Primarily - morning after a disappointing night for Bernie. Standing by: Turn of the Century Radical

What I didn't want to believe would happen, has happened.  It has been proved that Bernie is too good for this place, this nation!    They don't know a good thing when it's put right under their noses.

I'll continue to support him to the end of his run, whenever that turns out to be.  If he continues to hold Hillary Clinton to tight races in more states, he will, perhaps, gain some foothold in being able to have a say in future policies.
So....

Edited and expanded re-run of an archived post.

Emma Goldman was born on 27 June 1869 in Kovno, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. She emigrated to the USA, with her sister, in 1885 and found employment in a New York clothing factory. Soon after her arrival in the states an uprising of workers in Chicago resulted in the execution of four anarchists, who came to be known as "The Haymarket Martyrs".

They had been prominent trade union activists leading the struggle for an eight-hour day. Framed for a bombing, the authorities hoped that this would scare off the emerging trade union movement, especially its anarchist component. The international outcry which followed these executions on trumped up charges helped to shape Emma's radical and anarchist ideals, which lasted throughout her long life..............

Emma Goldman was a formidable public speaker and a prolific writer. Her whole life was devoted to struggle and she was controversial even within the radical and anarchist movement itself. She was one of the first radicals to address the issue of homosexuality, she was a fighter for women's rights, and she advocated the virtues of free love. These ideas were viewed with suspicion by those who placed their faith in the cure-all solution of economic class warfare and they were denounced by many of her contemporaries as "bourgeois inspired" at best.

To mainstream Americans, Emma was known as a demonic "dynamite eating anarchist". She toured the States, agitating and lecturing everywhere she went. She was hounded for much of her life by FBI agents and was imprisoned in 1893, 1901, 1916, 1918, 1919, and 1921 on charges ranging from incitement to riot to advocating the use of birth control to opposition to World War 1.

A self proclaimed anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, assassinated President William McKinley in 1901 and this event unleashed a massive wave of anti-anarchist hysteria throughout the States. Emma was blamed for his action and was forced into hiding for a time. She was deported from the United States, Holland, France, and was denied entry to many other countries. None of this daunted her, she began publishing 'Mother Earth' magazine in 1906 and was very active in the No-Conscription League. (Link)

Emma Goldman died in 1940, and though exiled for many years, her body was allowed back into the USA for burial in Chicago, not far from the graves of the "Haymarket Martyrs".

Entire books have been written about the life of Ms Goldman, it's impossible to cover it sensibly in a brief blog post, but there's enough information in the extract above to get an idea of one side of this lady's character. Another side of her personality emerges through a cache of her letters to a lover. These were mentioned in a 1992 article in the Los Angeles Times:

All About Emma : Letters... by JOHN BOUDREAU |

Snips:

But despite her reputation as a firebrand, the real Goldman also was a woman tormented by jealousy and doubt, the collection shows. Through her prolific letters, readers come to see the feisty revolutionary who espoused the eight-hour workday, contraceptives and "free love" but who was haunted by depression and anguish over her blatantly promiscuous longtime lover, Dr. Ben Reitman.

.....the letters were very jealous. She said his letters to her were like a narcotic: They made her heart beat faster, but they put her brain to sleep. And she had these terrible moments of feeling her life was not meaningful.

Falk adds: "A lot of people think they know her, or else they've never heard of her. It's fascinating for people to see she was just like anyone else."

Here's her natal chart set for 12 noon. Astrodatabank has a 3pm time of birth, but it is categorised as "DD" - dirty data, and unreliable. That time puts her natal Moon in mid-Aquarius with Scorpio rising. I'll rely on a 12 noon chart to note some interesting factors.



Most significant of all is rebel planet Uranus conjunct Venus, part of a cluster of personal planets in Cancer. Cancer isn't the first sign that springs to mind when considering a radical and anarchist whose life's work consisted of fighting the system, the status quo. When Uranus is closely involved though, Cancer's homely cuddly sentimentality goes out the window. Her natal Moon would have been in Aquarius whatever time she was born, and more likely than not in scratchy aspect to either her Sun/Mercury or Venus/Uranus in Cancer. Aquarius and Cancer are not best pals of the zodiac, any aspect between them is going to be scratchy at best, accounting for her less than typically Cancerian nature, at least as portrayed to the public.
However, her private letters, mentioned in the article linked above, expose another side of her nature, more aligned with what's typically thought of as Cancerian: clingy, needy, sentimental, in stark contrast to the Aquarian independence of her natal Moon.

