The US presidential election of 2024

The results are in! And the winner of the 2024 US presidential election is…Wall Street, along with the American oligarchy. The American people lost, though change is coming. The Democrats had completely lost the plot, and the election. Oh, and Donald Trump was elected as the 47^th POTUS. For more, read on…

As most astrologers had predicted, Donald Trump went on to win the election. We will not cover the charts of Harris and Trump here. Instead, more important is to look at the United States itself regarding the results of this election. To say the campaign leading to the election has been a circus would be understating the fact. Trump was his usual bombastic self on the campaign trail, while Harris was quite the opposite and made few appearances. She never debated Trump after the first debate and her campaigning was lacklustre. America lost the joy and she is no longer speaking.

The two main 3^rd party candidates – RFK Jr. and Jill Stein – each garnered about 0.4% of the popular vote each, which is a terrible result for several reasons – lack of funding, networks side-lining them, the requirement for major money to even be placed on state ballots, etc. To start, though, let’s begin to parse some facts.

What we saw in this election was neatly summarized by Max Blumenthal: It was a complete repudiation of the Democratic Party, mostly by young voters. Younger voters saw no future with the Democrats, saw that their economic situation was a bit better under Trump, and they were tired of being dictated to, having seen most of their coverage of the campaign on social media. One of the biggest causes of the disenchantment among younger voters was the Democrat support for the genocide in Palestine. They could not identify with Harris.

As to the result itself, there are some pundits claiming Trump won BIGLY, as in a landslide. That is pure hyperbole, which we will cover presently. But there was something rather curious about this election. Trump won the election, but with only a small bump in the popular vote, as in just under 400,000 votes in his favour, comparing the 2020 election results with those of 2024. Harris’ popular vote count was roughly 10 million votes less than that of Biden in 2020, the latter being all out of proportion with the previous election. Biden’s win in 2020 was 10 million votes in excess of the average for the Democrats, looking at the elections held in this century. Considering how divided the nation has been since the turn of this century, Biden’s win in 2020 has given pause to many people to think the election was stolen. We’ll leave that as a mental exercise. There are bigger fish to fry here.

The last electoral landslide we saw was the 1984 race between Reagan and Mondale, where Reagan won 95% of the electoral college. Harris wound up with just over 40% of the Electoral College votes. The Dems lost the popular vote by a margin of about 2.5%. That is hardly a landslide for Trump, so we can lay that one to rest. What the result points to is instead is an outdated system of choosing presidents (the Electoral College) that needs reforming if not removal, as well as revealing a more or less evenly divided society (popular vote). A swing in popular vote of 5 – 10% is not unusual in elections. But what the result also signals is that Trump does not necessarily have a mandate in terms of public opinion. He will face some strong opposition. What happened to the Dems, then, really?

To paraphrase a recent comment on the failed Democrat run, who would have thought perpetrating and fully supporting genocide in Gaza would become a campaign issue? Or pouring billions into the Ukrainian black hole that every sane analyst predicted would be a disaster for the West? Or pursuing a global attack on freedom of speech and freedom of the press, while at the same time claiming to defend press freedom? Who would have thought any of those were good ideas? We can add inflation into the mix, too. The economic state of a nation more or less decides public sentiment in elections. Inflation ballooned under Biden.

Let’s be honest and frank here: The Democrats ran a bad campaign, with a candidate who has all the magnetism and appeal of a fence post, without even running a primary to choose her (the result of a palace coup against Biden), who garnered not even a single delegate in her previous presidential run (What were the Dems thinking?), all the while supporting censorship and pandering to the Israel lobby. If Harris had opposed the genocide the Democrats would have stood a good chance of winning the election. This campaign mirrored the Democrat run in 2016, except this time the Dems lost the popular vote by a few percentage points.

To get to the bottom of why the Dems lost and why they will languish into the future if they try to maintain their present trajectory, the reason is simple: The Democrats have betrayed their traditional voter base, starting in earnest with Bill Clinton and his Third Way economics. The point here is neoliberal economic policy is strangling the working classes across the West, all the while the tiny elites at the top of each nation have become insanely wealthy. And Americans have had enough. Voting for Trump gave at least enough a little bit of hope that things would change in their favour, whereas they saw no such hope with Harris.

With all the preceding aside, what does the US chart say about the election? The chart with transits and directions is below (bigger):

The first thing of note in the chart is that most of the activity is in the bottom half of the chart, indicating inner, domestic concerns. There is a natal semisquare between Pluto and the US Ascendant, which was activated on Election Day by a separating solar arc of Jupiter by square from the 3^rd house and then triggered by Saturn in its retrograde transit. The fact these two planets squared the Horizon axis showed the divided nature of the nation. The Jupiter/Saturn combination showed a ‘change of scenery’ or residence. The direction of Jupiter to the Pluto/Ascendant showed the influence of the oligarchs going into the election – Musk in particular – while the transit of Saturn makes its direct station there on the 15^th of this month, at which point the public will be made aware of their predicament or hopes (depending) regarding the incoming administration.

