Measuring at the Trough

Thursday September 4, 2025

– Gibbous Moon Phase – trust, analyze, prepare, digest, alchemy

– Moon in CAPRICORN – Void of Course 6:05 AM – 6:32 AM moving to Aquarius

– Retrogrades –

Pluto – May 4th – Oct 13th
Neptune – Jul 4th – Dec 10th
Saturn – Jul 13th – Nov 28th
Chiron – Jul 30th – Jan 2nd

– Best Days (from the Farmer’s Almanac) – Sep 1st – 5th – Castrate Farm Animals, Cut Firewood, Dig Holes, Host a Party, Kill Plant Pests, Mow to Increase Growth, Paint, Potty Train, Set Eggs, Wean

– Planting Calendar (from the Farmer’s Almanac) – Sep 4th – 5th – Poor planting days. Kill plant pests.

– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Year: – 11 ARIES: the ruler of a nation

– Aspect of the Aeon Sophia: (Wisdom): – Kali – The Destroyer

– Aspect of the Aeon Thelete: (Will/Desire): Kathe (God of The South)

– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Month – New Moon in LEO – SUN/MOON – 01 VIRGO: in a portrait, the best of a man’s features and traits are idealized (EARTH – 01 PISCES: a crowded public marketplace)

SUN – 13 VIRGO: a powerful statesman overcomes a state of political hysteria

EARTH – 13 PISCES: a sword used in many battles in a museum

Military Parades

Back on June 14, 2025, in Washington DC, there was an event to celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States Army and featured a large military parade, a festival, and a celebration on Constitution Avenue. The parade was part of the larger United States Semiquincentennial (250th anniversary of the nation’s founding) celebrations and included historic uniforms, military vehicles, and flyovers.

It was also Donald Trump’s Birthday.

As noted in USA Today’s article about the event: “Critics, including Democratic lawmakers, said the parade politicized the military in a celebration of Trump’s birthday that seemed reminiscent of the ostentatious scenes to celebrate dictators abroad. Trump presided over the parade from a presidential booth, but the Army and White House denied allegations that his birthday was the reason for the event or that the timing was intentional.”

Of the many, many criticisms of the event, the most repeated was the cost, estimated between $30-45 million.

The Mainstream-Left-Resistance-to-Everything-Trump was so incensed by this ridiculous waste of money and obvious grandstanding by the man they hate so much that they staged their own protest events in cities across the country. And as a shock to no one, the USA Today and the rest of the mainstream media didn’t bother to estimate the collective cost of these events. Nor did they mention that most of these protest events, being that it was also the middle of Pride Month, served multiple functions. What do numbers mean anyway?

Fortunately, these events (including the Washington Parade) were so memorable that I had to google the details as I had forgotten them completely.

EXCEPT for something I happened to read about this morning. Apparently yesterday in China (in Tiananmen Square in fact) they held another Military Parade.

2025 China Victory Day

The Parade commemorates the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

And I guess it had nothing to do with the bombing of 2 Japanese cities with atomic weapons by the Americans. No Nothing at all. And it couldn’t possibly be just because of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Beijing at the same time. No of Course Not.

You might ask though why they would they spend the kind of money that they did for the event. By estimates of the Taiwanese, the bill is upwards of $5 Billion.

Whose is Bigger?

Military parades are by and large designed for one and only one reason. That is to make a show of force that will impress or intimidate other people.

Now, is it to impress or intimidate your own population? Or someone else’s?

Now personally, I have no time for military parades. Growing up, the only parades I remember were the Rose Parade and local things where the floats were pulled by pick-up trucks and the bands were from the local high schools. In the words of my mom, cheap entertainment for people with nothing better to do.

Then each May 1st, the news would show the annual May Day parade in Moscow where the military would walk-by and they would pull trailers with nuclear bombs on them and tanks and the like. Compared with the parades I had known, these were different.

Impressive?

I am not sure about the psyche of a person that is affected by such displays. As for me, things that would make a much more profound impression.

If I were the President and wanted to impress another world leader, I would want them to see what our country was about

Natural wonders like Yosemite, The Grand Canyon, the Redwoods the Great Lakes. Or Man-Made accomplishments like The Golden Gate Bridge, The Las Vegas Strip, Times Square, Disneyland or the Mall in Washington DC.

These would impress me. And I do not think trips to these locations would cost millions of dollars either.