Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Through clearing fog....President Obama

Did any astrologer "see" the real Barack Obama in the run up to the 2008 election, or during the weeks immediately following? I was beginning to doubt it when I stumbled across this, fairly brief, Obama astro-profile written in 2008 by astrologer Hunter Reynolds: Barack Obama’s astrology chart: “Grace in a Cracked Vessel”
Snips:





When I stare at the symbolic map of his psyche and consider his unique blessings and blind spots, I am sobered. He — like all of us — is a cracked vessel........

To the extent that he uses his charisma for self-aggrandizement instead of advocating for those whose suffering he feels as his own, his ambition becomes his undoing.

Minus the cathartic, body-reclaiming routines of basketball and regular workouts, his articulate activism could easily slip into provocative impatience; his altruistic passion could degenerate into dominating others "for their own good."

This much is certain: Barak is a born representative. He is both qualified and cursed to serve as a the face of our collective ego, for on the breath of his luminous presence is a trace of nicotine—a whiff of our own secret shame.

Hunter Reynolds' website is Astrodharma, by the way.

Did anybody else see the real Obama? From what they're saying now, a few amateur political commentators who have been marinated in US politics for most of their adult lives did. Apparently they tried vainly to pass on the knowledge to the rest of us, who were too busy Yes We Can-ing to listen.

I wasn't that busy chanting, to be honest. Having achieved US citizenship in 2008, just in time to register for voting, I registered Independent, and started by supporting the single candidate saying the things I wanted to hear: Dennis Kucinich. He was pretty much ignored or worse, ridiculed. He withdrew. I wondered about John Edwards, then Hillary, but eventually just went with the crowd and Obama. I really thought him too inexperienced to be taking on such a huge job, made even more huge by Prez G.W. Bush's 8-year stint. I had no inkling things were going to turn out this bad, though. None. I have always felt that there's a aura of mystery around Obama. In astro-terms he's very Neptuney, and has turned out to be a shape-shifter extraordinaire.

The real Obama hove into view some months ago, for those of us who are straining to peer through the slowly clearing Neptune fog.

One of my favourite political commentators, Prof. David Michael Green, associate professor of Political Science at Hofstra University, located in Hempstead, New York, wrote a brilliant essay at the weekend: "Stupid Democrats, Stupid Republicans", it outlines the present situation wonderfully well. The full, long essay can be read at Prof. Green's website The Regressive Antidote.

Extracts:


The thing about Obama that neither Democrats nor Republicans understand is that this guy is fundamentally regressive in his politics. That is the essence of his presidency, though – astonishingly – very few people get that. Look at the litany of issues addressed above. If you honestly asked yourself for each of them what, in the abstract, would a progressive president do, and what would a regressive president do, you can immediately decipher the true nature of Barack Obama. A progressive president wouldn’t triple American forces in Afghanistan and launch three new wars abroad, but a regressive president would. A progressive president wouldn’t out-do Dick Cheney in wrecking the Bill of Rights, but a regressive president would. A progressive president wouldn’t follow behind the lead of Republicans on civil rights issues, but a regressive president would.

And that’s just what this regressive president has done, all down the line. Never mind that we’re just getting started here. We could go on and on with this, issue after issue. What do you think a regressive president would do about the planetary nightmare of global warming? Nothing, perhaps? Gee, does that sound familiar? How about giving out unprecedentedly gigantic oil tracts off the Atlantic coast? Or multiple rounds of additional tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy? Hey, where have I heard that before? Even Obama’s signature ‘liberal’ issue, his health care plan, was just dandy from the perspective of the insurance industry, with whom he cut a deal at the very beginning of the legislative process......

Democrats are stupid about this. They still mostly like Obama, to the tune of about 75-80 percent job approval, though they might grumble here and there about this or that perceived failing of the president’s. It is a measure of their abysmally low standards and our pathetic national political discourse that policies like Obama’s can satisfy his base, so much so that he won’t even face a primary challenger from his left........

These attitudes are also a measure of bias as well, or what one might describe as a sort of political tribalism of the uninformed........

Why? I suppose some of it is because he’s black. And some of it is because he’s young and articulate and energetic and photogenic. Mostly, though, I think it’s because he’s a Democrat, and people are so tuned out from public affairs – despite what public affairs policy decisions are doing to their lives right now – that they simply go with that in-group vs. out-group rubric: “Democrat good, Republican bad”. Chances are they got that from their families and communities, along with their religion and nationalism and so on. Of course, to a certain extent, one of the key functions of political parties has always been simply to serve as precisely that sort of short-hand...... But there is a point at which such guiding assistance can cross a line into negligent laziness. More importantly, as in our time, there is a very real danger that today’s Democrat is far from being your father’s Democrat. At which point, using party labels to make otherwise blind decisions about politics becomes not just laziness or negligence, but complicity in a crime. And a crime where you’re one of the victims, no less.........................

In short, Democratic support and defense of Barack Obama is a sad joke. This guy is no liberal. He is, in fact, using liberal votes to join the Gingriches and Cheneys and Palins of this world in the project of destroying liberalism and its great achievement of massively widening the middle class and sharing national prosperity. Hey, not a bad gig, if you don’t mind the whole cynicism part, and the whole spending eternity in Hell thing.