Mars in Virgo on one side and Jupiter in Taurus on the other form harmonious sextiles to Uranus/Venus. Saturn in Sagittarius could well form a sextile to Moon which then links Moon and Saturn via two quincunx aspects to Uranus, forming a Yod. Astrologers consider that the "energies" of the sextiled planets emerge via the qualities of the planet at the apex of the Yod, in this case, what could seem more appropriate : Moon (inner self) and Saturn (career) emerging through Uranus (rebellion)?

Primarily - here we go again!

This Tuesday's primaries, held on the date ancient Romans called The Ides of March, date of the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. The death of Caesar made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history, as one of the events that marked the transition from the historical period known as the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. Let's not go there!

The states voting today are coloured pale mauve on the map below: Florida, Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina and Missouri.

Dunno what to say anymore, except "GO GET 'EM BERNIE!" Paul Edwards' piece at The Smirking Chimp this weekend is a good read - for Bernie supporters.
Two snips:

Even after Michigan, and unsavory Republican Neocons jumping ship to back Hillary over “Little Parts” Trump, the Dem Power Trust sticks to its lack of principle, to nominate a reliable corporate tool come Hell or high water.

And that’s what they’ll get. There’s a delicious parallel existing in politics now that might blow both wings of the Bankers’ Party up for good. As Repugs are trying to wrest their ethically moribund Party away from their foremost candidate, Dems are bent on making their rank and file swallow a slab of stale Marie Antoinette-style cake that it’s gagging at and rejecting.

One Party is mad to disengage from a candidate that may destroy it; and the other is wild to crown one that could have exactly the same effect on it.

It would all be great fun to follow if the long-term fate of the country we live in were not so horrifyingly at risk, but it is.......................................

You Criminal Syndicates have had it your way for generations. You’ve kept us ignorant, mesmerized and baffled, by lying and deceiving us, manipulating our fear and anger, and misdirecting them at bogus targets that never threatened us, and never mattered. You’ve kept us from the justice, domestic tranquillity, general welfare, and blessings of liberty our Constitution promised us. No more!

You have, at long last, as a reward for your exploitation and betrayal, lost our trust and our respect, and you will never regain it. You may hang on in some form, gutted and discredited, but know that you are no use to us now, or in the future. We expect nothing from you, and we want no more to do with you. If you doubt us, watch what happens. You’re about to find out.

I don't pray these days, but I send a heartfelt request the universe to please, please, protect Bernie and his people from here on. There is a whiff of madness in the air.

Something in the way they something something

Reading around the net, through many threads of comment on you know what and you know whoms, I came across an expression, joke, trope...not really sure what to call it....it goes "something something"....something something(or something).

I first noticed it in a thread of comments at the website of Charles Pierce of Esquire, at the weekend (link in sidebar). A commenter there began his response with: "something something wind...something something whirlwind". There followed a flurry of comments with some loose wit, concerning peas and penguins and peeing into the wind - but that's beside the point. I "got" the idea of "something something" as it was being used there. That commenter knew very well what were the missing words, it was a satirical use of "something something".

I then noticed "something something" used again elsewhere, in a different context. Smelling a potential idea for a post I was off, scurrying deep into Google's back rooms to discover if this is one of those newfangled "viral" somethings, picked up from who knows where to become the cool person's style du jour.

It took several pages of Googling to reach the information I sought. I had to travel via TV tropes:
Something Something Leonard Bernstein, and in that vicinity also picked up another fascinating tid-bit, used in drama and writing known as "lampshading"

Lampshade Hanging (or, more informally, "Lampshading") is the writers' trick of dealing with any element of the story that threatens the audience's Willing Suspension of Disbelief, whether a very implausible plot development, or a particularly blatant use of a trope, by calling attention to it and simply moving on. The reason for this counter-intuitive strategy is two-fold. First, it assures the audience that the author is aware of the implausible plot development that just happened, and that they aren't trying to slip something past the audience.

Back to something something...then came headlines by writers obviously in on this "something" thing:

Something Something "Privilege"

and
Rand Paul says something something Bill Clinton therefore Hillary bad.

Several similar uses, here and there then, from 2010 - something useful:

Something Something Roots

Apparently the expression/joke/idiom whatever is not new, but likely surfaces anew now and again as years go by. Comments at the linked site describe earlier examples of "something something" (or similar). My favourite is one I recall seeing via DVD - and the simplest version of "something something". The way it's used now is with more snark, cynicism, an exhibition of supposed coolness.

