Speaker of the House John Boehner will resign congress and his speakership on Oct. 31.
Today’s column will be brief. I say this with some caution, partly because I don’t know what to expect, but I think something big has begun in Washington.
Outgoing Speaker John Boehner is clearing his to-do list after last Friday’s surprising announcement of his resignation. He began by appearing on Face the Nation, and without naming names, identified his bete noir (which, by the way, is Ted Cruz) by the biblical epithet “false prophet.”
Parting shots and old scores are par for the course in halls of power. Congress is no exception. Yet, what Boehner did was more than an exit interview. He was waving a red flag to anyone who can see it.
Boehner isn’t the only Congressional leader in trouble. The traditional party leadership is as well, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in line as the next target to walk the plank. Today, Senator Lindsay Graham had to quell absurd rumors from the Teapublicans that President Obama coerced Boehner to quit. We’re watching the current leadership of the Republican Party call for help from a life boat.
Because Teapublicans (Tea Party Republicans) cannot accept the fact they don’t have the power to overturn the government so as to shape it more to their liking, they’ve staged a rebellion for a re-brand from the moderate Rockefeller-Romney Republicans to the hotter Sarah Palin end of the spectrum — the kind of Republicans Rush Limbaugh likes. The New Yorker‘s Jonathan Chait had this to say:
Boehner has never supported any important aspect of the Obama agenda. Even at the outset of the Obama administration, with the president soaring in the polls and the economy plunging into the abyss, he rallied his entire party to withhold support from the stimulus and never seriously considered negotiating. He not only voted against Obamacare, but he repeatedly punctuated his speech denouncing it with shouts of “hell no!” The positive “accomplishments” of the Boehner Era were limited to avoiding a series of brinksmanship-induced catastrophes. The limits of conservative power extended to the ability to block all legislative progress or compromise. Boehner successfully delivered that. He even joined in several creative efforts to expand his institution’s power by using threats of shutdowns or debt-ceiling crises to coerce Obama into enacting portions of the Republican agenda, giving up only when Obama had beaten him back repeatedly.
It was not enough. Three quarters of Republicans believe, incredibly, that their party leadership has not done enough to oppose Obama. Three fifths feel “betrayed” by their party. “In the last seven years Barack Obama has successfully recruited, or corrupted, or hijacked — however you want to describe it — John Roberts of the Supreme Court; John Boehner, speaker of the House; Mitch McConnell, Republican leader in the Senate; and, some might even say, the Pope,” ranted Rush Limbaugh the other day.
We may well be watching the end of one political party. But that is nothing to rejoice about. What will take its place? We could be perilously close to inmates running the asylum, even though their ignorance of how the asylum works could detonate the building.
Yet, they’re getting good political bounce from their extreme conservative constituents for their efforts, as Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee parade Kentucky’s insane, slacker clerk Kim Davis as their champion for religious freedom. Ironically, Donald Trump continues his lead in the polls by running roughshod over Latinos, women and immigrants, and yet has policies that run quite left of McConnell, Boehner and Graham. What’s going on here?
Today’s political moment feels like Libra’s scales have been tipped over, but what will be done to re-balance our politics to equilibrium, let alone re-balance our thinking? Anyone’s guess as to the eclipse’s fallout this autumn?
See you below in the comments.
Fe,
It’s can be tricky to assign specific changes to specific aspects or events such as eclipses while in the midst of a seismic shift. I wonder though if this most recent upset isn’t due to the end of the “mutual reception” joining Pluto in Capricorn and Saturn in Scorpio in a juggernaut of shocking revolt from protocol.
It began on October 5th, 2012, 3 years ago, just weeks before Republicans swept the congressional election. Immediately the mutual reception went into full force as Saturn entered Scorpio. Pluto of course was square Uranus at the time, but key to the osmosis that would overcome the U.S. government functioning was transiting Neptune at 0+ Pisces trine transiting Saturn at 0+ Scorpio (part of the juggernaut). Hard to believe that this is all an outer planet strategy to reduce a poorly functioning Congress into rubble, but, apparently that’s what the outer planets had in mind. The end of one political party and the complete overhaul of the 2nd!!
A mutual reception can be between any 2 planet that rule a sign, but the joined and blended forces of Saturn and Pluto, Capricorn and Scorpio, would be thorough and irrevocable death to institutions, and some careers and maybe some people too. But it’s over now. New parties will emerge. New rules will end old ways of doing business in Washington DC.
When transiting Saturn entered Sagittarius the 2nd time on September 17th, he was trine the South node at 0+ Aries, a true signal that the old ways need to be re-evaluated. Most interesting was that transiting Neptune at 7+ Pisces retrograde was opposite Jupiter (the planet that rules Sagittarius where Saturn will be for a couple of years) at 8+ Virgo, and between them, Neptune and Jupiter, they formed a T-square with the U.S. Sibly chart’s natal Uranus at 8+ Gemini. Yeah, Uranus knows a thing or two (in Gemini?) about revolution and change.
One area to watch would be the handling of $$, the “shared resources” that are associated with Scorpio and Pluto. The Moon was at 17+ Scorpio when Saturn entered Sagittarius this 2nd time, and she was square Venus, also associated with $$, at 16+ Leo. But Moon was also trine Chiron at 18+ Pisces retrograde, while Venus was trine Uranus at 19+ Aries retrograde.
Personally, I feel Uranus and Chiron have been working together for some time (their ongoing semi-sextile), and also because, at the Saturn ingress into Sagittarius, transiting Pallas (I have a plan!) at 17+ Sagittarius formed a grand fire trine with Uranus and Venus, it won’t be a problem.
