“The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it always surfaces above lies, as oil floats on water.”
― Don Quixote
― Don Quixote
“Thou hast seen nothing yet.”
― Don Quixote
― Don Quixote
We left off on a cliff-hanger in the
last post here,
musing over whether the government would be shutdown again for the sake
of a wasteful border wall and an increasingly manufactured sounding emergency
at said border. Big consequential questions have since been answered, but our
system of democracy (i.e., with three co-equal branches of government) may have
gotten lost in the Rio Grande in the process.
So we know now that Trump is willing to use his power to declare a
state of emergency and to go around Congress to get the wall funding he wants,
essentially putting his presidency at odds with Congress’s power of the purse, and the facts on the ground (as reported
by his own administration), while he’s at it. With this action he’s also saying
that his priorities are more
important than other projects already funded by Congress—he’s planning to take
millions from Defense construction projects, drug interdiction and
rehabilitation programs, and so on—projects that Congress deemed important
enough to fund, and that many communities will miss, if they’re not funded.
So this is a two-fer for Trump (appropriate for a Gemini), an end-run designed
to get his wall funding and an
opportunity to throw his authoritarian weight around.
The problem is, there’s no real emergency at the border. In fact,
Trump tasked
aides in early 2018 with finding a way to get his wall funding without Congress, so that’s no emergency.
The only emergency here is that the “windmills” in Trump’s quixotic mind are
threatening to disable our democracy. Above all, Trump seems to crave the power
of the narrative—another Gemini perk—and he won’t rest until his story about what’s happening at the
border is the story.
Speculation has been circulating
about his impending emergency declaration for some time, of course, but on
Friday the 15th, Trump made the grand gesture of calling a press conference to
make it official. His announcement was frankly baffling, with him at one point
breaking out in a sort of “rap” about the legal challenges he expects to
attract with his “emergency.” Perhaps the most baffling was his move to declare
a national emergency against an “invasion” at the border, and then to say he
didn’t “need to do this.” As the Washington Post put it:
“Trump argued in the Rose Garden
that declaring an emergency was necessary because narcotics were pouring across
the border. ‘We’re talking about an invasion of our country with drugs, with
human traffickers, with all types of criminals and gangs,’ he said. But he also
seemed to undercut his own case on the urgency of the problem.
“I could do the wall over a longer period of time, I didn’t need to do
this, but I’d rather do it much faster,” he said.
An ACLU lawyer responded on Twitter: ‘keep talking mr president.’ ”
Trump’s Quixote-sized delusions
about the border have some basis in his astrological
reality. His Cancer planets (Mercury, Saturn, Venus) are being
opposed (could feel threatening) by transiting Saturn and Pluto
in Capricorn, and since his Mercury disposes his cerebral Gemini
stellium (Sun-No. Node-Uranus), the fears and insecurities raised by
those oppositions loom large in his mind. If this were not the case, perhaps
he’d feel less like “tilting at windmills,” but it is what it is.
 |
| Who can tell the "windmills" of his mind? |
Fear and insecurity often seem to
motivate Trump’s actions, but he seems to be very conscious of the power of
quixotic thinking. For instance, his foreign policy pronouncements often mirror
Nixon’s use of the “madman theory” when confronting adversaries. Never mind
what Trump actually says to his
adversaries, the message that comes across is “Give me what I want now, because
you never know what I’m capable of doing
if I don’t get it.” The Dems are writing a resolution to repeal Trump’s
national emergency as we speak; on the talk shows yesterday, wall enthusiast
and aide Stephen Miller warned that Trump would veto any attempts to repeal. Bottom
line: “Give me what I want or else.”
Weeks
of press coverage mused about whether “he would” or “he wouldn’t” declare an
emergency, and that drama provided
the wind below Trump’s wings when shutdown politics provided him the
opportunity. Legal challenges aside, he’s thrown down a “damned if they do,
damned if they don’t” gauntlet in the year before an election, sharpening up
his political “foils” for the joust.
Yale professor of law Peter H.