On an episode of The Bob Newhart Show (the one where he was a psychologist in Chicago), there was a very funny episode where he and his old college pal The Peeper (Tom Poston) went back to their old burger-and-beer joint before attending a Loyola basketball game. Nothing was quite the same as they remembered it - the beer wasn't ice cold and was a bit flat, the bar now sold frozen sandwiches instead of two-inch-thick burgers. At one point Peep said to Bob "We should sing our old school song - how'd it go.....'Something something rah-rah-rah!'" Bob shook his head and said "No, that was the school fight song. The school song was 'something something alma mater.'" "Boy, they don't write 'em like that anymore," Peep commented. Later he lifted his mug and said to Bob "Let's sing our old drinking song. How'd it go again?" Bob thought for a moment and said "I think it was 'something something down the hatch'."

Dunno if this was the first use of that joke, but it's the first time I heard it, and this was back in the late 1970s.
Posted by Oriole Adams at 10:24 AM on April 8, 2010

All of that something something coolness brings me to Music Monday's offering -
Something's Coming - and this one is for Bernie and Bernie supporters:

Saturday and Sundries

The Vertical Oracle
Fun way to get a quick, do-it-yourself answer to your question of the moment. Answers can be cheeky, occasionally spooky. The idea, and the deck of cards were creations of astrologer Antero Alli, and Sylvie Pickering. Illustrations from the deck of cards are also featured at Free Will Astrology, with weekly horoscopes there.

Robert Crumb taking on Donald Trump in 1989. Nothing’s changed in 26 (or 2,000) years.

Rest of cartoon at link.

Staying with bilious thoughts of Donald Trump, a poem by Ogden Nash who, if time-travelling, could've had Trump in mind as he wrote the following ditty. One might say the poem could equally apply to Bernie - or to my husband anyjazz - but neither would, I suspect, ever be "at the club", and in the case of anyjazz at the barber's either; my own "nimble fingers" are in charge of what remains of his hair.

"Once eager for, I've come to dread
The nimble fingers of my barber;
He's training strands across my scalp
Like scimpy vines across an arbor.
The conversation at the club
Is all intestinal or molar;
What dogs the class of '24? ['64?]
Another day, another dolor."

(From A Man Can Complain, Can't He? (A Lament For Those Who Think Old)

Hair we go again...I've always included a bit of the old back-combing technique to boost my baby-fine hair, but this is ridiculous! (More at the link)

This May Be the Weirdest Beauty Moment of Paris Fashion Week

Backlash against Bernie- clip from RT America with Ed Schultz & Thom Hartmann

As the Democratic Primaries become tighter and tighter, negative press against Bernie Sanders has some questioning his earlier decisions. But what’s the story behind that?

Goodness me! It'll be time to move our clocks an hour forward tonight, or first thing tomorrow.

I'm "livin' on Tulsa time" myself these days. In the 1990s, back in Yorkshire, we saw Don Williams, on good old Greenwich Meantime, sing this song live during a concert in Harrogate.

Arty Farty Friday ~ Hans Bellmer, Psycho-Sexual Surrealist

Hans Bellmer, born on 13 March 1902 in what is now Poland, isn't an artist/sculptor/photographer whose work I admire, but his natal chart could be of interest. His surrealist psycho-sexual style strikes me as generally unpleasant.

From a book cover at Amazon: Hans Bellmer - The Anatomy of Anxiety

The German-born Surrealist Hans Bellmer (1902-1975), best known for his life-size pubescent dolls, devoted an artistic lifetime to creating sexualized images of the female body - distorted, dismembered, or menaced in sinister scenarios. In this book Sue Taylor draws on psychoanalytic theory to suggest why Bellmer was so driven by erotomania as well as a desire for revenge, suffering, and the safety of the womb. Although he styled himself as the quintessential Oedipal son, an avant-garde artist in perpetual rebellion against a despised father, Taylor contends that his filial attitude was more complex than he could consciously allow. Tracing a repressed homoerotic attachment to his father, castration anxiety, and an unconscious sense of guilt, Taylor proposes that a feminine identification informs all the disquieting aspects of Bellmer's art.

Most scholarship to date has focused on Bellmer's work of the 1930s, especially the infamous dolls and the photographs he made of them. Taylor extends her discussion to the sexually explicit prints, drawings, paintings, and photographs he produced throughout the ensuing three decades.

