Alex Miller, Author at Alex's Asteroid Astrology

March 21st, 2025 at 08:35am by Alex Miller

House Diary: Easter’s On the Half-Shell

Seems I’m not the only one moving a little slowly this spring; I’m almost finished with recovery from knee replacement surgery in January, though still a bit wobbly on uneven turf. But Mother Nature has been dragging her feet as well, with the garden a good 4-6 weeks behind its normal schedule, after an unusually cold winter. Fortunately, we also had snow cover through most of the coldest periods, if not deep, but at least that sheltered the more sensitive roots and bulbs from the bitter temps, and I’m hoping not to have much damage or loss.

March 19th, 2025 at 10:07am by Alex Miller

SCOTUS Smackdown: Roberts Rebukes Trump

On 18 March 2025, Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court John Roberts made a rare statement on the politics of the day, when he waded into a controversy over the deportation of hundreds of undocumented Venezuelan immigrants who had been characterized by the Trump administration as violent, dangerous gang members. The men were apprehended and removed from the country without due process, with no proof of guilt beyond the government’s say-so, then flown to a prison in El Salvador, which was paid to house them indefinitely.

March 6th, 2025 at 08:30am by Alex Miller

2025 Academy Awards Wrap-up

The 97^th Academy Awards were presented on 2 March 2025, commencing at 4 PM PST in Los Angeles, California. Thirteen of the nominees were first-time honorees, a record showing, and no more than appropriate, with a first-time host, Conan O’Brien, as well. Newbies grabbed three of four acting awards, and among the record setters were Best Actor winner Adrien Brody (first person to have two wins for just two nominations, as well as the longest acceptance speech in Oscar history), and “Anora” director Sean Baker (first to win four Oscars for the same film, scooping up Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and Film Editing).

March 2nd, 2025 at 09:47am by Alex Miller

Aster-Obit: Gene Hackman

On Wednesday, 26 February, 2025, Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman and his wife were found dead at their Santa Fe, New Mexico home, following a wellness check by authorities. Also deceased was a German Shepherd, one of several dogs owned by the couple. Foul play was initially ruled out, but evidence at the scene was inconclusive, and police now classify the deaths as “suspicious.” Search warrants were issued for the property to resolve the cause of death, which could extend to accident or suicide, but reporting indicates that the couple may have been dead for some time before discovery.

February 24th, 2025 at 10:23am by Alex Miller

Trump’s First Thirty Days: Schlock & Awe

Donald J. Trump’s particular genius for creating chaos and mayhem was on full display in the first month after his second inauguration on 20 January 2025. A flurry of executive orders mandating everything from the end of birthright citizenship (a constitutionally enshrined right which requires an amendment ratified by three-fourths of the states to alter) to the quixotic renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as “the Gulf of America” (and would you like Freedom Fries with that?) was just the beginning. Most of the heavy lifting of dismantling the federal government was consigned to Elon Musk and his fabricated Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), who has proceeded to reflexively fire or eliminate thousands of workers with civil service protections and close entire agencies without congressional authority. Freezes on funding, hiring, and dispensing approved funds have rounded out DOGE’s resume.

February 17th, 2025 at 01:59pm by Alex Miller

President Musk

Nobody elected him to anything, he is ineligible for the high office he apparently holds, his work in restructuring government is unsanctioned, unofficial, and unconstitutional. But Elon Musk has apparently effected a successful takeover of the US government, hostile or otherwise. The head of Donald Trump’s bogus DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk is behaving like a classic Doge, the medieval, autocratic rulers of Venice, arbitrarily cutting staff, stopping funding, and eliminating entire departments at whim.