Joke

Maria Adams at Quora posted the following in response to the question:
What's the best Donald Trump joke you have heard?

She added, with regard to its source:
Source: unknown. Whoever knows the source of jokes?

Donald Trump meets with the Queen. He asks her, "Your Majesty, how do you run such an efficient government? Are there any tips you can give to me?"

"Well," says the Queen, "the most important thing is to surround yourself with intelligent people."

Trump frowns. "But how do I know the people around me are really intelligent?"

The Queen takes a sip of tea. "Oh, that's easy. You just ask them to answer an intelligence riddle."

The Queen pushes a button on her intercom. "Please send Theresa May in here, would you?"

Theresa May walks into the room. "Yes, my Queen?"

The Queen smiles. "Answer me this, please, Theresa. Your mother and father have a child. It is not your brother and it is not your sister. Who is it?"

Without pausing for a moment, Theresa answers, "That would be me."

"Yes! Very good," says the Queen.

Back at the White House, Trump asks to speak with Vice President Mike Pence.

"Mike, answer this for me. Your mother and father have a child. It's not your brother and it's not your sister. Who is it?"

"I'm not sure," says the Vice President. "Let me get back to you on that one."

Mike Pence goes to his advisers and asks every one, but none can give him an answer. Finally, he ends up in the men's room and recognizes General McMasters' shoes in the next stall.

Mike shouts, "General! Can you answer this for me? Your mother and your father have a child and it's not your brother or your sister. Who is it?

General McMaster yells back, "That's easy. It's me!"

Mike Pence smiles. "Thanks!" and goes back to the Oval Office to speak with Trump.

"Say, I did some research and I have the answer to that riddle. It's General McMaster."

Trump gets up, stomps over to Mike Pence, and angrily yells into his face,
"No, you idiot! It's Theresa May!"

Saturday & Sundry Pensive Thoughts on the Presidency

After reading A Stopped Clock Asks Two Good Questions — Will Trump Resign? Will Democrats Impeach Him? by Gaius Publius, posted at naked capitalism earlier this week, I looked again at President Trump's and Vice President Pence's natal charts (see below). Both appeared in one of my posts from last year ("Will President Trump Weather the Storms?").

A commenter beneath the linked article, "XXYY", wrote

Like it or not, Trump is doing the Dem[ocrat]s and the left in general a lot of good right where he is. His clownishness and obvious incompetence and corruption ensure he won’t do as much damage as a more serious president might, yet his horrific optics has managed to galvanize a large chunk of the US population into the realization that they need to organize and take back political power from a vicious and entrenched establishment. (As a side benefit, he has also exposed the existing Democratic Party leadership and institutions as pointless, ineffectual and overdue for wholesale replacement.)

You can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need!

Another, among many good comments, came from "Roquentin:

It would be much better long term if Trump was removed via losing an election. To impeach him or remove him while still in office will deal a very deep blow to the legitimacy of elected leadership in the US as an institution, only the lib[eral]s are too blind with rage to see it. They’re still too stung by seeing Queen Hillary beaten by a vulgar reality TV star. I just can’t listen to people with a straight face who argue that we’re sliding into some kind of autocratic system, but then constantly scheme about how to remove Trump, who was elected according law of the land. I guess they’re blind to how hypocritical that looks too. From where I’m sitting, all this still reads as establishment liberals not being able to admit they lost at this late hour in 2018.

I also suspect it’s because that same crowd no longer believes it can win elections and doesn’t trust the US population. The liberal technocrats talk a mean game about freedom and democracy, but in practice they believe in them even less than most conservatives and think people too stupid and backwards to vote correctly. That if the experts just came in and told them all what to do, we’d all be a lot better off. That’s how these people think, in the Acela Corridor and Silicon Valley. They hate the very people they want to vote for them, and that’s why those very same people won’t do it. They know, we all know.

So...another look at the natal charts of the Prez and Vice-Prez, to see whether any upcoming transits might indicate something out of the ordinary for either of 'em in the near future.

Mike Pence was born on 7 June 1959 in Columbus, Indiana. Time of birth unknown. Chart set for 12 noon.