At this link is a 7 minute video outlining his life story and showing some of his work.

Alternatively, if in a hurry, for a quick look at some of his sculptures here's a 90 second video:






Hans Bellmer born on 13 March 1902 in Kattowitz, now in Poland.
Chart set for 12 noon as no time of birth is known.

Oppositions from Uranus to both Pluto and Neptune are generational aspects, but linked as they are here, to Bellmer's natal Sun and/or Mars, forming what astrologers call a T-square makes the generational aspect more personal. The formation reflects difficulties in areas represented by a sensitive but potentially aggressive or overly energetic (Sun/Mars) personality fighting against, challenging or addicted to erotic imaginings (Pluto Neptune), in some out of the ordinary (Uranus) manner.

Venus, planet of the arts, one of 3 personal planets in Aquarius, is in harmonious trine to Pluto (eroticism) and (a little widely) in trine to Neptune (creativity, imagination, addiction).

Natal Moon could be in Taurus, or possibly very late Aries. Moon is said to represent the mother in astrology, It's not easy to speculate which is more likely, Taurus and Pisces are friendly, Aquarius and Aries are friendly He loved his mother but hated/despised his father - said to be represented by Saturn. Perhaps his ascendant was opposite Saturn - not far away, by chance, from how the noon chart is aligned.

After mention of Theodore Adorno in Monday's post, coming across a further mention of him in the extract below, which also mentions Hans Bellmer, prompted me to cut and paste it here.

Extract taken from HERE. Click on it for larger, clearer version:

Sir George Martin RIP

Sir George Martin died on Tuesday, aged 90. He produced much of the Beatles' classic catalogue, and has oft been called "the fifth Beatle". RIP.

Re-airing my archived post, from Sir George's birthday in January 2013:

3 January is the birthday of Sir George Martin, the man whose work with The Beatles helped propel their music to the iconic status it will likely retain forever. There's a good article about him at Salon by Frank Houston, from 2000.

"He was the only "fifth Beatle" who really deserved the title -- without him the '60s' greatest group might never have happened."

"With the exception of Phil Spector’s syrupy post-production on the “Let It Be” album, Martin produced every Beatles recording — from the first single (“Love Me Do”) to the last album (“Abbey Road”). Manager Brian Epstein, their most fervid salesman, may have given the scruffy Liverpudlians an initial gloss, but Martin gave them real artistic polish. He supervised the band’s transition from precocious boys to mature artists, harnessing all that wild genius into the most efficient and dazzling hit-making unit in modern pop.

In all he produced more than 700 recordings in a career spanning 50 years and genres as diverse as jazz, rock, classical, comedy and film soundtracks, with an unprecedented 30 No. 1 Beatles and post-Beatles hits to his credit in the U.K. Now Sir George, Martin may be the most influential and prolific record producer in history."

Sir George describes his job thus: “The producer is the person who shapes the sound. If you have a talent to work with — a singer together with a song — the producer’s job is to say, right, you need to put a frame around this, it needs a rhythm section to do this or that and so on,” he told the Irish Times in 1999. “He actually decides what the thing should sound like, and then shapes it in the studio. He may also be an arranger, in which case he may write the necessary parts … he shapes the whole lot. It’s like being the director of a firm.”


Beatles Historian Mark Lewisohn affirms that:

"George Martin was the perfect producer for the group -- creative, keen to experiment, willing to listen, an expert about music but nicely inexperienced in pop and rock, and a veteran of comedy-sound effects records." Indeed, George's experience with the Goons

[The Goons = British radio show starring stellar comic actors Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine, Martin produced comedy records with Sellers and Milligan] had provided him with a diverse repertoire of recording trickery, which came into play when the Beatles, worn by the pressures of live performance and touring, progressed in the studio to ever more complex tracks.......... Martin's patient nature was invaluable........ it took extraordinary diplomacy, exceptional musical expertise, limitless patience and visionary clarity to bring these ideas to fruition and greatness. Sometimes George's genius was knowing when to jump in and offer musical advice; sometimes it was knowing when to go down to the canteen and have a cup of tea, letting them get on with whatever they were up to."