Schuck laid out the legal terrain for Trump’s move pretty succinctly in a NYTimes.com opinion piece:
“Who decides what constitutes a national emergency?
In hundreds of laws, Congress has given the president
the power to decide. (The Brennan Center for Justice has compiled an exhaustive
list.) But by failing to define crucial terms, legal standards and
accountability rules, Congress has handed presidents an all-too-handy tool of
tyranny commonly used by autocrats to amass more power, crush dissent and
eviscerate democratic institutions….
Congress should have known better. After all, it
enacted the National Emergencies Act of 1976, which purported to regulate such
declarations, only two years after President Richard Nixon’s abuses of power
forced his resignation. The act actually made matters worse in a key respect: It
defined a national emergency as “a general declaration of emergency made by the
president.” This circular definition, of course, is no constraint at all…
In the nature of national emergencies, some
definitional leeways are unavoidable. But Congress could readily specify
certain conditions that must exist before the president can make such a
declaration and thus arrogate to himself extraordinary powers — curtailing
liberties, seizing property, spending funds appropriated for other purposes and
suspending protective laws — that Congress would not otherwise be likely to
grant him in advance, or perhaps ever. (Indeed, Congress has the power to
override Mr. Trump's declaration and it should in this case — though it
probably won’t.)”
Astrologically, we’re seeing a lot
of issues stemming from the 1970s come back around to bite us. Nixon’s abuses
and downfall reflected the then-waning 1947 Saturn-Pluto cycle (which entered
its 3rd quarter in October, 1973), and today we’re dealing with the subsequent (1982) Saturn-Pluto cycle
waning, this one approaching its completion in January, 2020, a mere 5°+ degrees from our Sibly
radix Pluto in late Capricorn. (For more on the Saturn-Pluto cycle, see here).
Trump’s chart is certainly being
impacted by this cycle, with the new one perfecting opposite his Cancer Saturn-Venus in the coming year. He’s more defensive than ever these days, shielding
himself more closely than ever from those who oppose him on immigration and foreign policy. This week he’s avoided
NATO allies at the Munich Security Conference, and his absence (he’s on golf
holiday at Mar-O-Lago) is
being seriously noted. A cadre from Congress attended, trying to shore up
our alliances, but they’re not likely to make up the difference. This shouldn’t
be happening: Congress is trying to play executive-stand-in on foreign policy
matters, and Trump is usurping Congress’s power of the purse. Co-equal
branches?
 |
| Protecting ideals was Don Quixote's true quest. |
For their part, our European allies
are very anxious about Trump’s pulling out of the Iran Nuclear Deal, about the Trump
administration telling them to stop
dealing with Iran (the U.S. was only one of several
signatories on that deal), and about Trump’s unilateral decision to pull
out of the
INF nuclear arms treaty with Russia, which gives Putin effective free rein
to develop new weapons and point them at Europe. Trump can’t have his alliances
and destroy them too, as much as he enjoys being ambiguous. From the NYTimes.com:
“But in the last few days of a prestigious annual
security conference in Munich, the rift between Europe and the Trump
administration became open, angry and concrete, diplomats and analysts say.
A senior German official, who asked not to be
identified because he was not authorized to speak on such matters, shrugged his
shoulders and said: “No one any longer believes that Trump cares about the
views or interests of the allies. It’s broken.”
The most immediate danger, diplomats and intelligence
officials warned, is that the trans-Atlantic fissures now risk being exploited
by Russia and China.”
The fact is, Trump finds himself in
comfortable company with a worldwide “club” of right-wing leaders who rode to
power in the past decade on the back of a populist, anti-immigrant,
anti-alliance wave, and NATO is just another convenient foil for him. Immigrants
and global “elites” are the looming windmill “ogres” in Trump’s mind, and these
fears resonated with just enough people in this nation to put him (with Russian
assistance, it seems) in the White House. We have to wonder how much damage
he’s willing to do to our standing in the world to and our constitutional
democracy to get what he wants.