The first thing I noticed, looking at the chart of VP Pence was his natal Saturn at 5 Capricorn. Transiting Saturn will join Pence's natal Saturn, producing, in astrologer-speak, a Saturn Return - the second Saturn Return in fact. Saturn Returns occur (for all of us every 29 and a half years or so) at ages between 27–31, 56–60, and 84–90 - should we make it that far. These "Returns" happen when Saturn reaches, once again, the point where it was at your time of birth.

The first Saturn Return often brings with it some major change in lifestyle, either in one's home-life or working-life. For me it was both! The second Saturn Return, around age 56 to 60 can sometimes bring retirement or change of employment -some very noticeable change of home life or way of life.

The third Saturn Return heralds the last steps of our life's journey, we are not all lucky enough to reach this Return, however.

Back to the point in hand! Mike Pence has been in the midst of a second Saturn Return this year. Saturn arrived at 5 Capricorn, conjunct his natal Saturn initially in February this year, then retrograded, but was back at 5 Capricorn in June/July; then retrograde again and will be at 5 degrees of Capricorn once more in November, after which it'll go merrily on its way (well - maybe not so merrily, this is Saturn in Capricorn!)

So far nothing major has happened for the VP, at least nothing of which we the onlookers are aware. There has been no hint of any major job change for the VP - such as being elevated to the Presidency. Will November tell a different story?


Donald Trump was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York on 14 June 1946 at 10.54 AM. Below is his natal chart.

In Donald Trump's chart there'll be a potential snag coming up in a couple of years, when transiting Saturn reaches the exact point opposite to where it lay at his birth - 23 Cancer, that'll be in January 2020 (election year!) Transiting Pluto will also be in a similar position then, as well as a little earlier, in May 2019. A best guess as to what that means? Donald Trump, if he is still President, will either choose not to run again, or will be defeated.

In Pensive Mood?

It didn't take a political science degree to realise that Donald J. Trump would be unfit for the presidency of the USA. It doesn't take decades of experience of US politics to realise that the guy is not up to the job he was elected, by enough people in enough relevant states, to carry out. He was elected. It matters little that his opponent, she who shall be nameless, did beat him via popular vote. In this country the popular vote counts for hardly anything, that's the way things have been for centuries. If the arrangement doesn't suit the people, then the people should have been making their feelings felt long, long ago.

Our current president is everything a president ought not to be : incompetent, largely inarticulate, inexperienced in the ways of legislation and ignorant of how the country is run, self-absorbed to the nth degree, and has to rely 99% of the time on the people he has chosen to advise him - not an admirable crew - they're Republicans, what else would we have expected?

The previous administration, Democrats, under President Obama, did not do nearly enough for the people who had enthusiastically voted in the President on two occasions. So many of them remained in desperate need of help that they felt they'd rather vote in an inexperienced and clearly unsuitable Donald Trump than risk 4 or 8 more years of the same disappointing stuff experienced during the past 8 years. Democrats no longer represent the working class - in fact the working class has nobody to represent them. Senator Bernie Sanders was probably their last forlorn hope. Bernie was effectively put down by the Democratic National Committee, who it appears would rather have seen a President Trump than a President Sanders, and who were blind to the inadequacies of their own chosen candidate.

I am sick and tired of reading headlines at HuffPost, and elsewhere, day after day after day, bemoaning, sneering, exaggerating this President's actions from the previous day. I never get past headlines, my blood pressure wouldn't stand it! I haven't watched any TV news for years, and our TV has forgotten that MSNBC even exists. Late night shows, and their presenters began to repulse me early on in this new political era. Even the best of them have become like one-note schoolyard bullies. Most internet websites, once reasonable and readable, have become one-note hysterical in their views.

It is not funny anymore.

