By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
Things are seldom as they seem, especially if we’re skimming the surface of any event to decide its meaning. That’s where astrology comes in. Mars declared war on structure (Saturn) this week, first with a 7.3 aftershock in Nepal — toppling fragile buildings and causing more death — and days later, personifying chaos in the Amtrak wreckage. In the case of Nepal, a first quake in late April — taking more than 8,000 lives, causing major damage to infrastructure, and reducing ancient historical sites to rubble — didn’t rupture all the way to the surface, which created potential for additional quakes to relieve growing pressure. We know this because satellites are now able to assess movement and project patterns, targeting vulnerable areas.
Due to hundreds of expected aftershocks, citizens have been terrified of remaining inside structurally compromised buildings, and thousands have stayed out on the streets. Because of the difficult mountainous terrain, relief efforts have been hit and miss for many, as helicopters fly into isolated areas to deliver supplies. A Marine Corps ‘copter carrying six Marines and two Nepalese soldiers was reported missing in the first wave of rescue effort and found crashed in a densely wooded area on Friday. In yet more tragedy, there were no survivors.
Death seems to have gained the upper hand in Nepal — along with areas in Tibet in April, and in India this week — and yet, defying all reason, a 101-year-old man was rescued, having survived being buried in the rubble for an entire week. So did a four-month old baby boy, dug out of his family’s collapsed home after almost two full days. No matter how dire the situation, life always finds a way, and you can take that to the bank.
Speaking of banks, NGO’s (charities) are begging for continued humanitarian aid, with Nepal’s Prime Minister urging additional “courage and patience” from international contributors. It has become a truism that with so many emergencies at hand, underfunded rescue efforts across the globe remain a constant worry. Remember the Christmas Tsunami of 2004? Hurricane Katrina in 2005? These initial shocking events came one after the next, prompting this nation to open their hearts, and their piggy banks, to help out.
We were still pretty innocent of what was coming, at that point. That was the Good Old Days before everyone caught on to the steady erosion of consumer protections bought by ALEC and cohorts, long before we realized the result of disastrous deregulation in the financial district, and just prior to the fiscal calamity that decades of voodoo economics trickled into. That was also before ‘disaster fatigue’ took over. Sadly, the requests for help come so often these days, we have to flip a coin to decide who is most needy. Still, the act of gifting is a metaphysical signal to the universe that you have enough to spare, which opens the energy of increase. We get by, so they say, with a little help from our friends, even if we never met them before. If you wish to contribute to Nepal’s on-going rescue effort, to help them dig out, here’s information about responsible donation in the area.
Regarding the Amtrak disaster outside of Philadelphia, Eric did his usual masterful job of decoding the astrology (and pointing out everyone’s favorite trickster, Mercury) in the subscription piece this week, and it appears that much of this situation can be traced to human error. Other factors contributed, however — some very political — and it’s worth taking a look at those because once again, structure, structure, infrastructure, oh my!
Since its inception in the 1970s as a federally-funded, for-profit corporation, Amtrak has been subject to the whims of infighting politicians, those on the left vying with the rail industry for money to fund their pet projects, those on the right slashing funds for any enterprise they consider ‘big government’. Not for the first time, experts are pointing out danger from a crumbling transportation infrastructure and spotty funding. Despite little or no effort to modernize the national rail system, ridership steadily increases, year by year. Like our for-profit postal service, Amtrak is the unfortunate step-child fed on scraps by a conservative party that wants none of it.
In 2008, following a major wreck attributed to human error, Congress mandated a rail safety system known as Positive Train Control (PTC), which, when put in place, would automatically monitor train speeds, critical distances between trains, and possible collisions. This week, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a statement saying that if PTC had been installed on that section of track in Philadelphia, the accident could not have occurred. Turns out PTC had recently been added to the section, but not fully tested or activated, one of those so-close-and-yet-so-far things that haunt survivors.
