Primarily in April..."We Open in" Wisconsin

Our April primary calendar, borrowing from Kiss Me Kate, musical version of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. I've adjusted a song from that show about a travelling band of players/entertainers. What else is our own travelling band of politicians? A video version of the original song follows.

We open in Venice Wisconsin
We next play Verona Wyoming
Then on to Cremona New York
Lotsa laughs in Cremona in New York City,
Our next jump is Parma Delaware
That dopey, mopey menace,
Then Mantua, then Padua Connecticut, then Maryland
Then we open again, where? In Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

So...primaries and travelling players trundle on, all the while pundits, columnists, bloggers and commenters becoming ever more decidedly partisan. That was to be expected, in any election year, but especially in 2016, with two candidates opposing the establishments of their chosen parties. Not only do we have the usual Democrat versus Republican election game being played (prematurely, because we're still in primary mode), we have Hillary versus Bernie, and Trump versus Cruz (and/or Kasich or A. N. Other).

I have only memories of the 2008, 2012 and this election seasons (+ mid-terms), so have not wide experience from which to compare 2016 with long-gone election seasons. The internet has been a great cyber playground available in all US elections of my own experience, with increasing importance as years have passed. This is a good thing, a very good thing, because it unites groups of supporters, aids candidates, highlights untruths - but there's always a dark side.

My own internet reading this time has been confined to websites known for being, at least left-leaning if not exactly progresssive (some might call themselves progressive, but they're truly not and have proved it this time). Feuding between Hillary's and Bernie's supporters, including genuine and planted commenters, has become more unpleasant by the day. This is a side effect of Bernie Sanders' campaign's unexpectedly strong showing. Not much more than a year ago it was expected that Hillary Clinton would be a shoo-in for the Democrats: it was "her turn", "she is a female, the glass ceiling of the US presidency should be broken - it's past time"... etc. When that kind of propadanda began to show cracks, bad feeling began to erupt first from one side, then from the other.

Something I've discovered more clearly this time is which websites and blogs are truly progressive, i.e. they support Bernie Sanders. They are few. The rest are either overtly or covertly supporting Clinton and openly or snidely damping down potential Bernie support from readers. Columnists, and some bloggers, I've respected and enjoyed reading in the past now have been mentally given black marks, never again to be trusted. Yep - I'm as partisan as the next person - in the privacy of my own mind and my own blog.

As commenter "Newton Finn", under a piece at Alternet at the weekend wrote:

[we]have come to the realization that many of these comfortable liberal - primarily concerned with personal or social issues instead of hardcore economic ones - are not comrades in the struggle but rather share the mindset of what Marx called the petite bourgeoisie. Moving forward with a true democratic revolution that fundamentally alters status quo concepts and structures necessarily entails leaving these third-way liberals behind, shaking the dust off our feet, and instead reaching out to the exploited and increasingly desperate working class, so many of whom have lined up behind Trump because the left has often ignored them and looked down on them. There is no better voice to listen to in this regard than that of the late great Joe Bageant.

The 2010 piece at the link is a very, very good read by the way.

I'm conscious of the fact that my support for Bernie has lost me at least two former commenters, two I could ill-afford to lose in this Facebook infested world - yet that's the way it has to be. I couldn't feel right sitting on the fence on such an important issue.

All that remains to be said today: GO BERNIE!

Wisconsin's Fight Worth Fighting & The Venus Transit

I wonder whether Tuesday night's Wisconsin re-call election results are a forerunner of what to expect in November's General Election? Will that Venus Transit of the Sun, which was progressing as the people voted and votes were counted have brought in a very early flavour of the "new" period which will run until the next Venus Transit in 2117? Or was it the last breaths of the "old" cycle? I don't offer that in all seriousness, but am interested that the event did take place in tandem with that rare Transit.

Yesterday morning I read around the net a while to try to understand what had happened in Wisconsin. Last year the people there seemed to be "getting it", rising up against a Governor who would attempt to strip the union rights of public emplyees (among many other things). But when they had a chance to boot him out they booted him in again with a 7% lead. What gives?

