In the News ~ Alex Jones, John Brennan.

From videos available online it appears that Piers Morgan allowed Alex Jones to make himself look even loopier than usual in a TV interview this week ranting about the need to retain the gun culture in the USA. See HERE for a clip or the full segment.

I don't follow Alex Jones, but occasionally come across stuff quoting him. I'm not sure exactly what to make of him, other than that his obvious ability to attract attention is well-honed! There's a kind of oblique sense to some of his beliefs - can't quite agree, can't quite disagree. I can agree with this comment by "ceti" at Common Dreams:

Alex finally got on mainstream news and he blew it by trying to fit years of conspiracy theorizing into one single rant.

But he emblemizes a lot of what's wrong with America's paranoid fringe. Because they reject anything to do with communism outright, they are left with very few tools to understand the world systematically, even if their instinct on what's wrong is genuinely pointed in the right direction.

So we have End the Fed, without understanding its role in finance capitalism, or the New World Order without US Imperialism. The focus on gun rights is also misdirected, given that not a single American assault rifle has ever toppled a domestic tyrant. Instead, American guns have brought a lot of death and destruction around the world.

In many ways, Alex and a few others on the internet serve as another system of control to disappear thoughtful people down the rabbit hole, when really, the actual conspiracies are pretty obvious and all encompassing. What allows him to flourish is the utter marginalizing of the real Left that actually does challenge the system as it is, not as it is imagined to be.

If anyone wonders about Alex Jones' astrology, he's a Sun Aquarius type, and one who I consider is letting the side down - or is it that he's really showing up the Water Bearer's true colours? (See also Sara Palin, Dick Cheney, Glenn Beck). This rogue Sun Aquarian type shows up, mainly, in the USA, doesn't it? There's a stronger dose of Aquarius's modern ruler eccentric Uranus involved in their natures.

For a detailed rundown of Alex Jones' natal chart see a piece by astrologer Francis D. Grabau at Starpath Visions.

The president nominated John Brennan to head the CIA in place of David Petraeus whose zipper problems led him astray, far enough to result in his resignation (we've been told). John Brennan looks a deal scarier than ol' Dave ever did! I've yet to see a photograph of him smiling, checked Google Image - there are a couple of forced smirky smiles, which seem the best he can manage. After preparing this post I went back to reading Les Miserables, and just by chance, on page 100 which marked the extent of my progress through the huge tome, read a description which exactly fits Mr. Brennan: "The sight of him suggested that he was continually absorbed in the contemplation of something terrible", though in the novel it refers, of course, to ex-convict Jean Valjean's appearance, early in the story.

For some background on John Brennan see Alex Kane's article 5 Terrifying Facts about John Brennan. Also Obama’s CIA Pick Stinks of Torture, Targeted Killings by Peter Z. Scheer at truthdig.com:

Rather than use his electoral victory to shove a dove down the throat of the national security establishment, President Obama seems to be sticking it to the left, by nominating the intelligence veteran to head the CIA. Brennan was prevented from becoming CIA director in Obama’s last term because the former chief of staff to Bush’s CIA director George Tenet had the stink of torture about him. Now, he is the man most credited with an assassination program that features, among other things, a secret presidential kill list.

I haven't found any astrologer's thoughts on his natal chart yet. Let's have a gander at a 12 noon version, as his birth time isn't known:

His chart is nowhere near as scary as his photograph. This chart could easily belong to a writer, painter, photographer or poet: Mercury conjunct Neptune, Sun conjunct Venus. Saturn in Scorpio sextile Mars in Virgo might be the least benign factor here, or perhaps Pluto conjunct Jupiter. If a deathly Pluto conjunct expansive Jupiter were on or close to his ascendant - that could fit.

Moon would be in Sagittarius whatever his time of birth. Sun in precise perfectionist Virgo, Moon in expansive free-rolling Sagittarius are two very different facets of his nature.

Perhaps any passing astrologically-literate reader might add their thoughts on Brennan's chart - Mike? Help!

