Tag archive: Donald J. Trump

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President Musk

Nobody elected him to anything, he is ineligible for the high office he apparently holds, his work in restructuring government is unsanctioned, unofficial, and unconstitutional.  But Elon Musk has apparently effected a successful takeover of the US government, hostile or otherwise.  The head of Donald Trump’s bogus DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk is behaving like a classic Doge, the medieval, autocratic rulers of Venice, arbitrarily cutting staff, stopping funding, and eliminating entire departments at whim.

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Trump 2.0: Crazy Like a Fox

Donald J. Trump’s second administration, taking power at noon on 20 January 2025 (by constitutional fiat, whenever the oath itself is taken), is likely to be a replay of the first term, only more so.  In 2017 when he first assumed office, Trump was a newbie novice to the Washington scene; he appointed persons with experience and relative competence to help him run the government, individuals who had a respect for its institutions and norms, who served as guardrails on Trump’s wilder, wackier impulses.

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Election 2024: Down to the Wire, and It’s All Trash-Talking Garbage

Do you smell what I smell?  That whiff of decay?  That odor of rot?  Is that America?  Or just Puerto Rico?  Or maybe, just maybe, it’s not a garbage smell at all – maybe it’s the cloyingly sweet smell of Democratic victory.

Donald Trump is making his closing argument to his countrymen in the final days of the campaign, promoting why he should be president again, and the best he can come up with is a plea for better waste management?  That’s the level we’ve sunk to, with the former squatter at the White House defining the nation he wants to lead as “a garbage can for the rest of the world” at his rally in Austin, Texas on October 25th.  Two days later, at a rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden that evoked memories of a Nazi rally held there in 1939, Trump’s opening act, a “comedian” named Tony Hinchcliffe, joked about a “floating island of garbage,” called “Puerto Rico,” in a performance that was vetted by the campaign beforehand, and hasn’t been disavowed by Trump since.

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Trump Assassination Attempt, Take Two

On 15 September 2024, history repeated itself with a second assassination attempt against former US president and current GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, golfing at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.  Shots were heard on the course at approximately 2 PM EDT, and Secret Service agents quickly whisked Trump out of harm’s way.  Details are still sketchy, but it seems the shots fired were from advance Secret Service agents, who noted a gun barrel protruding from a wooded fence line area as they scouted the course two holes ahead, roughly 400 yards beyond where Trump was playing.  Shots were fired at Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, who never actually saw Trump or discharged his weapon before he abandoned his AR-15-style rifle in the bushes and fled the course.  He was apprehended several hours later.

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The Trump/Harris Debate

From the moment she stepped on stage at the presidential debate held at Constitution Hall in Philadelphia, PA on September 10, 2024, Kamala Harris dominated, striding purposefully across the platform to force Donald Trump to shake hands with her as an equal.  Trump had been evading that moment (as indeed, he avoided even glancing her way throughout most of the debate), but she walked directly into his space and demanded compliance with the time-honored norm.

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The September Surprise: Uranus in Retrograde

The October Surprise has a venerable history in American politics, dating back more than a century, and referring to a sudden, often shocking, unanticipated turn of events which threatens to upend a presidential election.  Perhaps the most famous example is October of 1980, when it was announced that the hostages held at the American Embassy in Tehran would not be released before the election, thus further imperiling Jimmy Carter’s hotly contested race with Ronald Reagan (spoiler alert – Carter lost!).

But this year, the October Surprise may come early, with an astrologic flair, as Uranus, the planet of shocks, surprises and the unexpected, will be coming to its retrograde station on September 1st, perhaps tossing a bombshell into the presidential race.  The reason why that may be so is Uranus’ prime placement, occupying 27 Taurus, celestial real estate that strongly impacts both major candidates, as well as VP Kamala Harris and Trump’s running mate, JD Vance.  But the most strongly affected will be Joe Biden, with Uranus exactly opposed his Sun at 27 Scorpio.  Uranus moves onto the 27th degree of Taurus on August 8th, so the fireworks could ensue as early as that.

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