“Obstructing an inquiry into obstruction of justice is
quintessential Trump.”—Jennifer Rubin, NYTimes.com
“Congress’s oversight authority derives from its ‘implied’
powers in the Constitution, public laws, and House and Senate rules. It is an
integral part of the American system of checks and balances.” – Wikipedia.org
“Houston…we have a problem…”—Apollo 13, 1995.
In the iconic scene from the history-based film cited above, Tom Hank’s character—NASA astronaut James A. Lovell—calmly announced to
the Houston team monitoring their every move that his crew’s April 11, 1970
lunar landing mission would have to be aborted. “Houston, we have a problem”
was the understated, yet pregnant phrase he used to convey that the mission—and
perhaps the crew themselves—were in mortal danger. An oxygen tank explosion had
compromised the spacecraft and threatened to fatally undermine any attempts at
coming back to earth.
Long story short, the Apollo crew and their support team in
Houston rose to the challenge and found ingenious ways to work with their
perilous situation to avert the disaster. Despite a very rough ride, the module
did return safely home on April 17th,
to the relief of millions.
The Apollo 13 story
was ready made for heroic drama—complete with a tense, but ultimately happy
Hollywood ending. Such ventures don’t always turn out so well, however: anyone
who remembers the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion that killed all
seven crew members in 1986—live on television
before our very eyes—can attest to that. The horoscope for that event
dramatically reminds me that dangerous ventures like these need to employ
consulting astrologers, as well as astute astrophysicists, engineers and
technicians!
No less than eight powerful
planetary midpoints fell in the fiery sign of Sagittarius that day, many of
them sextile members of a five point stellium in shock-prone,
electrical Aquarius (ruled by a Sagittarius Uranus). It sure looks like there
was too much volatile energy at work (perhaps electrical system misfires?) in
too confined a space—a space that is dangerous, under the best circumstances.
So why bring up these totally unrelated-sounding historical
examples here, when the topic is really the constitutional showdown between
Trump’s executive power and the Article I oversight responsibilities of
Congress? Because these space missions provide apt analogies for the path ahead: will our system of checks and
balances prevail over the “explosion” that has been the Trump administration,
and through diligent, desperate work and ingenuity, bring us all safely home?
Or will our Constitutional system simply disintegrate before our very eyes,
leaving us all in utter shock, wondering what happened?
 |
| A tragic moment for the NASA Space Shuttle program in Jan. 1986. |
Yes, the choices seem very stark right now, but for that very
reason it’s worth pondering that—as sudden and shocking as the Challenger event was—it didn’t just happen on January
28, 1986 at 11:39 a.m. off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, as Wikipedia reports. Like any tragedy, it
was the product of numerous forces at
work in a much broader context; it wasn’t just
about that one space shuttle mission.
Nor is our current collision of forces in D.C. just about Trump, or just about the
Mueller report, or just about the several congressional committees that have a
job to do, protecting our checks and balances. As we’ll see pretty clearly in
the charts ahead, to the extent today’s crisis is about Trump and his administration, it’s about a mostly-ignored
and downplayed process he’s been engaged in since day one of his presidency: to
“dismantle the Deep State”—his cynical, conspiracy-mongering pet name for the
institutions that make up the Federal government. An NPR interview between interviewer Terri Gross and The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos captured
what was transpiring back in 2018:
“Donald Trump would talk about the war on the deep
state, by which he meant the power elite, the permanent bureaucracy, the people
who were, in his vision, sort of running things behind the scene. Steve Bannon,
his chief strategist at the time, used to talk about the deconstruction of the
administrative state, which is a wonkier way of saying more or less the same
thing, the idea that the goal was to come into Washington and roll back this
system of rules, regulations, taxes, treaties and the people who were
responsible for putting them in place and that that would be the primary
project of the Trump presidency.”
In Election 2016, that idea of rolling back rules and
regulations—often characterized as “draining the Swamp”—sounded pretty
enticing, but perhaps those who voted for it should have paid greater attention
to exactly which institutions Trump
was targeting for destruction in the process, and what his ultimate motives were. If he had come out and
said that he wouldn’t commit to working with Congress unless his party was in charge and could cover
for his presidential overreach (and frankly questionable behavior), would his
plans have sounded so appealing?
 |
| Attorney General Barr with controversial Mueller report summary he submitted to Congress. |
If he had stated that he would demand personal loyalty from the Attorney General, thus compromising the
independence of the Justice Department, would that have been acceptable?
