Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham are leading Republicans pushing hard for Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Grassley, 17 September 1933, Iowa is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee with a reputation as curmudgeonly. Graham, 9 July 1955 SC, put himself forward as a presidential candidate in 2015, dropped out, supported Jeb Bush, then Ted Cruz and has finally flipped to be a strong Trump supporter; he found Christine Ford’s testimony ‘unconvincing.’

Graham has a Cancer Sun trine Saturn in Scorpio; with a volatile Uranus Mars also in Cancer in a can-be-fanatical and publicity-seeking square to Neptune. His Neptune is in a Half Grand Sextile trine Mercury in Gemini, sextiling onto Pluto –  and North Node trine Pluto, sextile Neptune – ambitious, persuasive, also elusive/evasive.

Grassley is a Sun Virgo sextile Pluto and inconjunct Uranus; with his irascible streak coming from a vengeful Mars in Scorpio square Saturn in Aquarius. Mis Mercury in Virgo is on the focal point of a Yod to Uranus sextile an Aquarius North Node – which will make him intelligent, a communicator but also scattered.

Both of them have shocking or stuck Solar Arcs in 2019 though Grassley is knocking on age-wise so it may not all be political setbacks. Both look to be facing a reality check around mid this November.

There are no birth times so timing could be marginally out.

As far as Kavanaugh is concerned there’s a stuck patch showing up in early November – in both the above charts and in their relationship charts with Kavanaugh himself. Neither look personally attacked to Kavanaugh, more tied in by circumstances to ram through the confirmation before the mid terms.

Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader since 2015 and ‘obstructionist’ over Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court, was born 20 February 1942. He is a Sun Pisces with a heavyweight, hard-edged, enduring and staggeringly stubborn collection of Uranus, Saturn, Mars in Taurus. His Sun is in an unco-operative square to Uranus; and his triple conjunction is trine Neptune; with a Venus in Aquarius opposition Pluto perhaps square a Taurus Moon. Not a man for budging in the face of Armageddon.

He’s had an uphill and frustrating struggle this year with tr Pluto trine his Mars, worsening in 2019/2020 with tr Pluto trine his Saturn and over 2020/21 his Saturn/Uranus midpoint plus a dashed-hopes tr Pluto square his Mars/Neptune also in 2020/21, which will test him even to his limits. But again he’s no spring chicken so that may not all be politics.

He looks considerably unhappy in the final days of this November. And aggravated with Trump in mid December. As does Grassley with Trump at the same period. Grassley looks especially piqued at Trump over the midterms as well and their relationship will be jolted, jangled and confused in 2019 and even more so in 2020.

Graham looks choked at Trump just before or on the mid terms, more so late in this November; and thoroughly unnerved by him in 2020.

Not a happy bunch of campers, that’s for sure.

Charles Aznavour, one of France’s best known chanteurs has died aged 94.  He composed more than 1000 songs, sold 100 millions records and acted in 80 films. Although regarded as light entertainment his songs dwelt on despair, domestic strife, rape, homosexuality and were on occasion so risqué they were banned from radio play. He always regarded himself as a taboo-breaker.

Born 22 May 1924 12.15 am Paris into a theatrical family of Armenian immigrants, he left school at 9 and started performing. He was helped by Edith Piaf in his twenties, who took him on tour with her in France and to the USA. Despite his diminutive size of just over five foot and his throaty voice, which weren’t deemed promising, he eventually became a global success.

He had an unaspected 4^th house Gemini Sun (often a popular singer’s sign) with an emotionally intense Venus Pluto in Cancer opposition a Capricorn Moon. His musical Neptune unlike his Sun was well integrated in his chart being in a dreamy trine to Jupiter in adventurous Sagittarius, as well as in a showbiz opposition to Mars square Mercury in Taurus and opposition his midheaven.  An unaspectd Sun would make him independent, an island-unto-himself, fairly aloof. His unaspected Saturn would give him a tendency to float through life.

He was giving concerts well into his nineties and intended to go on to 100.

It’s not a notably ambitious chart but his creative 7^th Harmonic (septiles) was strongly aspected; and his ‘super star’ 22^nd also.

