Tag archive: Nemesis

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A Rolling Stone Serves No Time

We last checked in with Trump crony and political adviser Roger Stone eighteen months ago, in January 2019, just after his home was raided by FBI agents, and Stone arrested on seven federal counts of obstruction, making false statements and witness tampering.  It’s been a long road for Stone, who was convicted on all counts in November 2019, then sentenced to forty months in prison on February 20, 2020, after William Barr’s Justice Department attempted to intervene and lighten his prison term, prompted by tweets from the President characterizing his friend’s treatment as “horrible and very unfair” and a “miscarriage of justice”.

 

Stone’s incarceration was due to start July 14, but was superseded when Donald Trump commuted his sentence on Friday, 10 July 2020.  Short of a pardon, the commutation means that Roger Stone, for now, remains a convicted felon, but will never serve a day in prison for his crimes.

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Donald J. Trump: Quitter or Loser?

Trump’s flailing campaign, disastrous responses to the pandemic and racial justice movement, and increasingly obvious unfitness for the office he holds, have sent his poll numbers tumbling to near-subterranean levels.  Trailing “Sleepy Joe” Biden nationally by double digits in poll after poll less than four months before the election, Trump also finds that he’s behind by significant margins in every swing state he won last time, and states thought safe six months ago, like Georgia, Arizona and even Texas, are now definitely in play.  What to do, what to do?

 

It’s a tough predicament for a sociopathic narcissist to be in:  psychologically, he can‘t admit mistakes and course correct – that would be to acknowledge error, which he is constitutionally (no pun intended) incapable of, no matter how small the matter.   But as he doubles down on the division, misogyny, race-baiting and bigotry that propelled him into the office four years ago, he just sinks deeper in the mire electorally. Yet it’s the only game he knows, or is comfortable playing:  attacking others and fomenting the worst instincts in his supporters.  The problem is, it just doesn’t work anymore, in numbers sufficient to retain the presidency.  But again, if he changes his behavior to win votes, then he’s admitting that what he does, doesn’t always work, his choices aren’t perfect, his genius is only temporary, and he’s not flawless.  And he just can’t do that.

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Here We Go Again – the Rayshard Brooks Murder

Late Friday evening, June 12, 2020, Atlanta police were called to a Wendy’s restaurant, where 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks was passed out sleeping in his car, blocking the drive-through.  Police gave him a sobriety test, which he failed, and talked with him cordially for over half an hour, while he cooperated and consented to a weapons search of his car, which came up clean.  Brooks suggested he be allowed to walk the few blocks to his sister’s home, but the officers decided to arrest him for DUI.

 

At this point Brooks resisted, broke free of the officers as they attempted to cuff him, was tackled, struggled and grabbed an officer’s taser before breaking free once again and drunkenly lumbering across the parking lot.  At one point he turned and shot the taser wildly in the officers’ general direction, continuing to run away; Officer Garrett Rolfe shot him twice in the back, killing him.  As Brooks lay prone on the ground, struggling for his life, Rolfe approached and kicked him, asserting, “I got him!”, while his partner stood on Brooks’ shoulder; he then waited more than two minutes before offering medical assistance.

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The White Lion: Seeding Racism in America

On August 25, 1619, the privateer vessel White Lion landed at Point Comfort, now Hampton Roads, Virginia, just outside Jamestown.  The ship and its partner, the Treasurer, had encountered and raided the San Juan Bautista in the mid-Atlantic, a Portuguese craft transporting some 200 enslaved Africans as part of its freight, carrying off some 60 for sale in the West Indies.

 

But the two privateers became separated at sea, and the White Lion with its 20-odd captured slaves made port in Virginia, and there traded their human cargo for badly needed food and supplies.  This was the origin of African slavery in the land which would become the United States (some indigenous tribes had practiced slavery with captured enemies for centuries), thus establishing one of the country’s Original Sins (the other being genocide of the native population).

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Donald Trump’s 2020 Solar Return: Fate Awaits

Donald J. Trump’s 74th Solar Return occurs at 8:00 AM EDT on 13 June 2020; I’ve set it for Washington, as the normally peripatetic president has been hobbled of late by COVID-19 restrictions, unable to campaign in the traditional mode, though it’s uncertain as of this writing exactly where he’ll spend his birthday.  Perhaps at Mar-a-Lago?  At 8 AM, however, we can be fairly confident he’ll be in his jammies, tweeting insults at someone.

 

This may be the most important Solar Return (hereafter abbreviated “SR”) in Trump’s life, determining as it does whether he remains the most powerful man in the world, or is removed from office and translated from the White House to the Big House, no longer immune from prosecution as sitting US President.

 

So let’s not waste any time in seeing what it says…

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Four Horsemen: Pluto, Eris, Chaos & Troemper

Boy, do I hate being right.  Maybe that’s why the cosmos permits it so rarely.  On May 24, in an article on Saturn Station Fallout, I wrote:

 

“As an aside, let’s note that Troemper is heading into troubled waters, about to join disaffected Eris and its square to powerhouse Pluto at 24 Aries/Capricorn, also incorporating the political, bombastic energies of Jupiter at 27 Cap.  If you think we live in interesting times now, give it a few weeks!”

 

The next day George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in the performance of his duty, and all hell broke loose.  Protests against police brutality and treatment of minorities erupted all across the country, in more than 140 cities, and though the vast majority of those protesting were peaceful, there was also a lot of violence unleashed, with riots, looting, vandalism and property damage.

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