Occupy Uranus – The (ahem) End of the World As We Know It?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on June 7, 2012 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Thursday, June 7th, 2012Okay, enough asstrological wisecracks. This summer begins a series of exact transit hits between Uranus and Pluto. When these planets have transited in the past century, we got the revolutionary 60′s and the rollup to World War II.
One fun thing about the world ending is that there are so many ways it can happen. I’ve always been into edgecrafting things, so I found myself utterly dissatisfied with the basic Mayan 2012 scenario. That’s why I early this year, I suggested more interesting possibilities like Chicken Shawarmageddon. I also happen to dabble in astrology (a potentially embarrassing fact I’ve previously shared here and in my Astrology 101 piece), which meant that the revolution and protest of 2011 was no surprise to me. In fact I was predicting it a full year early. That’s probably why I haven’t gotten rich off my astrology skills. Anyway, events are in fact moving along more or less as one would expect when Uranus is squaring Pluto. The two planets began their little square dance in early 2011, coming within 5 degrees of squaring each other for the first time in January, around the time of the Egyptian uprisings. Pluto switched between retrograde and direct motion in short bursts until July, when it got in closer square with Uranus. The two planets remained in a close retrograde orb until Pluto broke away and went direct on September 17, 2011, which interestingly was the first day of the OWS occupation of Zucotti Park. Who knows, maybe the planners did this on purpose. A lot of them are old hippies, you know. In any case, this motion of Pluto pulled the two planets into a wider orb, reaching their greatest separation around the end of December, when they were about 7 degrees apart. You can blame Occupy fizzling on cold weather, I blame it on Uranus and Pluto. In any case, the two have been zooming back together since then, and will have their first transit “hit” (one of several) on June 26. We’re already seeing flareups of revolt and unrest around the world; most recently in Quebec, and prior to that, the May Day protests around the world that were most vigorous in Europe, where austerity is being shoved down the masses’ throats by an affluent elite. We’re also seeing things like (so far failed) attempts to recall leaders in the US, where the battleground again is over the working person fighting to retain their dignity while deceitful and affluent politicians legislate it away through things like union-busting, “emergency manager” acts, and teacher layoffs and pay cuts. So those are the planets involved, and some events that have occurred recently in the real world and their dates, but what is the supposed meaning of the phrase “Uranus square Pluto”? Read the rest of this entry »
Wikileaks, The People
[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 12, 2011 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Saturday, March 12th, 2011In an era of civil unrest driven by injustice and anonymous activism, you may already be a part of the revolution and just not realize it.
 This image makes more sense when you see the whole thing. |
I find it interesting that the media forces behind the political movement in America that fancies itself to be somehow modeled after the protests of the Boston Tea Party are amongst the loudest voices proclaiming that the teachers, fireman, police officers and others who are protesting to protect the livelihood of the working class in Wisconsin are “rabid mobs of criminals and thugs”. I also find it interesting that in spite of plans for a “day of rage”, the Saudi Arabian monarchy managed to prove once again that the best way to oppress people is to tell them that God wants it that way. And in efforts to squelch information elsewhere, it’s likely that the appeal by the lawyers of Wikileaks’ Julian Assange will fail, and he will be extradited to Sweden, and later be snagged by the US government, in keeping with the Swedish government’s previous complicity in US-organized rendition and torture. One minor problem the US government may face is where to torture people like Assange now; the Egyptian protesters seem to have breached their favorite destination for torture. Not to worry though, they can just stick him naked in a cell with Bradley Manning if they have to, right? But these are interesting times, and I don’t think that these conventional methods are going to stop the slowly growing sense of injustice that’s spreading around the world. It’s becoming difficult to even keep track of where exactly the unrest is; this CNN summary covers much of the Mideast, but almost no media sources are talking about what’s happening in Portugal for instance. And aside from the public protests, there’s another interesting movement afoot. One that will be very difficult to target as an “enemy”, because it has no body, no face, no singular agenda, and no headquarters. I’m not only talking about hacktivists like Wikileaks and Anonymous. I’m talking about people like me, and maybe you. People who have enough common sense to realize that in almost every country in the world, the concern for collective well-being is no longer about which political party is in office, but which corporations own them. Hacktivists will obviously play a role for a while, but in an environment of protests, whistleblowing, and crackdowns against them, it will be hard to keep the facts straight. One recent example of this was when, in an hilarious variation on