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Barbra Streisand is leading a charge “in a war for the soul of America”, issuing her first album since 2005 with the lead single titled ‘Don’t Lie to Me’. In it she aims at “kings and queens, crooks and thieves” who “built towers of bronze and gold”.

In 2016 she wrote about the then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. He is “a narcissist who has shown no regard for anyone but himself. A bigoted and misogynist reality-TV character with no political experience and no qualms about lying loudly and often.”

She’s certainly a forceful enough character to wage war. Born 24 April 1942 5.08 am New York with a musical mother and a father who died when she was one, she grew up in near poverty.  She has a larger-than-life 1^st house Sun, Mercury in Taurus, below an Aries Ascendant, squaring onto a 5^th house Pluto Moon in Leo – so has endurance, is stubborn to the nth degree, very controlling and influential.

She has an accentuated Jupiter in Gemini in the communication 3^rd square the Node opposition Venus in musical Pisces – good at grabbing attention and born to perform. Singers often have Taurus in their charts, since it rules the throat. A flamboyant entertaining 5^th house Moon close to heavyweight Pluto means she packs a punch when it comes to putting herself across. Her Venus in Pisces is also the driving planet from an Earth Grand Trine of North Node trine Mercury trine her midheaven – so custom-built for a singing career.

And intriguingly she also has Saturn Uranus trine Neptune – which is the combination Trump has in his 5^th/10^th/15th Harmonics – so they tap into similar energies in the zeitgeist.

Her Saturn Uranus falls in his 10^th square his flashy Mars in Leo so she could make a difference and will certainly irritate him. With her exuberant, competitive and crusading Mars and Jupiter conjunct his Sun.

Their relationship chart has a composite Sun trine Neptune, sextile Mars which isn’t overly strong but does suggest an ego-clash. There’s another mini-Trine of Neptune trine Uranus Mercury sextile Pluto and Saturn square Neptune – lots of room in their for tensions and miscommunications.

On her personal chart, 2019 looks an unsettled year of fast-change and upheaval with tr Uranus conjunct her Sun and square Pluto. Tr Neptune conjunct her Venus and then square her Jupiter and Solar Arc MC in 2020 running into early 2021 don’t look overly cheerful – high hopes dashed. Where her relationship chart with Trump really stokes up aggravation is in 2022/23 as tr Pluto opposes the composite Mars.

Her life will alter dramatically through from 2019 to 2021 with tr Uranus hitting on her Sun, Mercury and Moon Pluto, all of them in Fixed signs, so she won’t find the changes easy to negotiate.

She’s been married to James Brolin, 18 July 1940 11.10 am, Los Angeles, for 20 years. He’s a late Sun Cancer opposition a Capricorn Moon; with a megaton Mars Pluto in Leo sitting on her Moon Pluto and square her Sun; with Jupiter Saturn and Uranus in Taurus. He’s as stubborn as she is. Though his Venus in Gemini is conjunct her Mars; and his Cancer Sun suits her Venus in Pisces. That is quite some relationship.

PS: Intriguingly, she’s relatively similar to his mother, Mary – a Sun, Saturn and Venus in Taurus with a Fixed sign Moon. Mind you so is Melania and she hasn’t managed to keep him in check.

Glenn Close is getting rave reviews for her role in The Wife, co-starring Jonathan Pryce, with hopes she might break her run as most-nominated-but-never-won at the Oscars. Though she has many other awards for Broadway, film and TV performances.

She was born 19 March 1947 2.12 pm Greenwich, Connecticut, with a medical father who worked in the Congo; and when she was 7 her parents became devotees of the Moral Rearmament cult, which trapped her in a restrictive childhood. She and her three other siblings were effectively separated and abandoned to MRA nannies as her mother and father went on pilgrimages round the world, settling the family eventually at the MRA headquarters in Switzerland. Glenn escaped when she was 21 but their fractured upbringing had a devastating effect on her younger sister Jessie who had a tumultuous life subsequently and was diagnosed late as bi-polar. There was a history of schizophrenia and suicide in the family.