Although Amtrak 188 hit the corner that spelled disaster going twice the speed limit, analysis shows that the train speed increased in just the last few moments before the derailment at Frankford Junction, coming distressingly close to an oil tanker train, the kind that carries crude oil, known as ‘bomb trains.’ Things could have been so much worse!
First responders to these ever-increasing oil tanker emergencies, by the way, are the nation’s firefighters, and despite new federal safety measures, some 65 percent of firefighter groups say they have no specialized training in responding to this kind of hazardous material, especially highly toxic shale from the Bakken fields. They have asked for additional training, more information concerning the nature of the shipment, and of course, adequate funding to provide both. They needn’t hold their breath.
Indeed, Amtrak would commiserate in kind. On the day of the derailment, and within hours of the incident, Pubs on the House Appropriations Committee voted along party lines to cut Amtrak funding to less than half of what Obama had requested, from $1.14 billion to $251 million dollars.
Democrats on the panel attempted to raise the ante, but they were admonished by Idaho Pub, Mike Simpson, not to “… use this tragedy in that way. It was beneath you.” Yes, he said it, on record, for those with ears to hear. And the next day, Paul Ryan, House Ways & Means Chairman, assured FOX News viewers that Amtrak had been properly funded to implement the safety system mandate. Only it wasn’t.
The mandate required that PTC be fully functional in all passenger and freight trains by the end of 2015, but as with all things seemingly related to the good of the public, these things grind slowly. Funding has been inadequate to finish the job, resulting in delays that turned deadly in the very same section of Pennsylvania track that took the lives of 79 people in 1943. Ryan could hardly have missed that fact, since his old buddy (and my Boss Hog Senator) Roy Blunt put forth a bill only weeks ago requiring an extension of the PTC deadline to 2020.
But Gawd forbid we get off the Austerity Express anytime soon! Ryan warned again that there will be a tendency to ‘politicize’ rail-funding using this tragedy in a bleeding-heart lefty effort to spend more. Things like funding actual needs never seem to penetrate to Mr. Ryan’s heart-chakra, and his attitude seems to get worse with every article written about him. According to Think Progress, “Asked whether he thought rebuilding America’s infrastructure should be a priority, Ryan noted that the Highway Trust Fund goes bankrupt later this month but that he would not back tax increases for infrastructure improvement as “’we can do better by saving more money [and] being more efficient.’”
The Highway Trust Fund? Holy crap! Get out yer roller skates, kids — we may have to maneuver around all those pot holes with some fancy footwork! Now, to some of us — me, for instance — the Appropriations Committee voting against adequate money to fund Amtrak on the very afternoon of its worst derailment in more than 70 years seems just one more wink and nod at the plutocracy that doesn’t care if the nation has become an accident waiting to happen, that the trains run on time or even — so it seems — if they run at all. Insult to injury, John Boehner lost patience with a reporter who asked about the Dems’ accusation that funding cuts contributed to this incident by calling the question “stupid.”
“They started this yesterday: ‘It’s all about funding, it’s all about funding.’ Well, obviously it’s not about funding, the train was going twice the speed limit. Adequate funds were there, no money has been cut from rail safety and the House passed a bill earlier this spring to reauthorize Amtrak. It’s hard for me to imagine that people take the bait on some of the nonsense that gets spewed around here.”
Chuck Schumer, on point to replace Dem leader Harry Reid next year, called this response a denial of reality, to my mind typical of all we’ve come to expect of both John Boehner and the Republican Party. Dems may or may not want to upset their corporate overlords by tilting progressive, but they don’t insult my intelligence by pretending things aren’t so!
Even Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who doesn’t appear to have all that many brain cells to rub together, pleaded with his party to stop behaving stupidly. And Rick Perry — who makes Dubya look brainy — has suggested that his state stop acting like paranoid children over the Pentagon’s war games in Texas, that they quit “being insane.” RICK PERRY managed to say something from the reality-sphere, bless his bony head! Yet John Boehner can’t imagine that people look at a sub-standard transportation system, improperly funded by self-absorbed politicians who seem totally committed to sending every dime in our coffers up the chain to the one percent who own them, and get upset? Which question is stupid, again?
