DRONES & PREDICTIONS

During Monday's presidential debate (the last of the season) the topic of drone warfare was mentioned but skated over with no in-depth discussion, and both candidates voicing support. It was from an unlikely source that essential comment has come: Joe Scarborough, a former Republican member of Congress who hosts a morning political talk-show. Please note Democrat-supporting Joe Klein's stance on the matter!




As Glen Greenwald has writtten HERE:

Obama has led all sorts of progressives and other Democrats to be the most vocal supporters of unrestrained aggression, secret assassinations, and "crippling" the Iranian people with sanctions. It is completely unsurprising that the most sociopathic defense of drones comes from one of the most committed Obama supporters, and that it's now left to a former GOP Congressman to raise objections. As much as anything, that is the Obama legacy.

And, as William Astore wrote in his piece America Lost Last Night's Presidential Debate

The U.S. will continue to escalate drone strikes on assassination missions of dubious legality, all in the name of killing the bad guys. Neither candidate bothered to address civilian casualties, blowback, or whether they accept the right of other countries to launch their own drones on assassination missions. (In this case I'm guessing that imitation by China or Russia or Iran would not be considered the sincerest form of flattery.)

For anyone keen on election predictions there's a page at a blog called The Moderate Voice: Real Psychic Predictions 2012 - Politics and More (updated October 2012).

Having scrambled through it, I'm no wiser, but it was fun!

I decided to fish out my tarot deck from the back of a drawer where it has rested for quite some time, undisturbed. Shuffled, mentally asking, "Who will be the next president of the USA?" Drew 3 cards. 6 of Swords, 8 of Rods, Ace of Cups. I'd rather hoped to see one of the royal cards emerge, but my tarot deck is in enigmatic mood....it ain't sayin'. Yet those three cards seem to me to offer a reassuring omen indicating that things will not be nearly as bad as many expect or are predicting, whether President Obama retains his hold on the White House, or Gov. Romney takes over. In view of the opening topic of this post, it's hard to be convinced.

6 of Swords = a moving away from danger. 8 of Rods is a card of movement - swiftness, completion, fulfillment, progress and action. Ace of Cups represents the start of something good and positive. I was surprised to see these cards emerge - really! But emerge they did. I guess each person could interpret them as an indication that their own chosen candidate will win. I have no chosen candidate, so the message for me is that whatever happens, the outcome of the 2012 election will not turn out to have been disastrous for the country and the world.

Gut-feeling: I've thought for a while that the President will gain another 4 years in power because, of the two candidates, he's in a better position to be able to get done what The True Powers That Be need to be done. He will be Their preference. With Romney in the White House there'd be heavy opposition from the left against certain propositions which The Powers That Be see as essential. Obama has the left tamed, therefore he is, as one writer has put it "the more effective evil". Absent a landslide for Romney, which isn't likely, I'm sure there are ways and means to tweak a close-run thing so that the desired result is obtained.

A Binding Distraction

More from boredom than good sense, we fell into watching the presidential debate on Tuesday evening. As everyone and their dogs have already written, this time the President was more animated. Possibly this change was due to the different, town-hall style, format with no lectern to cling to, and a posse of questioners in the smallish (well-vetted) audience seated in front of the two debaters. Or even more possibly due to Prez having watched a video of his earlier debate performance, reading reports and opinions of it, and feeling he could have done better.

I'm posting just to let off a wee bit of steam on one aspect.

"Binders full of women".....In a remark which could certainly have been phrased better, Gov. Romney inadvertently gave the Twitterverse, Facebook and general chattering classes yet a second piece of nonsense to throw around social networks and internet generally. First piece of nonsense: his "Big Bird" remark in the earlier debate. I do not wish to diminish the importance of what was at the core of these remarks - that is equal opportunities for women and funding of a public TV channel
by criticising Twitterers and the like - but really.......they have diminished those issues themselves.

Is this the best that social media can achieve in the USA? If so, then I suspect we were better off without it, at least at election time. There are many very important issues to be considered, some of which are never given a single mention, due to an already highly controlled media and debate platform, making these debates little better than theatre to distract the masses. Rather than pushing such issues to the fore users of social media choose to throw around these silly bits and pieces.

The masses are so very easy to distract, are they not? I wonder sometimes if these types of distractions are cynically orchestrated rather than naturally occurring.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in "Brave New World Revisited", the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions". In "1984", Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. "In Brave New World", they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.”
― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

According to Facebook, the reference to "binders full of women" resulted in a 213,900 percent surge in mentions at one point during the evening. One Facebook page focused around the topic already has 230,000 "likes." "Binders full of women" was the No. 3 search term associated with the debate on Google; and according to Yahoo, search interest in the term was up 691 percent following the debate. It was also the remark that celebrities were tweeting about most the morning after the debate.
(Oh well - if they were Tweeting about it, it must be important.)
(Statistical info from The Hill).