Undermining the government seems to
be a personal quest for Trump, in fact: if we look back, the government and the
intellectuals who defend its underlying ideals have always been problematic for Trump and his family’s real estate
empire. From losing serious civil rights abuse cases against them in the 1970s
to being slapped with multiple law suits alleging his businesses are profiting
from the presidency by violating the Emoluments Clause and other laws today,
Trump has frequently been at odds
with the law, and it’s always his family business that’s somehow at stake.
Perhaps it will help to view his
wall-related actions through that same lens? Trump has often crowed about how building this
wall out of steel would be a boon for the U.S. steel industry, but it’s more
likely to be a logistical
nightmare that will cost far more than
the $8 billion he plans to grab with his emergency declaration. It will also
take decades to build. So what’s in
this for Trump and/or his family? Even if there’s absolutely nothing in it for them, we see how
intent Trump is on having the power to channel public monies in a direction of his
choosing for a very long time. That
desire alone should raise questions.
The morning talk shows on Sunday were abuzz with Trump’s
declaration, of course, with Republican interviewees bending themselves into
pretzels to dispute the wisdom and constitutional propriety of Trump’s move,
but to still somehow support it.
Trump’s setting a dangerous precedent for some of them, but…there’s always a twist, and the twists basically enable Trump’s
executive overreach.
The GOP (including Trump) was apoplectic when Obama—in
their view—overreached by instituting the DACA program by Executive order. The
same concerns never apply to Trump, however.
 |
| From Orson Welles' unfinished film. |
So we can anticipate that any time
Trump doesn’t get what he wants from Congress, he’ll find a go-around. We know
he has authoritarian tendencies, but he could not diminish congressional power
without the collusion of key members there—and possibly from the judicial
branch. If Trump’s disturbing press conference “rap”
is any sign, he’s counting on a compliant Supreme Court. More on this ahead.
Importantly, all of
this seems to be an exercise in framing the issue of immigration—as either an
“invasion of criminals” (Trump/his base) or as an important call for
comprehensive immigration reform and border security (Dems and many Republicans).
Trump’s claim that there’s a humanitarian emergency at the border is easily
deflated by pointing out how his administration’s “Zero Tolerance” policies
helped create that crisis, especially
by detaining asylum-seeking children and families.
So, let’s examine the astrology of a couple key
individuals who could seriously impact Trump’s pet project one way or the
other. It’s widely held that Trump could have done none of this without being
enabled by Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, so let’s start there. Once
firmly opposed to an emergency declaration, McConnell stood at the podium on
Valentine’s Day to announce Trump’s plan to sign the latest funding bill (thus
avoiding shutdown #2), and to say that Trump would simultaneously declare an
emergency to secure the funding he wants for the wall…and by the way, he
(McConnell) would be supporting that declaration.
 |
| Don Quixote's universal themes never get old, but what happens when they go toxic? |
This, of course, was
McConnell’s signal to other Republicans that they should fall in line behind
him, despite any and all reservations. A
NYTimes.com
opinion piece points out the
depth of McConnell’s capitulation:
“This display of obedience from the leader of a
supposedly coequal branch of government is shocking only if you ever believed
Mr. McConnell was an institutionalist. But his defining characteristic has always
been his willingness to do anything and sacrifice any principle to amass power
for himself. What separates him from the garden-variety politicians — what
makes him a radical — are the lengths he is willing to go. Seeing this with
clarity should help us grasp the danger to which he is subjecting the Senate —
and, more important, our democracy.”
So what was happening with McConnell on February 14th,
as he handed Trump the Senate’s independence on a silver platter? His birth information below is provided by Wikipedia.com, no
birth time known.
Biwheel #1: (inner wheel) Natal, Mitch
McConnell, February 20, 1942,12:00 p.m. War Time (noon, no time available),
Sheffield, Alabama; (outer wheel) McConnell statement, February 15, 2019, 12:00
p.m. (no exact time known), Washington, D.C. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.