Another One Bit the Dust

Recent resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus, a four-star general who led U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and was, in some circles, thought to be a potential candidate for president, came as quite a surprise. An extra-marital affair with his biographer brought the toppling of this, the latest in a long line of power-merchants who, while wielding power over lives and deaths of The Great Unwashed of the world, seem unable to wield power over their own desires. These individuals may have dubiously valuable talents and skills the rest of us lack, but they are also prey to the same weaknesses. However weak in one department the General has been, I'd have expected him to have exerted a wee bit of restraint when it came to conducting e-mail correspondence with his lover. Ye gods! He was in charge of the CIA - didn't he realise how dangerous leaving an e-mail trail might prove to be? Even if we abandon all hope of these power-hungry bozos possessing some level of integrity, we might still reasonably expect them to possess the power of good judgment. Petraeus earns nothing better than a D minus in this regard!

Most bloggers and commentary on line indicate suspicion of "something else" going on here. It's easy to think up several theories to match circumstances and timing of his resignation - but whatever else is or might be involved here - it wouldn't have been able to happen had he not been conducting an extra-marital affair.

I wrote about Gen. Petraeus in May: USA's Man on Horseback ? In that post, from his natal chart (set for 12 noon as no time of birth is known) I deduced this - was I mistaken?

A quick note about the man himself: well-integrated, nicely balanced personality; as far as I can tell he's no megalomaniac, though Scorpio Sun indicates a passionate and determined individual. There are several planetary configurations, one standing out clearly for me is known by astrologers as a Mystic Rectangle (though not mystic, just evidence of fine integration). This links Sun/Mars/Jupiter/Uranus in a configuration involving harmonious trines and sextiles together with 2 balancing oppositions. Planets involved relate to self(Sun), energy/dynamism/war (Mars), philosophy/expansion/excess (Jupiter), and rebellion/revolt/change (Uranus).

If I now had to identify a possible astrological culprit in light of the current situation - the element in this chart capable of leading such a man off the straight and narrow, I'd point to Scorpio Sun opposite Jupiter in Taurus. I Googled the name of the female said to have been involved, his biographer Paula Broadwell - Wikipedia has her birth date as 9 November 1972. Hmmmm....2 Sun Scorpio characters, he with Jupiter opposing his Sun from Taurus. Recipe for a rumble? I'll abstain from delving into her chart because she's really not (yet) a public figure.

Jupiter planet of excess was in Taurus natally for Petraeus, the sign is ruled by Venus, planet of love. Jupiter is usually thought the most benign of planets. I've questioned this before. From my 2009 post Jupiter the Jovial Juggernaut:

No doubt Jupiter's huge size, when compared with sizes of the innermost planets, seemed to signify excess, generosity, exaggeration, and all manner of things springing therefrom, such as travel far & wide, and publication - sending out information to the masses.

Some regularity has been discerned in the distances between planets in our solar system. Bode's Law is a rule devised centuries ago by astronomers to demonstrate the regularity, it's a rough rule but an interesting one. If Mercury is 4 units of distance from the Sun, the Venus is 4+3, the Earth 4+6, Mars 4+12. Then there's a gap - Jupiter is 4+48, and Saturn more roughly 4+96. That huge gap between Mars and Jupiter, breaking a pattern, and leaving a gap where otherwise another planet might have been expected to form, is thought to have remained empty because Jupiter's gravity prevented another planet from forming in that area. Another theory is that several smaller planets were formed and they collided with one another; or that a single planet was formed but was then destroyed by Jupiter's greater gravitational field.

Bearing these theories in mind, it's odd that Jupiter hasn't gathered a rather more negative reputation in astrology. Astrologers were quick to attribute eccentricity and the unexpected to Uranus because of its eccentric orbit, so why not attribute something like ruthlessness, eradication, a tendency to bully, and/or destruction to that juggernaut of a planet: Jupiter? I know there's no answer to that, but thought I'd ask anyway.

Any other thoughts?