Weekly World Wrap-Up: August 10-16, 2025
The Politics of Distraction: A Washington Takeover, Alaskan Theater and the Californian Counterpunch
This week, strongmen shouted but the bluster sounded hollow, the distractions landed flat, and the political theater that once dazzled started looking like a cheap rerun.
Ghislaine Maxwell ducked Congress, JD Vance tried to spin Epstein into a Democrat scandal, and Trump buried himself in rants, museums, medals, and even a lecture about tired grass. Gavin Newsom flipped the script, masterfully trolling Trump while warning him he’d redraw maps if Texas kept trying to steal seats. Trump’s D.C. “takeover” collapsed in court, his “capital coup” looking less like law and order, more like occupation, with rifles on the streets and resistance in the squares. He TACO’d on tariffs with China (again) and his nominee for head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (after he fired the last one because he didn’t like her numbers) called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and gave interviews in front of his giant portrait of Hitler’s favorite battleship. Totally normal stuff.
Trump’s grand Alaska summit with Putin ended in handshakes, jets, a presidential limo ride and nothing much else - all theater, no substance, and a big win for Putin who played Trump liked a fiddle. Meanwhile, Zelensky stood firm, telling the world Ukraine won’t trade its land for Trump’s headlines. In Gaza, Israel’s campaign grew bloodier, but the tide of global recognition for Palestine kept rising.
Laura Loomer tried to drag Marjorie Taylor Greene down into the gutter, and on the way down spilled some tea about Lindsay Graham. And a woman who’s been married four times to three different men asked the Supreme Court to overturn gay marriage because it violates her religious rights.
And through it all, the Earth herself seemed to revolt, throwing up typhoons, floods, firestorms, ancient meteor showers and prehistoric dinosaur footprints.
The noise of it all was deafening, as always, but this was the week the distractions fizzled, and for once, pushback hit its mark. When the strongmen blustered, others refused to bend, and steadiness, not spectacle, stole the show.
As always, I’ve tracked the signs, read the stars, and sifted through the clatter to bring together this week’s story, from breakdowns to breakthroughs. This is how I cut through the chaos: by finding the hidden order that makes even collapse feel strangely fated.
So take a breath.
Hold your nerve.
It’s time to make meaning from the madness.
Let’s go in and dive deep.
**The cosmic insights shared here are mapped to the real movements of the heavens during the past week. If you want to know more about planetary pattern recognition, read about it here**
🕵️♀️ Maxwell Stays Mute
The week was supposed to begin with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell testifying before Congress about her ties to Jeffrey Epstein (and his association with Donald Trump). She’d been subpoenaed for August 11, but when she demanded immunity, the House refused, and the Bureau of Prisons quietly shipped her from Florida to Texas - conveniently complicating the subpoena. Instead of compelling her appearance, lawmakers let the day slip by.
Maxwell still loomed large in this week’s headlines all the same. Her former fellow inmate claimed Maxwell had tried to leverage dirt on Trump to win a pardon - first from Biden’s team (which they rebuffed), then from Trump himself. Maxwell’s lawyer dismissed the story as “patently false.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s camp leaked that in a nine-hour DOJ interview with Deputy AG Todd Blanche (Trump’s old defense lawyer), Maxwell said she’d never seen Trump act inappropriately. Useful spin, though hardly impartial.
Amongst it all, author Michael Wolff dropped a real clanger, explaining that “this is a key issue right now in the way the White House is looking at the Epstein scandal. The fear is that Ghislaine Maxwell can tie Donald Trump to the details of what Trump and Epstein called the P*ssy Committee. The Committee consisted of Trump and Epstein in their efforts to get girls for Prince Andrew.”
Astrologically, right now Maxwell is cornered. With Pluto ripping through her Leo–Aquarius axis, the protection she once assumed from powerful men is eroding. September’s eclipses rattle her Venus and Chiron signaling broken deals, public humiliation, and the futility of trying to trade secrets for safety. She’s still playing Capricorn chess, but the board is collapsing beneath her. The stars say she’s not orchestrating a comeback; she’s scrambling to avoid being the sacrificial piece.
Volatile Vance
Enter Vice President JD Vance, who declared on Fox News this week: “We know that Jeffrey Epstein had a lot of connections with left-wing politicians and left-wing billionaires....Democrat billionaires and Democrat political leaders went to Epstein Island all the time. Who knows what they did.”
Reframing the Epstein saga as a Democrat scandal does nothing to diminish calls to release the files, and surely Vance knows that. It’s the second time in as many weeks that Vance has stirred the pot: first hosting a leaked Epstein strategy meeting at his residence, now parroting MAGA talking points while reminding the base the files remain sealed.
On the surface, Vance sounds like a loyal soldier, but in practice, every time he calls for disclosure, he forces Epstein back into the news cycle - a subtle but effective way of cutting Trump while currying favor with Trump’s voters.
His chart says Vance isn’t just parroting talking points - he’s riding a transit storm that makes his words both weapon and liability. His Leo planets under Pluto’s glare push him to perform loyalty, but the Gemini North Node keeps him fated to stir the very conversations Trump most wants silenced. Every soundbite is a gamble: will it win him the base, or will it boomerang back as the line that undid the cover-up? Right now, his chart says he can’t help but keep Epstein alive in the headlines, even if it burns the hand that feeds him.
