Tag archive: Narcissus

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Mr. Bowman Goes to Washington? JD Vance Revealed

OK, yes, somewhat redundant, because JD Vance has been in Washington for 18 months already, since his election to the Senate in 2022.  But you all know how much I love punning titles.  “Mr. Bowman” is a reference to Vance’s birth name, which was James Donald Bowman.  Vance has shifted identities over the course of his life with chameleon-like regularity, becoming James David Hamel as a toddler, after his parents divorced and his mother married Bob Hamel, who adopted him.  Vance shed his skin yet again, becoming James David “JD” Vance (his maternal grandfather’s surname) when he married wife Usha in 2014.  But the title also conjures images of that Americana utopia crafted by filmmaker Frank Capra, a land which never existed, but which Republicans still insist on trying to revive.

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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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Donald Trump’s 78th Solar Return: Restriction and Negation

Former US President, current presumptive GOP presidential nominee, and convicted felon Donald J. Trump turns 78 on 14 June 2024.  A chart cast for the moment when the Sun returns to its natal degree and minute can reveal much of what awaits in the coming year, a year which, for The Donald, is fraught, to say the least.  Before the twelvemonth is out, Trump is likely to find himself an occupant, either of the White House, or the Big House.  With sentence pending on his criminal conviction in New York state, and awaiting three more criminal trials, the stakes couldn’t be higher for the 45th president.

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Trump Trial #1 Begins

The first of Donald Trump’s four pending criminal trials began on Monday, 15 April 2024, with jury selection.  Perhaps not coincidentally, it was also Tax Day, and without doubt, the ordeal of Trump on trial will be taxing for us all.  Trump kicked off the event with a series of his trademark untruths as he bloviated to reporters before entering the Manhattan courtroom for his trial’s appointed start time of 9:30 AM EDT.  The former president characterized the proceedings as “persecution,” “an attack on a political opponent,” and “an assault on America,” averring that “every legal scholar says this case is nonsense” and an “outrage.”

None of that is true, but Trump did state one accurate fact:  “Nothing like this has ever happened before, there’s never been anything like it.”  Indeed, this is the first criminal prosecution of a former US president and current presidential candidate in history.  Congrats, Donnie!  You’ve just set two new records!

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Donald Trump’s 2023 Solar Return: The Year of Living Litigiously

Donald Trump’s 77th year promises to be a ballbreaker, if I may use the vernacular.  The effects of a lifetime of skirting, circumventing or outright flouting the law look to be finally catching up with him.  As the fatal date approaches, Trump was gifted with an early birthday present of a 37-count indictment from the Justice Department, alleging violation of the Espionage Act in his unlawful possession, retention and obstruction in returning several hundred classified documents, kept in bathrooms, closets and storage rooms at his Mar-a-Lago residence.  We already know of at least one trial date in 2024, set for late March when the porn star hush money payoff trial is slated to begin in Manhattan (more on that later); this case will likely come to trial in 2024 as well, and several more may be in the offing.

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Happy Trump of July!

Donald J. Trump’s hijacking of America’s birthday celebration on July 4th was quite a spectacle, if not the one he intended. Since the Bastille Day parade he was treated to by France’s President Macron two years ago, Trump has been aching to outdo his host in mock military maneuvers; thwarted in his desire last year for a Veterans Day Parade extravaganza, Trump belatedly settled for an Independence Day appearance on the National Mall, in front of the Lincoln Memorial, perhaps the president he least resembles.

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