If he had told us that he would sow strategic chaos in our
system and display blatant contempt of Congress and the Constitution to get what he wants?
Checks and balances between co-equal power centers require
that all parties acknowledge the others’ legitimacy and respect their roles,
but what happens when one of the three power centers simply refuses to do this
and another of the centers is radically divided and undermined?
What happens
when one power center wants to change
the rules to give itself all the power, but
wants to be accountable to no one? If
you’ve been watching the news, you’ve seen the examples unfold before us.
Even so, it would be disingenuous to pin the situation on
Trump, entirely. He and his administration are, IMHO, the outward manifestation
of a malady that’s been incubating in our body politic for some time. It has to
do with several trends that have played out over the past few decades,
especially towards the distortion of our capitalist economy to privilege the super-wealthy
and play Scrooge with the rest of us.
These “bread and butter” issues have caused deep divisions,
with pretty predictable results: an upsurge in nationalist/protectionist
sentiment, and in xenophobia and racism. Trump made campaign promises that
sounded good enough on these issues to draw disenchanted working and middle
class voters in, but he then got behind a tax reform bill that fed the
wealthiest to the detriment of most others, and he’s still determined to kill
the Affordable Care Act. So, divide, confuse/deceive and conquer has been the approach—classic Saturn-Pluto manipulation,
with a bit of Neptunian spin!
It’s one thing for the American people to deal with a
president like Trump, but it’s another, much more serious problem to suffer a
toothless Congress and compliant Judiciary to boot. Our system of
checks and balances hasn’t always worked smoothly, but what we’re seeing in
D.C. today escalates that challenge. Trump clearly expected that AG William
Barr’s distorted characterization of the redacted Mueller report would be the
“official” narrative, case closed—but those who have actually read the report find that Barr seriously
misrepresented the facts laid out in that report, even in redacted form.
This has stimulated grave concerns in Congress and elsewhere about
not just the possible corrupt purposes of the Trump presidency, but about our
overall national security, in the wake of Russia’s multi-faceted attack on our
2016 election.
As for Mueller’s documentation of this very real Russian
attack, Trump continues to ignore that it even happened, and to bristle angrily
if anyone brings up the topic. Should we take that to mean that he will be happy
to accept such “help” again in 2020? The FBI has reportedly
beefed up its counterintelligence operations against the continued threats
they’re seeing from Russia, yet Trump won’t acknowledge that there was or is a problem. This is not
reassuring. Yes, we have many true public servants who are working around
the clock to secure fair
access to the vote for all
citizens, despite the Trump administration’s Census-based
efforts to disadvantage areas with higher immigrant populations (typically
Democratic-leaning), but the problem remains.
 |
| Securing the next election from all interference should be top priority! |
If Trump loses the vote in 2020, we can be certain he will
characterize our system as “rigged,” but guess who’s doing the “rigging?”
Astrology has a lot to say about all of this, of course, but here’s a case in which the planetary
cycles can paint a more comprehensive picture than a single event chart can. The
threats to our essential institutions didn’t happen overnight, and the
situation is evolving still, so let’s consider the cycles profile for where
we’re at in terms of the 10 outer-planetary cycles as I write this, and see
what that tells us about the state of national affairs.
|
Planetary
Cycles
|
Cycles in force on
4/29/2019
|
Cycle phase in force 4/29/2019
|
|
Jup-Sat
|
5/2000, 23+Tau
|
waning-balsamic
|
|
Jup-Ura
|
6/2010 0+Ar
|
waning-disseminating
|
|
Jup-Nep
|
5/2009, 26+Aq
|
waning-last
quarter
|
|
Jup-Plu
|
12/2007, 28+Sag
|
waning-balsamic
|
|
Sat-Ura
|
2/1988, 29+Sag
|
waning-disseminating
|
|
Sat-Nep
|
3/1989, 28+Cap
|
waning-last
quarter
|
|
Sat-Plu
|
11/1982, 27+Lib
|
waning-balsamic
|
|
Ura-Nep
|
2/1993, 19+Cap
|
waxing-new
|
|
Ura-Plu
|
10/1965, 17+Vir
|
waxing-first
quarter
|
|
Nep-Plu
|
Aug. 1891, 8+Gem
|
waxing-crescent
|
For starters, the preponderance of waning cycles over waxing cycles
is significant here. Notice that all the
Saturn
and Jupiter cycles are waning—this suggests a definite weakening of
social and perhaps even economic structures. The economy’s been fairly buoyant
with Jupiter
in home-sign Sagittarius, but it’s likely to
slow-down when Jupiter ingresses Saturn-ruled Capricorn in December
this year. In the meantime, these waning cycles make Trump’s failed nominations
to the Federal Reserve Board all the more interesting—we may not think much
about the Fed, but if its independence and integrity are fatally compromised by
Trump’s appointees, we could be in for a rough ride.
