Marjorie

A public reckoning has arrived for big tech with two US juries finding they were liable for products that inflict harm on young people. A jury in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $375m in damages on Tuesday over claims that its products led to child sexual exploitation, among other harms. The following day, a jury in California ordered Meta and YouTube to pay $6m over claims that both companies deliberately designed addictive products to hook young users.

These cases were the first to go to court and soon will be followed by more trials from two coordinated groups of more than 2,000 plaintiffs, including families, school districts and state attorneys general, who have brought lawsuits against Meta, parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, YouTube, TikTok and Snap and Google, owner of YouTube,

‘With two unprecedented trial defeats, big tech firms face crisis akin to that faced by cigarette makers in the 1990s.’

  All of the relevant charts look to be facing major challenges ahead.

Meta, 28 October 2021, has a Scorpio Sun at 5 degrees square Saturn at 7 degrees which will be forced into a painful three year period of having to leave old practices behind with tr Pluto square the Sun this year and next; and then conjunct Saturn in 2027/28. 2028 also has a car-crash Solar Arc Mars conjunct Sun.

  The Facebook IPO, 18 May 2012 11.31 am New York, looks seriously rattled now with tr Uranus conjunct the Sun and nerve-stretched from June onwards with tranches of unwanted publicity as tr Uranus starts to square the Neptune and then the opposition to Mars, running on for several years. The Solar Arc Saturn is opposition the Midheaven at the moment as it is pulled up short and tr Pluto will take up the cudgels through 2027/2028 forcing a change of direction. With a moving yod of the natal Mars sextile Solar Arc Saturn inconjunct Uranus – so paralysed at what will be a game-changing period.

 Mark Zuckerburg, 14 May 1984 2.39 pm White Plains, New York, will feel as if he has been holed below the waterline with his Solar Arc Mars conjunct his 4^th house Neptune later this year and through 2027, giving him an unaccustomed sense of panicky failure. 2027 looks high uncertain and consumed with anxiety as his SA Neptune squares his Saturn; and 2028 will seem him in a total upheaval as his SA Pluto is conjunct his Uranus.

 Google, owner of Youtube, 4 September 1998, was facing an upset from the recent Aquarius Solar Eclipse opposing its Venus with Solar Arc Neptune approaching the opposition to its financial Venus as well within months. It will feel the cold winds of hardship and deprivation from tr Pluto square its Saturn, especially August to December this year; as well as a major upheaval from August on and off into 2027 from tr Uranus opposition its Pluto.

 Youtube, 14 February 2005, is in no better shape with a panicky/high anxiety Solar Arc Neptune conjunct Uranus now; the recent Eclipse conjunct its late Aquarius Sun Mercury for a crisis and forced changes. 2027 will have the panicky-failure tr Neptune square its Mars with a jolting tr Uranus square Uranus – and a hugely uncertain 2029 with SA Saturn opposition Neptune.

 My goodness, it is not often that all the related charts are so starkly clear that a watershed moment has arrived.  The new era is finally beginning to make its mark.

FROM CJ

1) Elon Musk’s Grok AI has now been banned in Germany and being fined 100k euros daily due to his digital sex abuse imagery he allows on X. I’m sure Musk can afford that, however, it’s setting up a precedent in the EU of countries turning and hinting at what is to come.

2) Disneyland has just cancelled their billion dollar deal with Sam Altman’s Open AI, and have now shut down Sora and people are beginning to wonder if the AI bubble is looming.

Also, after Open AI’s deal with the pentagon, it has reportedly lost around 1.5 million users.

3) France, Germany and Denmark are leading the way by ditching Bill Gate’s Microsoft for Linux operating systems due to concerns of privacy and data harvesting.

4) Peter Thiel and Alex Karp’s company, Palantir, is under deep scrutiny and being investigated by officials reviewing a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) deal and looking at it’s dealings with the NHS.

The Green Party’s Zack Polansky has also been loud about removing Palantir out of our infrastructure and NHS.

ADD ON: Larry Ellison, 17 August 1944, current chairman of Oracle, in contrast looks upbeat now with his Solar Arc Jupiter square his Sun this year; and tr Uranus moving to square his Jupiter from the middle of this year into 2027. He does admittedly have his Solar Arc Mars opposition his Uranus across this year which suggests a shock; and minor career setbacks now and on and off till late 2027 plus a calamitous midpoint this May but he will be buffered by positive aspects.  Where his chart shows more obvious strain is in 2028/29 with tr Neptune square his Saturn but even then he has a Jupiterian boost to compensate. 2031 has his Solar Arc Saturn conjunct his Neptune which will be problematic.