Sir George's personality is said to be a blend of "giddy enthusiasm with cool intelligence and eloquence" and I'd add it has to include a shrewd business sense, and as highlighted above: patience and intuitive tact. His time of birth isn't available online, so I took a look at a 12 noon chart for his date of birth:

Lots to see here - I'll simply pick out what jumped out to me first, a network:

Ruler of his steady, businesslike Capricorn Sun, Saturn, is in emotional Water sign Scorpio and in harmonious trine to Uranus in Pisces. Uranus in Pisces is semi-sextile (helpful) to Venus, planet of the arts in Aquarius (ruled by Uranus and co-ruled traditionally by Saturn). Venus, planet of the arts, in Aquarius is in opposition (balancing) to Neptune (planet of creativity and ruler of Pisces) in Leo.

Yes....I know that sounded like a huge muddle. It is, but it reflects Sir George's mixed bag of undeniable talent, a linked network of astrological traits: steadiness, patience and business sense from Capricorn and Saturn, emotional intelligence from a Water link Pisces/Scorpio, a certain appreciation of quirkiness and fantasy from Venus in Aquarius, and Uranus in Pisces.

His natal Mercury (mental orientation) in easy-going Sagittarius harmoniously trines creative Neptune in Leo - more evidence of an ability to appreciate fantasy, softening and adding colour to a potentially more staid and rational Capricorn nature.

It's a pity we can't pinpoint his rising sign or natal Moon position, his birth time being unknown. Moon would have been in either Leo or early Virgo. Virgo would fit an obvious urge for perfection in his work; Leo would fit his draw to musical show-biz. Hard to say which is the more likely.

A SIDELIGHT on Son of Sir George

In the course of preparing this post I noted that Sir George Martin's eldest son from his first marriage, Gregory Paul Martin is, among other things (writer, actor, producer, playboy of the western world), and an astrologer. He looks uncannily like his Dad, but apparently they are not very close in anything but looks. From the pieces I've read, Gregory Paul prides himself on being "a bit of a lad", magnet to the fairer sex and all that. Born 21 January 1957 (1.33 AM) in London, England, he has Sun in Aquarius, Scorpio rising. That could be a difficult mix to handle, but his Libra Moon should help! His natal chart is available at Astrodatbank.

[In 2013 I followed a few leads to discover what kind of astrologer he is. His astrology website is no longer available and a link to a video talk by him in February 2012, with Dr. Hildegarde Staninger is also defunct - I wrote in 2013: "In her second hour, Dr. Staninger is joined by Gregory Paul Martin, Astrologer, as they discuss 2012, the Age Of Aquarius and the return Of Divine Feminine/Magdalene energy and why it matters. The eldest son of Beatles producer Sir George Martin, writer/producer Gregory has practiced astrology for 25 years reading privately for colleagues…"]

QUESTION ...

In Sunday's Democratic debate in Flint, Michigan, aired by CNN, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were asked this question by American journalist and television news anchor Don Lemon:

"I want to ask both of you this question. I appreciate you responding to that question, but I want to ask both of you again. In a speech about policing, the FBI director James Comey borrowed a phrase from the Broadway show Avenue Q, saying, "Everyone is a little bit racist." What racial blind spot do you have? Secretary Clinton, you first."

I read Charles Pierce's piece on this, along with always good commentary at his website, then began to ask myself the same question.

Actually, I asked myself a two-part question

#1 What blind spot do I have regarding my native Britishness while trying to understand the way of life in the USA.

#2 What racial blind spot do I have, bearing in mind my own Anglo-Saxon ethnicity.

Trying not to sidestep both by saying a blind spot is a blind spot is a blind spot, so I can't see it, I tried to come up with something. It's a difficult question to answer.

#1 = I have a blind spot in the USA in not being able to understand why so many people here vote against their best interest, and why, oh why they had not risen up and demanded a national health care system for all, long before now. My blind spot remains blind because I don't have a long background of political experience here.

#2 = I have a blind spot as a British-born Anglo-Saxon person because I didn't live in the USA during the years of horrific segregation. Having read about it and heard about parts of it from my husband, I can only try to empathise and understand how African Americans felt. Those who did not experience segregation cannot possibly appreciate the true horror of it, and the scars it has inevitably left behind.

We can't help our ethnicity, our nationality, the colour of our skin, our gender, our varied cultures, they come with our human packaging as we plop into what becomes our stint on planet Earth. What we can help is not being alert and openly opposed to all kinds of discrimination related to any of those factors, from whatever source.

How would you answer Don Lemon's question?

Primarily today...