Interchart
T-Square: McConnell Saturn-Uranus
(Taurus) opposes McConnell Juno (Scorpio); this axis squares Statement Sun
(Aquarius). It’s very interesting that this Sun also conjoins Sibly
Moon
(chart not shown)—McConnell stood at that podium on a day in which the
American people were emotionally attuned to what was going on in D.C., greatly
anticipating Trump’s use (or abuse) of presidential emergency powers. McConnell
appeared almost shell-shocked as he stood there—he cuts a slight figure as it
is, but his body language reflected the capitulation contained in his
announcement.
In the last post here I discussed McConnell’s personal dilemma,
being married to one of Trump’s Cabinet members (Elaine Chao, Dept. of
Transportation)—that dilemma is illustrated clearly in this tense fixed
t-square, with McConnell’s Juno playing the role of wife here.
 |
| The bully knows his prey. |
McConnell undoubtedly weighed the consequences of not supporting Trump (this Aquarius
Sun exactly opposes Trump’s natal Mars-ASC in Leo as well)—chart not
shown—and found the potential losses too much to risk. Would he lose powerful
campaign donors and/or voters if he stood up to Trump? Perhaps, but just maybe
Trump’s belligerent Leo points falling square McConnell’s Saturn-Venus feels
too intimidating for McConnell, and Trump senses this (the bully knows his
prey).
McConnell would risk his job—his institutional power (Saturn-Uranus)
and perhaps even his family’s material well-being (Taurus). McConnell’s Venus
(Aquarius) falls in mutual reception with his Uranus (Taurus), with Venus
trine his Jupiter (Gemini): it’s usually much easier for him to act “on
principle” without endangering his own interests; perhaps he’s not used to
making such hard choices.
Especially with Trump’s Mars-ASC assaulting his
authority and independence, McConnell finds himself stuck between a rock and a
hard place. Unfortunately, his paralysis and personal capitulation threatens to
ripple out to include Congress, sacrificing its status as a co-equal branch of
government.
Interchart
T-Square: McConnell Venus (Aquarius)
opposes McConnell Pluto (Leo); this axis squares Statement Mars conjunct Uranus
(Taurus-Aries). It’s possible that
McConnell’s Moon is tied into all this in early Taurus (no birth time, but
the Moon traversed 28°+Aries
to 10°+Taurus that
day), but even without that emotional investment, McConnell is naturally
equipped to pursue and handle power; he values
the power he wields, which is why his present predicament is so difficult.
He appears to be faced with no-win choices offered to him by unpredictable, but
immoveable forces.
When Uranus moves into Taurus shortly,
this sense will be heightened further; along with Mars it already falls semi-sextile
his Sun (Pisces), no doubt producing some frustration and anxiety. He’s
capable of “reading” a room (intuitive Pisces), and the position or “room” he’s
stuck in at this juncture feels threatening.
 |
| Sancho & the Don ride their trusty (wooden) steed, Clavileno. |
Interchart Yod: Statement Venus conjoins Saturn (Capricorn)
and both quincunx McConnell Jupiter and McConnell Chiron (Leo); Statement
Venus-Saturn trine McConnell No. Node (Virgo), while Statement Neptune opposes
the same point. These aspects signal that McConnell is experiencing
fated times: his ego is being seriously challenged, and it’s likely that old
wounds (Chiron) have been reopened. The Yod puts him in yet
another dilemma—one in which the rewards for his efforts may or may not be
forthcoming. Statement Venus-Saturn also semi-sextile his natal Mercury
(Aquarius), reinforcing the anxiety surrounding issues of power and
position (his Saturn-Uranus dispose Aquarius).
We might suspect there’s a
financial dimension to his anxieties also—it would help to know which planets
rule his 2nd-8th axis.
Statement Pluto (Capricorn) figures
into all this through its proximity to Statement Saturn (there’s that
critical cycle discussed earlier), but especially its trine to McConnell Mars-Saturn-Uranus
(Taurus). Despite the risks and uncertain rewards, McConnell isn’t
likely to back down from exercising his authority and position at this time.
This is reinforced by his Progressed Sun’s position at 17°+Taurus, moving to conjoin
his natal Taurus planets. Statement Saturn-Pluto now trine
that Progressed Sun, reflecting the critical, heavy role he is
playing in this institutional drama.
