Portland has become the flashpoint for the toxic divisiveness that has always simmered below the surface in the USA. Trump has summarily sent in federal troops against the wishes of the Mayor and Oregon State Governor to forcibly break up the fifty-day long protests after the death of George Floyd and detain demonstrators. The mayor said, “They are sharply escalating the situation. Their presence is leading to more violence and more vandalism.” The Governor described the presence of federal troops in the city as “purely political theatre”.
Portland was incorporated on 8 February 1851 which gives an Aquarius Sun in a confident trine to Jupiter. But what marks Portland out as a USA hotspot is its Mercury at 24 degrees Capricorn on the focal point of a T Square to a disruptive, reforming Uranus Pluto in Aries opposition Jupiter. That rebellious T Square clashes with the USA’s can-be-fanatical Pluto in Capricorn opposition Mercury in Cancer, which has always been a trigger point for incendiary arguments. The USA chart’s bitterly argumentative Mercury Pluto is under stress this year and on until late 2023 with first the transiting Saturn Pluto this year in hard aspect and then tr Pluto thereafter through the Pluto Return.
Mercury opposition Pluto exacerbates suspicion, paranoia, is associated with demagogues and those guilty of fraudulent misrepresentation, promotes over-intense debates with a drive for domination and little latitude for compromise, can teeter on the brink of nervous collapse through strain.
In 1934 Portland longshoreman shut down all shipping as part of a west coast strike for higher pay. That was when tr Pluto was conjunct the Mercury and moving to oppose the USA Pluto –exactly a half Pluto cycle before now.
So Portland does have a role in the USA dramatic mise en scene as a catalyst for explosive arguments. The Portland chart has a leadership North Node in Leo which their Solar Arc Sun will conjunct in 2021 – more can be expected into the next presidency with the city leading the way.
Trump hooks into the middle of the USA Mercury opposition Pluto with his Venus Saturn in Cancer. And his relationship chart with the USA has a composite Mars (opposition Moon) at the same degrees. Right down in the heart of the rancid darkness. He lights the fuse.