The nature of these cycles also makes Trump’s efforts to
compromise our Department of Justice—by turning the Attorney General and others
into his personal defenders, rather
than the independent defenders of the Constitution and American justice—all the
more critical. Will we have a shot at reinventing these endangered institutions
more strongly and more independently once the waning cycles begin fresh? I’m
relatively optimistic that we have smart, committed people working furiously to
that end, but the challenges are monumental.
In general, in a season of waning cycles, it’s time to tidy
up, to weed out what’s not working in society and politics, to really “drain the swamp,” and to clear
the way for fresh, renewed structures and policies. Perhaps that’s what Trump thinks he’s doing with his defiance to
Congress over its oversight powers, his untoward use of the DOJ and his abuse
of executive power (well-documented in the Mueller report), but his behavior
and the contents of that report suggest that his intentions are at best
compromised, and at worst, blatantly corrupt. If we’ve learned anything from
his behavior, it’s that he’ll push the boundaries of his power to protect his
own interests.
All of the cycles listed above are involved in all this, of
course, but after we lay some groundwork for the discussion, we’ll consider
more closely the prominent, heavy imprint of the waning Saturn-Pluto cycle in its
final balsamic phase (315.01°-360°). This final phase is a time of concentrated
structure- and institution-challenging energy, aimed at deep cultural
transformations. We’ve seen the transformational impact in this country with
Trump’s nationalist/protectionist policies and attempts to “deconstruct” what
he calls the “Deep State”—i.e., the institutions that would in better times
hold him accountable to the Constitution.
Weighing Election 2016's record of voter suppression against Trump's spurious claims of election rigging against him, we might wonder if he views the popular vote itself as another institution of the "Deep State" that he must control.
 |
| Voter suppression tactics overwhelmingly target communities of color. |
Heavy transformations are ongoing across the globe, as
well—in the U.K. with its Brexit dilemma; in other anti-immigration members of
the EU who’ve elected authoritarian-leaning right-wing governments; in Brazil,
with Trump’s new right-wing ally, Bolsinaro; in Venezuela with its collapsed
economy and leadership crisis, in volatile areas of Africa, the Middle East and
so on.
In the wake of a sustained migrant crisis dating back to
before 2014, there’s been a backlash in many European nations that purposely
scapegoats (Saturn-Pluto) immigrants and demonizes “Others,” and these
developments have normalized xenophobic, Nazi-style rhetoric in the process. Needless
to say, strong resistance exists for all these authoritarian-leaning
developments, but the trend is real and it could be telling us what to expect
from the next phase of globalization that is likely to manifest during the upcoming
2020 cycles (Jupiter-Saturn, Jupiter-Pluto, Saturn-Pluto).
This is a topic to explore in more depth another day, but
history shows that in times of intense transformation, the outer planetary
cycles tend to hit more key milestones. Two recent examples illustrate: first,
the WWII years, which were followed by deep cultural and economic/geopolitical
transformations, saw four cycles
launch in short order (Jupiter-Saturn in 1940; Jupiter-Uranus
in 1941; Saturn-Uranus in 1942, and Jupiter-Pluto in 1943); second, the
period of 1981-1984, which was politically critical for the shift to a
globalized economy (the Reagan years), again saw four cycles launched one after another (Jupiter-Pluto in 1981;
Saturn-Pluto in 1982; Jupiter-Uranus in 1983 and
Jupiter-Neptune in 1984).
The WWII cycles mentioned above were all happening against the
backdrop of the relatively new Neptune-Pluto cycle in Gemini that
had just begun in1891: Authoritarians thrived in the early 20th
century, and several of them had natal Neptune-Pluto conjunctions, coupled
with strong Saturn and Jupiter placements. This was no
accident—especially considering the scope of the early 20th century
wars and power struggles. A new global
order was being thrashed out, and that task attracted leaders with the most
grandiose ambitions imaginable. Megalomaniacs were welcome to join the club.