It DOES leads me to believe that on the surface there will be wrangling over how to finance programs (Venus square Moon) for the next couple of years while Saturn travels through Sagittarius, but behind the scenes, with Chiron translating and negotiating for Uranus, solutions will be found. Perhaps we can thank girl power, at least in part, if that happens. Seriously!
In the meantime, maybe we should emulate the Pope; trust in a higher power and relax a little. There is something really, really big going on and we’re gonna like how it all works out.
be
PS: Bob at Starlight News is working on a theory (charts) that just might see a Dem takeover of the House in 2016! Wouldn’t that just be a hoot? He’ll let us know soon I’m sure.
Be:
That seems right on time, and given the phase of where we’re at, is the natural progression of all that obsesses us (government and corporations) during this Pluto cycle. I see yours and Pope Francis’ point — a certain amount of give and take — some flexibility could be in order which will change us and our systems more than where we’ve been familiar. I think it might be, as you suggest — something we thought would never happen. I hope that is a good change. With the advent of a Bernie Sanders electrifyingly changing the dialogue about the old standbys (lobbyists, the Congress-to-corporation pipeline) that are crippling government as a public service, we are in a sense pulling up the hood and peering at the engine, ready with tools. That is exciting.
My sentiments exactly Fe!
be
To all of this, we need to add that Shell oil company has pulled out of the Arctic, check out this article: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/sep/28/shell-ceases-alaska-arctic-drilling-exploratory-well-oil-gas-disappoints
Still trying to wrap myself around this one, Pisces Sun!!
Fe: Love Teapublicans – a new one on me. Thank you.
be: On this side of the pond, newly-elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has his Sun at 4 Gemini (conjunct my Uranus, so no wonder I like him!). Corbyn’s Uranus, however, is at 29 Gemini, Eric’s favourite degree for impending disaster. Here’s an overview of anaretic and other critical degrees from Cafe Astrology: http://www.cafeastrology.com/criticaldegrees.html.
Corbyn delivered his first Conference speech as Labour leader today. It was, I think, rational rather than emotional, no bad thing, perhaps, given all the bad press he’s likely to suffer during his leadership. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34385586
Pisces Sun: Yes, three cheers for the Arctic and all those who put their weight behind the challenge to Shell Oil’s cavalier approach to our planet. I have a feeling this may not be the end of the matter and that they will try again in a different location.Nevertheless, I think a celebration of thanks is in order. Seven million people signed the Greenpeace petition against Shell’s Arctic adventure and that represents an awful lot of consumer power at the pumps. My favourite headline was from The Financial Times which paraphrased Shakespeare’s best-known stage direction – “Exit, pursued by a polar bear.”
Geoff:
Very interesting how the world is working, isn’t it? I feel as though time bombs are going off, as Be pointed out — from a few years back. The Republican Presidential campaign is forcing us to look at the dark heart of ourselves, I think — with Trump’s rhetoric and the lunacy that surrounds his supporters who say, essentially, they LOVE the guy but probably won’t vote for him. But he’s still in it to win it.
As you know, we’re in the nascent stages of Presidential politics. This is fun and games until we winnow down to three or four candidates. Then the knives really start coming out. Look for mayhem starting November in Iowa and New Hampshire, and who’s left standing late January. Right now happens to be unusually visible because of Mr. Trump. We shall see how far the Republican Party wants to stick its neck out in Congress and on the hustings.
Yes, Teapublicans is a fantastic name for the wingnuts. Loved that FT headline, too, Geoff
Hopefully, between Jeremy Corbyn, John Boehner, Bernie Sanders and everything else new and interesting that’s cropped up in the past few months, we’re seeing the beginning of the end of false, oligarchical, two-party same-old fake democracy.
Amy:
That’s probably where we’re headed, but the American populace, specifically the Republicans, have a learning curve to climb, as in the case of all their new conservative darlings who they’ve elected to leadership in Congress. We hope they will start having some sense of themselves when they realize the bad optics of kowtowing to the crazies when they have to govern a country, not just its nutcases. In for an interesting ride? You betcha!
One recent astrological event which did seem to be overshadowed in discussion by more personal celestial events (Mercury Rx, Venus Rx, equinox, eclipse, Supermoon) was Pluto’s station direct and now forward motion in Capricorn, indicating transformation in corporate affairs, governance and authority. No surprise then that we should see the increasing popularity of Bernie Sanders, the emergence in Britain of Jeremy Corbyn, and a back-tracking by Shell Oil, purely on financial grounds of course, in its efforts to re-locate Texas to Alaska (it’s bigger after all).
Whether this indicates it’s now time for greater awareness and political action on behalf of all peoples (and our planet) or is just the prelude to a polarisation between opposing ideologies leading to global conflict remains to be seen. It could be that another of Bob Dylan’s insightful comments may well be about to manifest: “Everybody’s shouting, which side are you on?”
Geoff:
I’m thinking its the latter. There’s a quiet majority who is not interested in all the theatrics going on by the Bat-shit Crazies. Let’s see what happens, as Be says, with the new Congress (she knows people who are working on it!)
“My favourite headline was from The Financial Times which paraphrased Shakespeare’s best-known stage direction – “Exit, pursued by a polar bear.”” Ha ha! Love it, Geoff! That stage direction always cracked me up.
Shakespeare used animals on set? Actually, I did a staged reading once where the reader of the stage directions had to say “…carried off by elephants. Yes elephants.”
Shakespeare had to be quite a stoner, or quaffing too much of that ale.
Lizzy — I’m pretty sure Shakespeare just wrote, “Exit — pursued by a bear.” I think “polar bear” was the Times’ paraphrase.
Fe — the male actors back them played all the women’s roles; no reason one of them could not have been dressed up by a bear!
Hi Amanda – I know! It’s in a Winter’s Tale, which I studied at school, and I always found it so funny when I read it.