Tag archive: Hylonome

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Losing Their Heads: The Mars/Uranus/Algol Conjunction and the Republican National Convention

The Republican National Convention begins on July 15th in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the timing couldn’t be more perfect.  That date just happens to coincide with the precise triple conjunction of Mars, Uranus and Fixed Star Algol, all at 26 Taurus, conjoined the 24 Taurus Midheaven of Donald J. Trump, who will accept the GOP 2024 presidential nomination during the convention.  Mars denotes resentment, anger, hatred and violence; Uranus suggests volatility, controversy, iconoclasm, fanaticism and insurrection; Algol forms the severed head of Medusa in the constellation Perseus, denoting both literal decapitation and metaphorically “losing one’s head.”  If you can think of a better celestial thumbnail sketch of the modern GOP and its felon champion, I’d like to hear it.

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Man Self-Immolates Outside Trump Trial

On Friday, 21 April 2024, just across the street from the Manhattan courtroom where jury selection in Donald Trump’s hush money trial had recently concluded, a man set himself alight, first dousing himself with a liquid accelerant.  Police responded immediately, being onsite for courthouse protection, but were unable to stop the flames for several minutes; the man was later pronounced dead at a local burn center. 

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Requiem for a Queen

Although national mourning and celebration of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s life has been protracted for more than ten days after her passing, the official State Funeral ceremony is slated to begin in Westminster Abbey at 11 AM BST on Monday, 19 September 2022.   Much of the passing chart remains in effect, but there are significant changes and additions which reflect the funeral itself.

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Aster-Obit: John Lewis

On July 17, 2020 US Representative John Lewis (D-GA), known as “the conscience of the Congress”, passed away at the age of 80.  A former associate of Martin Luther King Jr, Lewis was an influential civil rights leader and had served his district as representative for more than thirty years.  Lewis, one of the organizers of the 1963 March on Washington and the last surviving speaker at that rally, was a leader of the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965, which protested suppression of black voting rights, when he was viciously beaten by Alabama State Troopers at the crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge.  Members of this same organization now saluted his remains when Lewis’ casket was conveyed across that bridge one final time, as part of a protracted funeral process.

 

The five-day official commemoration of Lewis’ death focused on Alabama, where he was born; Georgia, where he represented the state’s 5th district; and Washington DC, where he had served in the House, highlighted in a funeral and lying-in-state at the Capitol Rotunda, first African American to be given that honor.

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Coronavirus Update: We’re Number One!

Donald J. Trump’s “America first!” policies take on a whole new meaning in light of the COVID-19 pandemic: the US is now the global leader in infections and deaths from the virus. With almost a million known to be infected and more than 50,000 deaths, the US now accounts for nearly a third of infections worldwide, and a quarter of the fatalities. We’re lightyears ahead of our leading competitor in COVID-19 incompetence, with four times as many cases as Spain. No one can catch us! The Trump administration can be justly proud of the new records it’s setting. Hey, no such thing as bad publicity, right?

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Texas Drowning Sparks Outrage

The plight of Central American immigrants was spotlighted again the week of June 23rd, 2019, as horrific conditions for some 300 migrant children at a Texas detention camp were exposed, followed by the intense, heart-wrenching images of a young father and his 23-month-old daughter, both drowned while attempting to swim the Rio Grande, their bodies still clinging to one another.

 

The week before, a team of lawyers and doctors visiting the Border Control facility in Clint, Texas, reported appalling conditions for the children detained there, separated from family members, including untreated outbreaks of flu and lice. Inadequate sanitation was a major issue, with children going without showers for weeks, a lack of soap and toothbrushes, living in soiled or filthy garments, toddlers without diapers, cared for by older children. Following the public outcry, the administration moved the children from the facility temporarily on Monday, but was forced to return more than 100 a few days later, citing lack of space elsewhere.

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