“Strong men” types with a thirst for power often have
significant natal Saturn-Pluto, Saturn-Neptune placements, and it’s not unusual
to see strong Mars connections to these outer planets as well. More on this
another time—Trump’s chart is an interesting anomaly among would-be
authoritarians, but he compensates with an over-the-top belligerent/angry Mars
(Leo) and the enabling company he keeps.
Suffice to say now that when the pressure for change is on,
especially for global- or civilization-level change, authoritarians tend to
emerge to exploit people’s anxieties about “losing control.” Unfortunately,
people are too often open to that influence and willing to give up their rights
in exchange for the “security” they think “strong” leaders can deliver. The
9/11 attacks happened with Saturn stretched opposite Pluto
on the chart horizon, with the Patriot Act quickly passed thereafter.
It wasn’t long after that that the Bush administration
approved some truly abusive (Saturn-Pluto) interrogation
practices against terrorism suspects and denied these suspects the legal
protections we expect under democratic rule of law. Many have never been
charged after years of detention and some of them are languishing in Guantanomo
to this day. The balance between security and civil rights has never been quite
right since that 9/11 era—what remains of this Saturn-Pluto cycle forces
us to make hard choices about government authority and the exercise of power.
 |
| Article I of the Constitution lays out the powers of Congress. |
In fact, these decisions are being made every day at our
southern border: thousands of would-be legal
asylum seekers now stranded there in detention camps can probably attest to
this, especially those who have also been forcibly separated from their children.
Hopefully, as this cycle completes,
both these heinous situations—among so many others—will be resolved in some
humane way. If we want immigration laws that are sane and humane, Congress needs to be in charge—it’s the
only branch that is more immediately accountable and responsive to the People!
Unprecedented
As dramatic as the WWII years were, and as impactful as the
1980s cycles were (they delivered Trump into the White House, for starters),
the launching of three major cycles
within the same year is unprecedented, at least from 1650 on. So, to get a feel
for how a lot of current social and political issues are likely to resolve and
move on in 2020, we need to take these three currently balsamic cycles seriously.
As noted, in this post we’ll continue exploring the Saturn-Pluto cycle, since
it’s the first of the three balsamic cycles that will perfect in 2020. Later
posts will tackle the remaining two 2020 cycles: the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction
in 4/4/2020, and the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction on
12/21/2020).
We’ll briefly consider each against the U.S. Sibly chart, to
tease out some likely themes taking shape as each of these cycles ends and
begins anew. There will be a lot to
say about all three cycles in the coming year, but perhaps this first exploration
can give us a “sneak preview.” Will we safely “land” the time-capsule of our
system of institutional checks and balances? Or are we navigating a much more
precarious turning point?
 |
| Seems about right! |
Obviously, this cycle bears great significance for a powerful
nation seeking to maintain its status in the world—I doubt that Trump was
thinking in astrological terms when he coined his “MAGA” motto, but it’s easy
to see how his motto resonated with an insecure-feeling electorate. We’ve
already discussed some manifestations of this cycle, but let’s refocus more
specifically around how it’s interacting with the nation’s chart. The
“constitutional crisis” we’re faced with is represented very clearly.
To better understand the energy dynamics contained in the Saturn-Pluto
Cycle chart (hereafter, just Cycle), I’ve provided that chart on
its own first, and then the Biwheel.
Chart #1: Saturn-0-Pluto
2020, January 12, 2020, 11:45:34 a.m. ST, Washington, D.C.. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.
Eris (Aries) and Uranus (Taurus) rise at and conjoin ASC (Aries); Eris
squares Sun-Ceres-Saturn-Pluto-Mercury (Capricorn). The angles of this chart certainly speak to
our times: all aggressive, potentially volatile Cardinal, with significant
angular placements. Jupiter (Capricorn) conjoins the MC and widely trines
Uranus. These placements suggest a fairly intense, combative cycle, a
point that is reinforced by chart-ruler Mars (Sagittarius) in the 8th,
quincunx
No. Node in the 3rd. More than one commentator have pointed
out that finding some military “quest” to engage in before the 2020 election
could be Trump’s “ace in the hole”—sitting presidents are almost never voted out during war time. Would
he stop short of using any and all advantages within his reach? So far, his
behavior suggests that he would not.