This topic of infrastructure has been niggling at me for quite awhile, and came bubbling up like a bad case of agita when I read that the new 6.4 billion dollar eastern tower of the San Francisco Bay Bridge has indications of failed “anchor rod failure,” which is just about as serious as it sounds. And this is not new business. In 2013, 32 similar rods failed and were repaired at a cost of $45 million. This is shocking, not to menton chronic, ineptitude!
I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve traveled over that bridge in my lifetime, but not once — never — did I think it unsafe or unsound. Even during the Loma Prieta earthquake (6.9) in 1989, only one fifty-foot section of the bridge was damaged. It’s hard to think of it as anything other than rock solid, but apparently it’s not, and WTF! Even if we managed to muster the time, money and interest in doing critical repairs, why is it that — much like the still-flawed levees in New Orleans — we can’t seem to kick the corporate bottom-line out of the way to do right by the public trust?
But that doesn’t mean we CAN’T turn out extraordinary work, forward-thinking projects and top-of-the-heap infrastructure repair if we choose! There are great ideas out there, the public is behind such a massive project, and the world demands it — but WE, the People don’t demand it. Rachel Maddow told us this week that it’s almost as if the political system in this nation is designed to fail our infrastructure. Gathering the political will to make this happen will take a movement, the kind Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are suggesting.
Rachel and I are on the same page, regarding the shameful lapse in caring for the nation’s infrastructure, and certainly holding Congress culpable for this latest train accident, conductor error notwithstanding. As Rachel attests in this rant on upgrading trains and dragging our heels on entering a modern world, “trains in Spain travel an average of 154 miles per hour and those in Japan top out at over 200, Amtrak’s average speed is a sluggish 65 miles per hour.”
Evidently, Mr. Boehner, we no longer live in that exceptional fantasy world of yours! The good news? Just about everybody knows it but you. Over on the left, we’re talking about policy. On your side of the fence, you’re still spinning fantasy.
We’re digging out of the rubble left behind by Bush’s Folly and the Great Recession, by decline in infrastructure and government systems and obsolete ways of doing things. We’re digging out from a glut of disinformation, the bizarre fog of unreality and the overt attempt to take the nation and the world back into ages past. And even though it seems impossible to clear the debris no matter how hard we shovel, each problem carries its solution within it, ours to find.
As one who has always looked for, and found, the pony in the horse-shit, here’s my advice: first thing, you’ve got to call it like it is. Second? Look around to see who needs a helping hand, and offer it. Next? Pick up that shovel and put your back into it!
Here’s a great diary from Daily Kos as to why Republicans refuse to fund infrastructure. In a few words it’s “Starve the Beast” and “privatization”.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/15/1383149/-Why-do-Republicans-really-oppose-infrastructure-spending
Excellent information, Fe, and right to the heart of the problem. Thanks. I was mulling this over last night, thinking about how the nation would look if the Pubs got their way and drowned all public benefit in their intended acid bath, and it becomes very clear that the majority of us would be marginalized to such a degree that that whole “pursuit of happiness” thing would have to be snipped out of the Declaration as obsolete. Oh, the Koch’s would be happy as clams, and a handful of others — but the thin veneer of “freedom” that remains in our social contract would be stripped clean, leaving a feudal state.
Couple of weeks ago, Bill Maher had economist Joseph Stiglitz on and pointed out what housing costs were in the major cities, juxtaposed with minimum wage. How, he asked, do these people live? How? Stiglitz couldn’t answer — and the conversation became a tag line when Maher said in college he paid expenses while selling dope. He proposed that they were all selling dope, the audience applauded and the moment was over. But it left the question unanswered. How, indeed?