September’s eclipses pull Vance’s chart like a trapdoor: the Pisces Lunar Eclipse scrapes his destiny point in Gemini, and the Virgo Solar Eclipse lights up his Mercury. Together, they guarantee his words won’t stay tidy. Whether through a slip, a leak, or a calculated jab, he’s fated to keep the Epstein fire alive and under Pluto’s glare, that makes him less Trump’s shield and more his accidental saboteur.
September’s eclipses blow open Trump’s chart entirely. The cosmic math ties all three players here together: Trump’s Gemini Sun and Node are squared by the eclipses, Maxwell’s Leo Moon and Capricorn planets are cracked by Pluto and Pisces, and Vance’s Gemini Node ensures he keeps the story alive. The triangle can’t hold. What was meant as loyalty theater turns into karmic exposure, with Vance’s words, Maxwell’s desperation, and Trump’s unraveling all colliding under the same eclipse light.
When the September eclipses hit, the cover-up likely collapses: Maxwell scrambles, Vance slips, and Trump takes the fall.
📂 Files on Fire
Even though Maxwell herself stayed silent this week, the pressure is still tightening from every side as Trump edges toward September eclipse season.
Last week, the Democracy Forward Foundation sued the DOJ and FBI to force their hand, after both agencies ignored expedited FOIA requests demanding release of the Epstein files and, critically, all communications about Trump’s inclusion in them. The case landed on the desk of Judge Tanya Chutkan, the same federal judge who oversaw Trump’s election-subversion trial, so no home-field advantage this time, Don.
At the same time in New York, a federal judge flatly rejected the DOJ’s odd request to unseal Maxwell grand jury transcripts, calling out the government for peddling “demonstrably false” claims about what they would reveal. The judge went further, suggesting the DOJ wasn’t aiming for disclosure at all, but distraction - “the illusion of transparency.”
With outside groups dragging the files into court, judges exposing DOJ misdirection, and political allies like Vance stoking the fire in public, every move keeps Epstein alive in the headlines, and every turn of the screw narrows Trump’s room to wriggle out.
As the vise tightened this week, Trump turned to his favorite trick: spectacle.
🏛️ Museums, Medals & Mowed Lawns
Trump went into overdrive this week with distractions designed to pull the public’s gaze away from the Epstein saga.
He fired off a social media rant against former House speaker Nancy Pelosi accusing her of insider trading and calling her “a disgusting degenerate, who Impeached me twice, on NO GROUNDS, and LOST! How are you feeling now, Nancy???”
Then came another one calling Reps. Jasmine Crockett and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “morons,” boasting once again about “acing” a cognitive exam at Walter Reed. Trump doesn’t seem to realise that doctors don’t hand out cognitive screening tests to people in good mental health as a kind of trophy exam. They’re designed to screen for conditions like dementia, mild cognitive impairment, or other neurological issues. With Saturn and Neptune bearing down right now on his Mercury in Cancer (the planet of thought and memory) clarity slips and confusion seeps in, meaning it’s not bravado we’re watching, but decline playing out in real time. Trump’s outburst may have been packaged to prove his sharpness, but all he really proved is that he actually might be losing it.
Then came the Smithsonian stunt. Trump’s administration sent a letter to Dr. Lonnie Bunch, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, announcing that every exhibition, curatorial process, collection, and grant would now be “reviewed” to ensure alignment with Trump’s directive to “celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.” The woman tapped to oversee this purge is Trump’s own Florida criminal defense attorney, who once complained she didn’t like some exhibits after his inauguration, then convinced him to sign an executive order putting her in charge. Also on the three-person panel is Russell Vought, architect of Project 2025. The whole episode was a brazen culture-war power grab dressed up as arts policy, and another perfectly timed distraction.
And then there was the Kennedy Center circus. Trump hijacked what was once a bipartisan celebration of the arts to announce this year’s honorees - Sylvester Stallone, Michael Crawford, Gloria Gaynor, KISS, and George Strait - before declaring that he would personally host the televised ceremony in December. He joked about renaming it the “TRUMP/KENNEDY CENTER,” sneering that since he never got an honor himself, he’d simply appoint himself chairman and hand one out. To seal the symbolism, the family that had hand-crafted the Honors medallions for 47 years was abruptly dropped, with Tiffany & Co. rumored to take over. Tradition out, Trump-branded opulence in.
In the middle of this cultural coup, Trump veered into a bizarre landscaping lecture mid press conference, declaring, “Grass has a lifetime, like people have a lifetime…..this grass is old, tired, exhausted. We’re going to redo the parks with the finest grasses. I know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses.” The rant - equal parts incoherent and self-congratulatory - left reporters baffled, critics aghast, and social media in stitches.
But as commentator Jessica Tarlov pointed out, the real headline this week wasn’t medallions, musicals, or manicured lawns. “He’s doing everything EXCEPT releasing the Epstein files.” And that, of course, was the point.
🎭 Circus of Distractions
Trump’s Republican acolytes joined in on his distraction game this week, diverting the public’s attention to a range of issues that gave the Epstein noise a run for its money.
Former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, infamous for refusing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2015, petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the ruling that legalized gay marriage nationwide. Her lawyers called the decision “egregiously wrong” and a violation of her religious rights, but critics noted that Davis, married four times to three different men, should hardly be the authority on who gets to wed. The Court will decide this fall whether to hear the case, though legal experts say it’s unlikely to succeed given the 2022 Respect for Marriage Act and record-high public support for equality.