Whatever we think of him, it does appear that McConnell
could choose to stiffen his backbone and work to strengthen, rather than
diminish Congress, despite Trump’s efforts otherwise (Statement Venus also opposes
Sibly Sun and squares Sibly Saturn—chart not shown). McConnell may even
have the planetary support he needs to prevail over Trump’s excesses,
especially once he musters the willpower (Mars) to do so. (That’s assuming he wants to prevail).
Whereas Trump’s Saturn-Venus
conjunction is being opposed by
transiting Saturn-Pluto, McConnell is enjoying a nice trine to
personally-connected outer planets Saturn-Uranus. This is a truly
interesting example of ways in which the personal and the collective dimensions
of a person’s life can overlap and play off each other!
Interchart
T-Square: Statement Neptune-McConnell So.
Node (Pisces) oppose McConnell No. Node (Virgo); this axis squares McConnell
Jupiter (Gemini). Statement Jupiter (Sagittarius) squares Statement Neptune
(Pisces). It’s also notable that Statement Mercury conjoins Statement Neptune
in Pisces and squares McConnell Jupiter (Gemini)
as well: telling the truth from fiction is a veritable impossibility, as
there’s some “impossible dream” clouding not only McConnell’s gaze, but D.C.
thinking in general. Neptune transits to personal points
can be confusing and undermining: it’s not difficult to see how McConnell’s
inability (or unwillingness) to stand up to Trump will undermine his legacy
(Nodal axis).
With Neptune square to his Jupiter, McConnell may also be acting out
of false confidence that Trump has his back, a delusion that could be easily
dashed. Is he so focused on the “trees” of his own ambitions that he misses the
“forest” of a constitutional crisis that he is enabling?
Round two
Clearly, we could dig further into all this, but let’s
move on to a key individual in this developing constitutional crisis—Supreme Court
Chief Justice John Roberts. As we heard from Trump himself, he expects the
inevitable legal challenges to his declaration to reach the Supreme Court in
due course, and he expects to win in that Court. Roberts has proven to be
capable of standing against the prevailing winds when the case merits such
resistance (i.e., to legitimize gay marriage as a matter of civil rights, to
support Roe v. Wade as settled precedent, etc.), so he’s a bit of a wild card
in this new “emergency” scenario. We won’t be able to predict actual votes by
Roberts, but perhaps we can get a sense of how he will stand up to the
challenge.
Roberts’ birth time is unknown—the other birth information
below is provided by Wikipedia.com—so we
won’t be able to say anything about house placements or angles.
Biwheel #2: (inner wheel) John Roberts (Supreme
Court Chief Justice), January 27, 1955, 12:00 p.m. ST (noon, no time known),
Buffalo, NY; (outer wheel) McConnell statement, February 15, 2019, 12:00
p.m. (no exact time known), Washington, D.C. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.
Interchart
T-Square: Statement Sun (Aquarius)
conjoins Roberts Mercury (Aquarius) and opposes Roberts Pluto (Leo); this axis
squares Roberts Saturn (Scorpio). The Sun is triggering Roberts’ natal Mercury-Pluto
opposition, in other words, which seems about right under the
circumstances. His concepts of Right Power and Authority—both personal and governmental—are
now being challenged by McConnell’s capitulation to Trump over a specious
“emergency.”
Adding vigor and an ambitious edge to the mix is Roberts’
dignified Mars (Aries), co-disposing natal Saturn (Scorpio) with his
Pluto
(Leo). It’s likely that Roberts’ fixed
core (Sun, Mercury, Saturn in fixed signs) is up to the challenge of
defending the integrity of the Court, but there are other pressure points in
his chart that are less reassuring.