Disclaimer: I am neither a Romney supporter nor an Obama supporter. See sidebar.

Debate or Not Debate?

I doubt we'll watch the TV "debate" tonight. My view is that the election's "all over bar the shouting" (in favour of the incumbent). Husband tends to froth at the mouth when listening to a Republican for more than 30 seconds. It's sweet really - he actually thinks the Democrat who is now President is any better! We've still got part of West Wing season 4 to get into - may as well watch admitted fiction in place of fiction heavily disguised as real life.

If I'm correct about the outcome of 6 November 2012, then what really is disturbing to consider is what'll happen in 2016, when the political pendulum swings way back rightward. In many ways I'd have preferred to get a Republican prez in now, with a rather stronger Democratic congress. In 2016 the pendulum would surely swing back to a left-winger, and perhaps by then momentum would have built for a real left-wing party to enter the proceedings.

I do not understand why the alternative parties to the plutocratic duopoly do not band together under a new label. The Greens, The Justice Party, Dem Socialists and other scattered seminal organisations could, working together garner sufficient backing to make a showing on almost every state ballot - even in Oklahoma. That might still happen, of course, if in a second term the Prez does not change tack.

Hope springs.

Romney/Ryan....Duckin' & Divin' or just Divin' in November?

I'm still fairly wet behind the ears on the subject of US politics, but from what I've gleaned over the past 8 years it seems to me that Vice Presidents can act as either a strong cattle prod to the Prez, urging him in a direction he'd naturally have veered away from (see Cheney/Bush) or a minor figure-head who doesn't get involved in much more than substitute figure-heading (see Biden/Obama) but ...more importantly whichever category they fall into, they are always first person in the presidential line of succession, and would take over the Presidency on the death, resignation, or removal of the President. VPs also hold the casting vote to break a tie in the Senate.

Mitt Romney's pick of Paul Ryan has set the chatterers chattering ten to the dozen today.

I wouldn't have voted for Romney anyway (or for Obama), but find it interesting to note that Ryan, born 29 January 1970 (natal chart at Astrodatabank here), might, in time remind us of Dick Cheney, born 30 January 1941 (chart here). Ryan's a right-wing Aquarius-type. Cheney, another right-wing Aquarius-type, from what I know of him fitted the "cattle-prod" category of VP . I believe that Ryan is a naturally stronger character than Romney, he's likely to be a prodder for his Tea Party-ish policies. Caveat emptor! The two men probably get on quite well due to their shared Aquarius bits: Ryan's Aquarius Sun/Venus are conjunct Romney's Aquarius Venus.

However, I doubt that Romney's VP pick will assist him in beating President Obama in November. My gut-feelings are that the oligarghs, who are really directing this theatre, are happy enough with the performance of the current incumbent, who has done their bidding with hardly any heckling from his supporters. As some commenters are already proposing, Romney picking Ryan as his VP is akin to a boxer "taking a dive" - that's as good a metaphor as I've seen. Boxers don't usually take a dive because they think it's a good idea, they are usually told to do it by their handlers.

Mitt Romney - What's Not to Like ?

Writers, TV pundits, bloggers and commenters around the net are trying to drum up interest, excitement, angst or disgust at the fact that Mitt Romney seems certain to be the Republican presidential candidate in November's General Election. Labels attached to Romney by most liberal-types so far have been: boring, stiff, a flip-flopper, a liar (goes with the territory and is not exclusive to Republicans), doesn't understand women, out of touch with the 99%, along with an assortment of other unfortunate real and imaginary traits. Republican-types, though possibly secretly seeing Romney as uninspiring, try to focus on his competency in business, which, they say is key to helping bail out the sinking ship we all inhabit at present.

Personally, I'm relieved that Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee, bearing in mind the alternatives who've alternately entertained or scared the pants off us over recent months.

Looking at Romney's natal chart, and trusting my own astro-antenna, I cannot bring myself dislike the guy or see him as likely to be any worse a choice than for President Obama to win a second term. Yeah, yeah (to my husband) Supreme Court picks - I know! Dang! But it'll make not a shred of difference who you and I vote for in November, because Oklahoma, as a state, will vote strongly for any Republican candidate on two legs - it's the default position of everyone and his 4-legged dog in this nutty state.

A benefit of having Mitt Romney win in November would be that in 2016 the political pendulum would swing back, a Democrat would be a near certainty to win then, and by 2016 there's a chance that somebody with real left-wing tendencies, someone who would dare to break rank and remain unharnessed, not obligated to corporate masters, might come forward, in stark contrast to the center-right tendencies of our current so-called "Democratic" corporate-owned president. Or, even....a strongly backed by the public new third party could have arisen, perhaps a much-needed amalgamation of all the would-be third parties we have in the shadows at present. Whereas, if we were to see a second Obama term now, the Republicans would be lining up again in 2016, to catch the then almost inevitable political pendulum swing. At that point there may not be anyone as mild as Romney in the mix.

For any passing reader seeking a good astrological profile of Mitt Romney see Solaris Astrology's Mitt Romney Swimming with the Tide.

SUPER TUESDAY ~ Romney, Santorum, Kucinich, Oklahoma

Soo...it's Super Tuesday today in the USA.

For a gal who spent most of her life using the comparatively simple electoral system of the UK, what goes on in electoral USA is a constant source of confusion. For any passing reader who's not familiar with the complex US system, Super Tuesday is the day when a large number of states hold their primary elections. Our state, Oklahoma along with 9 others will vote today.

Voters nominate their chosen presidential/or other candidate. Results for the presidential nominee will determine the number of delegates who will attend the party's national convention at which a presidential candidate is officially nominated.

This delegate thing confuses me no end. As I understand it, a delegate attends the relevant party's national convention as the personification of a block of many thousands of voters who voted for a particular candidate. The delegates at the conventions vote for the parties' official nominees, so the more delegates, the better chance of winning. There's a variety of ways of counting and allocating delegates, but I'm not going into that.....even less the electoral college! I truly am still confused by the seemingly unnecessary complexity of it all!

This time around it's basically a Republican primary because the incumbent President is not being nationally challenged by any Democrat....though oddly there will four other names on Oklahoma voting papers under the Democrat presidential heading: obscure "wannabes",I guess! If one of these happens to stand marginally to the left of Obama (not a difficult stance), disaffected Democrat voters might favour that candidate in order just to make a statement.

None of this need worry yours truly though. I'm democratic socialist, registered Independent, and now so very glad I opted to be so, rather than registering as a Democrat. That party has lost any vestige of support I might have otherwise dredged up. Unless there's an Independent candidate on the sheet (there isn't), I'm not allowed to vote.

My husband, being a registered Democrat was treated to one of those dreadful robo-calls yesterday morning, from one of the 4 Democrats appearing on the ballot sheet, one Randall Terry, noted as being a "pro-lifer". Husband said the call began with "You know, of course that Obama is directly responsible for killing babies". My husband put the phone down.

If we're being deadly accurate, yes Obama is directly responsible for killing babies - brown-skinned babies - in several Middle East locations. I'm pretty darn certain that Randall Terry was not, and would not ever refer to those babies! The babies he's concerned about are not babies at all, and they are the sole concern of the woman who bears them in her womb - certainly none of his business. Grrrrr!

10 states will vote today: Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virgina. A total of 437 delegates are at stake. Alaska (27), Georgia (76), Idaho (32), Massachusetts (41), North Dakota (28), Ohio (66), Oklahoma (43), Tennessee (58), Vermont (17), and Virginia (49).

Here's the astrological chart for today, 12 noon in Washington DC.



Compare today's planetary positions in the above chart to those in natal charts of Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum (data borrowed from Astrodatabank). Romney and Santorum are said to be the main contenders; so far Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul have trailed in other recent primary results.

For Romney I don't see much indication either way, win/lose. He has Sun/Mercury/Mars in Pisces natally and Sun's in Pisces today. He ought to be in harmony with the day's flavour I guess - can't be bad!

Santorum has transiting Saturn (restriction) conjoining his natal Jupiter (expansion, luck) and opposing his natal Mercury (communication)- not good in these circumstances!


Romney:




Santorum:









There are congressional seats up for grabs too, and primary voting for these will proceed today in relevant states. One of these in particular interests me. Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich's district in Cleveland, Ohio has been subject to re-districting (aka gerrymandering) by the Republican state legislature. Consequence is that Kucinich must fight another incumbent Democrat, Marcy Kaptur, for the seat.

Kucinich has been an anti-war voice and a supporter of what we have come to term "the 99%" for many years, and is probably a thorn in President Obama's side. The Prez took Kucinich on a flight in Airforce One last year, during which Kucinich's mind was miraculously changed about voting against the healthcare reform bill which did not include a "public option". Afterwards Kucinich said

"This wasn't about the kind of deal-making that is essentially self-defeating. That's not what my support is all about here. I come at it from a different level, taking a more historic, long-term view, [with the aim to] empower our president and the Congress to start to move the country forward, notwithstanding the differences we have."

I then lost confidence in Dennis Kucinich, who had up until then been one of only two in congress for whom I could summon enthusiasm. I'd hate to see Kucinich lose his seat though. He remains one of two people in the whole of congress to whose ideals I can relate....I just wish he'd stick to his guns!

His chart:


Transiting Saturn in very late Libra is close to Kucinich's natal Mercury and Jupiter in the first degrees of Scorpio. Not helpful, I'm not optimistic about his chances today, but hope I'm wrong. If he loses to Ms Kaptur today, perhaps he'll seek to run for a vacant seat in some other state....but I wonder how much support he'd get from the DNC, he hasn't had much in the past.


UPDATE ~ It was "in the stars" - Dennis Kucinich lost his seat in the House of Representatives. As long as his voice continues to be heard, all is not lost.