Far-right provocateur Laura Loomer went nuclear on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in a days-long tirade, lacing her posts with slurs, body-shaming, and even graphic sexual insults. She called Greene a “fake Christian,” a “whore,” and mocked her as being “on her knees all right - and it’s not for praying.”
At the same time, Loomer’s deposition in her defamation case against Bill Maher and HBO leaked into public view, adding fuel to the fire. Under oath, she bizarrely alleged that Greene “carries roast beef in her pockets” and claimed Donald Trump knows Sen. Lindsey Graham is gay. Neither remark had the slightest relevance to the case; she just volunteered them out of nowhere.
But while the Trump circus rolled on, a Trump heist was happening in Texas.
🤠 Texas Showdown
Backed by Trump, Texas Republicans have been trying to ram through a redistricting plan that would hand the GOP five extra House seats for the 2026 midterms while ignoring flood relief. In an effort to stall or derail the proceedings, last week Democrats fled the state and holed up in Chicago, prompting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Abbott Governor Greg Abbott to threaten firings, lawsuits, and even civil arrest warrants.
This week, Ken Paxton escalated matters by calling for the arrest of Beto O’Rourke, accusing him of violating a court order that barred his PAC from helping Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to block a GOP redistricting bill. O’Rourke had riled up supporters at a rally by saying “f*** the rules,” and Paxton used that line as evidence of contempt. It’s a dramatic move that shows how bitter the redistricting standoff has become.
By end of week, the standoff inside the Texas legislature reached a turning point when House Democrats finally returned, and Governor Greg Abbott wasted no time, immediately calling a second special session to begin this week, determined to force the House to act. What began as a walkout has now reset the stage: the fight over how many congressional seats the GOP can lock in before 2026 is just entering its next round.
Enter California Governor Gavin Newsom, ready to flip the script.
🐻 Newsom Pokes the Bear
Newsom is done taking the Republicans’ antics lying down, and this week spearheaded the most signficant and headline grabbing act of push back since Trump’s second term began.
At the start of the week, Newsom issued a public letter telling Trump that if he doesn’t back off on his attempts to redistrict Republican-dominated states in order to rig the 2026 elections, he would be forced to work to redistrict California. “You are playing with fire, risking the destabilization of our democracy,” Newsom wrote, “while knowing that California can neutralize any gains you hope to make….I do not do this lightly, as I believe legislative district maps should be drawn by independent, citizen-led efforts….California cannot stand idly by as this power grab unfolds.”
Newsom’s press office followed the letter up with a post on social media, mocking Trump’s signature unhinged style, writing in all caps: “DONALD TRUMP, THE LOWEST POLLING PRESIDENT IN RECENT HISTORY, THIS IS YOUR SECOND-TO-LAST WARNING!!! (THE NEXT ONE IS THE LAST ONE!). STAND DOWN NOW OR CALIFORNIA WILL COUNTER-STRIKE (LEGALLY!) TO DESTROY YOUR ILLEGAL CROOKED MAPS IN RED STATES. PRESS CONFERENCE COMING - HOSTED BY AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR, GAVIN NEWSOM. FINAL WARNING NEXT. YOU WON’T LIKE IT!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.”
Then the account posted: “FINAL WARNING DONALD TRUMP - MAYBE THE MOST IMPORTANT WARNING IN HISTORY! STOP CHEATING OR CALIFORNIA WILL REDRAW THE MAPS. AND GUESS WHO WILL ANNOUNCE IT THIS WEEK? GAVIN NEWSOM (MANY SAY THE MOST LOVED & HANDSOME GOVERNOR) AND A VERY POWERFUL TEAM. DON’T MAKE US DO IT!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.”
When Trump didn’t back down, a final post read: “DONALD ‘TACO’ TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM, ‘MISSED’ THE DEADLINE!!! CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE ‘BEAUTIFUL MAPS,’ THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!). BIG PRESS CONFERENCE THIS WEEK WITH POWERFUL DEMS AND GAVIN NEWSOM - YOUR FAVORITE GOVERNOR - THAT WILL BE DEVASTATING FOR ‘MAGA.’ THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! - GN”
Astrologically, Gavin Newsom is a formidable foil to Donald Trump. Newsom’s Libra Sun and Scorpio Venus-Mars combo make him both a polished communicator and a ruthless strategist when cornered. His Taurus Moon gives him staying power. Trump, meanwhile, thrives on chaos - with his Gemini Sun and Sagittarius Moon, he feeds on distraction. Right now, with Jupiter in Cancer boosting Newsom’s 10th-house visibility through 2025, he looks like the rare Democrat who can match Trump’s showmanship and hit him where it hurts: in the credibility of his power plays.
If Trump thought redistricting would draw blood, he may have just roused a bear who knows how to maul him back, and smile for the cameras while doing it.
⚖️ Dems Counterpunch
True to his word, on Thursday Newsom held a press conference and took direct aim at Trump’s push to strongarm Texas into redrawing its congressional maps to hand Republicans five new seats.
Flanked by California Democrats and union leaders, Newsom announced that California will hold a special election on November 4 giving voters the chance to approve a temporary counter-redistricting plan. The proposal would only go into effect if Texas - or any other state pressured by Trump - follows through with mid-decade redistricting designed to tilt the 2026 and 2028 elections. In effect, Newsom warned that if Texas rigs the maps, California will answer in kind.