 Oracle, 16 June 1977, is showing more signs of stress – with tr Pluto starting to hard aspect its Fixed T square of Mars Venus opposition Uranus square Saturn picking up in 2027 and running through till 2031/32. That suggests massive pressures to change causing hardship and frustration as well as turbulence. There may also be a jolt in 2027 from SA Mars conjunct the Sun.

Tiger Woods has had yet another crash, after rolling his car when he hit a truck at speed. He was released on bail following his arrest on charges of driving under the influence, not of alcohol which tested clear, but of drugs. He has been recovering from rupturing an Achilles tendon in March 2025 and back surgery in October, as well as a massive amount of injury from a 2021 car crash which left him fortunate to be alive. In 2017 he was slumped at the wheel of his parked Mercedes-Benz and found to have several legal medications in his system and marijuana’s active ingredient. In 2009 he hit a fire hydrant, a tree and several hedges in a collision outside his home.  

  Born 30 December 1975 10.50 pm Long Beach, California, he has a 4^th house Capricorn Sun in a high-powered square to a super-confident Pluto opposition Jupiter in Aries. His Sagittarius Moon on his IC is in a short-fused opposition to Mars in his 9th. With his over-active Mars in a determined trine to Pluto and in a publicity-attracting opposition to Neptune.

 He’s a driven, competitive individual for whom inactivity due to injury and waning powers due to age will be difficult to handle. He does have Pluto moving through his performing 5^th house from years ahead so he will be determined to be taken as a person of consequence.

  He does not have Mars in his 3^rd which might be expected from an overly fast driver but he does have tr Uranus opposition his 3^rd house Venus exactly now – so perhaps his complicated emotional life might have been partly a trigger – especially now that I look his Sun/Moon midpoint has been stressed recently.

  In the time ahead with his Progressed Moon moving into his financial 2^nd house within weeks and staying there for two years plus tr Pluto square his 2^nd house Uranus in 2027/28 it suggests his finances won’t be as stable as before and a matter of concern.

 His Solar Arc Sun moving through his 6^th house of health since 2022 is on final degree Aquarius which caught the recent Solar Eclipse which in a marginally obscure way does suggest a crisis.

 Although there is no indication that he is about to sink into seclusion any time soon he will be facing a tricky year ahead with tr Saturn in hard aspect to his Sun, Pluto, Jupiter T- Square through till early 2027 which will be discouraging and face him up to certain realities. Then from 2028 tr Neptune in Aries catches up through till the early 2030s undermining his driving T square which is usually not great for ego, pride and personal glory.

J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio have been sent in to negotiate peace with Iran with explanations running from – 1) Trump needing someone to blame when it does not work; 2) Kushner and Witkoff, the first team, being either incapable of understanding the technicalities of a nuclear deal or according to the Iranians being deliberately obtuse, too close to Israel and never intending to make peace; or 3) Vance is more palatable to the other side since he was against the intervention in the first place and spoke out last year against Israeli ambitions to seize more of the West Bank.

   Vance, 2 August 1984 8.11 am Middletown, Ohio, in his relationship with Trump looks rattled at the moment until early April with tr Uranus square their composite Sun/Mars, Venus/Saturn and Mercury/Pluto midpoints which adds up to aggravation, not feeling the love and running into hard resistance. April 6th to 25^th together they look confused and devastated with tr Uranus square their Neptune/North Node midpoint. In June tr Uranus squares his composite Ascendant with Trump which may cause a major upset between them.

   On Vance’s personal chart he has his Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Uranus exactly to a minute of a degree hinting at a radical turn in his life, perhaps not the one he had in mind. Now till early April will be argumentative, insecure, edgy with tr Uranus square his Mars/Node midpoint. Late March to late April tr Neptune square his Solar Arc Midheaven looks the opposite of progressive – muddled, indecisive.  In April as well tr Uranus opposition his Neptune/Pluto midpoint won’t be an enjoyable experience with major anxiety and confusion. Mayhem and muddles continue till the first chink of good fortune in the second half of May. Though tr Neptune then moves to square his Jupiter till August which can dent high hopes.

  One cosmic black joke is Vance’s Chariklo = eternal suffering through a partner which is catching the August Solar Eclipse,  highlighting the pain.