And what if you don’t live urban, groceries and services within walking distance? Having a car is already an enormous expense, having to pay to take it on the road — ANY road — adds to that bill. How do you educate your kids when ‘public’ school becomes private? How do you purchase health care when the uninsured pay larger mark-up than the insured, who already pay a huge chunk for the privilege? How do you protect yourself and your community from being taken advantage of by greedy corporate entities if government has become too small to implement regulations to govern them, or laws to restrain them?
We’re ALREADY getting a big mouthful of that and everybody I know wants to spit it out (while the irony is, they’re blaming that bitter taste on the black guy!) There are already too many places our paychecks need to go, how is one expected to cope in Pubworld, where everything is for-profit? Answer? We’re not. We’re just the ‘help.’
It seems to me that many species of animals are trainable and we always say “oh dogs are so smart”, or maybe birds or turtles or whatever. How we know that they are smart is because when we show the trick (sit up pretty, fetch the stick, etc.), utter a key word or phrase, we can then give a reward if the trick is accomplished. Then show the trick again, say the key words, reward if the trick is done, then say the key words and reward, key word, reward. Pavlov taught his dogs and now the Universe is trying to do something similar with us.
Some of us are more trainable (sensitive) than others and in this country they are usually called Democrats or Independents. Those who never seem to catch on are usually called Pubs in this country. They would be just pitiful if they weren’t so vicious. That’s why, if the Universe is intent on training us all, it will take repeated “Show trick-Use key words-Reward if performed” cycles.
Right now the key words appear to be Train Derailed, People Die, since the Train Derailed, Gas Cars Explode key words failed to incentivize much action. The trick itself is to motivate People to motivate Elected Officials to allocate Funds for Infrastructure and git ‘er done.
15 years ago there was a chart for an event that had a shelf-life of 20 years. We have 5 more years to git ‘er done, and although the specifics weren’t spelled out, the key words (symbols) were. One trick had to do with local transportation (Mercury at 27+ Gemini) and the Universe took a stand opposite (Galactic Center in Sagittarius) the critters it was trying to TRAIN so as to be perfectly clear. It was a simple trick really, but for some reason the Universe couldn’t get through the thick skulls of the critters. Over and over the key symbols were shown but not until the critters themselves were tricked did they begin to conform to the Universal command.
That 15 year old chart was called the “Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction of 2000 at 22+ Taurus” and it had several commands, some of which have been well learned. Like the Jupiter-Saturn square Uranus in Aquarius trick. The first command came on 9/11/01 when Chiron conjunct the Galactic Center in Sagittarius opposed the Moon in Gemini but the critters didn’t really understand what was expected of them.
About 9 years later another command was given and this time the critters did much better. That time was referred to the BP Oil Disaster and Uranus in Pisces opposed Saturn in Virgo and formed a T-square the Galactic Center in Sagittarius.
This latest trick includes a couple more key words from the 2000 Jupiter-Saturn chart. (1) Chiron at 14+ Sagittarius conjunct the Great Attractor, and (2) Neptune at 6+ Aquarius conjunct the U.S. Sibly South Node.
(1) In the May 3, 2015 Full Moon chart, Ceres is at 6+ Aquarius (conjunct Jupiter-Saturn chart’s Neptune and the U.S. chart’s South Node).
(2) In the New Moon chart for tomorrow we see Mercury retrograde in Gemini (opposite Chiron in the Jupiter-Saturn chart) and Jupiter in Leo (trine Chiron in the Jupiter-Saturn chart) forming a yod (or finger of God) to Pluto in Capricorn (semi-sextile Chiron in the Jupiter-Saturn chart).
I’m working on this still, but right now it looks like Full Moon’s Ceres at 6+ Aquarius is the treat or reward for doing what we already know how to do (U.S. south node) relating to compassion (Neptune in the Jupiter-Saturn chart). This “awareness” is to be followed by the trick itself; Communicating (New Moon’s Gemini Mercury retrograde opposite Jupiter-Saturn chart’s Chiron) and Acting (New Moon’s Leo Jupiter trine Jupiter-Saturn chart’s Chiron) in such a way that Pluto in Capricorn (in New Moon chart quincunx both Mercury and Jupiter ) will make Adjustments or Adapt in such a way so as we critters can get our treat. I could be wrong.
