Best Laid Plans

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By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up. In Switzerland, a weasel chewed through a power cord at the Large Hadron Collider, forcing technicians to suspend operation of the 17-mile-long particle accelerator until mid-May. Having been counted down and out by MSM, Bernie Sanders beat Clinton soundly in Indiana, and his numbers are good in Oregon, West Virginia, and into future primaries. Meanwhile, sure her super-delegates are in the bag, Hillary has already turned her eyes toward the national debate.

271+Judith_GayleTed Cruz bonked his wife in the face with his elbow not once but twice while putting an unexpected end to his 2016 presidential run. His concession prompted Full Frontal’s Samantha Bee to tweet, “Shouldn’t #TedCruz have been forced to carry his unviable campaign to term?” Donald Trump — millionaire bully and blowhard, called a pathological liar by Sanders and a loose cannon by Clinton — has become the presumptive Republican candidate.

But things aren’t always the way they look, especially in these days of purge and pandemonium. Reports that a weasel stopped us from discovering the secrets of the universe were inaccurate, as the critter at fault was in the same family, but was most likely a beech martin, something of a weasel look-alike. No one can be sure, since munching on a 66,000-volt power cable leaves little behind to identify. If the smallest mammals were given epitaphs, this one would be a doozy. Stopping a 9 billion dollar project in its tracks is a pretty impressive trick.

Sometimes it’s the little things, you know? As Scottish poet Bobby Burns put it in his ode to another wee creature, the mouse whose winter burrow he’d inadvertently plowed up, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.” That last is translated “often go askew,” and I’ll add a big Amen to that.

There’s so much wrong with a Trump presidency that I could fill volumes, but one of the most dangerous problems seems to be his friendship with David Pecker, Chairman and Chief Executive of The National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media. This has evidently convinced Trump that every improbable thing he reads there is fodder for American foreign policy. And it doesn’t stop there.

With our Donald hopelessly addicted to conspiracy theories, it’s clear that Enquirer stories are the equivalent of candy to a sugar junky. While that’s unseemly in a wanna-be president, it’s completely appropriate to someone who monitors television 24/7 in order to know what’s up in the world. Easy to see how the notion that Obama is a Kenyan, a Muslim, a Commie or whatever yellow journalism might be found in the publication’s archives might inevitably show up in the contents of today’s tweets, and — stand by, citizens — tomorrow’s, regarding Hillary.

The rag’s egregious gossip-mongering led Donald to accuse religious extremist and family patriarch, Rafael Cruz, of helping Lee Harvey Oswald do in JFK. Really, Donald? It’s one thing to be corrupt, brutish and belligerent but quite another to be, at best, cynically opportunistic or, at worst, naive to the point of ignorance.

Comedian Bill Santiago called Donald “Archie Bunker with the nuclear code.” Will Pitt, over at TruthOut, said “Trump is genuinely dangerous, but he is at the end of the day a carnival barker with a flat head. He is a certain menace ….” These opinions (heard in stereo everywhere we turn) make us more comfortable with our own feelings of disbelief when it comes to Trump and his minions, hopefully un-electable if not easily forgotten. I particularly appreciate the legislators who have taken him on, people like Elizabeth Warren and Alan Grayson. Obama, too.

Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid didn’t mince words about Trump: “He’s the embodiment of everything Americans hate about a system that’s rigged for the top 1 percent, he’s the definition of a man who was born on third and thinks he hit a triple. What’s worse, he uses his wealth to rip people off and is now sowing hatred and division every place he steps.”

Harry hit the nail. Donald Trump is running, full speed ahead, for CEO of America, Inc. It’s a ‘for profit’ enterprise. Trump is interested in growing the nation by furthering the art of the deal in backroom arm-twists and aggressive negotiation. He joins a good many people who see the job in exactly those terms: not the captain steering the ship of state but the boss, pulling the strings, risking the whole ball of wax and playing a blood sport, winner take all.

To anyone who has been watching these last years, it should be clear that occupying the bully pulpit makes a big difference in the tone of national progress, but not so much with specifics, as the Donald seems to think. The authority of the President is limited to considerable power in foreign policy, with a nod to Congressional approval, and much less power domestically. Eight years of Republican obstruction have given us a very clear picture of a president hamstrung by non-cooperation.