Now that we've established this, let’s move on to the biwheel below.
Biwheel #1: (inner wheel) USA-Sibly chart, July
4, 1776, 5:10 p.m. LMT, Philadelphia, PA; (outer wheel) Saturn-0-Pluto 2020,
January 12, 2020, 11:45:34 a.m. ST, Washington, D.C.. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.
Interchart Cardinal
Grand Square: Cycle Sun-Ceres-Saturn-Pluto-Mercury
widely conjoin Sibly Pluto (all Capricorn) and oppose Sibly Mercury (Cancer);
this axis squares Sibly Saturn-Juno (Libra) opposite Sibly Chiron-Cycle Eris
(Aries). At this point, Saturn-Pluto and an impressive
entourage of other points are tightening their approach to Sibly Pluto—the topic for
another analysis closer to 2022—but for now, the sense is that the nation’s
systems for wielding power are under intense pressure, and this would pertain
to economic systems, trade and communication systems (Saturn-Pluto ties into Sibly
Pluto-opposite-Mercury), and yes, the institutional structures
underlying the federal government itself.
Can a democracy built on the “Rule of Law” (Saturn-Pluto)
stand firm when those in charge of enforcing that Law and protecting our
sovereign interests (such as the FBI, Homeland Security, etc.) are compromised
by a defiant, bullying Executive branch? The pressure put on Sibly
Saturn-Juno (Libra) is relevant here—Trump is clearly demanding more
than he should from the Attorney General, whose responsibility atop the DOJ requires
independence from the Executive branch.
The AG and the DOJ he/she leads are charged with guaranteeing
that no one is above the Law, but
with Barr as AG, the position has become Trump’s “consort” (Juno).
Indeed, Barr’s natal Neptune (Libra) conjoins Sibly
Saturn and Trump’s natal Juno-Chiron-Jupiter (all Libra), suggesting
that Barr’s approach to protecting the Law could be distorted by outside
influences and perhaps questionable loyalties. Worst case scenario, if he is
allowed to reinvent the DOJ to suit Trump, the Law (and legal institutions—Sibly
Saturn) will suffer corruption (Neptune).
 |
| Better "blind" Justice than "deluded" Justice. |
For its part, Pluto leaves few choice, and mostly
very difficult ones, with its relentless “death, rebirth, transformation”
agenda. The near complete Pluto cycle we’re witnessing
(transiting Pluto returning to its radix Sibly position) suggests that the
“DNA” of our democratic system will endure only
if what is most essential about it is protected and nurtured going forward.
Checks and balances between three
co-equal branches of government and the integrity of our voting systems are about
as foundational as it gets. Whatever other
ballast we may need to throw over in this “death and transformation”
process, these essentials need to endure and to be strengthened.
The Constitution has been a fairly resilient, living document to
date, and it will hopefully remain so, but we should not take it for granted: Cycle Ceres conjoins Cycle Sun and
Saturn-Pluto and ties into the Sibly points in this grand square,
suggesting that the harsh energies of Saturn-Pluto could also nourish our structural systems if we
play our cards right and refuse to succumb to Neptune’s distortions and
erosion.
Fifth house Sibly
Chiron exactly opposes Sibly Juno—the role AG Barr has
decided to play on behalf of Trump could inflict a deep wound to the nation’s
sense of self (Aries), and it’s hard to say what the ripple effects of it all
will be. Cycle Ceres is supported by the Sun’s protective
conjunction, although the Sun radiates rather “tough love,” as
part of this heavy Capricorn stellium.
In fact, it appears that the Sun here is raising
conscious awareness of our responsibility for nurturing (Ceres) and making the
mechanics of government work in this
nation. We saw an outpouring of new, young energy in the 2018 Midterm elections
as the GenX and Millennial generations ran a great number of candidates and won in record numbers; it appears that
this energy will be stimulated further for 2020, as it should. Much more on Election 2020 in coming posts!
 |
| What role will the Mueller Report play in Election 2020? |
This possibility is unfortunately reinforced in this biwheel,
with the new Saturn-Pluto cycle launching in a tight quincunx
to Sibly Mars (Gemini), which also happens to conjoin Trump’s
natal Sun-Node-Uranus (Gemini) and oppose his natal Moon-So.