 Vance’s relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu has never been good with a teeth-gritting dislike from a composite Mars Saturn conjunction. Again all on a Neptunian slide through most of this year.

 Rubio is not having a good year nor a great 2027 with high anxiety this April with losses; dented hopes late April to the end of May with tr Uranus opposing his Jupiter Neptune conjunction – and that extends  across midpoints to the Sun into 2027 when it upends his Sun.  His relationship with Trump looks irritable and argumentative late April to mid June and beyond. Plus he has the upheaval of tr Uranus square his Pluto in the second half of the year to contend with. He’ll wish to be anywhere other than where he is.

ADD ON:  Vance has evidently been influenced by neo-reactionary Curtis Yarvin who spouts extreme views applauding authoritarianism and elitism.  He wants to replace American democracy with a techno-monarchy since he sees liberalism as creating a Matrix-like totalitarian system. He has defended the institution of slavery, and has suggested that certain races may be more naturally inclined toward servitude than others; argues that whites have inherently higher IQs than black people and opposes U.S. civil rights programs.  He is a notable figure in American conservatism, having influenced people like Steve Bannon, JD Vance, Michael Anton and Peter Thiel.

  Born 25 June 1973, New York, he has a toxically-angry and hate-filled Mars in Aries opposition Pluto square a Cancer Sun; with a mixed Fire/Water Grand Trine of Mars trine Neptune trine Mercury in Cancer. And may (depending on birth time) have a yod onto an Aries/Taurus Moon.

 He is on a slide until early 2028 with tr Neptune square his Sun and conjunct his Mars – and later this year into January 2027 opposition his Pluto. So sinking into a swamp. Plus a nerve-stretched tr Uranus opposition is Neptune from this August on and off till early 2028. Pre the 2028 election he’ll mount a revved up effort but it will fizzle early on.

Vance’s relationship chart with him is fairly tied together with high enthusiasm for an agenda of domination. Though it will hit a bump or two from this June onwards with tr Uranus square the composite Saturn.

Valerie Perrine, the Las Vegas showgirl who fell into acting and gave memorable award-winning performances in Lenny playing his stripper girlfriend and Superman as Lex Luthor’s moll has died. The 1970s were her peak and while she continued to act afterwards never gained the same heights.

  Her life featured a few high risk moments: In 1969 she was due to attend a party in the Hollywood Hills with her then-boyfriend, the celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, but after one of her fellow dancers fell ill, she was called upon to work instead. The party was crashed by the so-called Manson Family, and Sebring numbered among their victims. Five years later a flight carrying her to promote Lenny crashed shortly after take-off. She emerged unscathed and returned to the wreck to collect her make up.

  She never married but had been engaged early on to a gun collector who died when the pistol he habitually carried fell from his waistband and discharged in a freak accident one month before the couple’s planned wedding.

   Her approach to acting was casual and she regarded it as an enjoyable social activity. Renowned for her wild parties which ran, she said, on cocaine, she also dropped a reputed 400 doses of LSD.

 Born September 3 1943 9.20pm Galveston, Texas, with a military father and former dancer mother she spent most of her childhood in Japan. In her final years, she battled severe health issues from wear-and-tear incurred during her dancing days and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

 She had a Virgo Sun conjunct Venus on the cusp of her hard-working 6^th house which was in a volatile, explosive square to Mars Uranus in Gemini. It would be that which attracted her, consciously or unconsciously, to adrenaline-packed moments on the edge. She had Jupiter North Node in Leo in her performing 5^th house giving her confidence and exuberance as well as luck; with her Jupiter in a doubly self-assured conjunction with Pluto. A 7^th house Libra Moon looked in need of support though she never married. It was in a cool trine to Saturn. Neptune in her 6^th does hint at delicate health which would not appreciate rampant drug use.

  When she missed the Manson killing in 1969 by a stroke of destiny, transiting and Solar Arc Jupiter were hard at work sparking off various elements of her chart. Although it would undoubtedly shake her with her Solar Arc Mars square her Neptune.

  Her chart is all lower hemisphere apart from her Moon suggesting that she was not exactly career-driven and would be more concerned with her personal life.

Alan Ritchson, the epitome of a hard-man has earned him success in TV’s Reacher, now out for the fourth season. A recent squall with a neighbour which hit the headlines has fizzled out after police said he acted in self-defence. In the past he has admitted to being bi-polar and prone to depression but appears to be a settled husband and father.

