A huge sigh of audible relief went up from progressive circles on Wednesday, 26 January, 2022, when the story broke that Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, would resign at the end of this term. Breyer, 83, had been balking at political pressure to remove himself from office while the Democrats still marginally control the Senate, so his seat would not pass into conservative hands at a later date.
Tensions continue to increase on the border between Ukraine and Russia, where more than 100,000 Russian troops have recently been stationed, in what appears to be a build-up to an invasion. Russia began a piecemeal takeover of its neighbor in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea, followed by further border incursions into adjoining Ukrainian enclaves dominated by its military and local separatist groups wanting to reunite the two nations, as they were under Soviet hegemony. Reports that families of Russian diplomatic staffers in Ukraine were evacuated in early January heightened the sense of impending crisis.
On January 13, 2022, a year and a week after the event, the US Justice Department issued its first indictments for seditious conspiracy related to the Epiphany coup attempt in the final days of Donald Trump’s presidency. Elmer “Stewart” Rhodes, founder and leader of the right-wing militia group Oath Keepers, was among eleven members of the group charged in what prosecutors described as an organized, preplanned plot to storm the Capitol on January 6th last year, to disrupt and prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Serbian tennis phenom Novak Djokovic may have thrown a spanner into his quest for a new world record as the winningest Grand Slam champion of all time. Djokovic is in a three-way tie with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, with 20 titles each, but he may have stubbed his toe with his COVID anti-vax stance, which may prevent him from competing in the Australian Open, beginning January 17. Australia’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been notoriously strict, with county-wide lockdowns and stringent protocols on entering the country.
I chose to profile this story, tragic as it is, because it makes an excellent example of how this process unfolds, both celestially and in my own psyche. As a former resident of Philadelphia, and still within that media market, I regularly watch the morning news on 6 ABC, predominantly for weather forecasts. When I heard about a housefire near my old stomping grounds on January 5th which took 12 lives, 8 of them children, I got that familiar tingle at the nape of the neck that tells me to investigate, astrologically.
Imagine it: more than 24 hours cooped up inside a cramped metal box, with subfreezing temperatures just a thin glass wall away. No food, water, medicine or bathroom. Power, heat and connectivity only as long as the fuel and cellphone power hold out. Children, pets, seniors, special needs individuals – no one is spared. That was the situation confronting hundreds of motorists caught in a massive traffic snarl on Interstate 95, the primary north/south artery up the East Coast, on Monday, January 3rd.
