National Archives - Page 21 of 44 - Alex's Asteroid Astrology

June 21st, 2020 at 01:20pm by Alex Miller

SCOTUS Cockblocks Conservatives

In a surprise 6-3 decision June 15^th, the United States Supreme Court ruled that gays and transgendered individuals are in fact protected by Title VII of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, which already prohibits discrimination in the workplace on sexual grounds. Conservatives Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the bloc of four liberals in essentially grandfathering in sexual orientation and gender identification to the nearly sixty-year-old law. Well, duh.

The senior Justice in the majority determines who will write the decision, and John Roberts wasted no time in passing this hot potato along to junior Justice Gorsuch, perhaps the unkindest cut of all for conservatives, who have put up with all manner of crudity, ignorance, and anti-Christian-values shenanigans from Donald Trump, all in the name of the justices he would appoint to the Supreme Court, whom they assumed would rule in support of their views. As historian Jon Meacham recently opined, “they sold their souls to Trump for the Supreme Court, and now find that his check has bounced.”

June 18th, 2020 at 10:19am by Alex Miller

Here We Go Again – the Rayshard Brooks Murder

Late Friday evening, June 12, 2020, Atlanta police were called to a Wendy’s restaurant, where 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks was passed out sleeping in his car, blocking the drive-through. Police gave him a sobriety test, which he failed, and talked with him cordially for over half an hour, while he cooperated and consented to a weapons search of his car, which came up clean. Brooks suggested he be allowed to walk the few blocks to his sister’s home, but the officers decided to arrest him for DUI.

At this point Brooks resisted, broke free of the officers as they attempted to cuff him, was tackled, struggled and grabbed an officer’s taser before breaking free once again and drunkenly lumbering across the parking lot. At one point he turned and shot the taser wildly in the officers’ general direction, continuing to run away; Officer Garrett Rolfe shot him twice in the back, killing him. As Brooks lay prone on the ground, struggling for his life, Rolfe approached and kicked him, asserting, “I got him!”, while his partner stood on Brooks’ shoulder; he then waited more than two minutes before offering medical assistance.

June 15th, 2020 at 08:10am by Alex Miller

The White Lion: Seeding Racism in America

On August 25, 1619, the privateer vessel White Lion landed at Point Comfort, now Hampton Roads, Virginia, just outside Jamestown. The ship and its partner, the Treasurer, had encountered and raided the San Juan Bautista in the mid-Atlantic, a Portuguese craft transporting some 200 enslaved Africans as part of its freight, carrying off some 60 for sale in the West Indies.

But the two privateers became separated at sea, and the White Lion with its 20-odd captured slaves made port in Virginia, and there traded their human cargo for badly needed food and supplies. This was the origin of African slavery in the land which would become the United States (some indigenous tribes had practiced slavery with captured enemies for centuries), thus establishing one of the country’s Original Sins (the other being genocide of the native population).

June 4th, 2020 at 10:15am by Alex Miller

Four Horsemen: Pluto, Eris, Chaos & Troemper

Boy, do I hate being right. Maybe that’s why the cosmos permits it so rarely. On May 24, in an article on Saturn Station Fallout, I wrote:

“As an aside, let’s note that Troemper is heading into troubled waters, about to join disaffected Eris and its square to powerhouse Pluto at 24 Aries/Capricorn, also incorporating the political, bombastic energies of Jupiter at 27 Cap. If you think we live in interesting times now, give it a few weeks!”

The next day George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in the performance of his duty, and all hell broke loose. Protests against police brutality and treatment of minorities erupted all across the country, in more than 140 cities, and though the vast majority of those protesting were peaceful, there was also a lot of violence unleashed, with riots, looting, vandalism and property damage.

May 30th, 2020 at 02:39pm by Alex Miller

The Murder of George Floyd

On Monday evening, May 25, 2020, Memorial Day, police were called to a small shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota following a report of a man trying to pass a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill. Four officers took a black man matching the description of the suspect into custody, handcuffed him, then laid him down in the street, where one white officer held him prone with a knee on his neck for almost nine minutes, while he begged for air and called out to his deceased mother, and the other officers watched or assisted.

Passersby and EMTs pleaded with the officer to relax his stance, but he persisted, for almost three minutes after the man beneath him became unresponsive. Taken to Hennepin County Medical Center, EMTs worked to revive him for almost an hour before he was pronounced dead at 9:25 PM CDT. Protests began the night after the incident, escalating to violent confrontations with police and looting over the ensuing four nights, as demonstrations spread to urban centers across the country. All four officers were terminated from their employment with MPD the following day, and four days later the arresting officer was himself arrested and charged with third degree murder and manslaughter.

May 24th, 2020 at 08:10am by Alex Miller

Asteroid Casefiles: Saturn Station Fallout

Recent pronouncements by 2020 presidential election contenders and a personal run-in with potential disaster sent me scrambling for the ephemeris lately, and while having that knowledge in hindsight didn’t change the reality, at least there was some comfort in confirming the timing of the cosmos is always perfect.

In all four instances, Saturn seems to have been a mover and shaker of the events, and with the planet of authority, restriction, limitation, career and status currently at station, that’s not surprising. Saturn turned retrograde on May 11^th, but has been energizing its station degree of 1 Aquarius since April 7, and will continue to do so until June 15, affording two months of saturnine shenanigans while it slows, changes direction, and picks up speed again. So Saturn themes are emphasized throughout the period, which has also witnessed the height of the US death toll from coronavirus (about to top 100,000), with Saturn acknowledged by the ancients as Lord of Death.

Saturn also rules chief executives and the presidency, which is the chief focus of this article. In particular, we’ll look at two statements from presidential candidate Donald Trump and one from rival Joe Biden, all of which garnered heightened attention or controversy.