So...what would headlines, pundits and late night presenters be saying if and when President Trump meets the fate they so obviously intend for him : impeachment, removal from office by fair means or foul, or by his resignation? We should not overlook the fact that negation of a presidential election would be very serious step, undermining much more than just the person who is considered incompetent in the job for which he was elected. Would those journalists and pundits welcome a President Pence with open arms? He would certainly not provide them with the same amount of juicy material they've enjoyed since the early days of 2016. VP Mike Pence is not a figure of fun, he looks, sounds, and acts presidential, but he's also scary in ways Donald Trump, bad as he is, will never be.

Pete Dolack's piece at Counterpunch (and on his own blog) at the weekend tells it like it is.
Why Pence Might be Even Worse Than Trump

SNIPS

The complicating factor here is that an impeachment and removal from office would elevate Christian fundamentalist Mike Pence to the presidency. That would be truly a horrifying development. Not only because Vice President Pence is more of a “true believer” in the extreme Right agenda than is President Trump but as an experienced legislator and governor, he’d likely be far more effective in steering bills through Congress..................

The church he attended in Indianapolis openly calls for a theocratic state, believing the Bible should be taken literally: “We believe the Bible to be the verbally inspired Word of God, inerrant in the original manuscripts and the sufficient and final authority for all matters of faith, practice, and life.”

And this church asserts that not only should women be “deferential” to men and be “guided” toward marriage and away from a career, but that this applies to all women, whether or not church members. The Daily Kos article notes that a foundational book used by the church “does not distinguish between conduct expected from women in voluntary marriages and unrelated women who may be members of another faith. This book teaches that preferences of women from different faiths (or no faith) are simply wrong and need to be corrected by the older women.”

And thus it is no surprise Vice President Pence would so distinguish himself for his crusades against women. As a member of Congress, he led fights to defund Planned Parenthood.

Last paras

To what extent the policies of the Trump administration are those of Mike Pence and what policies are those of White supremacist chief strategist Steve Bannon are difficult to know. Perhaps they have separate spheres of influence or, as is likely, there is considerable overlap in their agendas. The draconian budget proposed by the Trump administration on May 23 has the fingerprints of the budget director, Mick Mulvaney, a far right ideologue himself, but it is likely the vice president had much say in it — the punishments intended to be administered to people for the crime of being poor are certainly consistent with his style.

Given that Donald Trump doesn’t have the intellectual capacity or attention span to actually be president, and appears to rely heavily on a small coterie, Mike Pence likely is already directing much policy. There is nothing to choose between the two. We don’t have to declare them fascists to find them plenty scary enough. (You are, after all, reading this on your computer screen at your leisure rather than having this conversation in a concentration camp. And by this point, Hitler had already consolidated his dictatorship with political opponents and union officials murdered or in camps.)

We have all the reasons we could want to oppose the Trump administration at every step. An administration, not one personality. There is no reason to think ousting President Trump would lessen the danger to the world he presents, and could actually have the counter-intuitive effect of increasing it. (My highlight)

Will President Trump Weather the Storms?

I contributed this post to Broad Oak Magazine blog (link in sidebar) a while ago using, at the blog's editor's suggestion, remarks of J.H. Kunstler in a piece HERE. May as well put the post to use again, here!
Snip from Kunstler's article:

If the first forty-eight hours are any measure of the alleged Trumptopia-to-come, the leading man in this national melodrama appears to be meshuga. A more charitable view might be that his behavior does not comport with the job description: president. If he keeps it up, I stick to my call that we will see him removed by extraordinary action within a few months. It might be a lawful continuity-of-government procedure according to the 25th Amendment — various high officials declaring him “incapacitated” — or it might be a straight-up old school coup d’état (“You’re fired”).

I believe the trigger for that may be an overwhelming financial crisis in the early second quarter of the year. In, the first case, under Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, it works like this:

Donald Trump was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York on 14 June 1946 at 10.54 AM. Below is his natal chart.

A brief run-down of personality characteristics indicated: positions of Sun, Moon and rising sign (sign coming over horizon at exact time of birth) are the "big three" items thought by astrologers to reflect most clearly in the native's personality. Trump's Sun (core self) in Gemini - the most communicative and one of the most flexible signs of the zodiac, perhaps reflects his love of Tweeting and generally making his opinions widely known. Conjunct (within a few degrees of) his Sun is Uranus, planet known for the unexpected, eccentricity, and change. This is significant!