.............It’s not a good sign when so many people – basically all of us – have politics which are so flat-out wrong. And if these feel like the worst of times politically in America, that is not such an exaggerated perception, notwithstanding the country’s more overt crises throughout the past two or three centuries...... There are significant differences now, however......... our body politic is so diminished that it can no longer recognize basic political facts anymore. Nothing is more emblematic of that than the case of Barack Obama. Democrats love him for being a good old liberal Democrat. Republicans hate him for the same reason. Both are so politically dumbed-down that neither can recognize how absurdly wrong they are on such a central question as the politics of the country’s chief executive.

But, of course, the biggest single problem facing the polity is that nobody is talking about the biggest single problem facing the polity. The country has been hijacked by hyper-greedy elites, who have demonstrated that there is absolutely no bottom to what they are willing to do to the rest of us, and to the country, to milk it and bilk it of every last remaining penny of value..........

A Ramsussen poll from March 2011 found that "Most voters think President Obama is more liberal than they are" - which says a lot about the level of critical thinking of a majority of people in the USA! Or, alternatively, about the rot at the heart of this nation, where the majority don't give a damn about what is happening to their fellows. Take your pick - either way it's not pretty!

This morning it seems Keith Olbermann too has seen the light - or the darkness surrounding the president.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/12/keith-olbermann-obama-social-security-medicare_n_895420.html

14 comments:

kicksotic said...

Very good piece and I look forward to reading more at the links. Olbermann's thoughts should be interesting -- if not enraging -- as he was Barak's #1 Cheerleader and did nothing but attack Hillary and those who supported her (which would be the Democratic Primary Voters in every "major" State except Illinois, by the way). But the Dem Leadership decided Obama was The One and that's that.

First Presidential Election I sat out since 1992.

It will be very, very interesting to see how Obama deals with the upcoming Tr Saturn t-square his Jupiter/Mercury. His campaign already seems to be attempting to massage the message insisting Voters won't hold Obama accountable for them not finding a job -- (really?) -- and they have more young people eagerly signing up to volunteer than they did in 2008 (maybe 'cause they can't find work?).

I sincerely doubt Saturn will let them get away with that and, again, it'll be interesting to see how The One deals with the criticism he's sure to encounter on the campaign trail. He is absolutely infamous in his overt sensitivity to be upbraided or criticized or questioned.

Anonymous said...

I agree with some of the observations- i think Obama is not "mentally" tough enough to go up against the money brokers- the established crustiness of DC. He goes along to get along and that isn't what we voted for.

kicksotic said...

I'm not sure I agree with Obama "going along to get along" with the money-brokers. I think Obama's main goal was to BE among the elites. To saddle up with the money-brokers and live the very good life.

The Election in 2008 was less about the American People and more about Barak Obama "making history", something he turned to time and again in his speeches. But it wasn't the People making history, it was always about OBAMA making history. His ego demanded it and, something I've heard time and time again from people who knew him back in Chicago, it was always going to be about him. Not about us, the People, but about him.

A friend of mine thinks he wants to lose. To not be re-elected. Of course, consciously he wants to savor the victory of winning, again, but subconsciously she believes he wants to leave behind the work and drudgery and laser-like focus on everything he does and pivot to the Private Sector where he can sit on a Board -- or several Boards --, do nothing, and makes tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars. Not to mention the speaking fees.

It's an interesting idea to consider.

But I disagree with his "going along to get along". I believe he wants to BE THEM and, therefore, is paving the way to eventually joining them and pocketing favors for his post-Presidential life.

Twilight said...

kicksotic ~~ Hi there!

Olbermann is now free of MSNBC's shackles and maybe on Current TV can say more that he really feels - I don't know, 'cos we don't get Current, but was glad to hear what he had to say in that video.

Yes, it's going to be an interesting election season, and one where Neptune's fog will blind many voters again, I fear - that fog made even more dense by backers' $$$$$$$$$, ass-kissing media. The Powers That Be will be smirking in the backroom as we slide into another 4 years of
fooldom.

Unless some brave individual takes a stand and challenges O - from the left. It's getting late for that though. Some would say that such a challenge would only lead to 4 years of GOP-ness. So be it then. Something is needed to get more of The People up on their hind legs in protest - that might just do the trick.

Twilight said...

Anonymous ~~~ You're being too kind to the president, I think.
I tried to take a similar view a year or so ago, but events have persuaded me otherwise.

Twilight said...

kicksotic (re 2nd comment) ~~

He has said, in the past, that he wouldn't mind being a one-term president, I understand.
Now why would he say a thing like that? Your friend's theory is as good as any.

The Powers That Be, though, may have other plans for him.

Diane said...

