Warm and Fuzzy Were the Eclipses

[Disclaimer: I take no position here. Anyone who attempts to pin one on me will be expunged from the discourse, with all possible prejudice.]

By Tuanna2010 (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons

Five thousand years of astrology says that eclipses are bad omens. NASA, the talking heads and all the modern “psychological” astrologers say that no, eclipses are warm and fuzzy and “activate” exciting new vistas in your life.

Well, let’s take a little look at the month that just was, shall we?

All Power Out as Hurricane Maria’s Winds, Floods Crush Puerto Rico
NBC News

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Maria is likely to have “destroyed” Puerto Rico, the island’s emergency director said Wednesday after the monster storm smashed ripped roofs off buildings and flooded homes across the economically strained U.S. territory….

It’s the new moon today. It’s been, ever since 10:22 PM Pacific Standard Time last night. Which means it’s been EXACTLY one “moon” since the eclipse. What’s taken place in that time?

Let’s just start with yesterday (Just the headlines, mac):

• Donald Trump tries to piss off the entire world at the UN and, in large part, succeeds.
• Toys-R-Us files for bankruptcy. (approx. 1600 stores)
• 7.1 Earthquake in Mexico City

Hurricane Harvey — Greatest amount of rainfall ever recorded in the continental USA. Suddenly appeared in 48 hours. Catastrophic flooding.

Hurricane Harvey (NASA)

Hurricane Irma — Most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean (Category 5). Catastrophic flooding. Utter devastation.

Acquittal of police officer for murdering Black motorist and planting gun in his car and subsequent protests/riots in St. Louis.

Republicans in Senate decide to go after health care AGAIN. (Third time is the murderous charm? Seriously, folks, I have never seen any American representatives so hell-bent on murdering their constituents. Well, at least since the Civil War.)

AUGUST:

Muller investigation keeps expanding.

The aftermath of the White Supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia (August 17, four days before the eclipse of August 21).

Trump sends more troops to Afghanistan

The Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and new trophy wife (Married by Veep Mike Pence) get in a world of hurt over use of government aircraft for pleasure trips and wife’s elitist tweet in defense of her Marie Antoinette Diet suggestions. (Also, from the Washington Post: “Mnuchin viewed eclipse from roof of Fort Knox”)

Trump goes to Arizona and attacks BOTH sitting United States Senators … who are ALSO Republicans.

Trump and Senate Leader McConnell now reportedly locked in a “cold war.”

Trump pardons convicted contempt of court for racial profiling former Maricopa County Sheriff (Arizona)  Joe Arpaio before sentencing.

Trump supporters circulate repurposed photos to pretend that Trump’s Arizona crowds were ‘yuge.’

Navy removes admiral after ship collisions that killed several sailors.

Maine Governor Paul LePage claims Civil War initially fought over land, not slavery.

Federal judge blocks further implementation of Texas’ voter ID law  for blatant racism. Supreme Court, without comment says “no, Texas is just fine” by 5-4 vote. Gorsuch is deciding vote.

Roger Stone: Any Politician Who Votes To Impeach Trump “Would Be Endangering Their Own Life”

Sebastian Gorka resigns post as Deputy Assistant to President Trump. [Immediately goes to work for Sinclair Broadcasting’s “mandatory” news stories shown on Sinclair-owned stations. We have two in Eugene (the CBS and NBC affiliates) and BOTH show Gorka’s agit-prop pro-Trump anti-fact “news segments” on our local news. Both show Sharryl Attkisson’s phony “investigative journalism” show — completely produced by Sinclair — with the CBS affiliate showing the half-hour “news” show right before CBS’ 60 Minutes on Sunday nights.]

 

Trump officially bans transgender people from US armed forces.

HANDOUT FROM JAMES O’KEEFE,
NO PHOTO CREDIT

Trump fires his rally organizer after not enough people show up at his Arizona rally. (Xerxes had the Hellespooont lashed when the sea destroyed his first pontoon bridge into Greece.)

GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter (one of Donald Trump’s first allies in Congress) describes Trump as “An A**hole, But He’s Our A**hole” to fellow GOPs.

Netanyahu Vows to Never Remove Israeli Settlements From West Bank: ‘We’re Here to Stay, Forever’

 San Francisco Chronicle: After melees, Berkeley mayor asks Cal to cancel right-wing Free Speech Week

Scientists say Hurricane Harvey was exacerbated by climate change; Republicans say that scientists owe their existence to the presence of a talking snake.

Andrew Kaczynski / CNN:
Rep. Rohrabacher says ‘rendezvous’ being set up with Trump to relay info from WikiLeaks’ Assange on DNC hack  —  STORY HIGHLIGHTS  —  (CNN) Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said Monday that a “rendezvous” is being set up between him and President Donald Trump to relay information he received …

Tom Vanden Brook / USA Today:
Mattis freezes transgender policy; allows troops to continue serving, pending study  —  WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis late Tuesday announced that transgender troops will be allowed to continue serving in the military pending the results of a study by experts.

Katie Leach / IJR:   Among Other Natural Disasters, Texas Is Facing Nightmare of Floating Fire Ant Colonies

Confederate monument protests, removals, threats and calls for new monuments were ubiquitous and numerous.

Explosions at Houston chemical plant

Fox News Poll: Voters’ mood sours, 56 percent say Trump tearing country apart  (August 31)

SEPTEMBER

Muller investigation keeps expanding.

Controversial Milwaukee Sheriff and Trump Supporter David Clarke Resigns Without Explanation

Trump slashes Obamacare’s advertising budget by 90%  —  White House also cuts the in-person outreach program by $23 million.

Kid Rock attempts to ingratiate himself with Trump’s literate base by writing (on Labor Day)  I am starting to see reports from the misinformed press and the fake news on how I am in violation of breaking campaign law.  —  #1 I have still not officially announced my candidacy.  —  #2 See #1 and go f**k yourselves.  —  Everyone else, Have a great Labor Day …

Damian Paletta / Washington Post: Trump pulls back threat to shut down government over border wall — for now

North Korea Says It Tested a Hydrogen Bomb

Justice Department confirms no evidence Obama wiretapped Trump Tower

Trump announces end of DACA ( Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and demands congress fix it. Then suggests he may reinstate after 30 days if  the congress fails to act.

Walter Becker, co-founder of Steely Dan, dies aged 67

Tronc, Owner of Los Angeles Times, Buys Tabloid New York Daily News

Putin says the nation that leads in AI ‘will be the ruler of the world’

created: Friday, ‎July ‎22, ‎2016, ‏‎8:25:13 PM

LIMBAUGH: HURRICANE WARNINGS ARE A LIBERAL CONSPIRACY (Irma)

Irma, the strongest Atlantic hurricane in history, keeps getting stronger

FEMA Is Almost Out of Money and Hurricane Irma Is Approaching

GOP livid after Trump cuts deal with Democrats

Facebook says it sold political ads to Russian company during 2016 election

Hurricane Irma destroys 90 percent of structures, vehicles on Barbuda

Hurricane Irma (NASA)

Kobach on Dreamers: ‘Correct policy’ is to ‘deport the whole family’

Hackers Gain Direct Access to US Power Grid Controls

Conservative Republicans plotting to oust Paul Ryan — and elect Gingrich or Santorum as new house speaker

143 million US consumers’ data stolen in Equifax breach

Homeland Security Plans Massive Roundups of Undocumented Immigrants

The Risk of Nuclear War with North Korea

Trump Administration Sides With Baker In Same-Sex Wedding Cake Case

Trump Jr. Says He Wanted Russian Dirt to Determine Clinton’s ‘Fitness’ for Office

More of the Trump pro-rape agenda’: Internet torches DeVos for rewriting campus sexual assault rules

Betsy DeVos Plans to Weaken Obama’s Campus Sexual Assault Rules

Did Facebook ads traced to a Russian company violate U.S. election law?