Trump's Moon (inner self) was in Sagittarius, sign known for exaggeration, expansiveness, publication, among other things. That's a good fit!

Rising sign was Leo, and at 29 degrees where we also find Royal Fixed Star Regulus. This is the part of his chart that first impressed me as a sign that, though my brain was telling me he couldn't, and wouldn't ever be President of the USA - he darn well could be and would have leadership essentials to be such, according to his chart. I pushed the thought away, deciding that it could be simply a reflection of successes he had already realised. I should mention here that Mars sits just 3 degrees from his rising degree, and Mars reflects dynamism and aggressive tendencies.

So, we have Gemini, Sagittarius and Leo - I'm keeping this down to absolute basics, these three are underpinnings to his personality: communication, over-expansiveness, leadership. There's something more to mention to fill out the picture: Mercury, Saturn and Venus are all in Cancer. Cancer has a very different flavour from the signs already mentioned. Cancer (symbol is the crab) is, first and foremost ultra-sensitive; also home and family loving, tends to withdraw when threatened. We've seen Trump's sensitivity to criticism many times. He draws on that natal Mars on his ascendant sign, combined with Gemini Sun's communication skills, exaggerated by Sagittarius Moon, to produce his frequent counter-punches. Deep inside, though, he will be feeling genuinely hurt. He will be a quite, quite different guy at home surrounded by family, than the one he presents to his voters and opponents.

There's lots more in the chart, via aspects and cycles, but for me, the above elements are key.

Now, since 1946, the year Trump was born, the planets have been moving along in their respective orbits at varying speeds; faster moving planets have frequently joined Trump's natal planets - this isn't particularly significant; but the slower-moving outer planets, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto when, in course of their transits meet they up with a Trump natal planet, sit close to it for much longer periods, that is what needs to be noted.

In this case Saturn, Uranus and Pluto are the planetary transits most involved.
Saturn, planet of restriction and limitation was exactly conjunct Trump's natal Moon from late December 2016 to early January this year, signifying some inner feelings of tension no doubt, during the time up to inauguration day. Saturn is slowly moving away now, degree by degree. However, come this summer Saturn will appear to backtrack (retrograde) and "hit" his Moon again, and from late June to October it'll be within a few degrees of his Moon again. So there's more tension to come. Exactly what form it will take can't be known. Will it be enough to bring on the event Mr Kunstler predicted? There's no way of knowing.

Uranus planet of change and the unexpected currently sits at around 20 to 21 Aries, will travel from there to the end of that sign between now and May 2018, with a retrograde motion or two. Though transiting Uranus is currently in friendly aspect (angle) to Trump's Sun, and Moon it's also in challenging angle to Venus and Saturn in Cancer - possibly a reflection of the arguments about his conflicting business and presidential interests.

Pluto is transiting the mid- to late teens of Capricorn right now, and until around this time next year. Pluto represents needed transformations preceded by some chaos and difficult times. While Pluto will not be conjoining any of Trump's natal planets in the near future, it will be in awkward aspect (at a significantly challenging angle) to some of them, namely Jupiter in Libra, Uranus in Gemini and later his Sun in Gemini - at times later on this year and next year.

One doesn't need to be an astrologer to foresee what astrology is telling us - i.e. that there are many tough times and challenges ahead for the new President. Whether these times will be tough enough for J.H. Kunstler's prediction to be fulfilled is another matter. Personally, I doubt it.

Another way to investigate this would be to look at the Vice-President's chart, for he would become President should any kind of "coup" occur. A very quick look - it has to be a 12 noon chart because Pence's exact time of birth isn't known.

Mike Pence was born on 7 June 1959 in Columbus, Indiana. Time of birth unknown. Chart set for 12 noon.

