Joe Biden’s solar year began at 11:31 AM EST on 19 November 2021, in Washington DC, just hours after a Lunar Eclipse with the longest duration in 580 years, which fell exactly opposed his natal Sun. This is not a positive augur for the coming twelvemonth, and delving deeper into the details, we’re not seeing much to alleviate that.
All politico eyes were turned to the “Old Dominion State” on Election Day 2021, where former Democratic governor Terry McAuliffe sought to regain his old job and beat back a challenge from Republican Glenn Youngkin, a businessman with no prior political experience. Virginia’s increasingly blue tint, and a 10-point Biden victory margin just last year, not to mention McAuliffe’s earlier tenure of the office, all argued for a stately procession to victory, but in practice, the outcome was far from assured. Polls tightened in the weeks leading up to the election, with Youngkin showing significant leads in some, but a statistical dead heat in most.
On Monday, 18 October 2021, four-star general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell passed away unexpectedly, from COVID-19 complications while fighting multiple myeloma cancer and Parkinson’s disease. Though fully vaccinated for COVID and awaiting his booster shot, the 84-year-old Powell acquired a breakout case of the coronavirus, and his compromised immune system was unable to shake it off. He is survived by his beloved wife of almost 60 years, Alma, who also acquired a milder COVID infection at the time of her husband’s illness.
Well, the cosmos has done it again! With unerring precision, the celestial sphere has once again placed its astrologic finger on the nub of current events. It’s Hell Week in Washington, with Democrats in disarray, struggling to pass the signature legislation of the Biden administration, keep the government from closing its doors, and facing some of the most momentous votes in recent years. Given all the Capitol Hill drama, how can this fail to register on the cosmic etch-a-sketch? Short answer – it doesn’t!
For the second time in twenty years, California is holding a recall election for its governor. Like Gray Davis in 2003, the at-risk chief executive is a Democrat, Gavin Newsom, less than two years into his first term, former mayor of San Francisco. Unlike the successful challenge mounted by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003, there is no high-profile Republican candidate running to unseat Newsom in 2021. Rather, upwards of 40 little-known candidates have ponied-up to the electoral bar, from across the political spectrum, but Newsom is not among them, as the current governor is not allowed to run to replace himself.
The phenomenal collapse of the Afghan government in mid-August 2021 sent shockwaves through the US and across the world. Seemingly overnight (though the process took eleven days total), the 180,000+ strong US-trained Afghan military melted away, leaving the resurgent Taliban, already predominant in much of the rural regions, with little to no resistance in occupying the cities. Even Kabul, the capital of the country, fell in a matter of hours on August 15th, with the US in full retreat from its abandoned embassy, controlling just half of the airport.