At Counterpunch Steve Horn's piece Wisconsin and the Left offers explanation. Some clips:

Sure, there are refrains, such as “this was an auction, not an election,” and that “money won this election.” But people still voted and have agency. And Walker won by a long-shot.

Many important questions arise for those who consider themselves, broadly speaking, on the left: a) Why the grassroots attraction to right-wing populism? b) How’d the left (both liberals and leftists alike) get steam-rolled so badly? c) What’s next for the grassroots activist of a left-leaning orientation now that, bluntly speaking and when looked at through a sober viewpoint, the cause has been so badly bludgeoned since last year’s “Uprising”?

Right-Wing Populism Explained

Many schools of thought exist as to why people of a working class background have flocked toward the Tea Party. There’s Thomas Frank’s “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” argument, which posits that, in essence, working class people are duped by wedge issues, such as abortion and gay marriage, into voting against their economic class interests. This, of course, assumes the Democratic Party is the “party of the people.”

There is also the Chris Hedges’ “Death of the Liberal Class” argument, which says what he conceptualizes as the “liberal class” is dead and has lost its legitimacy among the United States’ citizenry. Another way to refer to the “liberal class” is to call it the “liberal elite.” This argument is far more compelling and complex than the Frank argument.

Hedges posits that long ago, liberal elites abandoned the rank-and-file of the working class, though they have continued to, in a hollow manner, speak on behalf of it. Because an untold number of people feel abandoned by liberal elites, its void has been filled by an organized and outraged right-wing populist front, argues Hedges. Hedges argues that Wall Street Democrats like President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama serve as Exhibit A of the liberal class. I would take that a step further and say so too did Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett.

Then there’s the Noam Chomsky argument, which in most ways mirrors the Hedges argument, but directly addresses the question of the Tea Party. In a speech he gave in Madison, WI in April 2010, he stated, “Ridiculing Tea Party shenanigans is a serious error, I think. It would be far more appropriate to understand what lies behind them and to ask ourselves why justly angry people are being mobilized by the extreme right and not by forces like those that did so in my childhood, in the days of formation of the CIO and other constructive activism.”

What Happened to the Left? Emma Goldman had it right when she stated, “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” Labor and the left in Wisconsin committed suicide when it demobilized a legitimate grassroots movement and turned it into an electoral campaign. It has been a long, slow death.

Establishment Democrats and top labor union leadership coopted a nascent left grassroots movement in Wisconsin last year, and may be seen to have botched the re-call election by selecting the wrong candidate to run against Scott Walker. Tom Barrett wasn't the choice of the labor movement in general. Former Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett had his own problems with public employee unions. After selection there was little support from establishment Democrats, no effort to mobilise voters. President Obama's single tweet on Election Day endorsing Barrett was too little too late. But then President Obama is not big on union rights, they offend his masters.

A good assessment of the situation comes from a regular commenter at Alter-Net: "waytomanybottlesofspicedrum"

"The establishment "left" (unions, the Democratic Party etc.) is not left at all, and they really don't want anyone from the lower ranks to prosper, because they know the days of major economic growth are over and other people prospering would jeopardize their jealously guarded privileges.

Those who've made it have pulled up the ladder and are just mindfucking the hopefuls who think they might someday make it. Yet, people who would support an authentic left are so demoralized they find themselves unable to break away from the parasitic establishment "left."

The establishment left also discourages passion and anger - all that "irrational" stuff - which handicaps the leftist base as any kind of serious political power. I think it was George Bernard Shaw who said that rational people don't change history, irrational people do. Well, look who's winning the political battles of recent decades - those with ideological fury and anger, who don't care if they appear emotional or foolish (the right wing).

Plus, the whole vision of the left is outdated. The days of a fast-growing economy and a prospering middle class with job security are permanently gone. They aren't coming back. The right-wing has a relatively coherent vision of how to do things in the new circumstances: shore up established privileges, oppress and exploit the weak, scapegoat the outsiders. The left, on the other hand, has no vision for society that factors in the reality that the Western World, the original Industrial Core (Europe and North America), is on the decline. The leftist values of egalitarianism and fair treatment and all that stuff will have to be re-conceived to fit the context of modern civilization's decline, otherwise they'll just seem inapplicable and ridiculous.