Further indicating a change of season and leadership is the direction of the Midheaven (MC) square the natal Ceres. Directions to and from Ceres often indicate a sort of ‘crossroads’ experience and a ‘change of season’ – in this case, a change of political season. The change of political season is also shown by the direction of the nodal axis to the natal Sun, which amounts to a moon wobble by direction and which shows a change of allegiances. Next year that direction will show the south node conjunct the natal Saturn starting within orb in May, which itself indicates a time of reckoning for the nation. Saturn with the south node has been called the ‘master of tragedy’. Without being hyperbolic, that direction will simply show the ‘karmic chickens’ coming home to roost. It is too much to go into here, but the US is facing several very serious challenges, namely economic, military and social.

On the day of the election Musk tweeted “Novus ordo seclorum”, from the Latin, broadly meaning ‘a new order has arrived’, more literally meaning ‘a new order for the ages’. The phrase appears on the reverse side of the American $1 bill, since 1935. In 1935 a new order had arrived for the US, in the guise of the New Deal. Musk’s tweet refers, of course, to the election of Trump and the presumed commencement of a new world order. We’ll see about that.

There is a new world order emerging – in Eurasia – but it is not the sort of order either Musk or the more die-hard Trump supporters might imagine. There is a change of government indicated in the chart, though, the possibility of which occurs roughly every 44 years, shown by the direction of a combination of Mercury/Ceres/Uranus to the US Midheaven (MC). That same natal combination will become activated by the directed MC to Uranus starting in late April next year. Thus we have a lag of about six months between the trio of planets just mentioned contacting the natal MC, and then the directed MC activating the natal trio. So every 44 years, roughly, we see significant changes in the US government and/or its policies.

The first time we saw the directed US Midheaven to the trio of planets was in 1800. The American Revolutionary War had ended a few years before. America was in the process of getting on its feet. Europe was embroiled in war. The White House became the official residence of the President. John Adams was the first president to live there. The Library of Congress was founded. Congress was moved to Washington, D.C., firmly establishing the District of Columbia as the nation’s capital. Washington, D.C. became the federal district of the US from then on.

The 1846 direction of the MC opposite the US Uranus followed on the instalment of James K. Polk as President the year before. The term ‘Manifest Destiny’ came into the American discourse. American expansionism and exceptionalism under Polk led to the annexation of Texas, the Oregon Territory and California, resulting from the Mexican-American War. America had thereby expanded to encompass the land from ‘sea to shining sea’.

The Midheaven direction to the Mercury/Ceres/Uranus combination of 1892 saw the election of Grover Cleveland. Cleveland oversaw tariff reforms, modernization of the military, fiscal conservatism, with perhaps his greatest legacy being that he, “…almost single-handedly restored and strengthened the power and autonomy of the executive branch.” He was the precursor to the modern presidency that was finally exemplified in Theodor Roosevelt from then on.

The next such direction of the US Midheaven was in 1936, at the height of the Great Depression. FDR was reelected for his 2^nd term, cementing his New Deal policies into law. Much to the chagrin of the American 1% and corporate oligarchy, democratic socialism became a much beloved part of American life – Social Security, the GI Bill, great advances in American infrastructure, the FDIC, the SEC, the National Labor Relations Act, and so on. Those are programs the same 1% and corporations have been steadily working at dismantling since, much to the pain of the average American. That dismantling led to the next such direction.

The last such direction, just described, was in 1980, with the defeat of Jimmy Carter by Reagan, largely due to economic pressures. But such is the nature of American politics. Regan’s tenure ushered in the ‘trickle-down’ supply-side economics era, which Trump tried to duplicate in his previous term. Reagan’s legacy was one of tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, support for the Federal Reserve, his fight to restore traditional values and the legacy of nuclear détente. That was also the year after the Iranian Revolution, which the US and Israel have been trying to reverse since then. The Soviet Union was collapsing under its own internal struggles and gerontocracy, not to mention being bled dry by Russian satellite states.

What we take from these directions of the US Midheaven is that every time it contacts the Mercury/Ceres/Uranus combination by direction we see significant changes within the US regarding its governance. What we might see going forward is as yet unclear, with Trump currently in the transition period to the next administration, but there are signals.

Directed Saturn has been sitting on the US Mars for the past year and beginning its square to the US Neptune, giving the following:

• • • Sat=Mars/Nep: “being subjected to coercive measures. Emotional suffering caused through the sickness of other people.”