Glenn herself has a challenging and difficult chart with an 8^th house Pisces Sun and an 8^th house Mars in Pisces square Uranus. Her Sun does trine a 4^th house Jupiter which is also square her Aquarius Moon which will make it easier for her to be forgiving of her parents, which she seems to be. She has the bleak Pluto Saturn in Leo just above her Leo Ascendant, so although she’s flashy in one way, she comes across as enigmatic and quite forbidding. Her Pluto is doubly emphasised being the driving planet from an Air Grand Trine of Uranus to Neptune to Venus, so she’ll be able to detach herself from difficult feelings but be powerfully persuasive at the same time. Not a lady to be pushed around.

Her 7^th house Moon Venus in Aquarius and 4^th house Jupiter will make her yearn for an affectionate and supportive partnership and home life but she’s been married and divorced four times. Perhaps a result, not only of the other challenges of her chart, but also because her Sun/Moon midpoint is conjunct her volcanic 8^th house Mars.

Her creative 5^th and 7^th Harmonics are strong as is her actress’s 15H.

She shows no signs of slowing down and with tr Pluto conjunct her Mars/Jupiter till late this year she will be on a roll; and her confidence gets an extra lift from tr Jupiter through her 5^th till autumn 2019. She’ll be even more on a high in the early 2020s with tr Pluto sextile her Jupiter and conjunct her Sun/Jupiter midpoint. But she’ll also have a fairly radical change of direction picking up next year as tr Uranus starts to move across her midheaven.

The devastating 7.5 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, has killed at least 832 people with fears the final death toll could be thousands. The Red Cross estimates that more than 1.6 million people have been affected which it described as a tragedy that “could get much worse”. The previous worst quake and tsunami with 100 foot waves in December 2004 was a 9.1 magnitude which killed nearly 230,000 along the Indian ocean coastline.

Indonesia, 17 August 1945 10 am Jakarta has tr Pluto squaring the 10^th house Saturn and midheaven (and midpoints) now, which is significantly discouraging and creating major challenges. With the July Cancer Eclipse also conjunct both Saturn and MC. That Solar Eclipse located to Palu has Saturn conjunct the IC.

The 2004 quake had Pluto conjunct the Ascendant with the Libra Solar Eclipse in square to the Indonesia Saturn MC.

With tr Pluto continuing to make a hardship-square to the Indonesia Saturn till late this year and tr Neptune squaring the Mars Uranus in Gemini until late 2019, there could be a difficult and long-drawn out aftermath.

Brand Beckham took another dent with David slithering out of a speeding charge through a technicality, which according to the Daily Mail will botch a much-longed-for knighthood. He’s shrugged off a fair number of scandals over the years and still managed to maintain his ordinary-guy image despite being superstar-wealthy. The sense is the public are starting to sour over the Beckhams’ flagrantly expensive lifestyle and their parading of the kids to ensure the brand stays in the spotlight. David is worth around £350 million which isn’t bad going for a footballer whom Alex Ferguson didn’t reckon world-class. Recently he’s been supporting his sour-faced wife Victoria’s failing fashion line.

Born 2 May 1975 6.17 am London, his chart does indicate a fair amount of pressure on his status, reputation and career in coming years. His Capricorn Moon on his midheaven is catching tr Uranus square for the second time this November and against next February, which could be emotional, but will also affect his standing. Depending on how accurate to the minute his birth time is (biography) he also has tr Pluto moving to conjunct his midheaven around 2022, though it could come before, which often accompanies a fall from grace.

This year and next he also has a panicky, undermining tr Neptune conjunct his 11^th house Mars suggesting uncertainty about future plans. Plus he has a downbeat tr Saturn in hard aspect to his Cardinal T Square of Pluto, Jupiter and Saturn later this year and through 2019. That will give him pause for thought about what comes next.

2019/2020 always did look like a scrunch point for his marriage, see post below. And by 2020/21 he has tr Neptune conjunct his Sun/Moon midpoint which doesn’t necessarily suggest a terminal split more major dissatisfaction and (further) drifting apart. He does look frustrated and trapped in 2019/2020; though being Beckham he’s also got good luck, and confidence, extending into the early 2020s.

Post June 11 2018

Heavy denials about celebrity marriage problems accompanied by lovey-dovey red-carpet cuddles are usually not a good sign. David and Victoria Beckham managed both which did nothing to quell the rumours.

