Tag archive: Apophis

pluto cover

The USA Pluto Return: You Ain’t Seen Nuthin’ Yet

In 2022 the United States is undergoing a profound and deeply transformative period in its development, namely the return of Pluto to its natal degree.  Pluto’s orbit is roughly 248 years, so this is a cosmic event that no human has ever experienced, but it can occur for longer-lived entities such as nation-states.  The historical record for what transpires at these times is mixed at best, and subject also to such interruptions and mutations as major political reorganization.  (Is it really valid, for example, to continue using a chart for the Norman Conquest of England for today’s United Kingdom, a different political entity entirely, albeit with a titular head-of-state whose ancestry dates back to those days?)  As well, when such charts are used, we may see recurrent themes under successive Pluto Returns for the same country, but not necessarily among all countries.

Continue reading

afghan cover

Afghan Implosion

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.

Continue reading

CV cover

Guilty, Guilty, Guilty: The Derek Chauvin Verdict

Ten months after his murder, George Floyd’s family received some closure and a form of justice when the jury convicted his killer, former Officer Derek Chauvin, on all three counts of murder and manslaughter charges, after less than 11 hours of deliberation.  The evidence against him was so egregious, that outcome should have been beyond dispute, but in such racially charged cases of police misconduct, nothing is certain. 

Continue reading

The Georgia Spa Shootings

At approximately 4:55 PM EDT on 16 March 2021, Robert Aaron Long allegedly entered the Young’s Asian Massage in Acworth, Georgia and opened fire with a 9mm handgun, killing 4 and wounding another.  He then drove the half hour to Atlanta and continued his shooting spree at two additional massage establishments, Gold Massage Spa and Aromatherapy Spa, across the street from each other on Piedmont Road.  Long shot three dead at Gold’s Spa, killing one more and wounding 4 others at Aromatherapy Spa.  He was apprehended on the highway at about 8:30 PM, allegedly headed to Florida to continue his murderous rampage. 

Continue reading

TRac cover

Trump the Racist: An Asteroid Indictment

“I am the least racist person that you have ever met,” – candidate Donald J. Trump, interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, 9 December 2015

 

Donald Trump’s gift for hyperbole and unwitting comic self-commentary may be encapsulated in this quote, given just after the GOP presidential candidate had called for a complete ban on Muslims entering the US in 2015. Trump had kicked off his campaign months earlier with a diatribe against Mexican immigrants, whom he characterized as “criminals and rapists.” I guess the kindergarten taunt “takes one to know one” would be appropriate here, given Trump’s penchant for projection and schoolyard bully tactics.

Continue reading

RS cover

No Stone Unturned

In a pre-dawn raid of his Florida home on Friday, January 25, 2019, FBI agents at the direction of Special Counsel Robert Mueller arrested Roger Stone, charged with seven federal counts of obstruction, making false statements and witness tampering. Stone, a long-time GOP political operative who traces his roots to the CREEPs (the Committee to RE-Elect the President) around Nixon in 1972, is perhaps the closest Trump associate to be targeted by the Mueller probe. Like Dante’s Inferno, we’re into a lower level of Hell now, and getting close to Lucifer himself.

Continue reading