Bannon Says He Will Be Trump’s ‘Wingman’ Outside The White House

GOP Senators to Try Again With Alternate Obamacare Replacement

Equifax Says Cyberattack May Have Affected 143 Million Customers

Eric Bolling to pursue Senate seat after being terminated from Fox amid allegations of sexual harassment

Equifax finally responds to swirling concerns over consumers’ legal rights

Influential lawyer who inspired Trump’s Muslim ban claims ‘whites are genetically superior’ to people of color

Two NC Republicans say they accidentally asked the Supreme Court to end gerrymandering

Florida gun owners encouraged to ‘shoot the storm’ and fire their guns at Hurricane Irma

‘Gut wrenching’: Journalists and politicos react to tragic death of Eric Bolling’s 19-year-old son

Hurricane Irma is literally sucking the water away from shorelines …

Gov. Rick Scott enabled Irma’s Fury through Climate Denialism & Should Resign

Breitbart’s Bannon declares war on the GOP

Dozens of dogs abandoned, left unable to escape as Irma bears down

Jeff Sessions may force entire Security Council staff to take polygraph tests in war on ‘leakers’

Miami airport busts Trump social media director for spreading fake news in midst of storm

Sputnik, the Russian news agency, is under investigation by the FBI

Exclusive: Russia Used Facebook Events to Organize Anti-Immigrant Rallies on U.S. Soil

Houston’s Floodwaters Are Tainted With Toxins, Testing Shows

Russian politician says on live TV that Russia stole U.S. presidency

After nine months, federal offices are still waiting to hang Trump’s picture

U.N. agrees to toughest-ever sanctions against North Korea

8.1 earthquake shakes southern Mexico

After an earthquake and a hurricane — and Trump’s failure to send condolences — Mexico rescinds offer of aid to U.S.  —
President Enrique Peña Nieto talks to survivors in the city of Juchitan after a magnitude 8.1 earthquake killed at least 95 people in Mexico…

Senate approves resolution condemning white supremacist groups  (Trump later signs joint resolution with weird ‘signing statement’ walking it back)

Incredible flooding going on in Downtown Charleston.

Sanders will introduce Medicare for all bill Wednesday, with lots of Democratic co-sponsors

Alex Jones: Sources tell me Trump is being “covertly drugged” and is now slurring his words by 6 or 7 p.m. each night

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray resigns after fifth child sex-abuse allegation

Russia Sought A Broad Reset With Trump, Secret Document Shows

Edith Windsor, Whose Same-Sex Marriage Fight Led to Landmark Ruling, Dies at 88

Full Supreme Court Temporarily Preserves Trump Travel Ban

Exclusive: Paul Ryan Reportedly Says No Chance for Border Wall at Private Dinner

Member of Trump’s voter fraud panel pushed to exclude all Democrats, moderate Republicans, academics

Contractors say Clinton State Department silenced them on Benghazi security lapses  (Seriously? The Right has beaten this dead horse into a red smear on the asphalt, but they have nothing else to muddy the waters of the Russia scandal with, evidently.)

Bannon to appear at Berkeley ‘Free Speech Week’ with Yiannopoulos, Coulter   (Goebbels was unavailable, evidently.)

Trump ambassador qualifications: Wrote a cookbook, sang in a church choir

‘My body freezes — my heart stops’: NBC Journalist Katy Tur describes receiving an unwelcome kiss from Trump during campaign

Harvard psychiatrist Lance Dodes: Donald Trump is a “sociopath” and “a very sick individual”

Justice Department Will Not Bring Charges Against Any of the Officers Involved in Freddie Gray’s Death (Quelle surprise!)

