The planets remain mostly in the morning sky, as shown in these illustrations from Astronomical Calendara 2022:
See the end note about enlarging illustrations.
Here is the view from America:
Mars is today at its autumn equinox. This means that its northern and southern polar icecaps are equally in view. From this moment on, the northern hemisphere begins to be tipped away from the Sun. The corresponding autumn, or fall, equinox for Earth occurs in September when the Sun appears in the Virgo direction; in earlier ages, that equinox point was in Libra, the constellation of the Scales, which was a reason why that group of stars got its name, the “Scales.” the “Balance.”
War god on Earth
Bloody Mars is (in the Iliad) “forever quarreling, most hateful of all gods.”
Our friend Basia returned to London by the last possible flight from Ukraine, where she was serving as a peace monitor for the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe.
Vladimir “KGB-Face” Putin, whose ambition is to go down in history as rebuilder of the Russian empire, conquered a choice coastal part of Ukraine, the Crimea, in 2014, and has manufactured a pretext for conquering the rest –
I finished writing this piece very late last night and should have published it then, but for one point I wanted to be sure of. This morning Mars tipped the scales.
I cribbed this map from the New York Times. Ukraine, second largest country in Europe after Russia, has been closely surrounded on north, east, and south by overwhelming masses of Russian troops, artillery, tanks, warships. and bomber aircraft.
Ethnic Russians in small regions of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces have been fighting against Ukrainians since 2014, have set up separatist “People’s Republics,” and have tried to claim also the larger other parts of those two provinces. Putin’s manufactured pretext was to recognize these puppet states, encourage them to attack beyond their borders, and then come to their “defence.”
Ukrainian citizens have taken up arms; even children have been learning how to shoot. What could be World War Three, and at least will be a horrific bloodbath, has started.
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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor. One way: right-click, and choose “View image”, then enlarge. Or choose “Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it. On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers). Other methods have been suggested, such as dragging the image to the desktop and opening it in other ways.
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This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
In re social vs. military spending. The world is a nasty place, States need to take care of their defense, and a social safety net is neccessary, whatever domestic arrangements are predominant–BUT that safety net must not be so comfortable that it becomes a hammock.
Mars represented the unbridled passions of war those that lead not just to mere violence–but to undisciplned BARBARISM whereas Quirinus was, according to Georges Dumezil, the representative of discipline and control in war. Putin, judging from the rather slapdash invasion and in view of some very nasty acts by teh Russian Army seems to be ruled by Mars.
Ukraine did nothing to deserve any of this—sad situation and will get worse.
These things happen when the US shows weakness, such as abandoning Afghanistan which we had under control with merely 2500 troops. In addition, our current Democrat leadership cut military spending, This subverts the idea that the best offense is a strong defense,
But the blame can’t be totally placed on our current leadership. The US now spends about 50% of its budget on social programs and only 10% on defense. That trend started with FDR and was doubled down by LBJ’s war on poverty.
To respond, The United States is not “showing weakness”; it Is exhibiting wisdom. The Afghanistan withdrawal card was played by trump and the leader of their own country fled. Even Russia abandoned Afghanistan many decades ago.
Thank You Guy for Your Insight and Always Bringing the World View and The Celestial View Into Perspective.
Crimea was only the testing ground…I pray for Ukraine and all countries boarding Putin*s desired reunification.
Yes, Trump was actively seeking to disengage from Afghanistan, though not in the reckless way it panned out. His withdrawl was plan was merit based with key conditions the Taliban did not or could not meet, which is why the withdrawl hadn’t taken place until Biden chose to close down the embassy, abandon Bagram AFB, allow terrorist prisoners to be set free and withdrew American military forces while leaving US$Billions of equipment in place and withdrawing US military forces before an orderly evacuation of civilians could take place. The aptly named Blinken plus many others in the cabinet, such as Buttigieg, Mayorkas and Harris, are the biggest duds I have ever seen in my life holding leadership positions.
Rick, if you think increased US military spending would have been the answer to this aggression, do you think that American troops should be sent to fight battles against Russians in Ukraine?
No. We can’t afford a war at this point because we are are too far in debt due to social program spending..
I am not against social programs because I lack compassion. Catch phrase like the war on poverty sound compassionate, but II think that social programs rob people of their humanity. They prevent individuals from gaining the self esteem that results from using their unique talents to carve out a good life for themselves.
If the US and Europe had more military strength I don’t think Putin would have invaded Ukraine. There are bad people in this world. Ukraine did not pick a fight with Russia. South Korea did not pick a fight with North Korea, Israel did not pick a fight with Iran. The only way to keep bullies from attacking is with a strong defense.
One final thought: if Biden did not attack our energy industry by shutting down fracking and the Keystone pipeline, we could have sold liquefied natural gas to Europe, and they wouldn’t rely on Russia for their energy needs. If oil wasn’t at $100 a barrel, Putin wouldn’t have been able to afford his attack on Ukraine.
You evidently have never known what it is like to be down-and-out. or disabled or the victim of a blow of fate or a capitalist system.
Think long-term, not short-term, about such issues as fracking.
Israel picked a fight with the Islamic world by ousting Palestinians from their homeland.
You are probably right about Israel, though there are other viewpoints. Many of the Jewish leaders in the the 1940’s preferred to coexist with the Arabs. Author Benny Morris believes that Palestinian ethnic cleansing was only to prevent genocide of the Jews.
Another viewpoint on fracking is that it actually causes a decrease in greenhouse gases. Groundwater contamination and methane leakage is kept to a minimum with new regulations on the industry. The methane produced by fracking is compensated for by the lesser emissions of the burning of natural gas as compared to petroleum.
I do agree with you that a government safety net is needed in some circumstances because to the breakdown of the family. The traditional family consisted of one breadwinner, while the other spouse, usually the wife, would take care of the house, the children, and family members that were unable to work due to mental or physical handicaps. Due to inflation, now both spouses have to work. Inflation began with the minimum wage and was exacerbated by spending on social security, medicaid, medicare, etc.
I have never been down and out, but I also have to work 70 hours a week or more to stay afloat. With my habits of intense exercise and limited caloric intake my goal is to keep working until I’m 125 or so and hope I never have to collect social security benefits.
Well most of Russia isn’t in Europe but I suspect that the European part is still biggest and it’s getting bigger.Putin believes that there’s no difference between a Ukrainian and a Russian to be honest I don’t know enough about them to say how different they are although I have been to both countries.It looks like the Ukrainian SSR was put together by Krushchev but he must have based it on an original concept?