The move flipped a long-running criticism of Democrats on its head. For years, they’ve been faulted for playing defense while Republicans aggressively gerrymandered their way to power. Now, California is leveraging its size and clout - the most populous state in the union, with the world’s fourth-largest economy - to make clear that it won’t sit idle while Trump rewrites the rules. Newsom stressed that the measure is conditional and paired it with support for nationwide nonpartisan redistricting commissions, undercutting claims that Democrats themselves are gaming the system.
In his remarks, Newsom struck a defiant, almost celebratory tone about California’s role as a bulwark against authoritarian drift. “Don’t mess with the Golden State,” he warned, accusing Trump of openly demanding that Texas “find him five seats” and called the moment “a break the glass moment for our democracy.” He framed the fight as bigger than maps: an urgent stand against Trump’s assault on institutions, truth, and the rule of law.
The scene itself underscored that point. As Newsom spoke at the Japanese American National Museum, more than a dozen masked and armed Border Patrol agents gathered outside - rifles visible - in what officials described as intimidation ordered from above. Newsom called it proof of Trump’s weakness, not his strength. “A failed president,” he said, “broken, masquerading as strong, the most unpopular in modern history.”
By the end, Newsom’s message was crystal clear: Democrats won’t just absorb Trump’s blows anymore - they will punch back, and California is ready to lead that charge.
Astrologically, California itself is stepping into a defining role. Born under a Virgo Sun with Mercury and Mars in Libra and a Scorpio Moon, the state carries both surgical precision and unyielding resolve. Over the next few years, Pluto in Aquarius will activate California’s 3rd and 4th house axes, pushing it to use its voice and influence in ways that reshape the national foundation. With Jupiter moving across its Midheaven in 2025–2026, California’s visibility only grows, cementing its place as the counterweight to Trumpism.
The stars suggest California is not just a battleground but the bulwark - the state that sets the tone for how far America will bend, or refuse to bend, under authoritarian pressure.
🚨 Capital Coup (Lite)
Trump answered California’s defiance this week with bluster in D.C. In contrast to Newsom’s powerful press conference in Los Angeles, Trump staged one of his own in Washington that was meant to look like strength but read much more like desperation.
He announced a federal takeover of D.C.’s police force and the deployment of FBI, ATF, Secret Service, Marshals, and National Guard troops, supposedly “to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor, and worse.” He reiterated that officers would clear homeless encampments from the city and remove the city’s criminals - a line that was immediately met with derision from his detractors, given that Trump himself is a convicted criminal. Some on social media hoped this meant he might be moving himself out of the capital, but no such luck.
Trump’s press conference was less about policy than pathology. He ceded the details to his loyal sidekicks - Hegseth, Bondi, and Patel - then grabbed the mic to conjure a delusional world where he is the savior; ending wars he never ended, reviving an economy he is actively tanking, finishing a border wall he never finished, and protecting Americans from an exaggerated nightmare that lives only in his imagination.
As the week rolled on, Trump sent 120 FBI agents into Washington and even tried to federalize the D.C. police, deploying 800 National Guard troops under a rarely used emergency clause of the Home Rule Act. Trump’s Justice Department even tried to sideline D.C.’s police chief by naming DEA head Terry Cole “emergency commissioner,” but by end of week Judge Ana Reyes forced a climbdown: Cole was stripped of command, demoted to a mere designee, and Chief Pamela Smith stayed in charge.
⚡ Occupation Meets Resistance
It wasn’t just the courts that responded to Trump’s Washington overreach; the people had their say too. Thousands poured into the streets for a march dubbed “Free D.C.”, streaming from Dupont Circle toward the White House to protest the militarization of their city. Their chants rose against checkpoints run by ICE and Homeland Security, where protesters reported immigrant men being pulled into unmarked vans. Activists started using coded language online - calling protests “music festivals” - to slip past government monitoring.
On the ground, the situation grew more surreal. Trump’s new “Make the District Safe and Beautiful” order meant 70-plus homeless encampments were bulldozed, with residents forced out under the gaze of FBI, ATF, and freshly arrived Guard troops from West Virginia, South Carolina, and Ohio. Officials boasted of outreach, but advocates called it what it was: erasure of the city’s most vulnerable, clearing the streets not for safety but for optics.
And still, the militarization deepened. The 800 Guard members deployed under Trump’s order were initially unarmed, but plans quickly surfaced to put weapons in their hands. Federal troops began staging along major arteries of the city, a 24/7 show of force meant less to deter crime than to project control. Even the Wall Street Journal reported the Guardsmen were being prepped to carry live ammunition - a chilling escalation.
For residents, the sight of soldiers in the streets was less “law and order” than martial theater. To them, it looked like Trump had staged a coup in miniature - an occupation of the capital by a man desperate to look powerful while reality closed in around him.
For all the troops, checkpoints, and bulldozed tents, the so-called “capital coup” only underscored Trump’s weakness. What was meant to project strength looked instead like a nervous man staging theater in his own backyard.
And that’s been the story all week: distraction as survival strategy. From Epstein diversions to tariff tantrums to redistricting games, Trump kept tossing smoke bombs to cloud the view. But the more he scrambles to control the stage, the clearer it becomes that the plot is slipping from his hands.
⚓️ Tariffs, Nazis & Crossed Wires
As well as terrorising Washington, Trump this week announced E.J. Antoni as his replacement for the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics he fired last month because he didn’t like July’s jobs numbers. The nomination was immediately derailed when Antoni - who has called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and dismissed the reliability of the very agency he’s now set to run - appeared in interviews with a giant image of Hitler’s favorite battleship, the Nazi Bismarck, looming behind him. The décor choice drew swift backlash from historians, economists, and even conservatives, who warned that both the symbolism and Antoni’s extreme views could further erode public trust in federal labor data.
