He makes friends wherever he goes. He is certain that everyone wants to make his acquaintance. When he’s out and about, women and children especially like him. Men are either charmed or afraid – he is a litmus test for men. He’s mostly well behaved and has a sense of humor, but if you enter his territory get ready for a big loud display that will rattle your eardrums. He has serious boundary issues.

He knows people get irritated with him but he just won’t stand down. He feels it’s important to enforce things. That is a bad habit he has yet to break – that and the humping. He doesn’t try to hump us any more like he did when he was younger, but when he is at the park with his friends it seems he can’t help himself.

I’m talking about Buck. He’s a 7 year old Giant Schnauzer. I’m not a huge fan of dogs but I’ve always loved and nurtured the ones that have come into my life. I guess I can’t help it. That’s not a statement about being put upon – I am the one who chose him.

It’s a Water Dog month in an Earth Dog year. I’m writing this on a Wood Dog day. Nikki Haley is resigning today. Her day pillar is a Metal Dog which is a reminder that protecting and defending are important to her. Her month pillar, Metal Ox is a reminder that her mission, however misguided she has been about going about it, is not that far off from that of Metal Ox Barack Obama. No wonder she has to leave. I would read her as a Rat year. If she’s leaving surely she thinks the ship is sinking but if you asked her she probably wouldn’t say so unless you said it first.

Each of the Chinese Zodiac animals is an archetype from which we can divine the nature of a person. Each branch has its positive and negative characteristics. They are labeled as such relative to who is doing the labeling and the specific situation. So when we talk about the Dog being loyal, trustworthy and vigilant we can also apply that to people who have a Dog branch in the ba zi. One of the negative aspects of the Dog is repetitive behavior. I say negative because sometimes it’s something you want, other times it’s not. A Dog can be trained but some Dogs have bad habits that defy correction. Sometimes the Dog’s habits are self destructive. Sometimes Dogs hurt the people they are supposed to protect. Sorry Marla Reynolds but it’s true. #himtoo

We are early risers at my house so it’s dark now during morning walks with Buck. No matter how careful we are, he always manages to find some disgusting thing to eat on the ground. We can’t see anything but Buck’s nose knows exactly where to find a rotten apple core, even from a distance. Every so often, Buck eats something that makes him sick, then he has to spend a few days recovering. Sometimes he has to go to the vet. During these times, he won’t eat his food, but unless he’s extremely ill he will still demand his treats. When he’s sick I find it very difficult to concentrate on other things. I worry about him.

I always wonder why Buck doesn’t make the connection between his snarfing up the smelly bits and being sick. He doesn’t seem to have a sense of consequences in this context. Maybe his primal scavenging instinct is just too strong to resist. He’s been having digestive issues again this week, moping around with ominous noises coming from his gut. Last night he threw up. I feel sorry for him but yesterday when I was walking him he tried to eat part of a donut that he found on the ground. It’s kind of annoying even though I realize Buck is just following thousands of years of conditioning.

Humans are not much different. We also make the same mistakes over and over if we’re not careful, by which I mean full of care. Not caring is giving away power. Caring restores our power to create change, however much it hurts.

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, thank you for your service. Thank you for caring. We’ve got it from here.

In any other year so far, the story of Brett Kavanaugh’s mistakes on his route to elevation would probably have had the same ending. He’s immature at best, but timing has been on his side for most of his career years. He’s not only been able to get away with stuff – he has been rewarded for it in certain circles. This is what some people call luck.

We’re just moving out of Period 8, also known as the era of the youngest son. Period 8 favored young men and the prevalent boys will be boys attitude. This is the time period that produced Brett Kavanaugh. As suggested by the term youngest son, this time period was dominated by an immature kind of masculinity. It was the age of cigars, binders full of women, wealthy psychopaths, dudebros, professional gamers, and brogrammers. Before #metoo when more of us were kidding ourselves, we were calling toxic masculinity the Peter Pan syndrome. It’s not the masculine principle itself that’s toxic. It’s the refusal of the masculine to grow into maturity.

