The Twentieth Amendment to the US Constitution establishes the beginnings of both presidential and congressional terms. For the Congress, initial assembly of the body is mandated for noon on 3 January in odd-numbered years. So we can easily cast a chart for the incoming 116th Congress, which may prove to be one of the most consequential in American history, holding as it does the fate of the current President in its hands.
As 2019 dawns, what does the New Year have in store for The Donald? He’s just passed the halfway mark of that stunningly horrific Solar Return, with almost six months still to run on his celestial sentence, and no “get out of jail free” card in sight!
But it’s not just the embedded factors in that chart which threaten Trump’s personal sanity and our collective safety – the cosmos continues to apply serious pressure to crack this nut, and much of it is coming in the next few months. Two eclipses and two planetary stations vie for the honor of the ultimate Trump Takedown, increasing presidential stress levels to the breaking point. But the coup de gras may well be the antics of his celestial referent, asteroid Troemper.
On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, the POTUS gave to me: one ousted White House Chief of Staff; an ill-advised Syrian pullout; one retiring Defense Secretary; a dissolved Trump charity; one sentenced former “fixer”; Trade Wars with China; a deferred sentence for a former National Security Adviser; five DOJ investigations into his conduct; four dictator cronies; three tanking stock markets; two departing Cabinet Secretaries; and a partial governmental shutdown in a pear tree.
One might think, with asteroid Santa coming to its station on Christmas Day, conjoined Donald Trump’s natal Ascendant, that the holiday haul for the 45th President might be pretty good. But apparently, Santa only has coal left in his magic sack.
When the 116th Congress convenes on January 3rd, 2019, it’s likely to have a most remarkable woman at its head. If chosen Speaker by the incoming Democratic majority in US the House of Representatives, it won’t be Nancy Pelosi’s first crack at wielding the gavel. The California-based Representative made history in 2007 when she became the first female Speaker of the House, a post she held until the 2010 electoral rout against the Affordable Care Act, spearheaded by the Tea Party, tossed Democrats out of power for 8 years. But progressives and Pelosi are back, and 2018’s Blue Wave has once again turned the tide in DC.
If you thought things could only get better in the Trump administration, that we’d reached the nadir, think again. An ongoing, protracted square from asteroid Troemper, our celestial referent for the President, to angry, quarrelsome Mars seems to be eliciting even worse behaviors than we’ve already become accustomed to.
Mars’ recent slowdown to its station in late August is the culprit here, allowing the normally slower-moving Troemper to catch it up and perform a pernicious, petty, provocative pas de deux as summer stretched into autumn. Coming to within ten degrees of each other as of August 20th, the two have been resonant within five degrees since September 1st, a state of affairs which endures through the end of November (they continue within ten degrees until the Winter Solstice on December 21).
On Wednesday, November 7th, 2018, while the Midterm Election votes were still being counted, Donald Trump saw the fulfillment of a years-long dream: the forced resignation of Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. (And don’t think the timing on that isn’t significant; Trump wanted something controversial to distract from the Democratic victory the day before, and Sessions fit the bill perfectly.)
Yes, Sessions was the first sitting US Senator to openly endorse Trump’s Presidential campaign in 2016; yes, he was Trump’s handpicked choice for the post he now leaves; yes, he was perhaps the most effective of Trump’s Cabinet officials in enacting the administration’s ultra-conservative agenda.
But Sessions’ fatal flaw was a teeny modicum of ethical behavior, when he recused himself from the Justice Department’s investigation into Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. This he was required to do, having been a major campaign surrogate for Trump, and he only did it after lying to Congress during his AG confirmation hearings about his own interactions with Russian agents.