Asteroid Astrology: National

biden SR 23 old joe

Happy Birthday, Old Joe!

Now, before you get your knickers in a twist, Old Joe is the name of an asteroid, not just an agist slam on Joe Biden, whose 81st birthday occurs Monday, 20 November 2023.  With vast numbers of Americans, even Democratic supporters, leery about Biden’s ability to continue four more years in the notoriously high-pressure job due to his age, the point seems an increasingly apt celestial moniker to represent the 46th President of the United States.

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Capitol Hill Fireworks

It may be long past Fourth of July, but GOP lawmakers treated the public to a variety of fireworks displays on November 15th, 2023, as tempers flared in both legislative houses.  In the hallowed halls of Congress, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) allegedly elbowed fellow Republican Tim Burchett (R-TN), one of eight GOP members who voted for his ouster last month, while passing in the corridor.  On the Senate floor, a hearing threatened to dissolve into fisticuffs when Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) challenged witness Sean O’Brien, Teamsters President, to take it outside, with a mano a mano bareknuckle brawl.  Meanwhile, back in the House of Representatives, Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) verbally sparred with committee member Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), who accused Comer of eerily similar financial transactions with his brother, compared with actions between President Biden and his own brother, which Comer characterizes as corrupt.

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AAA Profile: MAGA Mike (AKA Speaker Johnson)

Only today’s GOP could take a bad situation and make it worse.  After weeks of wrangling following the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, with multiple abortive attempts to install at least four nominees, the Republican caucus unanimously chose Mike Johnson (R-LA) as their new Speaker on October 25th.  Johnson is a MAGA diehard, one of the architects of the attempt to override the 2020 election results; his elevation is a clear signal that the Party has no desire to reform its ways, and is intent more on obstructionism and culture war posing than true governance. 

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Mayhem in Maine: The Lewiston Mass Shooting

On Wednesday, 25 October 2023, the peace of a Down East autumn evening was shattered by gunfire which took the lives of at least 18, wounding 13 more.  At this early date (October 26), names of the victims have not been released, and police are engaged in a statewide manhunt for the suspect, 40-year-old Robert Card, missing after separate attacks on a bowling alley and a restaurant bar.  Card, who has been dealing with mental illness, has a military background and worked as a firearms instructor; his car was found abandoned in nearby Lisbon, but there is no trace of the suspect.  [Author’s note:  Robert Card was found dead, an apparent suicide, late on Friday the 27th.]

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Crossing Jordan: The House Speaker Debacle

If the implications of the situation weren’t so dire, and the dysfunction of the Republican House caucus so manifest for the world to behold, I’d love to have the popcorn concession for what’s playing out now on Capitol Hill.  It’s certainly must-see political theater, as Republicans continue to set records for ineptitude and incompetence, becoming the poster children for inability to govern, even themselves, let alone the country.

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Aster-Obit: Dianne Feinstein

US Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) passed away peacefully at her Washington DC home on 29 September 2023, bringing an end to an era.  Her health had been in decline for some time, but the death itself was sudden and unexpected.  At 90, with some thirty years in the Senate, Feinstein had become a Washington institution, initially elected in 1992 as California’s first female Senator, and first female Jewish Senator in the US.  Reelected five times, in recent months ill health had kept her absent from Judiciary Committee meetings for long periods, imperiling the Democrats’ fragile majority and delaying numerous judicial appointments.  In February 2023 she announced she would not run for reelection when her term expired in 2024.

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