The astrology always pointed to 2018/2019 as a danger point with tr Uranus conjunct first the composite Venus now, then Mercury in July and moving backwards and forwards over these into 2019 when tr Uranus will be conjunct the composite Sun and Mars. That looks exceptionally disruptive. Then tr Pluto will also square the composite Uranus in 2021 so it’ll be a rough ride ahead for several years. They are fairly lashed together because of the commercial brand mirrored in a composite Saturn square Pluto, which aspect is also being weighed down by tr Saturn this year, so a separation wouldn’t be simple.

There’s likely to be separations during all those Uranian firecrackers.   His chart has tr Uranus square his 10^th house Moon through into early 2019 so he will be rethinking his domestic life as well as career direction. And he does look directionless and less than confident about future plans with tr Neptune conjunct his 11^th house Mars in 2018/2019.

Victoria looks under huge pressure around 2020 and just after as tr Pluto squares her Aries Sun opposition Uranus.

My impression is he’s supporting her fashion business which isn’t doing well financially and they have led fairly separate lives.

NB Her birth time is unverified.

Lacking a twitter nanny to censor his more idiotic posts Elon Musk is now in a deep hole having been slapped with a lawsuit by the US Securities and Exchange Commission accusing him of securities fraud. This the result of a wild and erroneous tweet saying he was taking Tesla private, sending shares soaring. The worst-case scenario is he pays a considerable fine, and is banned from being a company director. When Martha Stewart faced a similar ban she became creative officer in her company.

Born 28 June 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa (sadly no birth time), he has a creative and experimental Cancer Sun Mercury square Uranus. like Julian Assange born five days later; and a head-in-the-clouds, high-finance Jupiter Neptune opposition Saturn; and an adventurous, uncompromising Mars in Aquarius square Jupiter.

Musk was in line for two collisions this year – one from Solar Arc Sun opposition his Mars and the other from Solar Arc Mars square his Sun, and by 2021 opposition his Uranus – which makes for a very bumpy ride.

Tr Saturn is also dampening his self-esteem this year as it hard-aspects his Sun and Uranus, and Mercury throughout 2019. He looks edgy in the extreme later this year; with Neptunian sinkers through until 2021. There will be a few moments of luck and relief in 2019 but not enough to outweigh the rest. And won’t really get back into gear before 2022.

For self-inflicted wounds the 10^th Harmonic is usually an indicator – and his is extraordinarily strong tying together Mars Pluto and Uranus and Jupiter and the North Node – a ruthless and desperate drive for progress, innovative and adventurous. The 10H usually indicates a rise and a fall.

His get-it-together 5H, often the sign of a creative businessman, is strong; as is his ‘seeking soul’ 7^th, which sometimes comes with a tinge of instability. His breakthrough/genius 13H is notable; even more so his leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17^th harmonic.

The Tesla IPO 29 June 2010 9.30am New York is also showing the strain over the next three months with a chart not dissimilar to Musk’s with a Cancer Sun Mercury opposition Pluto square Jupiter Uranus – all picking up tr Saturn dampeners till this December. The Solar Arc Midheaven is conjunct the destructive Fixed Star Algol right as of now.

And Tesla Motors, 1 July 2003, is similarly afflicted with a Sun, Mercury, Saturn in early Cancer – it hints at major upheavals in 2019 with Solar Arc Uranus square the Pluto. And Musk’s relationship chart with his company looks on a downhill slide from this year through till the early 2020s.

Genius comes at a price.

See previous posts: August 18 2018, Feb 8 2018, Nov 19 2017.

Pic: Steve Jurvetson

Northern Ireland has double trouble with the Brexit headache looming large and no functioning cabinet. It’s more than 600 days since the power-sharing government collapsed into stalemate and Theresa May has not stepped into to take charge through direct rule, because her hare-brained reliance on the DUP in Westminster would give rise of concerns about bias in their favour. Civil servants are overseeing a budget of more than £10 billion and problems are piling up because of a backlog of decisions which civil servants have no authority to take.

