Kushner
Jupiter-Saturn (Libra), which trine Kushner Mars-So. Node (Aquarius). This
is a wide square transiting Saturn makes here, but as it settles
deeper into Capricorn, the square will tighten, so this is a preview of things
to come in Kushner’s chart. There’s a kind of “tag-team” effort here between
transiting Jupiter and Saturn. From now through half of
October, Jupiter will be transiting conjunct Kushner’s Libra Pluto,
energizing his will-to-power and perhaps attracting opportunities to
wield impressive power—this will be reinforced by the still-active transiting Jupiter-Pluto
square (Libra-Capricorn).
As these
aspects separate, however, Saturn’s transiting aspects to his
chart will take over prominence; there’s bound to be some resistance to any
power plays he may engage in.
With his natal Jupiter-Saturn
trine to Aquarius Mars, it’s no surprise that Kushner is the technology-brain of
his father-in-law’s presidency, and someone Trump trusts to “get things done.”
Or at least appear to get things
done. The new “Trump TV” effort that launched this past week—basically, a
propaganda network that says only nice things about Trump—has Kushner’s
fingerprints all over it, for instance. He was talking about just such an
effort in 2016, so
it’s not likely to be something he just threw together on a break from bringing
peace to the Middle East.
It would actually be very
interesting to see just where Kushner’s time is spent—again he has a job
description that is so vague that we the taxpayers have no way of holding him
accountable. Bruni
highlights the ironies we’re seeing here very nicely:
“He’s new to all of this government gobbledygook. Not
so new that he can’t reinvent the government, broker peace
in the Middle East, spearhead our negotiations with countries elsewhere in the
world, make headway against the opioid epidemic, reform the criminal justice
system and still carve out time to tackle the slopes of Aspen with Ivanka and
the kids.”
If anything is getting done
on that list of nebulously broad projects, I’d like to know what it is.
Interestingly, Kushner’s Libra Jupiter falls in mutual reception
with his Sagittarius Venus, and with Saturn lining up to
transit both uncomfortably in due course, there may be some attempt to pin down
what, if anything, he’s actually doing on those projects.
It’s difficult to fathom that a Capricorn Sun native would be satisfied providing the appearance of getting things done instead of the tangible reality, but with a Pisces Moon and a celebrity marriage in which appearances and press coverage are everything, who knows?
It’s difficult to fathom that a Capricorn Sun native would be satisfied providing the appearance of getting things done instead of the tangible reality, but with a Pisces Moon and a celebrity marriage in which appearances and press coverage are everything, who knows?
Handing off the jobs to
Kushner may well have been Trump’s attempt to appear on top of the issues at stake, when he has no actual intent
to do anything except leave Israel in charge of Palestine, leave Saudi Arabia
to its own devices with the rest of the Middle East, and leave Russia to its
own devices in Syria and Ukraine.
To their credit, both Jared
and Ivanka tried to convince Trump to
stay in the Paris Climate Accord (sincerely, or for the appearances of it all?),
but Trump’s refusal suggests that they have far less pull with Dad than we’ve
been led to believe. Preserving the planet for those grandchildren who pop into
the Oval Office for photo opportunities doesn’t seem to resonate.
As for major initiatives on
Kushner’s list, Trump’s big announcement about the opioid
epidemic today is that more
law enforcement is needed—an
absolutely clueless and thoughtless approach
which Health & Human Services director Tom Price tried to walk back
immediately, focusing on the emergency and treatment aspects of the crisis. Where
was Kushner on this?
Why
the Capricorn ingress matters
Saturn is
a naturally conservative energy, in the true
sense of that word—not in the right-leaning sense it’s taken on in our
politics. Former president Obama’s chart ruler is Saturn, with Aquarius
rising and Saturn one of two final dispositors—Saturn in home sign
Capricorn, and Sun in charismatic Leo. His Saturn was key to his
thoughtful, deliberative approach to White House decision-making, which always seemed too
slow or hesitant for his critics, but it probably prevented a lot of problems,
too. Whose approach would we rather have for dealing with North Korea right
now?
This December 2017 ingress
for Saturn
matters to Kushner personally because it closely precedes his 1st Saturn-Saturn
square (after his 30-year old Saturn
return), a time when we can expect his feet to be held to the fire a bit more
than usual (especially in lockstep with all the Pluto activity in his
chart). Just the appearance of being
responsible won’t fly, especially for some past actions now under
investigation.
The fact that Kushner seems
to enjoy cosmic “carte blanche” to ignore the rules (leaving meetings with
Russians off his security clearance forms, etc.) speaks to his natal Jupiter-Saturn
conjunction and nice Jupiter-Venus connections (see
above), however transiting Saturn could very well challenge that.
As mentioned earlier, he’s been in the throes of a long-term Pluto
transit to his Capricorn Sun (which is natally squared by
Libra Pluto) since 2015 (and which will persist into 2023), if we allow a
5-8° orb.