Interchart Grand
Square: Statement Pluto-So. Node
(Capricorn) opposes Roberts Jupiter-Uranus-Statement No. Node (Cancer); this
axis squares Statement Uranus-Mars (Aries-Taurus) opposite Roberts Neptune
(Libra). Roberts’ natural conservative leanings can be seen in this powerful
Jupiter-Uranus
conjunction—like most “limited government” advocates, he doesn’t
welcome constraints on ambition (i.e., regulations, etc.) but his record (so
far) of upholding the Affordable Care Act and Roe v. Wade suggests that he could be counted on to carefully weigh
the merits of a case rather than to react from a knee-jerk conservative
impulse.
The squares to Robert's Neptune (Libra) suggest that his
ideals and inner conviction are being seriously tested—Saturn (Capricorn) will
be transiting square this point as well over the course of 2019.
In fact, Roberts demonstrated his dis-ease with purely
partisan votes earlier this month by voting with the liberal justices to
temporarily block a recent Louisiana law that would seriously restrict access
to abortion. Adam Liptak’s
comment in the NYTimes on Roberts’
move is relevant here:
“The seeming inconsistency is the result of competing
impulses. Chief Justice Roberts is a product of the conservative legal
movement, and his general approach is to lean right. But he is also an
institutionalist and a guardian of his court’s legitimacy, meaning he wants to
make modest and deliberate moves.”
This observation begs the question of how far Roberts can
be pushed at any given time in either right or left directions, but in January
we got a sense of his limits. After Trump had repeatedly bashed the court
system because it hasn’t given him carte blanche to essentially gut both legal
and illegal immigration, Roberts finally spoke out. From The
Atlantic:
“’We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton
judges,’ Roberts said. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated
judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.
The independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.’
Trump replied via, of course, Twitter. ‘Sorry Chief Justice Roberts, but
you do indeed have ‘Obama judges,’ and they have a much different point of view
than the people who are charged with the safety of our country.’ Trump went on
to deny that the Ninth Circuit represented ‘an independent judiciary.’
Trump is right, of course, that there are ‘Obama judges.’ Roberts
himself, like Alito, is a ‘Bush judge’—and the justices who elevated George W.
Bush to the presidency were ‘Reagan judges’ and ‘Nixon judges.’ Roberts knows
this. But what surely alarms him is that Trump’s politicization of the
judiciary—like his politicization of the FBI and the CIA and the Justice
Department and various other independent American institutions—threatens its
legitimacy.”
Perhaps the defensive posture we see here in Roberts’
comments will bode well for any confrontation over the border wall “emergency.”
If Roberts is indeed an institutionalist, perhaps he will care about Congress
being undermined and delegitimized as well.
 |
| Artist Marcel Janco captures the Sagittarian thrust of Quixote's ideals. |
Even so, Trump excels at finding chinks in our
constitutional armor--his Sagittarian full Moon, trine Leo Mars-ASC (chart not shown) seems to pierce others' defenses with ease. Besides, the Cosmos isn’t being entirely helpful at this time, either,
so there’s reason for concern. Specifically:
Statement Neptune conjoins Statement Mercury
(Pisces) and squares Roberts Venus-Pallas (Sagittarius); this Neptune also forms
a water grand trine with Roberts Jupiter (Cancer) and Saturn (Scorpio), as it
sextiles Statement Venus-Saturn (Capricorn). Multiple lines of
influence for Neptune are potentially troubling here; has there ever been a
time when the Supreme Court and the
nation-at-large needed to act more rationally,
on the basis of facts, setting aside fears and insecurities and maintaining integrity? Unfortunately, we’re likely to find that Neptune clouds and distorts that
clear-minded purposefulness, especially linked to Mercury as it is here.
Equally concerning is that Statement Neptune could influence
Roberts’ sense of justice (Pallas) and his ability to confront
an overwhelming “trend” (grand trine) towards capitulation and surrender.
This Neptunian energy could be put to better use, of course, to heighten and support the
ideals underlying Roberts’ actions (perhaps defending the Constitution in the
process). Roberts Venus (Sagittarius) involvement
here could also play out in different ways: Roberts may not be swayed one way
or another by financial pressure, but temptations may abound. This is
reinforced by Statement Jupiter (Sagittarius) closely conjunct his Venus.