The Northern Ireland, 7 December 1922 3.28pm Belfast chart, certainly shows a panicky, uncertain and blocked phase picking up two years ago for both Brexit and the political impasse. Solar Arc Saturn made a discouraging opposition to the Moon, and there was a jolting Solar Arc Uranus opposition the NI Sun at that point. Then an undermining tr Neptune started to square the NI Sagittarius Sun and Mercury running on till late 2019; with a dead-halt Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the NI Saturn exactly now; plus a financially worrisome Solar Arc Neptune conjunct Venus, exact in early 2019. 2019 as well sees tr Pluto opposition the NI Cancer Moon for high angst and emotional responses from the no doubt fed-up population till late 2020.

There won’t be much joy until 2020 when tr Uranus opposes the Jupiter for a sigh of relief; and expansive tr Jupiter moves through the NI 8^th house of business finances for a year. And even then tr Pluto is moving closer to conjunct the midheaven (start time being accurate) in 2023/2024 which suggests a critical point in the Northern Ireland’s destiny with massive changes to status, reputation and direction in the years following.

The relationship charts between UK 1927 and UK 1801 with Northern Ireland both indicate considerable pressures at the moment and through 2019; but more major and ominous challenges (for Unionists) into the 2020s from 2022 onwards for two or three years.

Politicians everywhere are beyond a dead loss.

A truly terrifying expose of the chaos, incompetence, ignorant and wilfully uncaring transition into Trump’s shambolic administration comes in Michael Lewis’s The Fifth Risk out in October. He’s the author of The Big Short, made into a Brad Pitt film, which managed to make understandable the impenetrable complexities of the over-leveraged banking derivatives which led to the 2008 crash.

Transition preparations are mandatory for both presidential nominees in the months before the election to ensure the machinery of government with 2 million employees runs smoothly. When this was explained to Trump, according to Lewis, he responded ‘Fuck the law. I don’t give a fuck about the law.’ At one point he turned to Chris Christie and said: “Chris, you and I are so smart that we can leave the victory party two hours early and do the transition ourselves.”

“Trump was going to handle the transition more or less by himself. Not even Bannon thought this was a good idea. “I was fucking nervous as shit,” Bannon later told friends. “I go, ‘Holy fuck, this guy [Trump] doesn’t know anything. And he doesn’t give a shit.’”

“The election happened,” remembers Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, then deputy secretary of the Department of Energy. “And then there was radio silence.”

Lewis was born 15 October 1960, New Orleans, the son of a corporate lawyer and a community activist, started out studying art, then economics, worked for the investment bank Salomon Brothers and became finally a financial journalist. He is a Sun Libra sextile Jupiter in crusading Sagittarius; with a Half Grand Sextile of a tough Saturn in Capricorn opposition Mars, sextile/trine Neptune and Pluto – not short of discipline, determination or ambition. He also has in addition to Neptune, Mercury and Venus in Scorpio (good for research) square Uranus (outspoken).

His relationship chart with Trump has a composite power-struggling Sun Pluto; with a suspicious composite Neptune Saturn in a can-be-fanatical square to Uranus. It’s under heavy pressure now with tr Pluto square the Saturn and rocking n’ rolling through 2019 with tr Pluto opposition the composite Uranus and square Neptune. Plus an explosive tr Uranus square the composite Mars Node from April 2019 onwards.

Worth a read of the excerpt below, which includes an intriguing nugget about the Pences.

Excerpt: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/sep/27/this-guy-doesnt-know-anything-the-inside-story-of-trumps-shambolic-transition-team

Add on 2 October 2018: An interview with Lewis in The Times says he can imagine two ways in which the Trump era ends in calamity. One is he defaults on US sovereign debt, as he often walked away from his company’s debts in business. “He could precipitate a financial crisis that would make the 2008 crisis seem trivial.” And a run on the dollar. “We have $20 trillion in debt and he’s jacking up the deficit in ways that we haven’t seen in a long time and he has no compunction about stiffing creditors.”

The second stems from his disinterest in how the US government works and its ability to cope with major crises, so if one arose he would be exposed. He has “a lot of strange mental deficiencies, and one of them is he really doesn’t learn. He’s intimidated by any kind of complexity.”

‘I think that he’s not that interesting. I think he’s a very simple character. I think there’s not much there. This isn’t an electronic device, it’s a mechanical device. It’s an on-off switch kind of thing. You can understand it pretty easily.”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/times2/michael-lewis-trump-could-trigger-a-financial-crisis-b3lqbw0ks