  What is intriguing is his chart, 28 November 1982 3am Grand Forks, North Dakota, which in one significant way is similar to that of Virginia Guiffre, the Epstein victim, born a few months later. Both have the bleak Saturn Pluto conjunction square Mars suggesting a good deal of risk, unfairness and mistreatment in their lives.

 Ritchson has talked about his early modelling days as being akin to ‘legalised sex trafficking’ and left the industry traumatised after being sexually assaulted on a photoshoot with a ‘very famous photographer.’ Even later on when his acting career took off, a business associate threatened to accuse him of sexual assault if he did not sleep with her.  

 An afflicted Mars can work out in different ways and makes him suited for morally ambiguous, brawler roles, soaking up his anger, though his manic streak evidently leaks out on film sets at times.   He will tend to attract strong reactions from others whether he initiates it or not. So finding a constructive outlet will help.

 He has an independent-minded Sun Uranus conjunct in Sagittarius with a charming 3^rd house Mercury conjunct Venus also in Sagittarius. His Taurus Moon in his 7^th will appreciate the stability and security of a close partner. Though his Moon opposition Saturn Pluto which is square a 4^th house Mars hints at a chilly, under-supportive and overly disciplined childhood with a military father.  

In the immediate future for a few weeks he has Jupiterian bounty of success and rising confidence from two of his midpoints.  He is in the midst of his unsettled Uranus Half Return and mid-life crisis this year. And his Sun Uranus is moving by Solar Arc to conjunct his Mars after mid this year and through 2027 which will be a testing time, with his short-fused Mars feeling the strain. Plus his SA Mars is square his Uranus and soon his Sun for much the same effect.

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   Pondering on how the recent eclipse provided a backdrop for the present conflagration in the Middle East, the previous ones in this 18.5 year Saros cycle are significant if not cheering. Though it would have to be said in addition to problems there were also positive outcomes.

 Last time in 2008 oversaw the financial crash.

1990 oversaw the Gulf War 1.

1972 – Watergate, Munich Olympics massacre.

1954 – division of Vietnam which was the forerunner to the debilitating US war. Soviet escalation of the Cold War.

1935 – intensifying aggression leading into WW11. Italy invaded Ethiopia, which created significant international friction. Nuremberg Laws: Nazi Germany passed laws that deprived Jewish people of citizenship and banned marriage between Jews and Germans. Hitler instituted mandatory military service, violating the Treaty of Versailles. Persia/Iran: Persia was formally renamed Iran

Maria Vorontsova, a Russian pediatric endocrinologist is the elder child of Vladimir Putin. She was married to a Dutch businessman and living in the Netherlands, until calls for her expulsion in 2014 after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine. She now lives in Moscow and is married to an oil and gas executive.

Born 28 April 1985, 2.30 am Leningrad, Russia she certainly has a chart reflecting an overwhelmingly powerful father. She has a Taurus Sun opposition Pluto in Scorpio; with her Sun in the trigger point of a yod of Mars sextile Venus inconjunct Pluto. Her Sun opposition Pluto also squares an 8^th house Leo Moon – fixed, enduring, stubborn, intense. Her Saturn in obsessive and conscientious Scorpio opposes Mars for a tricky childhood which inculcated discipline but left her having to suppress her identity and assertiveness. Though her Jupiter square her North Node opposition South Node would give her a sense of entitlement.

  Quite some chart.

  For whatever reason her life is undergoing considerable change exactly now and over the next two/three years. At the moment her Solar Arc Sun is opposing her 12^th house Uranus, on the same degree now and exact within weeks. Tr Uranus will give her an additional jolt when it is conjunct her Mars in the second half of this May and again in early 2027. And tr Pluto is wending  inexorably round her Fixed T square from early this year, square her Pluto, opposition her Moon and in 2027/28 square her Sun. It will bring significant changes to her life under maximum pressure.

  The first ever oil strike – 28 August 1859 4pm Titusville, PA, USA.

  It has an 8^th house Sun Moon Mercury in practical, earthy Virgo and a Saturn Mars Venus in money-oriented Leo also in the 8^th. So six planets in the deeply buried 8^th house which has connections with business finance.