Another smattering of primaries today - states coloured pale green on the map:

Michigan's result is going to be interesting. Flint's terrible poisoned water situation will be at the forefront of voters' minds. Hillary Clinton is ahead in the polls there currently, but with a tighter margin than was the case a few days ago. In Sunday evening's Democratic debate in Flint, which we watched in full, I thought both candidates gave an impressive performance.

Bernie's wins in Kansas, Nebraska and Maine over the weekend have been encouraging to his supporters, myself included. He still has a steep uphill task delegate-wise, but states still to vote are likely to be more Bernie-friendly than some already primaried southern states where, for some strange reason, he's been less enthusiastically received, especially among African American groups.

Later today there'll be a solar eclipse, in Pisces, at around 18 degrees.

There are lots of astrological writings on the topic around the net, I've picked this piece from the many for a link. The astrologer, Clarissa, at Viva Combusta (cute blog name!) currently lives here in Oklahoma.

Real Time Astrology: New Moon Solar Eclipse Supermoon in Pisces March 8, 2016

There's a selection of other good stuff accessible from the sidebar there too.

Astrology & Authoritarianism ?

There have been, of late, articles and commentary around the net about authoritarianism, mostly in relation to the surge of support for Donald Trump in presidential primaries. This Vox article by Amanda Taub is the most recent, but broadly similar pieces can be found from earlier years.

Curiosity led me to Google search "authoritarianism and astrology", not expecting to find much at all. There was this though, at The Conversation website:

Some people think astrology is a science – here’s why - by Prof. Nick Allum.

Articles by sniffy astrology skeptics are not hard to come by, but this one proposes a rather strange linkage of astrology with authoritarianism.

Under a section headed "Take things as they are", following much of the usual anti-astrology spiel, the Prof. wrote [my own highlighting]:

The most interesting result, however, is based on an idea proposed more than 50 years ago by the German sociologist Theodore Adorno. In 1952, Adorno carried out a study of a Los Angeles Times astrology column. He is witheringly critical of astrology, dubbing it, with the rest of occultism, a “metaphysic of dunces”, suggesting “a climate of semi-erudition is the fertile breeding ground for astrology”.

What is particularly interesting, though, is the connection drawn between astrology with authoritarianism, fascism and modern capitalism (remember that this was in the aftermath of WWII and the Holocaust). For Adorno, astrology emphasised conformity and deference to higher authority of some kind. As some researchers put it: “Take things as they are, since you are fated for them anyway”. In short, Adorno believed that “astrological ideology” resembles “the mentality of the authoritarian personality”.

People high on authoritarianism tend to have blind allegiance to conventional beliefs about right and wrong and have high respect for acknowledged authorities. They are also those who are more favourable towards punishing those who do not subscribe to conventional thinking and aggressive towards those who think differently.

If this hypothesis is correct, then we should see that people who value conformity and obedience will be more likely to give credence to the claims of astrology. In the Eurobarometer survey, there was (by chance) a question that asked people how important they thought “obedience” was as a value that children should learn.

I used this question as a rough and ready indicator of whether a survey respondent was more or less authoritarian in their outlook. And, again, I used regression analysis to see if there was a link between people’s answers to this question and what they thought about astrology. In line with Adorno’s prediction made in 1953, people who attach high importance to obedience as a value (more authoritarian) are indeed more likely to think that astrology is scientific. This is true regardless of people’s age, education, science knowledge, gender and political and religious orientations.

So, on one hand, it seems that horoscopes and astrological predictions are, for most people, just a bit of harmless entertainment. On the other, the tendency to be credulous towards astrology is at least partially explained by what people know about science – but also what kind of personality traits they have. And these factors might prove useful in understanding beliefs about a whole range of pseudo-scientific fields.

Although I understand the thinking, I still find the connection a reach - and that's putting it politely. What do others think?

NOTE: There's a loose, non-astrological, connection here to matters mentioned in a post last month:
http://twilightstarsong.blogspot.com/2016/02/obedient-puppets-with-perception.html

Primarily...

Before this weekend's out results of another group of primaries/caucuses will be known:

(Hat-tip HERE for list. Click on it for clearer view)


On we go, all the while with mainstream media journalists, pundits and commentary trying to dampen the enthusiasm of Bernie Sanders' supporters by declaring already that, for us the "game" is already lost, Hillary Clinton will be the nominee for US Democrats. In fact, nothing is over, but it will be difficult for Bernie to completely overtake Hillary. The "race" could end in a virtual tie, with Hillary Clinton failing to obtain the necessary number of delegates for an all-out win, meaning that negotiations will have to take place. Delegates, delegates!