Doesn’t Donald see it? Most of what he would like to do can’t be done, at least not here and not now, but neither he nor his faithful have noticed. In fact, they don’t seem to care, they just like the ‘plan’ and the aggressive talk. What the Trumpeters don’t understand is that a Chief Executive Officer has a very different way of looking at the world than an American president who must be part statesman, part strategist, and wholly public servant, charged with putting the good of the country and its citizens ahead of any other goal.

For instance, the New York Times reports that Trump proposed “negotiating with creditors” while discussing the national debt this week. Basically, he’s suggesting not paying in full and repurchasing debt for less than face value, which is a common business practice. Clearly, it won’t wash. The U.S. government enjoys very low interest rates BECAUSE it can be depended upon to repay its debt, and the slightest hint of instability costs the nation dearly. A temporary delay of $120 million in interest payments in 1979 caused interest rates to climb, resulting in an increase to taxpayers of around $12 billion.

This “profit before people” issue has the blessing of the Republican ethos, if not its current talking points or its policy. Yet, even though the Robert’s Court has made corporations equal to people, and money the same as speech, there is still a job definition for POTUS that the Donald simply can’t inhabit with any comfort. There are way too many middle-men and women in the way of his authority, too many fingers stirring the pot, too many not on his personal payroll, too many wagging the dog to make someone like Trump —  who learned much of his politics at the knee of infamous mob lawyer, Roy Cohen — happy as the autonomous King of the Hill.

No, he hasn’t got all the delegates, although he’s got the Klan and the disenchanted right. He hasn’t got the establishment GOP, although he’s got billionaire Sheldon Adelson and ex-VP Dick Cheney. It’s the hostile take-over of a lifetime for the Donald, a power-play and reality show too heady not to shoot for, despite his disdain of a shabby little home like the White House and a salary he considers peanuts.

While he won’t have a hefty CEO retirement to count on — 100 CEO’s reportedly have as much in their company retirement assets as the entire retirement savings of some 50 million American families — he’ll have REAL brand-ability if it all works out, right? Right!

Why the Pubs don’t jump on this train, given their track record at supporting corporate concerns, nation-wide, with public money, is something of a mystery. Their willing participation in screwing over the citizenry was denounced by Matt Taibbi as ” … a scam of almost unmatchable balls and cruelty, accomplished with the aid of some singularly spineless politicians.”

Sounds Trump-like, don’t you think? Birds of a feather, yes? But Trump’s too much a maverick to please them, a man without a leash, a CEO and not a politico. Still, it’s hardly over at this point — not for Bernie or Hillary OR Donald. And strange things are afoot.

Consider: Mary Matalin, ex-assistant to Dick Cheney and the Bush tribe, infamously married to Dem strategist, James Carville, has registered as a Libertarian. She’s pissed at establishment leadership and thinks she’s “provisionally” for Donald, especially if he’d quit insulting women.

Think of it! Mary Matalin has LEFT the GOP behind, and that must mean that Hell has frozen over. Clearly, it’s a season of surprises and unintended consequences — and you just never know when you’ll find a weasel in the works.

9 thoughts on “Best Laid Plans”

  1. Barbara Koehler

    There’s so much in the world I’d miss if it weren’t for you Jude. The weasel story is golden. A weasel (or whatever) brings down a 9 billion dollar project and a buffoon brings a nation to its knees. Who would have dreamed either could happen. Technology can give us greater access to intelligence but it can’t make us smarter all by itself. That requires input from both ends (tech and human).

    Fortunately, both the weasel and the buffoon serve a greater purpose; to make us aware of vulnerabilities in the greater systems. I always turn to charts for answers and in the U.S. solar return chart for the period between July 2015 and through to July 3, 2016, there is a powerful pattern called a Kite which consists of a grand trine and a 4th planet opposite one of the 3 members of the grand trine.

    The members of the U.S. solar return grand trine are Uranus in Aries, Pholus in Sagittarius and Jupiter+ Venus in Leo. Opposite Pholus is Mercury in Gemini in the same degree where Uranus (shock, breakthrough) was discovered, 24+ Gemini. Grand trines are channels for enormous amounts of energy to flow unrestricted and within the element of fire (Leo, Sagittarius, Aries) that energy is inspiration. The flow is given a focal point when there is a Kite pattern, and it is the planet opposite the 4th planet (Mercury) in this case Pholus at 23+ Sagittarius. Small cause, big effect.