 Neptune (the traditional ruler of oil) is in Pisces (ruled by Neptune) in the 3^rd house of everyday travel which fits though Neptune isn’t especially strong in the chart.  On the midpoints Neptune = Sun/Jupiter and Jupiter/Uranus both of which are lucky and successful. Pluto is on the IC which does suggest very Plutonic energies (wealth and power) coming from deep down. Pluto is semi sextile Uranus with Neptune aiming to semi-sextile Pluto in the years following.

  The 1980 oil high has Neptune sextile Pluto with Uranus on their midpoint.  2008 has Neptune sextile Uranus with Pluto just past the square to Uranus. All three oil high charts have that odd challenging Mars Saturn in the 8^th in Virgo so a pressure to make money in tight circumstances? Two of them have Jupiter in the 8^th and the other has Jupiter in the 1^st.

Above from an old post of 2011.  No time for further research but anyone who is interested feel free to look over highs and lows since.

  Achieving an outright victory in a war that increasingly seems unwinnable may spur Netanyahu onwards. But Trump, as ever, gets spooked by the markets plunging, with his smash n’ grab raid turning into an expensive stalemate, costing US lives and threatening the economy.

 A former head of Iran research for Israel’s defence intelligence agency, argues that the previous Iranian leadership, now largely dead, were “cautious, calculating” actors. They had reportedly signalled that Iran was prepared to significantly dilute the country’s stock of enriched uranium, a critical component in the development of nuclear weapons. In his view, “US negotiators appeared to struggle to fully grasp the technical and strategic implications of this offer.”

 Netanyahu’s banner-waving for warfare as the only answer obscures the fact that Hamas is still entrenched in Gaza and the assassination of the Hizbollah leadership in 2024 did not end the Lebanese militant group’s threat. His recipe for perpetual war against a backdrop of rapidly declining international support for Israel, including in the US is a formula for disaster.

  A growing belief is that the biggest long-term strategic threat to Israel is not Iran — but the potential loss of the American support on which Israel relies. Israel’s brutal campaign in Gaza in the wake of Hamas’s October 2023 attacks has led to a change in sentiment.

  Scouring around for a chink of hope in the swamp, several astro-thoughts.

 The 2025 Inauguration Trump Second Term chart, starting on a do-or-die-determined, ruthless Mars opposition Midheaven Sun Pluto square a 6^th house Libra Moon always did look as if it would peak in its bullying approach in February/March this year as the Progressed Moon moved to square the Sun Pluto and Progressed Pluto by mid May this year and will lessen in effect thereafter. Before then the Trump Administration will be facing an extremely anxious April with two Neptune midpoints catching a hard square from tr Uranus bringing crises, sudden upsets, weakness, mourning and even more indications of confusion and off-the-wall meanderings from fantasy land.  

 Trumps’ natal chart through April also indicates weakness even illness caused by anxiety, alongside excitability. His birth time being exactly accurate tr Uranus will also square his Ascendant in April.

 Trump’s relationship chart with Netanyahu has been showing their joint power drive being undermined through March; but it is late May to mid August which will be most noticeably undermining and disappointing for their association with tr Neptune opposition the composite Venus and square the composite Saturn, which repeats into 2027 – so there will be a distancing.

  The USA/Israel relationship chart has been undermined since tr Neptune Saturn moved into Aries opposing the composite overly-hopeful Jupiter Neptune and square the Mercury Venus from late this month to late May – and that lessening of friendly feeling extends into early 2028. Where it reaches total rupture point will be around 2029/30 as tr Uranus squares the composite Sun and opposes the composite Uranus Sun.

 The Iran attack, 28 February 2026 9.45 am Teheran, which launched on an intense Moon opposition Pluto will clear that aspect which comes exact by progression in early August this year. This would coincide with thoughts about the 12 August Solar Eclipse which – “brings a time of breaking out of a negative, hopeless situation into positive phase with more options. A worry will disappear as solutions appear that need to be grasped.”

  None of this is decisive but I would hazard a guess that Trumps’ stomach for this foray does not outlast April if it even gets that far. Late May to August will be critical for a US/Israel fall out and general disarray with tr Neptune at 4 degrees Aries square Netanyahu’s Uranus for high-anxiety and it also squares the Israel Venus for emotional discontent.

Muddle and mayhem. Deranged Don wrapped in his Superman fantasy allied with Netanyahu obsessed with destroying Iran – both in different ways entirely unrealistic. I have long thought that Israel was walking itself up a cul-de-sac. However sympathetic about the Jewish people’s terrible history of persecution, there is no mileage on stoking up yet more blood feuds in a region where memories are long.