Bernie's campaign was always going to be difficult, running as he is against the Clinton's combined juggernaut: combination of Hillary, Bill, the partisan DNC, the bought and paid for corporate media. Anything that's worth a damn is always difficult.

Main-streamers, owned by corporations, have their list of instructions. Subtle manipulation of minds comes high on that list. No matter who a person supports in this election, or in respect of any matter at all, it's helpful to keep this in mind when reading, watching, listening to anything online, in newspapers, on TV or radio.

If a majority of people in the USA turn out to be not yet ready, for whatever reason, for a serious attempt at common sense reform of the rigged systems - electoral, financial and otherwise - then that's their choice. They will be ready sometime later, but perhaps too late to effect meaningful change.

An uplifting piece by Gaius Publius this morning at The Smirking Chimp:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/gaius-publius/66291/clinton-will-build-her-biggest-lead-on-march-15-sanders-will-erode-it-after-that



On a lighter note, but still relating to the primaries:

The character Donald Trump keeps bringing to my mind is one created by the brilliantly funny Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
Zaphod Beeblebrox, once President of the Galaxy. Though minus one head, The Donald is a dead ringer for The Zaphod! ~

"One of the major difficulties Trillian experienced in her relationship with Zaphod was learning to distinguish between him pretending to be stupid just to get people off their guard, pretending to be stupid because he couldn't be bothered to think and wanted someone else to do it for him, pretending to be outrageously stupid to hide the fact that he actually didn’t understand what was going on, and really being genuinely stupid. He was renowned for being amazingly clever and quite clearly was so—but not all the time, which obviously worried him, hence, the act. He preferred people to be puzzled rather than contemptuous."

Arty Farty Friday ~ Carole Bayer Sager's Other Talent

Carole Bayer Sager is best known as a song-writer, but she's also an accomplished painter. Her song-writing spans some 40 years, includes many popular and award-winning songs, some co-written with other legendary figures such as Burt Bacharach to whom she was once married.

Born in New York City on 8 March 1947, Carole began her song-writing career while still in high school. She wrote her first hit, A Groovy Kind of Love for the English group The Mindbenders in 1966. Phil Collins re-recorded it taking it #1 and the most performed radio hit of 1990. Many others followed.

She began painting in 2006.
From http://www.carolebayersagerart.com/bio/

"She has painted portraits, abstract works on canvas as well as in light boxes and in the last four years she has worked on her “food” paintings. Her first solo show was held in January 2011 at the LA Arthouse in Los Angeles. Her most recent show entitled, “New Works” September 18th – November 8th 2014 at William Turner Gallery in Santa Monica. Both shows deal with the Pop DNA of fattening foods. The paintings play with perception by drastically changing their size and scale they invite viewers to take an abstract look at an often-overlooked piece of food.

She also plays with paint. "I love paint. I love thick paint and I love color. Many of my paintings appear photo-realistic at a distance, and become abstracted the closer you stand to them."

She sees many similarities between songwriting and painting. Both are intuitive. “Just as is songwriting, it is rewarding when your painting touches another person.” "

Without going into too much detail, a peep at at Carole's natal chart, set for 12 noon on 8 March 1947, New York City, to discover how her dual arty talents are reflected there.

THIS:
Venus (planet of the arts) in Aquarius in trine to Neptune (creativity) and quite possibly Moon depending on exact degree (inner self) in Libra (sign ruled by Venus).

Fixed Stars in Zodiac Sign Pisces

Last of the 12 zodiac signs: Pisces - a look at Fixed Stars within this sign. Data comes from Astroweb (HERE), showing star positions in 1900 in the left-hand column and in 2000 on the right.

Astrological interpretations for some of those stars, if found to be tightly conjunct a natal personal planet, or important point, are available online. A good, all-encompassing website to investigate for this is
Constellation of Words.

Fixed stars within the boundaries of zodiac sign Pisces are part of constellations Aquarius, Pegasus (winged horse), Cygnus (swan) and Eridanus (river) rather than constellation Pisces.

Formalhaut, one of the four Royal Stars is located in the mouth of the Southern Fish, Piscis Austrinus (not to be confused with the constellation Pisces). Explanation of the importance of the Royal Stars in ancient times, when their positions marked the four cardinal points, the equinoxes and solstices, is part of the Gemini chapter of this series HERE.

