By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
Hillary Clinton thinks she’s found the pin to pop Trump’s bubble of approval. Up to this point, no amount of reason has swayed his dedicated supporters, who are more enamored of his politically incorrect candor and authoritarian posturing than worried about the consequence of his leadership. Clinton, considering herself the presumptive, will go after his questionable business ethics.
We’ve seen how eagerly the disenchanted line up to buy what he’s selling, which is essentially the Trump brand. But everyone’s been burned a time or two.
Been promised one thing and received another, had their hopes dashed or their piggy bank emptied at the hands of a con artist. Isn’t that one of the things the Trumpeteers are angry about? Failure to deliver as advertised?
This kind of Twitter may not find a perch in the camp of Trump’s faithful, but any undecided voters may think again. The discovery that money supposedly raised for veterans was never delivered has soured the military to Donald’s cause, and the fraud perpetrated on those who eagerly signed up for Trump University is still being litigated in the courts, although Donald’s swears by its legitimacy. Given the controversy, it won’t be a shock to learn that campaign contributions may have influenced the attorneys general of Texas and Florida to drop their litigation of the faux university.
Donald is a master at selling his name to the highest bidder, stepping away from the specifics of the deal, and if required, litigating his portion of responsibility. The man running for this nation’s highest office has upwards of 3,500 lawsuits under his belt, 169 of them federal. The implications of this record, which he considers a bragging point, are that his cut-throat business tactics are less than ethical.
The Republican presumptive has a similarly simplistic approach to leadership. He proposes to keep us safe as he turns the desert under ISIS to glass. Things will fall in line due to the sheer force of his personality. He will come out on top of so many trade deals our vanished jobs will return to make America great again — and white again, let’s not forget white. That’s built in to ‘the strict father’ pecking order, a behavior model essential to conservative philosophy.
In essence, Donald J. Trump is the perfect autocratic candidate, stepping in to save those who think America has already failed its most important demographic — themselves — but his talent stops there. He’s made a career of assuming power while dodging responsibility. He’s riding high at the moment, with crowds cheering him, an audience for his tantrums and musings, but should he actually win the presidency the fun stops immediately.
Should Trump lose this election, his ego would require him to find a way to diminish his loss, shrug and move on, unaware that he was revealed, world-wide, to be a cretinous blowhard. Yet should he win this contest, he’ll be hampered on all sides by a political machine that’s frustrated bigger men than Donald.
Trump would find federal employees harder to manage than his own “yes men.” His lack of respect for the separation of powers would put him at odds on all sides of the political spectrum, and while an elected official is not required to give up business holdings, his vast financial empire would face a level of scrutiny not just unwelcome but unimaginable to someone whose profit-margin demands he work on the shady side.
He’d find his ability to bully and batter those who oppose him hampered by expectations of civility that won’t easily fade. He’d no longer have the ability to buy his way out of everything or promote his sleazy version of glitz and glamor, stripping the office of the dignity Barack Obama has returned to it. He’d lose the freedom to feed his voracious desires without world disapproval, and discover that he’s unable to litigate himself out of the messes he makes.
Oh yes, he’d make them, it’s in his nature. He has no understanding of the political process, he can’t take criticism, and he would be subjected to howls of indignation over his uninformed — read that unintelligible — world view, not to mention his repugnant character. In short, the man who fancies he has the Midas touch and admiration of the public would find himself hamstrung in a trap of his own making. But if he wins, he won’t be the biggest loser — that would be everyone else on the planet.
At the moment of this mutable Grand Cross, I find it more than a little intriguing that Saturn shows up as the steadying energy — perhaps representative of the mythical father — staring across the breech at imaginative and/or deceptive Neptune. Both are square Jupiter as the expansive factor, optimistic and confident, sparked off by a darkened Gemini New Moon, hand in hand with Venus, our mythical mother.
As we face our fears of the future, the universe provided us a boon, a possible breakthrough. We can recapture our clouded values and find clarity, depending on how much heart we can bring to this contentious mix of energies, which is ready — if we are — to reveal us to our selves. One way or another, with our future on the line, the seeds we plant now demand our careful consideration and highest aspiration.
It’s tougher than we like to admit isn’t it Jude? Seeing ourselves with clarity. Many of us are too close to the subject to get a decent perspective. The same with politics; we either want to avoid it totally or get so involved we can’t see the forest for the trees.
Moms who demanded that there would be no discussion at the dinner table about religion or politics recognized that these subjects had the capacity to touch an emotional nerve in human nature, one that often gets out of control. It doesn’t seem a personal thing, talking about government policy, and yet it is. We either recognize that we are part of the whole or we turn our backs on that reality or – somewhere in the middle – we settle for something neutral. That’s fine for a while but eventually, because humans are imperfect, the system gets corrupted. What to do then?
I believe – call me crazy, it’s okay – that the 3 outer planets are attempting to define – to clarify ourselves to ourselves. Sometimes I see Hillary Clinton as Pluto, I guess because of her Scorpio Sun. I see Donald Trump as Uranus because of his disruptiveness and Bernie Sanders as Neptune because of his Utopian ideals. It could just as easily be Hillary as Neptune with her ever-changing views of matters, or Donald as Pluto because of his bullying, or Bernie as Uranus because of his push for a breakthrough.