Thanks to you Jude and Fe, and others like you, we may just get ‘er done and get our rewards. I can tell you this much, when transiting Mercury returns to oppose the Chiron/GA of the Jupiter-Saturn chart, he will also once again be quincunx transiting Pluto, and transiting Ceres will only be days away from once again being conjunct the Neptune of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction and the U.S. South Node, and best of all, our treat!
be
I didn’ t get past the info about GGBridge, Jude; went to read about that instead. I’m nervous-nelly driving the UHaul at all and particularly over bridges over large expanses of water. I’ve chosen to go GGB route rather than Oakland route – far longer bridges over far longer expanses of water to go ‘ring around SanFran and out the other side– only to connect back up to the 101 anyway.
Well, they should be bringing up the info on the rods just about as I’m over the bridge…may the force be with us.
I’m squeamish too about driving over bridges that span large bodies of water aword. Even if I’m not driving a U-Haul. It’s harder to be brave when we know so much. Much easier to be brave when we’re just dumb. You will be fine I’m sure as long as you drive safely. When do you leave?
be
I’m going to drive with my window open anyway, Be–you know, so I can escape if I hit water, lol. (There are air bags in uHauls, right? 🙂
Yes, so much easier to be dumb, isn’t it? What I found promising about the issue is that despite the tremendous cost, they are doing exploration/evaluation–not just letting the problem get yet worse (without knowing the extent of it anyway!)
Driving out o “dodge” on Wednesday AM — plan to spend some time with my daughter in San Fran prior to heading out across the vast expanse of bridge; before rush hour 🙂
Jude: Thank you for the grounding (Saturn), the focus (Chiron), and the passion (Mars). With your every word, my gratitude grows.
I am unsure where to begin as you have touched on many areas of my expertise. Let me say that the American Society of Civil Engineers has assessed our infrastructure in D an F grades, with maintenance and capital expenditures in more than a billion, that’s a billion dollars a YEAR for us to get to where we need to be in transportation. Contrast with China which allocates about 9% of of its budget towards infrastructure improvements (US less than 1% in the final analysis because the Trust Funds like Highway and Harbor Maintenance are tapped for so much more). We don’t have our priorities right, not in our lives, our families, our neighborhoods, our communities, cities, states, and nation. We really don’t and why don’t we? Because in many ways it comes down to how we frame the issues and how it relates to our value statements. We are piss poor (don’t like the vulgarity but I will use it) in aligning our true needs with our values, we think we need something that we think is our value but we have allowed others to tell us that we need something else that we they also tell us that we value. And who are those someones? Businesses who want us to indulge in consumer behavior that supports their policies. Step back and think about who really drives the policies and the framing of the issues behind the news media. It’s a sorry state of affairs. I’d like to say that we are all smarter than that…
It’d be a nice feature, Eric, to allow us who use your blog to edit their postings, just saying…
this way, we can sit back and see where our grammatical errors and misspellings are. Not an easy feat on a blog posting.
I failed to add Judith that I really like your posts. I have worked in high echelons of federal government beltway politics for a long time. It is clear to me that you know the ropes.
What really stood out for me re: the recent Amtrak crash is how quickly “everyone” blamed the engineer. True, we have had a run on human-initiated catastrophes for awhile now, but is that just because we are forgetting about the infrastructure that we’ve built that is collapsing around us? (That is, in this instance, the engineer didn’t run through the railcars with a submachine gun.) We take our highways and bridges etc too much for granted; thanks Jude, Fe, Be, and Pisces Sun for the conversation.