Several of the Fixed Stars in zodiac sign Pisces are within constellation Pegasus - named for the mythic winged horse. Stars of Pegasus, in general, are said to reflect, in any with personal planets conjunct a Pegasus star: ambition, vanity, intuition, enthusiasm, caprice and bad judgment. [Robson]

Jupiter in my own natal chart is conjunct Biham (in the head of Pegasus), also Sadalachbia located on the water jar of the Aquarius figure. Sadalachbia is said to be:

"The Lucky Star of Hidden Things". In horary it indicates the ability to discover that which is hidden or lost. 'The Lucky One for Hidden Things, or for Tent dwellers'; Abhbiyah is the plural of a word once common for a tent but also meaning a place of seclusion. It is said that, when the Sun rises conjunct this star, about 25th February, then all the worms and insects come out of their winter holes and tent dwellers can move to their Spring pasture-lands. That is the warmer climes of Arabia, of course, not London or New York. The meaning we find in this star is, as an indicator of the right time for making moves, entering upon new ventures, a likelihood of general success in enterprises if Sadachbia be well placed and aspected on the horoscope. [The Living Stars, Dr. Eric Morse]

Another matter of interest regarding constellation Pegasus:
Regular contributor "mike" mentioned, when commenting recently on a post about Pisces the zodiac sign, that The Age of Pisces into the Age of Aquarius has an interesting variation: the Age of Pegasus as an intermediary between Pisces and Aquarius. We are fully into Age of Pegasus now according to some sources:

See
http://astrologyking.com/constellation-pegasus/#age

http://academysounds.blogspot.com/2010/06/age-of-pegasus.html


Is there a passing reader with natal planet(s) conjunct any of the stars in zodiac sign Pisces?

Trump ?

 At least someone had  the right idea!

Trump. I can easily understand the thinking behind the divide between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side, but Donald Trump's runaway lead on the Republican side remains incomprehensible. At first I did, kind of, understand his appeal. In the early days of his candidacy he came across as someone who had definite leadership potential, certainly more of it than anyone else who stood on that first debate stage. As time has gone on though, what at first was a novelty with some appeal to those who like to hear what they consider to be unvarnished opinion, is now distinctly unpleasant - dangerous even, coming as it does from one who aspires to lead a nation with as much at stake as the USA.

There's the fact that Trump seems to have little knowledge of how government works in the USA. Leading huge business enterprises (at which he's not as brilliant as he likes to portray) is a whole lot different from leading a country as large, diverse and important (if hardly exceptional) as this is. Then there's the question of that "3 a.m. call". Remember that from the 2008 go-around? Who, in their right mind, would prefer to have Donald Trump answering that call rather than Bernie, or even Hillary or Rubio? (Cruz? -NO! Shhhh don't go there either!)

We drove around parts of our medium sized south-west Oklahoma town yesterday, after voting in Super Tuesday's primary. We saw around a dozen Trump lawn signs, all in some of the poorest areas of town. No other candidates' signs were on show anywhere. Those people, so proudly supporting Donald Trump, are surely not hoping that he, as president, would try to do anything to ease their situation?

Most weird I do get - this I do not!

Husband took a couple of photographs yesterday - one of them might give a hint of hope, others not so much.

UPDATE ~ The above was prepared Tuesday afternoon. We now know that Oklahoma Republicans chose Ted Cruz over Trump. Not sure if that's good bad news or bad bad news! But in the rest of Super Tuesday states Trump held his own... so what's written above holds good.
:-(

Super Tuesday's Possible Dream

Super Tuesday : Democratic and Republican voters will go to the polls today in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia. In Alaska, Republicans and in American Samoa Democrats will caucus today. Democrats living abroad will vote today too. Today will decide these states' choices of candidates to represent their political parties in November's General Election. Totals of delegates earned by each candidate during this process today will be added to totals earned from early primaries already held, and those still to come.

I remember posting a version of this, a favourite song of mine, at some point in 2007/8, in support of Dennis Kucinich. Senator Bernie Sanders has managed to reach further in the presidential campaign in 2016, because times, and the public's understanding of them, have changed somewhat - maybe even changed sufficiently. Should it happen that Bernie eventually comes up short (I'm hoping not), depend on it that there'll be another candidate in 2020 who will reach even further... and so on, until...at last....

Tides turn only slowly, gradually.