By the time 2008 rolled around I was more cynical than I have ever been in re US politics so I always had this nagging feeling that O may be the new boss but same as the old boss [if not worse]; however, what really really made me mad was how he took advantage of the kids, especially my son, who thought he was the answer to all our prayers. My son still has difficulty realizing how bad this guy is but I think he's in the last stages of denial.
Learning Curve: You may not have been in the country long but you're my idea of a great American and we're lucky to have you here. In addition your blog consistently informs and enlightens. Thank you.

Twilight said...

Diane ~~~
What a very sweet, and much appreciated compliment - thank you Diane !

Yes, with hindsight, Obama did indeed take advantage of the young generation, who, without his false declarations of intent would surely not have become so drunk on the Kool-Aid. Now, the risk is that they, or many of them, will have become disaffected, so disappointed that they'll feel interest in politics is a waste of time (at best). Who could blame them? Yet they were the ones best placed to make a lasting difference in the near future.

Obama may have done even more harm than we yet realise.

Joe said...

Why blame Obama for the corrupt system that he works in? Do you really think that any other viable candidate would have been able to wrench themselves away from the sticky military industrial / wallstreet corporate tentacles that have so firmly wrapped themselves around the body politic?
The last president who seriously tried was Kennedy. And we all know what happened to him.

I think the neptunian fog around Obama makes him appear to be hidden whilst in plain sight. People constantly speculate on his motivations and character, yet he has 2 biographies pretty plainly spelling out who he is and what he's about, which are bizzarely ignored by all the speculators!! Why base your speculations on fact when fantasies will do.

Read his book 'Dreams of my father'. The real Barack Obama is in there plain as day.
He wanted to be president because that's what his mother seemed to have wanted for him, planned for him, and prepared him for all his life; to be the FIRST black president.

As for his supposed greed to join the wealthy elites, well it's pretty clear that money means nothing to him probably because it meant nothing to his mother and that's how he was brought up. And it's clear that that attitude nearly broke up his marriage.
He has always been happy to drive broken down old cars, live in spartan conditions and wear worn down shoes and old clothes much to the consternation of his wife Michelle who felt she deserved more from her married life than unremitting financial struggle.

The truth is something that few Americans really want to face, the job of American presdent is really only a figurehead role. The real power rests in the shadowy forces in the background. It's their agenda that will ALWAYS be served regardless of the political party in power.

My feeling about Obama is that as a one term US senator, he didn't fully understand this himself until he won the election and then realised what he had let himself in for. He'd achieved his lifelong dream but had in doing so simply served as a tool for the continuing corporate takeover of America. No wonder he'd be happy to be a one term president.

There's a saying that sums it all up: American politics is just the entertainment wing of the military industrial complex!

Wisewebwoman said...

Yes, I get the feeling he was just a bookmark as well, and he will be well rewarded in the private sector.
Any president who dismantles the safety net of Roosevelt's hard won social policies is very bad news indeed.
There is a darkness to him (seriously, no pun intended) that I have perceived since he hit the campaign trails after I was at a workshop where one of his Chicago community colleagues had nothing but contempt for his egotistic style.
How he did one thing is how he does all things.
XO
WWW

Twilight said...

Joe ~~~ Thank you for your thoughtful comment. I haven't read his books, which I admit is something I should do.

Your view could well be the correct way to look at this situation - it's one worth bearing in mind, certainly.

Still, though, didn't one Prez once say "The buck tops here" - at the president's desk.

Whatever President Obama discovered once he arrived in the seat of power, it would have behoved him to at least put on a better show of fighting for those of his base who had so ably and generously supported him with time, effort and $$$$. Instead of trying he buckled right away, as well as failing to surround himself with advisors who shared his ideology.

I would like to feel confident that your view is the right one, but still I feel it doesn't quite fit events.

I do agree, whatever Obama's deepst motives, that the basic fault IS in the rot at the core of the system - which has been allowed to gather and grow because The People were asleep or brainwashed.

Twilight said...

WWW ~~~ I feel much the same as you, but admit that I might be wrong about him. The question mark over him will have to remain for now.
:-)

Perhaps the Obama in his books, as described by commenter Joe, has evolved. Power corrupts etc.

Lise said...

As someone 'out of the country looking in' (in Australia) I envy you having a leader like Obama. I agree with Joe, I see him being handed a poisoned chalice from the Bush administration that had bad karma up to the armpits to then dish on to whomever took his place.

In my heart of hearts I believe he is of the light, and I would certainly not want to be in his position, I mean who would ever want that job?

I think the PTB behind the scenes, his 'henchmen' have a lot to answer for, I just hope he can steer his way through it all. With the chaos in the GOP, I think the focus may be taken off him for a time, heck if a party has such infighting, where is it all going to lead?

I watch with interest!

Twilight said...

Lise ~~ Hi! Thank you for your view "from the outside", from an obviously good-hearted observer who wants to see the best in a person. I started out in that mode myself in 2008/9.

I wish I could fully agree and see things clearly that way myself, still. But I cannot. There's too much evidence to the contrary. Far too much.

I do not question O's worth as a husband and father - he's clearly excellent in both roles. But as a president, with whatever motive, he is dangerously bad for the Ordinary People of the USA, those who interest me most.

But it's good to hear how the scene looks from Down Under, Lise. :-)