Node (Sagittarius—chart not shown). Because of all this, it’s all the
more important that Congress’s original
power over declaring wars be restored and strengthened (more ahead on this).
Perhaps if we keep our eyes on the true prizes in the midst of
all these challenges, we can avert the worst case scenarios that might loom
ahead. IMHO, doing everything possible to secure Constitutional and election
integrity will begin to rebalance our national power dynamics and restore the
core principle that “no one is above the Law,” including Trump. That principle
extends to his duty to respond to and honor lawful subpoenas issued by Congress—to
him, personally, or to those under
working in his administration. Historical precedents have weighed in on all these
issues—see here for a thorough
explanation of what constitutes “contempt of Congress,” the legal basis for
making that charge, and the remedies for it.
Bottom line here, Trump’s continued contempt for Congress’s
oversight role and subpoena power should not stand.
Final thoughts
There’s so much more that could be said about the biwheel
above, but one major takeaway from all of the above is that the integrity of
our essential government systems is not a
foregone conclusion, and we take our Constitution for granted at our peril. The last time Pluto
was in the position it will be in when it conjoins Saturn in January, 2020
was in 1774, the year British Parliament passed the “Intolerable Acts” in
retaliation for the American colonists’ Boston Tea Party protest.
Needless to
say, this was a series of events that quickly lit the fuse of the American
Revolution. That bloody transition from being a disjointed collection of
colonies to being a sovereign nation with a common Constitution is the stuff of
history, but the transition we’re faced with today may be equally ground-breaking.
The onset of the new 2020 cycles will provide both challenges and opportunities—all
the more reason to protect the integrity of that election year!
So while these are serious times, we have much to look forward
to, as well—I’m especially optimistic that the coming Jupiter-Saturn cycle in
Aquarius might help us put our focus squarely where it needs to be: on managing
the robust technological transitions that are under way so they work for everyone, and on using those new
technologies to mitigate or even solve climate
change, so we can protect the Earth for generations into the future. This is an
Aquarian imperative—to leave the corrupt quicksand overwhelming us in D.C.
today behind, and to start solving the problems confronting the future!
When our Constitutional checks and balances are working as
intended, changes and adaptations can
be made in a thoughtful, non-catastrophic way (look at all the Amendments that
have been added over the years). When they’re not working, not only will nothing
constructive get done, but the state of the nation will shift into a
devolutionary mode.
This would be a dangerous shift that, among other things,
would make us vulnerable to manipulation by those who won’t hesitate to use our
military might to keep themselves in power. We’ve discussed some hints of such
machinations, and with the Cycle Mars/Jupiter (midpoint, Sagittarius)
opposite Sibly Mars (Gemini), we need to remain vigilant and wary of
“growth” schemes that rely on military force, hardware, or technologies. Congress never says no when it comes to
increasing Defense budgets, but here’s another area where Congressional
oversight is critical.
In fact, Congress has been trying
to exercise oversight and to recover its original power over the nation’s
decisions to go to war. Amazingly, our members of Congress have cooperated in
stunning, bipartisan fashion to do this!
From Wikipedia:
“In 2018, Senators Bernie Sanders (I–VT), Chris
Murphy (D–CT), and Mike Lee (R–UT) sponsored a bill to
invoke the War Powers Resolution and to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led military intervention
in Yemen,[30]
which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties[30]
and "millions more suffering from starvation and disease."[31]
Sanders first introduced the bill in the 115th Congress in February 2018,[32]
but the Senate voted to table the motion in March 2018.[33]
Interest grew in the bill after the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi
in October 2018, with the Senate also approving a resolution holding Saudi
Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman responsible for Khashoggi's death.[34]
The Senate voted 56-to-41 to invoke the War Powers Resolution in December 2018.[34]
However, the House of Representatives did not vote on the resolution before the
conclusion of the 115th Congress.[35]
The bill was introduced in the 116th Congress in January 2019[36]
with Sanders announcing a vote to take place on March 13, 2019.[35]
The bill was approved by the Senate in a 54-to-46 vote and was approved by the
House of Representatives 247-175.[37][38]
The bill was vetoed by President Trump on April 16, 2019.”
It remains to be seen if Trump’s veto can be overruled, but
let’s celebrate progress in Congress when we can!
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.
