Asteroid Astrology: National

The Pardoner’s Tale

A few months ago I joked with a friend that the myriad bizarre stories coming out of the Trump administration had begun to read like something out of Chaucer – call them the “Trumperbury Tales” – stories which were individual, varied and specific, but tangentially related by a common venue, in the Oval Office. But the recent spate of presidential pardon-related stories seems to put us on a level playing field with the great medieval poet, in a direct comparison with Chaucer’s “The Pardoner’s Tale.”

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Let Them Eat Cake

On Monday June 4th, 2018, a much-anticipated ruling came down from the US Supreme Court. By a 7-2 majority, the justices upheld the right of a Colorado baker to refuse services to a gay couple, based in his religious beliefs. The case centered on a 2012 incident when David Mullins and Charlie Craig approached Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, and asked him to bake a cake for their wedding.

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For Georgia and the Nation, a Historic First

On Tuesday, May 22, 2018, Georgia State Representative Stacey Abrams became the first female African American to win a major party nomination for Governor, defeating opponent Stacey Evans in what became known as the “battle of the Staceys”. If she wins in November, she will be the first black female governor in the US.

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Trumping Trump: Legal Nemeses Mueller & Avenatti

There are two principal sources to which Trump Resisters look for relief from the malaise, corruption and chaos which is the current administration: Special Counsel Robert Mueller, leading the FBI investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential campaign; and lawyer Michael Avenatti, representing adult film star Stormy Daniels, with two civil lawsuits against the president. The two men could not be more different, but both present significant dangers to the completion of the Trump presidency.

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All the President’s (New) Men

There are once again new players in the ongoing shitshow that is the Trump administration. As Troemper came to station in late April, Trump announced a major shake-up in his legal team. On April 19, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a close Trump confidante during the campaign who thus far had been frozen out of employment in the administration, joined the motley crew representing the president in his myriad legal difficulties. On May 2 Ty Cobb, lead counsel responding to the Mueller investigation, announced his retirement, to be replaced by Emmet Flood, formerly Bill Clinton’s counselor during his impeachment proceedings. I think we can all see where this is headed…

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The Cosby Verdict

On Thursday, April 26, 2018, a jury of seven men and five women in Norristown, PA found comedian Bill Cosby Jr guilty on all counts in the retrial of a sexual assault case brought by Andrea Constand, who alleges that Cosby drugged and raped her in 2004. Cosby, known as “America’s Dad” for his eight year stint on the wildly popular “The Cosby Show” in the 1980s, is now 80, and has been accused by more than 60 women of similar behavior over the decades. Ms. Constand’s case was the only one still within the statute of limitations, and the first trial resulted in a hung jury in 2017.

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