the ancient adage “if you meet the buddha on the road, kill him“, the American media was hoodwinked in a huge way about the nature of the amorphous internet group Anonymous. MSNBC recently interviewed a fellow who claims to be a “senior strategist and propagandist” for Anonymous, and even tech blogs like this one took the bait and ran with it. People seem to just eat this stuff up; one of the few sources you’ll find that questions the likely fallacy of this fellow’s claims is TheOtherMcCain.com. It doesn’t take a genius to piece together that a group of extremely intelligent anarchistic programmers probably doesn’t send their chain-smoking general to lay out their agenda on MSNBC. Another example is a recent Gawker piece that asks What Does Anonymous Have on Bank of America?, and then goes on to basically say “nothing”. But that you should watch for that nothing this coming Monday. Careful Gawker, remember what happened last time you got Anonymous pissed off. But I personally expect to see more unrest, and to see it fueled by the kind of leaks that can only happen via the internet. Regardless of whether you approve of the specific actions of groups like Anonymous or Wikileaks, or individuals like Bradley Manning, they’re going to affect you. It may be impossible to intentionally engineer a bankrun, but the seed gets planted in the mind, and when the dirt comes out on a politician like Scott Walker in Wisconsin, we’ll see more events like the bankrun by Wisconsin fireman against M&I. Anonymous may be more on the mark than we think with the slogan “none of us is as cruel as all of us”. Read the rest of this entry »
CrimethInc – Anarchy For Fun & Profit
[ Comments Off ]Posted on July 25, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Sunday, July 25th, 2010CrimethInc is one of the best-organized non-organizations you never heard of.
I’ve often lamented the demise or sellout of culture-jamming publications like Might Magazine*
This Summer Could Be A Real Riot
[ Comments Off ]Posted on April 24, 2010 by admin in Politics
Saturday, April 24th, 2010They say that when things heat up in this country, all the scum seems to rise to the top.
There’s an old expression in southern political banter that goes something like “seems like when things heat up in this country, all the scum rises to the top“. It does seem like things are heating up lately; everybody from survivalist nutjobs to the New York Times are saying so. That NYT piece talks not only about the tea party movement, but “A Sprawling Rebellion” that seems to be spreading across the entire liberal/conservative spectrum. I’ve mentioned revolution with a little humor for a while, but I usually do so in jest; you have to understand that I live in the state that spawns the weird “Christian” Militias you hear about in the news. This is different though. The unrest in Greece, Thailand and Kyrgyzstan has all been largely driven by economics and employment/labor issues, and aside from the paranoia that some spread about the proposed bill that would supposedly make domestic internment camps possible right around the same time that a US Army Brigade is being deployed on US soil under Homeland Security control, the fact is that when the global investment ratings firm Moody’s is worried about civil unrest in the states, maybe we should take pause too. And it’s not just the possibility of riots in a long hot summer of unemployment to think about. In this Chris Hedges piece, the not-very-popular but always insightful Noam Chomsky points out that “The United States is extremely lucky that no honest, charismatic figure has arisen…Every charismatic figure is such an obvious crook that he destroys himself, like McCarthy or Nixon or the evangelist preachers. If somebody comes along who is charismatic and honest this country is in real trouble because of the frustration, disillusionment, the justified anger and the absence of any coherent response.” In fact, I’d be willing to bet that in spite of his comical appearance and peculiar speech mannerisms, the guy in the video below would have no trouble getting elected if he ran for office today. Read the rest of this entry »
Apathy & The American Revolution
[ Comments Off ]Posted on April 10, 2010 by admin in Politics
Saturday, April 10th, 2010Sure. We need a revolution in America. A revolution in the way we think.
No, not that one. And no, not that new one that tries to ride on its coattails. I’m thinking of a different one. One that’s not necessarily driven by politics. I have to admit I was a little moved by the images from Boston.com’s “Big Picture” features this week that covered the massive protests in Thailand and Kyrgyzstan. Seeing civilians organized in large enough numbers to overwhelm security forces clad in high-tech riot gear immediately made me curious about two things. First of all, how did so many people get on the same page and take action? And second, what were they really protesting? The answer to the first question is still being analyzed by major news sources, but the uprisings had common motives. Most sources are citing government corruption, murky privatization schemes, oligarchical leadership, and financial hardship for the working class while elites flourish. Sound familiar? Why are we so complacent about similar things happening in America? I live in one of the states hardest-hit by the recent mini-econopocalypse. Things are so bad here in Michigan that the city of Flint is burning down while firefighters are being laid off. You may have heard of Flint because that’s where documentary filmmaker and rabble-rouser Michael Moore started his career, with Roger & Me