Accordingly, Period 8 included the presidential terms of 1946 Fire Dogs George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Donald Trump, who was also born in 1946, is late to the political game, however his timing is perfect when it comes to stirring up the bitter dregs.

Cesar Millan, if you’re reading this do you have any advice? Because we will no longer remain calm and submissive. As we enter Period 9 feminine power is on the rise.

Since Trump’s election in 2016 I keep coming back to this fact: 53% of white women voters voted for Trump. How can it make sense that a creepy clown who is proud of his sexual harassment and oppression of women gets so many votes from them? It doesn’t make sense, nor does the fact that 45% of white women backed Kavanaugh’s confirmation. I still don’t get it. Except I kind of do – and that is because I can read Trump’s ba zi. His fate is to be supported by women. He has no idea how lucky he is.

Donald Trump is a Yin Earth person born in the Horse month of June. The Fire of the Horse supports his Earth element. In fact, every branch in the chart supports Earth. So we can say that in his life in general there are always women who support him.

Going branch by branch, you can also identify the specific women in his life. This can be done with anyone’s ba zi – I’m not just making this up.

The year branch, Dog, is Donald’s mother Mary Anne Trump. She is said to have remarked to Ivana Trump “What sort of son have I created?”. Many women may relate to this, for better or worse. We can try to teach our sons to treat women as equals, but if the men in our lives aren’t modeling that how convincing are we? Perhaps Mary Anne, like the Dog, was unable to use the past to change the future. Something tells me her father was very much like her husband. And her son.

Trump’s month branch, Horse, would include Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Nikki Haley. These are women that Trump uses to “soften” his image. They are there to clean up his mess; a long standing tradition between men and women. As compensation they get a career boost, money, and power (at least temporarily) for defending his public image that he trashes in every moment.

First Trump wife and recently self proclaimed “First Lady” Ivana also belongs in the month branch as Donald’s ex wife. Donald used Ivana, discarded her, and yet she still publicly supports him; probably not because she likes him but because it serves her in some way. Ivana likes to stand out. Marla Maples, also an ex wife, is pretty much out of the picture because in Trump’s world, women who don’t go along with his program get jettisoned. By Marla’s own account their marriage was based on her illusion of who he was. I think many women are familiar with this – it seems to be one of our common errors. Another form of this is thinking that you can choose a partner and then change him into whatever you wanted him to be.

The day branch, Sheep, is currently Melania. Donald is a Yin Earth person and the Sheep is mostly Yin Earth. Donald will always be uncomfortable about a spouse because he wouldn’t want to be married to someone like himself and he worries that she is exactly like him. She’s not, however, I find that is a common fear men have about women: that women would think and do the things men think and do. Trump is nervous at the thought of acknowledging any equal though, regardless of gender.

Seductive and slithery Snake Ivanka occupies the hour branch, which represents children, younger people and employees. Ivanka aspires to be the sorcerer’s apprentice. She seems savvy enough to have had a solid career even without her father (represented in her ba zi by the Rooster) but obviously she can progress more quickly into power by supporting him. Trump is already grooming us to accept her as our UN ambassador.

Let us not forget spinner Susan Collins is here in the hour pillar too, as Trump’s underling. She represents the women who are afraid of the men in their lives; the ones who blandish bullies in order to stay safe. While compromise is important and valuable, going along to get along is a self harm that extends out into the environment like pollution.

So yes, women have been participants in promoting, nurturing and protecting powerful men who do bad things. There’s no question.

Now women are waking up to the idea that even men they love have some shocking ingrained prejudices. Men are waking up to this fact too. Women are realizing that supporting the status quo or being submissive is sabotaging their own expectations for the behavior of men. Men are realizing women are coming into a new position of power.

What men might not realize is that although women will make mistakes wielding it, we don’t do power the same way as men do. We think that better can mean better for everyone; better doesn’t have to mean worse for some.*

*Tip of the hat to Margaret Atwood