These are major obstacles, and I'm pessimistic the left will overcome them and reconstitute as a relevant and serious force in politics. I think we're more likely to gradually revert to a decentralized feudal-type order run by strongmen, where ordinary people survive by working for and pledging loyalty to the strongmen, in return for protection."

As another commenter, Michael, implied, the best course now may be to stand back and let it roll - let the oligarchs, the "aristocracy take the people to school again.
When you have yokels talking about how unions were something you needed 'maybe 40 or 50 years ago', well there's someone who needs a child dead from a workplace accident, and no legal recourse thanks to tort reform."

So..... what do we have after the Venus Transit, evidence of the beginning, or of the end of a cycle? We must take into consideration other planetary transits we're currently experiencing: Pluto through Capricorn, Uranus through Aries, both planets of change/transformation transiting signs whose astrological interpretation are of matters in conflict: business and the status quo (Capricorn), and pioneering initiation (Aries). At various times in the near future the planets will form exact sharp square, conflicting, aspects to each other.

The fight will, in one form or another go on then - and on....and on!

A quote from Isidor F. Stone

“The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you’re going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins.”

The new, long, Venus cycle could simply signify a change in attitudes, as people begin, but slowly, to open their eyes to what is, and to what might be, if they fight on - or if they don't.

Wisconsin Governor: Scott Walker

I'm interested to see the natal chart of Scott Walker (not the singer - been there done that: here), but Scott Walker the Republican Governor of Wisconsin. His attempt to strip many state workers of their collective bargaining rights has brought about massive peaceful protest and become national and international news during the past week. He won the office of Governor in last year's general election - on his birthday, November 2, defeating the Democratic candidate 52% to 46%.




Scott Walker was born on 2 November 1967 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.



Chart set for noon - time of birth unavailable.

I wasn't surprised to find a clutch of planets in Scorpio. An overdose of this passionate and determined sign in one's natal chart is going to manifest pretty noticeably, one way or another. Sun/Mercury, Neptune and Moon (whatever his birth time) all in Scorpio. And another clutch of planets in meticulous, critical Virgo: Jupiter & Pluto/Venus/Uranus - the last three conjoined. That little lot together is a heck of a combination, could be close on deadly - uncomfortable at best! Wish I knew where the angles fell in his chart, but without time of birth that remains a mystery.

A bit more detail: Sun/Mercury in Scorpio flanked by two helpful sextile aspects - one to Mars at 7 Capricorn, the other to Jupiter at 2 Virgo - there's nothing there to lighten that Scorpio intensity - in fact these sextiles from Mars (energy, aggression) and Jupiter (excess) could add to it!

A Yod (Finger of Fate) in Walker's chart is interesting. It links the sextile between Jupter and Sun/Mercury to Saturn in Aries via two quincunx (150*) aspects.
Saturn, planet of limitation & laws, being at the apex of the Yod acts as conduit for the combined characteristics of the sextiled planets. Being translated this = Excessively intense passionate opinion manifesting via the rule of law & restriction.

Even more interesting, in view of the Yod, is that Jupiter in its current transit, is astrologically conjoining Walker's natal Saturn, even as I type, bringing even more emphasis to the configuration. Uranus, planet of change and the unexpected, will come within a couple of degrees of Walker's natal Saturn in late spring this year. How this will manifest is anybody's guess.

I shall watch and learn! "Interesting" times ahead!



Anyone who harbours anti-union feelings, and I know that many otherwise reasonable people do, and anyone who considers that Governor Walker is doing the right thing would do well to think on these words:

“Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.” ~ Molly Ivins.


"........It’s crucial to understand what the regressive initiative that our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin are right now fighting is really all about, and how that fits into the context of our era. This is just the latest, and nearly the last, in a succession of efforts in America over the last three decades to move money from the hands of non-elites to those of oligarchs. Make no mistake, that program constitutes essentially the sum total of American politics at its core over the last generation. All else is a sideshow or, more likely and more ominously, an intentional diversion, just as a skilled magician is careful to give your eye something else to focus on as he moves the ball from under the cup........"
From an excellent essay at http://www.regressiveantidote.net/Articles/Waking_Up_In_Wisconsin.html by Prof. David Michael Green