Meanwhile, Trump’s tariff war on the world stumbled forward as he extended a tariff truce with China for another 90 days, once again living up to his TACO nickname (Trump Always Chickens Out), but mercifully delaying a dangerous showdown between the planet’s two largest economies.
At the same time, Trump’s tariff threats against Russia kept on shifting. Since mid-July - right as the Trump/Epstein cover-up saga began boiling over - he’s rattled sabers with promises of punishing tariffs unless Putin agreed to a Ukraine ceasefire. First, it was 100% tariffs in 50 days. Then, by late July, he slashed the deadline to “10 or 12 days,” making August 8 the supposed cutoff.
Just days before that deadline, Trump’s special envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, met with Putin in Moscow to discuss a possible ceasefire. But Witkoff - who has no diplomatic training and doesn’t speak Russian - may have badly misunderstood Putin’s proposal, according to Wall Street Journal reporting.
In his first account to European officials, Witkoff said Putin had offered to withdraw Russian troops from parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in exchange for full control of Donetsk, but the next day, he altered his version, claiming the only offer on the table was for Ukraine to withdraw entirely from Donetsk, with no Russian withdrawal in return.
Former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, called the episode “deeply damaging incompetence” and urged Witkoff to take a State Department note-taker to future meetings, “the way professional diplomacy works.”
🇷🇺 Putin’s Kompromat Whisper
Witkoff ultimately secured a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska on August 15, ostensibly to hammer out a peace deal.
But according to sources, the summit was Putin’s idea from the start. He allegedly had Witkoff pitch Trump on it as a way to bury the growing Epstein scandal. The logic was blunt: stage a “historic” meeting on U.S. soil, dominate the news cycle with the handshake, and drown out the damaging headlines. From there, they could control the script. By these accounts, there was never a serious peace plan - no genuine Ukraine negotiations - only political theatre, stage-managed by Putin.
It’s long been whispered that Putin holds something over Trump, with many speculating the kompromat may be Epstein related. Royal biographer Andrew Lownie stoked that speculation this week, telling Times Radio: “We know that Epstein filmed people in his houses. This film was collected by the FBI and it’s still with the FBI, it goes back to 2006. A man called Mark Dougan, who was a Palm Beach policeman, was worried this stuff would be destroyed…..he took some of it and went to Russia. According to MI6 and the Sunday Times, this material was passed to one of Putin’s right-hand men. So Putin, according to this story, has the material.”
Dougan has been widely dismissed as a disinformation peddler, having never producing a shred of proof to support his many salacious claims, but still, the question this week begged an answer: if Putin does have something on Trump, what would be traded across that table at their meeting in Alaska?
For Putin - who rarely travels abroad due to an ICC arrest warrant for war crimes, including the abduction of Ukrainian children - this was a rare foreign trip. By welcoming him onto U.S. soil, in territory once owned by Russia, Trump signaled to Russian nationalists a tacit nod toward their dream of reviving the old empire - an ideology at the heart of Moscow’s push to seize Ukrainian land.
In 1867, Russia sold Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million. This week, speculation swirled that, 157 years later, Russia may now own the White House without having paid a dime.
🕊️ Ukraine Says “No Deal”
When Trump indicated that negotiating peace might involve “some swapping of territories,” some feared he may give Alaska back to Putin in return for ending the war in Ukraine. But it seemed clear as the week went on that the only nation Trump expected would swap its territories was Ukraine.
European leaders and Ukrainian officials strongly condemned the idea of any territorial concessions, insisting Ukraine’s sovereignty must remain intact. They petitioned Vice President J.D. Vance directly with their preferred framework for ending the war, after which Vance took to Fox News to admit that any eventual deal will likely leave “both the Russians and the Ukrainians, probably, at the end of the day, unhappy with it.”
President Zelensky flatly rejected any suggestion that Ukraine might cede territory, and emphasized that territorial discussions without Ukraine’s involvement would be inherently illegitimate. “We will not give our land to the occupier,” Zelensky declared, expressing doubt that Putin was aiming for genuine peace and that Ukraine must not be cornered by military pressure. Zelensky said Ukraine is ready to collaborate with partners like Trump and others to achieve a dignified, lasting peace, but absolutely not by rewarding Russia for its invasion.
In the days before the summit, the war on the ground only intensified. In Moscow, Russian air defenses shot down seven Ukrainian drones aimed at the capital, while simultaneous strikes in other regions left three civilians dead. In Zaporizhzhia, Russia bombed the central bus station during rush hour, injuring at least 19 people, and hit a nearby university clinic.
The human cost of this war since it began in 2022 has been staggering: Russia has suffered tens of thousands of confirmed military deaths, with some estimates pushing into the hundreds of thousands. Ukraine’s toll is similarly grave - between 46,000 and 100,000 soldiers killed, alongside at least 12,000 civilians dead and tens of thousands more wounded.
As the Alaska Summit loomed, the stars did not spell compromise. Ukraine’s chart is lit by the coming eclipses, striking the heart of its Sun and Moon - a nation tested, yet refusing surrender. Russia, born under Capricorn’s stern command, now faces Pluto’s wrecking ball; the empire shakes as its very bones are ground down.