Democrats say they have deal with Trump on young immigrants

The Latest: Trump resumes Twitter feud with Hillary Clinton

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, Whose Wife Went Viral for Flaunting Wealth, Asked to Use Government Jet for Their Honeymoon

 House Democrats to Mueller: Michael Flynn failed to disclose trip to broker Saudi-Russian nuclear deal

Judge Considers Defying Trump Over Arpaio Pardon

 White House Ethics Office Now Allows Anonymous Gifts to Staffers’ Legal Funds

 FEMA Nominee Withdraws Amid Questions About Falsifying Records

Motel 6 locations suspected of tipping off ICE agents of undocumented immigrants in Arizona

Bernie Sanders’s Bill Gets America Zero Percent Closer to Single Payer

POTUS Trump Went Nuclear on “Idiot” AG Sessions, Demanded He Resign After Mueller Appointment

GOP feels betrayed by Trump’s dealmaking with Dems

Facebook Enabled Advertisers to Reach ‘Jew Haters’

Trump Resurrects His Claim That Both Sides Share Blame in Charlottesville Violence

GOP Rep Goes Full Crazy And Claims Charlottesville Nazis Were Actually Liberal Actors

North Korea Launches Another Missile, Escalating Crisis

Reuters:   North Korea threatens to ‘sink’ Japan, reduce U.S. to ‘ashes and darkness’

FT journalist presumed dead after being ‘dragged into water by crocodile’

Parsons Green: London Underground blast is terror incident

Saudi Arabia Detains Critics as New Crown Prince Consolidates Power

U.S. Navy Investigating If Destroyer Crash Was Caused by Cyberattack

CNN Celebrity Chef Anthony Bourdain Says He Would Poison Trump’s Food

UC-Berkeley braces for riots over conservative Ben Shapiro’s speech on campus  [Sept 24-27]

Texas secession movement: Russia-linked Facebook group asked us to participate in anti-Clinton rallies

After Massive Giveaways to Industry, Mining Executives Will Spend Big at Trump’s D.C. Hotel

GOP Congressman Sought Trump Deal on WikiLeaks, Russia  —  Rep. Rohrabacher asks for pardon of Julian Assange in return for evidence of no 2016 election meddling

Eight Months In, and Trump Inaugural Committee Has yet to Provide Promised Funds to Charity

Judge rules in city’s favor on sanctuary cities, grants nationwide injunction

Twitter Lets You Target Ads to Millions of People Who Use the N-Word

Google Allowed Advertisers To Target “Jewish Parasite,” “Black People Ruin Everything”

Trump Advisers Secretly Met With Jordan’s King While One Was Pushing A Huge Nuclear Power Deal

Federal investigators have ‘thousands of intercepts’ related to Ukranian oligarch with ties to Paul Manafort

Faced with an up-or-down choice on Charlottesville resolution, Trump chooses third option

Ex St. Louis Cop Who Said He’d ‘Kill This Motherf****r’ Before Shooting Black Man Found Not Guilty By Judge

Senate Republicans claim they are a few votes away from repealing Obamacare

Trump’s fed attorney pick once cited infamous pro-slavery ‘Dred Scott’ case as anti-abortion precedent

New details about major Russian money-laundering investigation raise the stakes of Trump Tower meeting

America’s vitriol towards Clinton reveals a nation mired in misogyny

Trump’s Tweets About London Bombing Anger British Leaders

 The Trump Administration Won’t Release List of Mar-a-Lago Guests, Despite Court Order

 Invoice shows U.S. taxpayers billed $546 per night for government officials to stay at Mar-a-Lago

To paraphrase Homer …

Seeing the Confederacy Clear

Trump Administration Won’t Withdraw from Paris Climate Deal  (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal Claims Trump Rethinking Paris Climate Pullout, White House Denies

Russia probes leave Trump associates struggling with huge legal bills

Police and protesters clash in St. Louis after former officer who shot black driver acquitted on murder charges

FEMA auctioned disaster trailers before Harvey made landfall

More former classmates of Mnuchin call on him to resign

Sign language interpreter used gibberish, warned of bears, monsters during Hurricane Irma update