In that reading we see the legacy of the pandemic with all the talk of the necessity of vaccination, the ‘China virus’ scam, ‘Putin puppets’ if one opposed the war in Ukraine or event thought Russia might win that war (which they will), the current ‘antisemitism’ trope being used to silence any criticism of Israel and/or support for the Palestinians…It’s a long list. And the ‘sickness of other people’ refers more to the misguided or even deliberate attempts of the elite class to silence any opposition to Washington policy.

Transiting Jupiter was triggering the directed Saturn, giving a ray of hope in otherwise difficult circumstances. The US military is facing defeat by proxy in Israel and Ukraine, despite what we hear in the US media. The direction of Saturn to Mars is a very frustrating dynamic and it has done much to lay bare Washington’s rhetoric abroad about human rights, the strength of its military, the ‘international order’, international law, sanctions as a weapon and so forth. The world, by and large, has had enough of Washington’s duplicity and hypocrisy. What is clear is that the narratives out of Washington since the start of this century are due for an overhaul.

Jupiter will make its direct station by transit in the first part of February on the US Descendant, at which point Trump will be in office, if he is not assassinated before then. Yes, folks, the people in the Washington establishment see that the Israeli project is failing and facing collapse if the war in Palestine continues for much longer. It may be all over but the crying anyway by the time of the inauguration unless some desperate measures are taken – or unless the Israelis see the light and sue for peace. Cue the fake story that the Iranians want to assassinate Trump. If that were to happen it would be considered a casus belli for war with Iran. Thankfully, Trump has stated he will not be having Pompeo or Nikki Haley in his administration – two of the most rabid Iran hawks. Yes, but there are other Iran hawks he has chosen.

The youth vote was mentioned above. That was shown by a direction of Mercury (youth) to the 4^th house cusp (IC, the political party opposing the sitting government). In fact, the entire Mercury/Ceres/Uranus combination was directed to the US MC/IC (Meridian) axis on the day of the election. With the US Midheaven to be directed to that natal combination just after the inauguration and when transiting Jupiter moves off the US Mars in the first part of May next year we can expect a sombre mood in Washington. Jupiter will have effectively moved off the direction squaring the Horizon at the election. It is at that point we will see what this administration really has in store.

Lest we get carried away, anyone who thinks Trump is going to sweep in and overhaul the ‘swamp’ in Washington does not know Washington or US politics. The President is not all-powerful. Trump will face a deeply entrenched bureaucracy, some of which opposes him. If team Trump commences their term by firing a bunch of managers, seeking to slim down government, the fight will be on. We would see all sorts of lawfare rolled out against Trump, bogging him down.

The two main wars in which the US is involved are going quite badly for the US. The Russians will accept nothing short of what was signed in Istanbul in 2022 regarding Ukraine – Ukrainian neutrality, no foreign forces in Ukraine’s borders and an end to the Banderite regime in Kiev. As for freezing the conflict, forget it. In Israel the Resistance will accept nothing short of a two-state solution with Palestinian sovereignty. Watch and see. Trump will have his peace plans thrown back at him. Then we will see what is what.

The American economy is burdened with a sky-high debt. If Congress tries to cut social programs to balance the budget instead of closing the vast majority of American military bases public sentiment will sour very quickly. The tariffs Trump is trumpeting will cause pain to the American consumer. WalMart stores will be closing one-by-one if those tariffs are enacted. Most Americans survive on cheap imports – cars, clothes, electronics, services, even food, and much of that comes from China. Retail sales will likely plummet under a regime of tariffs against any nation that opposes Trump’s policies.

Militarily the US cannot sustain a multifront war. The capacity for manufacturing weapons is gone. And the US relies on imports of rare earth metals for much of its high tech hardware. Guess from where most of that comes – that’s right, China and Russia.

But the biggest concern many people have with Trump is what might evolve to be his foreign policy, with Israel being a big concern. Marian Adelson gave $100 million to Trump’s campaign. His Zionist donors are going to expect results. And some of those donors want at the very least to curtail Iran. How they might do that is a wonder, because Iran is already one of the most sanctioned nations on Earth. And military strikes? – well, Israel just found out about that one. Iranian air defences were almost impregnable, regardless of what we hear.

And finally, even within the Republican Party Trump faces opposition from the old guard. Mitch McConnell is already seeking to undermine Trump’s selection for Senate Majority Leader (Rick Scott). Rick Scott of Florida is the richest sitting Senator, and is hawkish on the Resistance.

So, we take a deep breath, and maybe hold off on the sigh of relief, depending on your persuasion politically. These are very early days. If a week is a long time in politics, then a few months can seem an eternity. Much will depend upon whom Trump gathers around him in his administration, and who his closest advisors will be. In the meantime the Democrats have quite a bit of soul-searching to do. And as for third parties, those have to take root and grow. But until the system is changed and third parties are given air time, not much will change. For now, we wait and see…

Featured pic from Inside Higher Ed