    When the U.S. birthday rolls around in July we will get a new set of marching orders, ie. a new Solar Return map. In it there will be no Kite formation with emphasis on the U.S. Sibly chart’s Galactic Center (GC) which the present one has. The GC in 1776 was at 23+ Sagittarius, 2 or 3 degrees from Trump’s natal Moon. It’s the same degree where Pholus is in the present U.S. solar return chart. I like to think of the GC as headquarters for the Universe and from there come our marching orders.

    Since last July the U.S. solar return Pholus has instigated most of the material that the U.S. solar return Mercury (opposite Pholus) has churned out through various media sources. That material carries the Pholus effect which carries the GC effect. And because Trump’s natal Moon is so close to the U.S. solar return Pholus, and Moon symbolizes habits, one whiff of it and its a free-for-all with much mayhem and madness following. However…it’s part of the GC plan.

    But courage Jude, soon (a few weeks before the conventions take place) a new set of aspects is coming via the new U.S. solar return and that includes a new grand trine flow of energy. But this year it’s the Mars in Scorpio trine Chiron in Pisces trine Venus in Cancer water kind. . . with one catch.

    There’s also in the new U.S solar return chart a Yod between Uranus in Aries sextile Vesta in Gemini that has as its release point (apex of Yod) Mars in Scorpio. While not a Kite formation, the new U.S. solar return grand trine does receive a lot of focus on this member, this Mars at 23+ Scorpio. It’s the same degree as Hillary Clinton’s South Node. I think of south nodes as the “been there, done that” point, as well as a “no future here” point but one astrologer wrote that it is the source of gratification. Whatever.

    This new solar return chart for the U.S. that puts emphasis on its Mars at 23+ Scorpio will be dealing with feelings; emotions, needs and instincts rather than fiery inspiration. Mars will also be close to Bernie Sanders ascendant as well as Trump’s IC (roots) but it’s Hillary’s south node that bears the brunt of this new cycle’s thrust. However, Hillary’s south node is opposite her north node at 23+ Taurus, and when we fold this point into the U.S. 2016 solar return Yod it becomes a Boomerang pattern (also 23+ Taurus is close to Bernie’s descendant, i.e. cusp of house of partners, and Trump’s MC, i.e. reputation).

    That Clinton North Node becomes the target of all the energy of the U.S solar return Yod pattern comprised of Uranus at 24+ Aries (conjunct Bernie’s Mars) and Vesta at 21+ Gemini (conjunct Trump’s Sun) and the Mars (that conjuncts Hillary’s south node).

    This new U.S. solar return chart’s Mercury will be at 10+ Cancer trine Neptune in Pisces as well as square Hillary’s Neptune and Bernie’s Vesta and opposite Trump’s Pallas, so there will still be mis-information about and around the above mentioned people.

    So in the meantime we have the U.S. natal GC providing the bizarre news source, the U.S. GC that conjuncts the U.S. solar return Pholus that opposes the U.S. solar return Mercury. Here’s the Sabian Symbol for that U.S. natal GC:
    A BLUEBIRD PERCHED ON THE GATE OF A COTTAGE. Keynote: The reward which meets every effort at integration into a social environment for those who remain true to their own selves.

    Or as Dane Rudhyar writes “. . the development of a consciousness in which peace and happiness dwell.”

    It’s been a bit of overkill, that development of consciousness, but then I’d never have believed just how stupid some of our fellow countrymen are. . or how many of them there were.
    be

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  2. aWord

    Took time (procrastinating on final papers) to watch the Colbert vid lol!, I’m sure Bernie would think the F bomb more often if he weren’t busy thinking more productively. Colbert would do a good ‘un regarding the not-a-weasel, too, I’m sure. Well–is it Saturday again? One week closer to ……not-sure-what. xo

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  3. Geoff Marsh

    Real anger, Jude. Love it. If Sadiq Khan, a Muslim, can become Mayor of London, Bernie Sanders can be POTUS. Keep the faith, baby.

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