Hurricane Jose May Threaten New York, U.S. East Coast Next Week

 After 8 Nursing Home Deaths, Florida Issues Emergency Rules to Protect Elderly

Coulter defends CNN’s Anthony Bourdain for joke about poisoning Trump

Establishment gears up for Steve Bannon’s war on the GOP leadership

U2 cancel St. Louis concert due to ongoing protests over Jason Stockley acquittal

Rolling Stone, Once a Counterculture Bible, Will Be Put Up for Sale

Interior Report Recommends Cuts or Changes to Seven National Land Monuments

Shrink at least 4 national monuments and modify a half-dozen others, Zinke tells Trump

Trump retweets GIF of him hitting Clinton with golf ball

Senate GOP tries one last time to repeal Obamacare

House Democrats Break Campaign Fundraising Record

Four Boston College students attacked with acid in France

 Raids, warrants, and wiretaps: The Trump-Russia probe ‘has reached a critical stage’

Murray makes big concession in bipartisan health talks

 John McCain Compares New Obamacare Repeal Effort To ‘Murder Or Train Robbery’

Fox News Contributor Says Rape Allegation Blacklisted Her

Eric Trump’s foundation holds clandestine event at Trump golf club despite open investigation into charity practices

A chilling study shows how hostile college students are toward free speech

Trump Administration Rejects Study Showing Positive Impact of Refugees

Senate Republicans Consider a Trillion-Dollar-Plus Tax Cut for Budget

Equifax Suffered a Hack Almost Five Months Earlier Than the Date It Disclosed

Jerry Brown compares Trump supporters to cave dwellers

Stanislav Petrov, Soviet soldier credited with saving world from nuclear war, dies at 77

Clinton urges government workers not to quit their posts

Latino Republicans Say They Aren’t Getting Their Calls Returned By The White House

How the FEC Turned a Blind Eye to Foreign Meddling

Wall Street Journal: Climate Change Hype Doesn’t Help

Anti-Fascists Used Twitter To Find A Neo-Nazi Walking Around Seattle And Beat Him Up

Toys ‘R’ Us, Once a Category Killer, Is Forced Into Bankruptcy

Oh, and the Northwest is burning (all month):

Smoke from the Western Fires in September (NOAA -GOES 16)

And we’re up to date with Maria ravaging Puerto Rico and José menacing the US Eastern seaboard. And dthe Mexican cleanup from two huge earthquakes: 8.1 and 7.1. (By contrast, the infamous 1994 “Northridge quake” in LA was only a 6.7.

Hurricane Maria Over Puerto Rico
(click pic for full size)

Joseph and Mary — an exclamation being muttered in a big chunk of the Caribbean.

It that’s a “warm and fuzzy” eclipse, I’d hate to see a bad one.

[Traditionally, earthquakes are a well-known astrological effect of eclipses — just sayin.]

Here’s some Nuagey twaddle for you:

This Eclipse opens a portal into a big New Chapter of life on Planet Earth, a New Chapter that will take us through an important part of our transition into the Age of Aquarius.

Quite obviously this New Chapter brings with it much turmoil and challenge, to put it lightly; but this New Chapter will also bring many great awakenings, heart openings, a greater sense of connection and meaning, and new vistas of truth beyond what we have been programmed to believe about ourselves and our world.

And some scientific twaddle to go with it:

Do solar eclipses affect humans?
No, there’s no evidence that eclipses have any physical effect on humans. However, throughout history, eclipses have been known to produce profound psychological effects. For millennia, they were sometimes interpreted as portents of doom by virtually every known civilization.

Empiricism — observation of reality — doesn’t seem to bear either one out. The old superstitious notion that eclipses aren’t portents of doom isn’t refuted by this moon-ths news.

And that’s my point. Again, no position taken, just the alternative facts, ma’am.

Feels pretty doomy to me.

Courage.