Putin, with his Libra Sun and Scorpio mask, stands in the eclipse crosshairs, his grip slipping as shadows lengthen. Zelensky, an Aquarian torchbearer, rises into Jupiter’s wind and Uranus’ lightning, drawing unexpected allies and radical strategies to his side.
Thy sky says this war will not close with deals inked in secret rooms. Ukraine will not yield, Russia will fracture, and as the old empire cracks, a new world edges closer through the rubble.
❄️ Red Carpet for Autocrats
As the week came to a close, two of the world’s most notorious men faced off in Alaska - one, a convicted criminal, and the other, accused of war crimes and wanted by the international courts. Both presidents of powerful nations, meeting not in a dock, but at a diplomatic table.
Trump welcomed Putin to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage for their first bilateral summit in six years, and Putin’s first U.S. visit in over a decade.
Trump’s plane touched down first, and he stepped onto a red carpet stretching across the tarmac, waving to the small crowd and television crews as he walked in an odd zig-zag pattern down the carpet, seemingly unable to keep a straight line. A flyover by F-22 Raptors and a B-2 stealth bomber roared overhead - a show of U.S. air power usually reserved for visiting allies.
Minutes later, Putin’s aircraft arrived. As the Russian president descended the stairs, Trump broke into applause, striding forward for a long handshake before they posed on a small platform emblazoned “Alaska 2025.”
Trump, beaming, welcomed Putin “back to America,” even though for days leading up to the Summit he had made multiple statements indicating he did not know Alaska was part of the United States. He praised their “fantastic relationship,” and spoke vaguely of “getting things done.” Putin returned the courtesy, calling the atmosphere “friendly” and stressing the need for pragmatic cooperation. No questions were taken, no details offered - just a few choreographed smiles and soundbites before both men climbed into the presidential limousine for a short motorcade ride across the base to their meeting site.
For former intelligence and security officials, it was a stunning breach of protocol. A former National Security Advisor warned that “everybody on the Russian party is a suspected spy,” making the venue - a base housing some of America’s most advanced stealth aircraft - an intelligence gift. “Putin doesn’t see this as strength,” said former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul. “He had to do absolutely nothing to get this meeting. He’s gained everything and given nothing in return.” Allowing the former head of the KGB into the president’s car, one ex-official added, was “a national security risk - and frankly, really stupid.”
Inside the base, the talks lasted just over two and a half hours. The format was an expanded bilateral: Trump flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff; Putin joined by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and senior aide Yuri Ushakov. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy - whose last meeting with Trump ended in a shouting match in the Oval Office - was not present or consulted during the meeting.
It all sent a clear message to the rest of the world that in Trump’s America, autocrats receive deference, while democracies get shunned and reprimanded.
🍿 Popcorn Politics, Empty Stage
When the two leaders emerged from their nearly three-hour-long meeting, it was for another brief appearance at the podium. Many commented that Trump’s face as he emerged read defeat and fear, as if he had been squarely put in his place. Protocol suggests that the hosting country speak first, but Putin just took the mic and started talking, leaving Trump looking weak and exhausted beside him. Putin told reporters the talks produced an “understanding” on Ukraine; when Trump got a word in he said there had been “great progress” but insisted, “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”
Putin then stunned observers by endorsing Trump’s claim that the war in Ukraine would never have happened had Trump remained in office. “Today, when President Trump is saying that if he was the president back then, there would be no war - and I’m quite sure that it would indeed be so,” Putin said. “I can confirm that.”
Beyond that though, there were no questions taken from the gathered press pack, no joint statement from either leader, and no concrete commitments. Within minutes, both men had left the stage, leaving behind the roar of jets, the echo of handshakes and a trail of criticism about what, if anything, America had gained.
Gavin Newsom’s press office released a statement trolling Trump, screaming in all caps, “TRUMP JUST FLED THE PODIUM WITH PUTIN - NO QUESTIONS, NOTHING! TOTALLY LOW ENERGY…..MANY PEOPLE ARE SAYING HE BEGGED PUTIN TO HOLD HIS HANDS (TINY) ON THE WAY OUT…..ENJOY YOUR FLIGHT HOME, DONALD - YOU’RE PUTIN’S PROBLEM NOW.”
Trump’s former National Security Advisor, John Bolton, said, “I thought Trump looked very tired up there. I mean, very tired. Not disappointed. Tired. And we’ll have to reflect on what that means.”
Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the whole affair, “the most vomit-inducing episode in all the tawdry history of international diplomacy”.
This week, Donald Trump gave Vladimir Putin everything he could have hoped for: an invitation onto U.S. soil, a red-carpet reception at a sensitive military base, and even a ride in the presidential limousine. Russian officials stood on the tarmac as America’s stealth aircraft roared overhead, a scene that security veterans called a gift to Moscow’s intelligence services. And what came of it? No ceasefire, no commitments, no deal.
On the flight home, Trump told European leaders that Putin had flatly rejected a ceasefire and demanded Ukrainian concessions. By the time he landed, Trump had already shifted to Putin’s position, dropping his own ceasefire push and urging that talks begin straight away on Russia’s terms.
In a Fox News interview, he bragged the meeting went “very well,” ruled out new sanctions, and shrugged the burden onto President Zelensky, saying it was “really up to him to get it done.” Meanwhile, leaks confirmed Putin had floated a “peace” deal: Ukraine surrenders the Donetsk region in exchange for a pause in Russia’s offensives. Trump sweetened the offer with vague talk of U.S. security guarantees that Europe applauded cautiously but feared would legitimize Moscow’s land grab.