As noted earlier, we can’t know the exact position of
Roberts’ Pisces Moon without a birth time, but we can tell that the Moon traversed
15°+-28°+ Pisces that day, so it’s
highly likely that he has some emotional investment in Trump’s end run around
Congress and McConnell’s capitulation.
So Statement Jupiter squares Roberts Moon one
way or another—within a wide orb at the extremes of the day—and it’s quite
possible that Statement Neptune conjoins Roberts Moon. If so, the cardinal
grand square described above takes on new, emotional intensity because his Jupiter
and Uranus are disposed by
that Moon.
Bottom line, Trump has continually vilified the Courts
since day one of his administration, and this kind of intimidation has a way of
eroding the confidence and resolve of its targets (Neptune acts like the
stream of water that wears holes in mountains over time, and that could be
exacerbated by the grand trine). If Trump’s ultimate aim is to wear down or
blur and co-opt the constitutional power of the co-equal branches of
government, Neptune is his perfect “Sancho Panza” sidekick. Sancho’s loyalty
to and hope for a reward from his Don led him to basically set aside his
pragmatic realism just enough to
participate in the Don’s illusionary “quest.”
Final thoughts
Of the two individuals we’ve considered here, I’d probably
hand the “Sancho Panza” award to Mitch McConnell for his consistent habit of
deferring to Trump on all matters—especially for refusing to allow bills from
the House on the floor of the Senate unless he knows Trump will sign them. This
is a tactic he shamelessly employed during the 35-day shutdown, and that
episode triggered calls for his resignation (ignored), but he hung in there anyway.
Faced with another shutdown dilemma, McConnell surrendered Congressional powers
to Trump, with no argument and no resistance.
Was McConnell making some grand bargain to avert yet
another shutdown, or simply enabling Trump’s quest to control his own funding
because he couldn’t see another way forward? If Trump is given free rein
financially on the issue of a wall, what will stop him when he wants to fund
any other pet project?
It’s possible that Chief Justice Roberts and the Supreme Court
won’t get drawn into the legal battle over Trump’s emergency for some time
yet—the further out the better—but we would be naïve to think he won’t be
pressured by Trump and company in the interim. My hope is that Roberts’ chart
will be less under siege by Neptune whenever he’s forced to weigh in on this
issue. Left to his demonstrated judicial impulses, he seems capable of a
decision that will preserve both congressional and judicial independence from the executive.
Clearly, we’ve been going through an extraordinary attempt
to divide and conquer the essential institutions within our democracy—what
Trump an Steve Bannon call the “Deep State”—and for what it’s worth, Trump’s
“emergency” declaration has brought the dangers of that assault into full view
so we can deal with them. Protests against the emergency declaration have
broken out across the nation, legal challenges are mounting, and the more the
better. We might even be grateful for the visibility of this challenge—so much
of the damage that’s been done in the past two years has happened behind closed
doors, with our attention deflected elsewhere.
The cosmic timing for a descent into this kind of darkness
is perfect, of course—as Pluto inches its way towards its
return position in our Sibly chart. In the 1760s and 70s (Pluto's last tour in Capricorn), "Mad" King George III's tyranny became progressively
more vicious and oppressive, but it had to be viscerally felt by American colonists in the Boston Massacre (March
5, 1770) before they could be inspired to drop their internal squabbles for the
sake of something bigger. There are some eerie echoes between the chart for
that day and what we’re living through today—no doubt, we haven’t felt the last
of them!
The big question is: how toxic and how low will we need to go this time around?
 |
| When the Quixotic goes toxic, what's next? |
Raye
Robertson is a practicing astrologer, writer and former educator. A graduate of
the Faculty of Astrological Studies (U.K.), Raye focuses on mundane,
collective-oriented astrology, with a particular interest in current affairs,
culture and media, the astrology of generations, and public concerns such as
education and health. Several of her articles on these topics have been
featured in The Mountain Astrologer and other publications over the years.
She is
also available to read individual charts—contact her at: robertsonraye@gmail.com.
© Raye Robertson 2019. All
rights reserved.
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