Asteroid Astrology: National

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Trump’s Noose Tightens

Well, he’s done it again – Trump continues to break records, right and left.  He’s now the first former US President to be referred for criminal charges.  On Monday, 19 December 2022, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol gave Americans an early Christmas gift, when it voted unanimously to send four criminal referrals for Donald J. Trump to the Justice Department, based on his actions that day and in the preceding months since the 2020 election.  The House doesn’t have the power to file charges on its own behalf, but can recommend legal action to the DOJ, known to be deep into its own investigation of the insurrection planned, prompted and encouraged by the disgraced 45th President.

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Same-Sex Marriage in the US: From Defense to Respect

The US is poised to formally enshrine marriage equality in law, as opposed to allowing the practice via Supreme Court fiat.  Same sex marriage, first legalized in Massachusetts in 2003, was validated in all fifty states by the Obergefell v Hodges decision in 2015.  But recent events with the overturning of Roe v Wade and its abandonment of federally guaranteed reproductive freedoms have shown just how fragile governance by judicial rulings can be, and advocates have been pushing hard for legal codification of the right to same-sex unions.

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The Colorado Springs Drag Show Shooting

Just before midnight on Saturday, 19 November 2022, a man clad in body armor with an AR-15-style long rifle entered Club Q, an LGBTQ+ watering hole in a strip mall on the outskirts of Colorado Springs, Colorado, which was hosting a drag show that evening.  He began shooting into the crowd, but was tackled two minutes later by two patrons and subdued until police arrived.  In those two minutes, he had killed five and wounded 18 others.

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Joe Biden’s 2022 Solar Return

On November 20, 2022, US President Joe Biden turns eighty years old, the oldest person ever to serve in that office.  Although he has not made his candidacy official, Biden routinely offers, when asked, that it is his “intention” to run for reelection in 2024, just shy of 82, which would make him 86 when he hands off to the next president in January of 2029.  We’ll see.

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2020 Midterm Election Wrap-up: The Red Trickle

Going into the Midterm Elections on 8 November 2022, it was anyone’s guess what would happen.  With a Lunar Eclipse that day which also directly incorporated both Mercury (the vote) and Uranus (shocks and surprises) pretty much any outcome was possible.  With a Red Wave predicted to topple Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, inflation at record levels, gas prices rising again, and a president with low approval ratings, the Common Wisdom argued for a Republican resurgence.  Historically, the Party which holds the White House tends to lose seats in the House of Representatives during its first Midterm, on average 28.  Republicans had only to wrest five seats to gain control of the House, and just one to gain control of the Senate, which seemed like a walk in the park, given precedent.

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Election 2022: Several Senate Scenarios

While Uranus exactly conjunct the Moon for the Lunar Eclipse on Election Day warns us to expect the unexpected, loss of control of the US House of Representatives does seem likely.  Redistricting alone, in the wake of the 2020 census, should grant the Republicans ten more seats, more than enough to change the balance of power in the lower chamber and wrest the Speaker’s gavel from Nancy Pelosi, even if all current Dem incumbents not caught up in that redistricting shift keep their seats.

So it’s in the Senate where the real drama will unfold.  Currently split 50/50, Democrats maintain control (assuming they are all acting together, not always the case with consensus refuseniks like Manchin and Sinema in their ranks) due to VP Kamala Harris’ ability to break any ties in the administration’s favor.  Earlier this year, the likelihood of Dems holding their fragile majority, perhaps even picking up a seat or two, seemed fairly high.  But recent polling suggests Republicans are closing the gap, threatening Dem incumbents in some states, perhaps failing to pick up seats from retiring GOP senators in others.  I’ve chosen three contests to profile, the winners of which will likely determine who ultimately controls the US Senate:  Pennsylvania, Ohio and Georgia.

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