For Trump, it was all theater. For Putin, it was a win. For the United States, it was a costly spectacle with nothing to show for it. And for Ukraine, it was diplomatic pressure dressed up as progress, and yet another slap in the face from an administration that saves its red carpets for autocrats and its punches for allies.
And the astrology only underlines it.
The charts tell us this wasn’t diplomacy - it was theater masking a transaction. With the Sun blazing in Leo, Trump leaned fully into spectacle: red carpets, flyovers, and photo-ops, all to prove strength by performance. Yet Pluto in Aquarius was the real conductor here, pressing both men into a shadow exchange built on leverage, secrets, and long-term positioning.
For Trump, Pluto hit the part of his chart tied to hidden deals and reputation - he sought validation, a narrative win, even if it meant trading away America’s credibility.
For Putin, Mars and Saturn in Libra landed right on his core - discipline, control, and the optics of legitimacy, all handed to him without cost.
Zelensky’s chart, by contrast, was under direct Mars pressure, showing how Ukraine was excluded, sidelined, and betrayed even as its survival hung in the balance.
The USA’s own chart showed Jupiter and Venus on its Sun - hospitality on full display - but directed toward the wrong guest.
And then there was the ghost at the table: Epstein’s chart, lit by Pluto and Mars, reminding us that buried scandals and hidden archives still ripple through these encounters.
So what was this meeting really about? Not peace. Not a ceasefire. It was about power, leverage, and shadow currency. A staged show in Leo’s spotlight, with Pluto ensuring that the real negotiations played out in the invisible backroom of secrets, blackmail, and unfinished wars.
What else would you expect from two of the world’s most wanted men - one chasing legitimacy, the other chasing distraction - staging theater on a military base while the real costs fall on Ukraine’s shoulders.
And the show isn’t over. Next week, Trump will meet Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington, after the two leaders had a “long and substantive” call following the Alaska Summit. Zelensky says he’s open to a three-way discussion with the U.S. and Russia, though Russia has denied a trilateral meeting was discussed in Alaska. For Trump, next week’s meeting is just another stage, while for Zelensky, it’s survival.
🕯️ Palestine Rising
While the world’s eyes were fixed on the anticlimactic Trump–Putin summit this week, the war in Gaza only grew more brutal.
On Sunday, Israeli airstrikes killed Al Jazeera reporter Anas Al Sharif, who was meeting with colleagues in a media tent near Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Israel admitted responsibility, claiming ties to Hamas, but Al Jazeera called it “a desperate attempt to silence voices in anticipation of the occupation of Gaza.”
The backlash against Israel’s campaign deepened this week when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed Australia will line up with France, Britain, Portugal, and Canada in supporting Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly in September. Calling the situation in Gaza a “humanitarian catastrophe,” Albanese said, “A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence.” His government has also condemned Netanyahu’s sweeping new offensive in Gaza.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon declared Benjamin Netanyahu had “lost the plot,” blasting the mass displacement of civilians and the choking off of aid as “utterly appalling.” He signaled New Zealand may soon join allies in recognizing a Palestinian state.
Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel shot back, accusing Luxon of ignoring the threats Israel faces from Hamas, but the exchange underscored a widening global break with Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, reports surfaced that Israel has opened exploratory talks with five countries - Indonesia, Uganda, Libya, Somaliland, and South Sudan - about relocating Palestinians from Gaza. Officials in Jerusalem described it as “voluntary migration,” but Palestinians and human rights groups denounced it as forced displacement, even ethnic cleansing. No agreements have been reached, and some governments deny any talks at all, yet the idea itself is already provoking global outrage.
The tide is turning in the holy land, though it rises in blood and sorrow. By September, the stars suggest the world will speak Palestine’s name, even as Netanyahu clings to fading power. In 2026, the suffering of Gaza becomes the world’s moral mirror, Israel weighed down by its own excess. By 2027, recognition of Palestine takes root in law and alliance while Israel fractures under the strain. And by 2028, Netanyahu’s reign collapses into history, leaving behind an Israel wounded in its identity and a Palestine beginning, at last, to rise.
🌪️ Whacky Weather & Cosmic Wonders
It wasn’t just political drama that was unsettled this week. Around the world, the skies kept lashing out in wild and unpredictable ways.
Typhoon Podul battered southern Taiwan with hurricane-force winds, while Tropical Storm Erin drowned Cape Verde in a year’s worth of rain in hours, before spinning into a monster hurricane further out in the Atlantic. Southern Europe burned as heatwave-fueled wildfires ripped across Greece, Spain, and Albania. In Australia, Wide Bay towns were dusted with surreal snow-like hail even as forecasters warned of a week-long deluge on the east coast. And in the U.S., Connecticut was hit with flash floods, fierce winds, and hail.
But the week didn’t just bring brutal weather - it also unveiled the strange and the cosmic.
Recent floods in Texas exposed 115-million-year-old dinosaur tracks at Dinosaur Valley State Park, prints of the mighty Acrocanthosaurus long hidden under silt.
In Central Victoria, a blazing meteor turned night to day, shaking houses with a thunderous boom, while in the U.S., scientists revealed that a tiny meteorite that smashed through a home in June is older than Earth itself.
And if that wasn’t odd enough, a virus is sweeping through America’s cottontail rabbits, sprouting grotesque, horn-like growths from their heads, earning it the nickname the “jackalope virus.”