This Pluto transit to his
chart overlapped in places with similar pressure applied to the Sibly Cancer Sun
(chart not shown), so it’s not surprising that Kushner is an agent of
transformation to the U.S. government. The question is, to what goal? Transit
expert Robert Hand[1] captures
this challenge of a Pluto-Sun conjunction very well:
“Pluto is the planet of death and regeneration, which means
the elimination of whatever is old and outworn and the birth of a new, higher
order. With Pluto on your Sun, you can be the agent of this process. ..But you
must observe two limitations. First, Pluto gives tremendous drive and energy,
but only for the elimination of the truly old and outworn, not for doing
anything you want. And second, like the other planets beyond Saturn, Pluto is a
transcendental planet. Therefore its energies are not easily harnessed to the
purposes of unenlightened egotism…If you use the energy that Pluto gives for
purely selfish ends, you will provoke such furious opposition that you will
eventually be unable to do anything.”
Considering Kushner is also experiencing
the mid-life Pluto-square-Pluto transit at the same time, we can see that
the “screws” are being tightened on his ability to act with impunity. Lies will
be scrutinized and called out for what they are. He’s been given great
privileges and access, and with that comes great
responsibility, and not just to his
father-in-law! Reports we hear about Kushner’s battles for prominence in
the White House fit right in with the downside of this Pluto activity, as does
the depressed look we often see in Kushner’s eyes when he’s caught in a candid
photograph.
It’s a slippery slope he’s
navigating at the moment, and all the slick lawyers in the nation won’t do him
any good if he’s not willing to temper his ambition with responsibility. Perhaps
we should give him the benefit of the doubt, however: maybe what we’re seeing
isn’t the real Jared. If he were the man in charge, we might see
that his impulses are more enlightened than his father-in-law’s (at least in
terms of the environment), but unfortunately that’s not what we’re seeing. What
we’re seeing now is a man who appears to have sold himself out (a Faustian Pluto-square-Pluto
trap) with his activities on behalf of Trump.
Chiron’s
transiting square to his Sagittarius Venus-Neptune may also be adding to
Kushner’s sense of being under “siege,” even if he masks his feelings in public
with terse, confident-sounding statements. Between the Pluto and Saturn
transits impacting his chart, defending his “turf” (Capricorn) when the Cosmos
is demanding change won’t work for long—having it “both ways” often means
trying to serve “two masters,” and we know how that goes.
The
nation
Finally, Saturn’s Capricorn
ingress is important for the nation because it marks the final 3 year
leg of the present Jupiter-Saturn cycle (begun in Taurus in 2000) and the
beginning of their new cycle at 0°+Aquarius
(December 2020). The end of the cycle that brought us the 9/11 attacks, the
Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the Wall Street and housing market collapses, our
first African-American president, and now, Trump and the “Alt Right” enshrined
in that “dump,” the White House and threatening to blow up the Korean
peninsula.
Yes, we’ll be seeing yet
another major astrological transition during an election year, and it should,
thankfully, be better than this! In Capricorn, Saturn may just prompt
some more rational, calm behavior from our leadership, but we won’t be out of
the woods yet. The last time Saturn ingressed Capricorn was in
February, 1988, and 2-1/2 years later we were defending Kuwait from Iraq’s
incursions (the First
Gulf War) under George H.W. Bush’s conservative leadership and laying the groundwork for the Middle
East debacles under “W” Bush’s later administration.
In terms of the Trump administration,
we can look to that late 1980s-early 1990s period as the beginnings of Trump’s
celebrity real estate mogul heyday and the origins of his fascination with (and
probably financial dependence upon) post-Communist Russia. Trump also published
the Art of the Deal at the end of
1987, and first floated the idea of running for president that year (in the
1988 election).
The late 1980s was, in fact,
a period of rapid growth in conservatism across the nation, under the influence
of anti-Keynesian (or “neoliberal”) economist, Milton Friedman
and the “Chicago School” of economics. These ideas were given a platform during
the 1980s Reagan-Thatcher years and informed later developments in global trade
agreements and the unfettered flows of capital (and outsourced manufacturing)
across borders.
Trump railed against these
“unfettered flows” during his campaign, yet he’s undoubtedly profited mightily
over the years from those same dynamics. If
suspicions that he’s been involved in Russian money laundering/real estate
schemes over the years are true (this would be up to Mueller to investigate),
he’s definitely profited from globalization.
Saturn has a nasty way of
calling such ventures to account, however—“what goes around comes around”—so any
ventures that Trump took up during that 2/1988-2/1991 Saturn transit through
Capricorn could resurface for scrutiny during its subsequent Capricorn
“homecoming” that begins in December.
Stay tuned for more on this
story as it evolves…we’ll look at the upcoming eclipse in regards to North
Korea next time!
[1]
Robert Hand, Planets in Transit: Life
Cycles for Living, Whitford Press, 1976, Atglen, PA, p. 487.