Moon position and rising sign will not be as shown here. Moon could have been either in late Gemini or early Cancer - impossible to guess which - I can see reasons for both. Interesting that Trump chose a fellow-Gemini as his VP. He's a very different Gemini-type though. Pence doesn't have Uranus conjunct his Sun, though Uranus is in a friendly angle to it. Pence is a very smooth communicator, as was shown during the VP's debate when his skills in that area were undeniable when contrasted with Clinton's VP, Tim Kaine's bluster.

Pluto will be (and has already been) at a similarly challenging angle to Pence's Sun at 16 Gemini and to his Mercury (planet of communication) at 21 Gemini as to Trump's Sun and Uranus. This could indicate they'll both be dealing with multiple challenges from "We the People" - what affects one will affect t'other, whether in dealing with every day difficulties, or, I guess, via one taking over the position of the other, even. But, in general, from the information here, I don't see any clear indication of change of actual career status or position for Pence coming up.

Back to it...

The blog's been on hold for a couple of weeks - what's been goin' on? Nothing terribly inspiring on the political front, for sure!

There was the TV debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump - the one when Trump said Clinton would be in jail if he were to become president. That brought on a wan smile. Then there was the debate between would-be vice-presidents, Tim Kaine and Mike Pence. Well, that one had me yelling at the TV, "Kaine, can you not shut your flippin' mouth for two minutes together and let the other guy speak?!" I was not impressed with Tim Kaine, at all. Mike Pence's politics makes him a no-no for me, but can't argue with the fact that he did come over as far more presidential/vice-presidential than either Trump or Kaine. Clinton darn well ought to be coming over as presidential - she has been aiming for the job her whole life!

Then during last week ...oh dear! But really, was anyone surprised to read about Trump's past unpleasantnesses? Haven't we seen and heard enough over many, many months to realise that, if someone began digging through old records and videos, something nasty would emerge - it'd be more surprising if it hadn't. What has emerged, so far, is nasty, but par for the course from a guy like Donald Trump, I'd have thought. It won't change many minds, nor will anything worse that might be presented for our disgust during the next weeks. I wish all media would be silenced, blinds down, by presidential decree, until 8 November at 10p.m!

What else? During the first week of bloglessness we had a surprise and lightning fast visit from husband's younger daughter, who lives in Austin, Texas. We'd intended taking off for a few days before that, but one or other us us feeling one degree under resulted in our sitting tight for a while longer.

We left last Monday, heading for Kansas, ended up in Hutchinson for a night or two. We really wanted to visit the Cosmosphere there - a museum affiliated to the Smithsonian. We arrived there at around 9.30 one morning, to a car park full to the gills, and two school buses just arrived, also full to the gills. The foyer was heaving, very noisy, with several teachers trying to keep the excited chit-chat down to a dull roar. We thought it best to postpone our visit, and instead drove around a couple of nearby small towns discovering antique, vintage and junk stores. Looked again at the Cosmosphere later in the day, but the car park was still overflowing. Another time, perhaps.

We then moved on to Emporia a little further to the north and east, wandered around that area, taking in some very nice scenery, as far east as Ottawa, Kansas and Baldwin City - not at all the classic Kansas scenery of featureless flatness, more like wooded areas of Missouri. The trees up there have begun to turn orange and deep red - especially the Maples. One little town was preparing for their annual Maple Festival at the weekend.

We arrived home Sunday afternoon, via Ponca City in the northernmost reaches of Oklahoma.

We kept an eye open, during travel, for election lawn signs. There weren't many. It seemed to us that Trump-Pence ones were slightly more in evidence, but still were few and far between. OK and KS are both deeply red states, of course. A few Clinton-Kaine signs were around too. Most lawn signs, by far, were for local and state positions. Perhaps this indicates that nobody, of either persuasion, is feeling particularly presidentially inspired this time around. I know I'm not!

Weather? A whole year's worth in less than a week! We left with temps in the 80s, an overnight storm, then within 24 hours, in Kansas (maybe in Oklahoma too), temps dropped to mid 40s with a knife-sharp cold wind blowing all day. Two days like that, then a slow climb back to the high 80s by the time we reached home yesterday.


I almost forgot - it's Music Monday... and it's a mad world ain't it? Cue Adam Lambert: