Showing posts with label North Korea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label North Korea. Show all posts

Saturday, June 16, 2018

Mini-rant, Politically Motivated.

I seldom, these days, blog about anything relating to U.S. politics, or manage to find an article which echoes, nearly, my own feelings about everybody's favourite Demon of the Day, Month, Year, Decade: President Donald Trump.

I've become so disgusted with online pundits, reports of late night hosts' constant jokes and derisions, and the same old same old stuff, day after day, about Trump, and his wife (who can do nothing right, while Saint Michelle Obama could do no wrong!)

Yes, we know, and have known since 2016, that Donald Trump should never be anywhere within a thousand miles of the US presidency. Enough US citizens did put him there, he didn't get there by magic! I do wish some people would start dealing with this eventuality in a more adult way! I sometimes feel, reading, or hearing things political, as though I'm in a flippin' high school classroom!

President Trump's latest adventure, in Singapore, has brought down, as expected, more sneers. While there's no guarantee anything positive will eventually come of it - who could deny that it was a step in the right general direction - albeit a baby step? It's still more than Saint Obama managed in his two terms - he was too busy sending out drones!

Anyway, back to my first remark: here is a piece I can agree with. Maybe I'm turning Libertarian in my old age? That was the way I voted in 2016, anyway - to avoid voting for either Clinton or Trump. T'was our only alternative in Oklahoma. I've never been a Democrat anyway, always Independent, from first registering to vote, in 2008. The Democrats have been sliding further and further downward in my estimation since then - not least due to their dastardly efforts to stop Bernie Sanders from gaining the Democratic nomination over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

North Korea: Pelosi Versus Peace
by Thomas Knapp


It begins:
Which is worse: The specter of nuclear war, or giving US president Donald Trump credit for a significant diplomatic accomplishment?

In her official statement on Trump’s Singapore summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, US House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi makes it clear that a few million incinerated human beings are a small price to pay to keep the 68-year-old Korean War going. Maybe not forever, but at least until there’s a Democrat in the White House.
And ends:
A genuine and durable peace on the Korean peninsula may or may not be achievable, but Trump seems to be giving it the old college try. Pelosi and her party, having proven unable to lead and unwilling to follow on the matter, should at least have the decency to get the hell out of the way.

Bravo Mr Knapp!

Afterthought:
Link to a post I wrote about the North Korean situation in 2013:
North Korea - The Unknowns

Postscript - After drafting the above I came across a couple more pieces whose authors are thinking along similar lines to Thomas Knapp - and your friendly ranting Blogger:
By John Laurits: Brand Marketing a Political Party: Inside the Democrats’ Fake Opposition.

And, The Democrats Out-Right the Right on North Korean Summit by Ajamu Baraka.

Thursday, August 10, 2017

North Korea; Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State, & Astrology.

Angry words have been flying hither and thither on the North Korea issue. Should we worry? This from the BBC website yesterday is only vaguely reassuring, bearing in mind that a solar eclipse, mentioned in Tuesday's post, will occur on 21 August, and will, unusually, be visible across the USA, and has links to President Trump's natal chart.

North Korea-US tensions: How worried should you be?

For further reading (if any passing reader has the stomach for it) I'd recommend the posts dated 8th and 9th August, (Is the Korean war scare real? and Reviewing the Unthinkable) at a blog called Sic Semper Tyrannis, written by a retired military colonel:
Colonel W. Patrick Lang is a retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces (The Green Berets). He served in the Department of Defense both as a serving officer and then as a member of the Defense Senior Executive Service for many years.

I'm re-posting, here, my February blog about Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. He was briefly in the news this week, commenting on the North Korea situation. I decided to do a re-post after using Google search to find out if and where my February post had landed, after being mangled and spat out by that mysterious Google algorithm. I searched "Rex Tillerson, astrology". It didn't show up at all on first try, in the 14 or so pages, but when I clicked on the link available the end of the last page, it led to a fuller list including posts omitted as being "similar" to those listed; my old post then came up on page 2. Perhaps because my post received too few hits and no comments it didn't warrant initial inclusion - but how the heck are readers ever going to find the post if it's not there?

Anyway, this seems like a reasonable time to re-post it - here it is again:



A look at the natal chart of the USA's new Secretary of State: Rex Tillerson, noting a few pointers from online sources as to the kind of guy he is, as perceived by those who know him.

Two key factors routinely mentioned by commentators are Tillerson's long career in ExxonMobil - at retirement at the end of last year he was the company's CEO; and that, via his Exxon career, he has crafted close ties with Russia's President Putin. Neither factor is seen as being beneficial by many Democrats. He does consider that climate change is real - that's an improvement on the ideas of some of his colleagues in President Trump's cabinet. However, he qualifies his belief: “The increase in greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is having an effect. Our ability to predict that effect is very limited,” he answered to a question posed in his confirmation hearing.

What little I've gleaned about Secretary Tillerson's personality from a handful of articles online tells of a man who quietly projects power, discipline and control (NPR). Those who know Tillerson consistently describe a disciplined and effective communicator with an engineer’s logical approach to solving problems and the ethical compass of a Boy Scout. “What you see is what you get,” said John Stuart, a longtime Dallas banking executive who has known Tillerson for a decade. “He’s a straightforward, honest, honorable person.”

Tillerson is an Eagle Scout himself, and a longtime booster and national leader of the Boy Scouts organisation. He helped to engineer a recent change allowing gays to join the Boy Scouts.

From Dallas News:
SNIPS
More than 40 years after Rynd and Tillerson met, the memories that stand out for Rynd surrounding his former housemate revolve around one central concept: work. The Tejas Club was an old house that needed many repairs, and Tillerson would organize the projects, then complete them.

“He wasn’t just a delegator. This sounds corny, but he led by example. There was no project that was beneath him or too hard for him,” Rynd said. “He was busy -- if not busier than the rest of us. ... If it needed to be done, Rex signed up and got it done.”

Tillerson graduated in 1975 and weighed a higher-paying offer at a steel company. But in Exxon, he found a company whose highly regimented approach mirrored his own.

“It’s very demanding and competitive,” said Coll, the author. “It’s a very rule-driven institution. But it also requires something on the dealmaking side, a little bit of a sense of subtlety and resilience because most of these places where they work, these things don’t come easily.”

Tillerson worked for Exxon’s upstream division -- the rough-and-tumble business of exploring and developing new resources. His early days found him in East Texas, a time he later described as “sheer joy” in solving complex problems out on the oilfield.

He steadily rose through the ranks and by the 1990s, he landed career-defining assignments in places like Yemen and post-collapse Russia.

Well....in theory that all sounds like good news! Does his natal chart reflect the above?

Born on 23 March 1952 in Wichita Falls, Texas. No time of birth known, chart is set for 12 noon.



Without knowing his time of birth only a sketchy outline is possible, Moon's exact position and rising sign cannot be established. First thing I noticed - no planets in Earth signs, I found that surprising. The unknown rising sign might provide an Earthy footing.

His lifetime career closely connected to oil is nicely represented by Saturn and Neptune close together, close enough to be termed conjunct, in Libra. Saturn links to career, Neptune links (among other things) to oil.

His natal Sun, Mercury and Jupiter are all in Aries, sign known as the initiator, with the Saturn/Neptune conjunction opposite, providing a balancing, steadying factor to any native Aries impulsiveness. Mercury conjunct Jupiter in Aries reflects the important part international travel (Jupiter) has always played in his career, and will continue to do so as Secretary of State.

I see that, in his natal chart, there are two challenging square aspects to Uranus, planet of the unexpected and eccentricity - in Secretary Tillerson's case this is no bad thing. We have quite enough eccentricity and unexpectedness emanating from President Trump - we need no more, and especially not from the Secretary of State! It's interesting, though, to note that transiting Uranus, at 21 Aries, is currently conjunct Tillerson's natal Mercury/Jupiter. Change is, indeed, visiting his life, both planet-wise and in reality!

At 12 noon on Secretary Tillerson's date of birth Moon was at 5 Pisces; for natal Moon to have been in Aquarius his time of birth would need to have been in the very early hours - not a lot later than 1 AM; it seems most likely that natal Moon was in early Pisces, reflecting a more gentle and imaginative inner-self than his dynamic Aries core-self.

Due to comments on his personality quoted above, I'd bet on a solid Earthy rising sign (Capricorn, Virgo or Taurus), alternatively Saturn in Libra sitting on the ascendant with Neptune close by.

Friday, April 05, 2013

North Korea - The Unknowns

Can I think of anything even edging on intelligent to say about current news on the North Korean situation? I doubt it. During the week I've brushed up on Korean history, reminded myself just how situations such as the present one have been spawned, but that still doesn't give much insight into the way the mind of North Korea's new young ruler Kim Jong-un works. Or, in fact, whether the way his mind works has much bearing on the situation. Would it be more useful to understand how his military leaders' minds work, to know how the new leader ranks in their estimation, and how much he allows their views to influence him? (Photo credit: Telegraph, UK.)

Even writers and commenters who have access to far more information than the average concerned reader don't seem overly confident about which way to slant their opinions, often aiming to cover all possible eventualities.

Backing up the weary "just another threat " point of view there's a slideshow of old headlines tracing North Korea's habit of issuing threats over the years:
The Complete History Of False Threats From North Korea.

Simon Jenkins in yesterday's Guardian wrote Where's the real threat here – Kim Jong-un or Trident?....."What we should be scared of is not the North Korean's bellicosity but how it's being used to subvert domestic politics in the west".

Hmmm.

To my mind independent blog Cannonfire's 4 April post looks at the situation with as clear an eye as anyone: Could North Korea's madness lead to a U.S.-China nuclear war?

Coming at it from another angle - would astrology, or psychic insight have anything helpful to offer to those who believe that "there are more things in heaven and earth (Horatio) than are dreamt of in your philosophy" ?

Let's see.

There's a good interpretation of Kim Jon-un's natal chart at Solaris Astrology. And more - on his Saturn Return and the situation in general at Neptune Cafe HERE. Psychic insights on the issue at Astrochicks HERE....

Me? I lean towards the "just another threat" view, but this time it comes with a definite extra edge, due to an unknown quantity: North Korea's new young leader, so far untested.

I wish someone else had said this, as I don't relish quoting former Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld's words at the time of the WMD (weapons of mass destruction) in Iraq debacle, but we're there again, Dude - sort of:
"There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."