I miss Colbert! Karl Rove is carrying on 24/7 about George Stephanopoulos giving the Clinton charity money and I could sure use Stephan having a heart-to-ham chat with his Ham Rove character — a five-pound canned ham wearing plastic nose-and-glasses — because nothing cuts the legs out from under bullshit like satire!
Gosh be! I hope that carrot we critters are working for is a game changer! Although it’s hard to prove, it’s not REQUIRED that we behave like hamsters on the wheel, responding to carrot/stick = reward/punishment = black/white, us/them, good/bad … all too simplistic and thought-less. The whole point of awareness is to BECOME AWARE, not figure out how to play the system. It’s no surprise that rats prefer hits of narcotics to food, offering no resistance to dream-filled demise. If the pleasure/pain thing is the whole gig here, the best we can do, then we’re lost.
As pleasure goes, it seems to me that there is a sense of satisfaction in having done ‘the right thing,’ even when it’s difficult. Perhaps we need to be shown how to do that, again … mentored — or maybe we need to be pushed into such a stance, as so many were in the tenements around the turn of the last century, toiling for pennies in lives that could only be called futile. That’s NOT the scenario I wanted to see push us forward!
New polls showing that the US is becoming more secular seems a response to the zealotry foisted on it by the religious-right, and while not everyone is required to be on a spiritual path (if not religious) there is at least an ethical part of the quotient that needs renewal if we’re to outlast our reputation as voracious consumptive parasites on Gaia’s body.
Here’s a piece I particularly liked earlier this week, from Toni Morrison, still being featured at Huffy this weekend — regarding the progressive agenda of [We] citizenship, as opposed to our current practice of [Me] consumerism. WE NEED TO GET THIS! And quickly!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/toni-morrison/the-new-progressive-agenda-a-return-to-citizenship_b_7265416.html
Thank you, Len — I’m keeping an eye on your city’s weekend activities. Paddles up! I’ve been a sHell no’er since the days of apartheid in South Africa, Shell taking the ignoble path of profit before human rights. Nothing much has changed, obviously. I haven’t bought from them since, nor do I plan to … ever.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/16/seattle-kayak-shell-protest_n_7298518.html
Sadly, news from my area is not so encouraging (regarding Ferguson.) The only good news is that personal scandal whisked a major Pub player away, quickly replaced by another. Sigh.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2015/05/15/the-missouri-legislature-is-about-to-end-its-session-having-passed-almost-none-of-the-dozens-of-ferguson-related-bills-proposed/
And thanks, Pisces Sun, for the information and for the confidence, as well. I too shake my head at how easily we can be distracted [[[SQUIRREL!!!]]] from the important things. And the PR targeting is an exact science now — we’ve GOT to find a way to break the spell!
As to the bridges, yes — excellent that they’ve dealt with it so quickly, which is what we expect from our bureaucrats; or used to, anyhow. And I have every confidence that the bridge is safe enough, at this point, considering the description of the weakness. Besides, you carry your water wings with you, don’t ya, aWord?
And your notion that we’ve jumped to conclusions about the Amtrak engineer hits bells with me, I think we’ve got this all wrong. I know we can argue that it’s always the nice, quiet guy on the block that’s hiding bodies in his basement, but the engineer in this piece just doesn’t seem the type to screw the pooch in such a dramatic way. The 30+ mph increase in the last moments seems like an auto-response of some kind, perhaps to the projectile or some other unknown factor, fitting with the astro indicators in the chart.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/14/amtrak-engineer-brandon-bostian-_n_7287982.html
Perhaps — wings crossed — this will give us a chance to mull over our quick-on-the-trigger blame-gaming … much as the death penalty call in Mass will have opportunity to illuminate state-mandated death as revenge, not justice, in the public eye. We’re CONSTANTLY getting opportunity to see ourselves. We just have to be willing to open our eyes!
Traveling mercies to you and cat, dearheart, for an easy trip and gentle journey!
And thanks for the chat, Wavers — always good to have an intelligent, informed conversation with heart-family.