Bernie could also be Pluto because he digs up the corruption in government and exposes it to the light. It could be Donald as Neptune because of his lies and it is Uranus I would see if Hillary were to break through the glass ceiling. This is anything but clarity, but it does point out that the time for complacency, to remain above the fray of political discourse has passed. The outer planets have taken it to a whole ‘nuther level now.
There is a reason that the U.S. Sibly chart’s Vesta in Taurus had her “Vesta Return” this Spring, an event which won’t happen again until the year 2020. Vesta symbolizes focus. There is a reason that transiting Mercury occulted the transiting Sun in the same degree as the U.S. Vesta last month; Mercury symbolizes thinking and Sun symbolizes consciousness. Focus thinking consciously. Is this not a sign that the Universe is trying to guide us to clarity?
To clarify butter you must separate the fat from the milk solids and that requires rendering; putting the butter over the fire. You then scoop away the separated solids that clouded the butterfat and voila you get clarified butter. Same with humans or at least politicians I suppose. Put their feet to the fire and eventually you get clarity. It is up to us to do that; to find the truth about these would-be Presidents of the U.S. Only then will we see ourselves with clarity.
be
Just for you Ms. Jude I looked up the Sabian Symbol for the U.S. Sibly chart Vesta:
A CARAVAN OF CARS HEADED TO THE WEST COAST (is that not a hoot this weekend before the California primary?)
Keynote: The need of cooperative effort in reaching any “New World” of experience.
From the book titled An Astrological Mandala by Dane Rudhyar
Ooooooh — road trip!! Love that Sabian, be, thanks. My kind of caravan!
And yes, to the issue of clarity — personal OR political — which is an on-going process of revelation, courage and hard work. It IS amazing how easily we can mix ‘n match the planetary qualities to those in the spotlight — nice job of fleshing that out! Those who insist that the big transforming energies like Uranus, Neptune, Pluto — or all three, in a cosmic dance — aren’t ‘personal’ don’t get it. We’re not separate from one another, from Gaia herself or from the universe, for that matter.
Those heavenly bodies represent aspects of our self, as is all that’s happening around us a reflection of our collective intellect, which should be coming clear enough in this electoral season. As we decide who has our confidence in this election, we should be asking ourselves why — what they represent to us — and, ultimately, what we want. ACIM calls this “the only question.” Better to truthfully determine what we want and why, as, gone undiscovered and subconscious, we get the kind of ‘lowest common denominator’ stuff we’re all seeing around us now.
Thanks for the Sabian fix, be — you know me so well!
IF not for the higher than highest stakes, it would be almost a lark to see Trump elected and the chaos that would ensue. Of course, I say this knowing that that it is precisely the devil-may-care (indeed!) attitude that is precisely the Trump-ish way of things. Not a single one of us (rational ? folks) can truly desire that, although I’ve heard the thought rumble through many conversations (i.e., revolution has become necessary).
When Trump loses, his mob-fans will dissipate. If personal experience continues along its current path, and continues to be wildly manifest of public happenings, perhaps more than one blow-hard will soon be revealed.
Ah, yes. The Susan Sarandon quandary! I have briefly entertained the thought that we might actually wake up quicker if we got what we asked for, but — OMG! — the ramifications are pretty dire. First off, it would encourage the trolls that their racism and nativism springs from some sort of skewered righteousness, which is a crock. Worse is the kind of legal and international mayhem Trump could provoke before we could stop his wrecking ball.
Just chump change — not the bigger stuff he’s capable of — is his going after a Federal Judge this week in a derisive and threatening manner. It reverb’s off this earlier quote of his, which we should find very worrisome:
“When someone crosses you, my advice is “Get Even!” That is not typical advice, but it is real life advice. If you do not get even, you are just a schmuck! … I love getting even.”
Here, from the New York Times, is (now) UC Berkeley law prof, John Yoo, (you will remember him as Dubby’s extra-legal eagle that gave permission to torture) making plain his concerns about Donald’s understanding of the job description he’s applied for:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/04/us/politics/donald-trump-constitution-power.html
“Both of those presidents [Jefferson and FDR who went after judges that stood in their way]chafed at what they saw as excessive judicial power. “But they weren’t doing it because they had cases before those judges as individuals,” Professor Yoo said. “They had legitimate separation-of-powers fights between the presidency and the judiciary. Trump is lashing out because he has a lawsuit in a private capacity, which is much more disturbing.”
Other legal scholars said they were worried about Mr. Trump’s commitment to the First Amendment. He has taken particular aim at The Washington Post and its owner, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.
“He owns Amazon,” Mr. Trump said in February. “He wants political influence so Amazon will benefit from it. That’s not right. And believe me, if I become president, oh do they have problems. They’re going to have such problems.”
And — dunno — I think it’s likely, when Trump loses, that his hard-core supporters will go back to isolationist organizations, hate groups and … likely … some of them will go postal on innocent citizens. Trump, of course, will deny any culpability.
Thanks for the commentary, aWord — big hugs to you dearheart. Be well.
Thank you, Jude, for your weekly dose of sanity. Thank you, Barbara (no, we do not think you crazy – your assessment of the outer planets is deservedly authoritative). Thank you, aWord for being a living, breathing blessing for all of us here at Planet Waves.
And thank you, Len, for being one of the most gracious creatures on the planet — we are ALL grateful for your kindness and positivity!