And then, out of Harvard, came a theory straight from the twilight zone. Physicist John Brandenburg reignited his claim that Mars once hosted life until it was obliterated by an alien nuclear blast. He points to traces of xenon-129 in the Martian atmosphere, saying they can’t be explained by nature alone. Mainstream scientists roll their eyes, but the image lingers: a civilization wiped out in atomic fire, their ruins buried in red dust.
With Uranus in Gemini and Neptune blazing into Aries, the cosmos is throwing curveballs - storms, meteors, ancient fossils, and even viral jackalopes. Pluto’s fresh charge in Aquarius cracks the surface to show us what’s long buried, while Jupiter in Cancer supercharges the water cycle. Together, they write a sky of unpredictability, where the Earth herself feels electric, unstable, and alive with secrets.
The rest of 2025 will keep serving up surreal weather, cosmic surprises, and eerie echoes from the past. The mix of Uranus in Gemini and Neptune in Aries ensures that what happens next won’t feel ordinary - it’ll feel like the Earth is alive and trying to send us messages in lightning bolts and meteors.
And as the year builds toward its September eclipses, expect the veil to thin even further, where storms feel like omens, and every crack in the sky whispers of hidden worlds breaking through.
🔮 What Lies Ahead: From August into Eclipse Season
The week ahead feels like too many spotlights turned on at once. Each beam reveals something urgent, but together they sketch the outline of a storm.
Monday, August 18 pulls Zelensky and Trump into the White House. Under Mercury’s spark to Mars, their words land like weapons. Trump’s natal Mars is lit, making him quick to brag, to jab, to slip. Zelensky stands at the threshold of his Virgo Sun, carrying Ukraine’s very chart with him; what is said here is not just talk, it’s history knocking. Moscow feels it too, its own Moon and Sun caught in the crosshairs.
Tuesday, August 19 the world marks Humanitarian Day, and the Aquarius Moon presses Palestine’s wounds into view. Leaders may offer statements, but the images of hunger and rubble are the true headlines.
Wednesday, August 20 brings the Fed minutes, dry words turned dramatic under a Leo Moon. The U.S. chart itself wobbles here, Mercury under pressure, the nation’s story of stability sounding more like doubt.
Thursday through Saturday, August 21–23, the markets stare at the annual Economic Policy Symposium in Jackson Hole where earnings check the pulse of the American consumer, then Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech on Friday lands just as the Sun steps into Virgo and a New Moon resets the script. As the show of August ends, receipts season begins. For Trump, this New Moon pierces his house of money and worth. Questions of value sharpen around him, as if the cosmos itself asks what he is really worth.
And in the shadows, two other charts stir. Epstein’s Sun now sits under Pluto’s relentless gaze - the ghost rattling in every courtroom, every sealed file, every whisper of power compromised. Maxwell’s Capricorn stellium lies in wait, the Virgo New Moon feeding it, the September eclipses preparing to expose it. She cannot escape the tide; her silence or her words will echo either way.
These days are preludes. September’s eclipses loom like storm fronts - the Pisces Lunar Eclipse on the 7th washing away illusions, the Virgo Solar Eclipse on the 21st engraving truths too sharp to be spun. October brings Pluto’s turn, breaking the locks on long-sealed doors.
And beyond, February 2026 glows as the Genesis Portal, the hinge in history where one age closes and another breathes in.
For now, this week is the sound of tumblers clicking in the lock. Zelensky carries a nation, Trump feels the bite of his chart, Powell steadies a shaking market, while in the background, Epstein and Maxwell’s shadows stretch longer across the stage. The fuse burns. The world leans closer. The crack is coming.
This week, the noise of collapse kept rising with authoritarian bluster, political theatrics and storms of spin. But even as the walls rattled, something different happened too: people stood firm. In courtrooms, in parliaments, press conferences, and in the streets, voices rose, not in rage, but in refusal. A refusal to bend, to be broken, to surrender to the chaos.
Our power isn’t in swinging back at every fist that flies. That only drags us into the same collapse we’re watching unfold. Our strength is steadier than that. It’s in anchoring down, roots deep in the ground, refusing to be carried off in the whirlwind.
When the old world thrashes in its death throes, it tries to pull us into its panic, but we don’t have to go with it. If we lose our minds, if we forget out hearts, we collapse alongside it. If we stay calm, grounded, clear, then as it falls, we remain. And what remains becomes the foundation of the new.
So this week, remember: you are not called to match the chaos. You are called to withstand it. To be steady in the storm, unmovable as the old scaffolding crumbles. The future won’t be built by those who scream the loudest. It will be built by those who refused to be blown away by the storm.
Stand steady.
Stand true.
Let the world collapse around you if it must.
You are here to be the ground it will rise from.
(And if you need some help staying steady through it all, come join me in the Daily Lighthouse. I’ll be there, each day with you.)
See you next Sunday - until then, stay kind, stay fierce, and stay human.
“On the flight home, Trump told European leaders that Putin had flatly rejected a ceasefire and demanded Ukrainian concessions. By the time he landed, Trump had already shifted to Putin’s position, dropping his own ceasefire push and urging that talks begin straight away on Russia’s terms.”
Whaaaat? No way. You mean tr*mp did as he was told by the man who tells him what to do?
Oh dear, maybe tr*mp will have to actually read his book someone else ghost wrote, the Art of the Deal.
Wow, who could have seen this coming?