Alex Miller, Author at Alex's Asteroid Astrology - Page 50 of 107

November 22nd, 2020 at 07:43am by Alex Miller

Senate in the Balance: The Georgia Runoffs

OK, so Dems won the White House in the 2020 election, and kept control of the House of Representatives (albeit with a slimmer majority). What about the Senate?

In this time of political polarization, no administration can be completely effective without controlling all three, and the level of toxic waste Biden will need to clear from the detritus of the Trump administration is staggering. Without the Senate, much progress can be blocked. Take, for example, the last two years of Barack Obama’s second term, when Republicans took charge of the Senate at the midterm elections in 2014. Once Mitch McConnell consolidated this grip on power, Obama never got another judge seated again. McConnell just refused to bring his nominees to a floor vote, the most famous being the SCOTUS seat vacated by Antonin Scalia, which McConnell held open for a full year, but literally hundreds of federal judgeships remained vacant until Trump came into office, and McConnell finally filled them.

November 12th, 2020 at 09:18am by Alex Miller

Aster-Obit: Alex Trebek

On Sunday, 8 November 2020, gameshow fans the world over were saddened to hear of the death of Alex Trebek, host of “Jeopardy!”, after an 18-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Described as “the thinking man’s game show”, “Jeopardy!” inverted the traditional format by providing the answers to trivia questions, requiring contestants to phrase their replies in the form of a question.

The third longest-running gameshow on TV (after “The Price Is Right” and “Wheel of Fortune”), “Jeopardy!” has had several daytime and evening incarnations, but Alex Trebek has helmed the show for 37 years, since its latest version premiered in 1984. Its iconic final round theme is one of the most-recognized musical selections in the world, and the series has spawned several foreign-language versions in 32 countries including Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Russia, Denmark, Japan, Spain, Australia, Turkey and Israel. Trebek continued working throughout his cancer treatment, until the bitter end, appearing in the studio to film episodes just 11 days before his passing.

November 8th, 2020 at 01:24pm by Alex Miller

2020 Election Wrap-up (?)

After a protracted waiting period while ballots were counted in crucial swing states, reputable news outlets, from the AP to Fox News, have finally stated what’s been obvious for days: Democratic candidate Joe Biden has won the 2020 US presidential election.

That Biden would be the popular vote winner was never in serious doubt, celestially or terrestrially, but the US Constitution provides for a less-than-democratic mechanism to determine who actually holds the office. In 2016, despite winning the contest by almost 3 million more votes, Hillary Clinton was denied the presidency on an Electoral College technicality. With 4 million-plus more voters casting their ballots for him, that unfair outcome has been avoided in 2020, and Joe Biden will now assume the office, with 273 Electoral College votes to Donald Trump’s 214. Not all states have been called, but when Pennsylvania fell to Biden on the morning of Saturday, November 7^th, there was no longer a numeric path to victory for Donald Trump; the former VP had surpassed the 270 vote threshold. If the current leaders retain their positions and win those states where they are ahead, the final tally will be Joe Biden 306 and Donald Trump 230; ironically, this is the same number by which Trump won in 2016.

October 29th, 2020 at 07:40am by Alex Miller

House Diary: Samhain

Samhain (pronounced “SOW-en”) is the ancient Celtic name for the Scorpio Cross-Quarter day, a Fire Festival forming one of the four Major Sabbats of paganism. Samhain means “summer’s end”, and marked the end of the old year for the pastoral Celts, the date upon which flocks and herds were driven back to winter quarters. It was a night of power and prophecy, when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was thinnest, the future could be divined, and those who had departed in the previous twelvemonth briefly returned to their loved ones before final departure from this plane.

October 26th, 2020 at 07:42am by Alex Miller

Call Me Barnabas

It’s a AAA Halloween “Dark Shadows” double-header! We’ve already looked at the astrology of everybody’s favorite ‘60s gothic soap; how about the men who played the lead role of Barnabas Collins, in that series and subsequent productions? From character originator Jonathan Frid to TV remake star Ben Cross and widescreen heartthrob Johnny Depp, the men who have assailed the role of the tragic vampire with a conscience all seem marked for the part from birth.

October 24th, 2020 at 08:57am by Alex Miller

Election 2020: Ten Days to Go!

So here we are. Every four years someone is touting the upcoming presidential contest as “the most important of our lives”, but 2020 seems to truly deserve that appellation. Will we endorse the divisive, science-denying, racist and autocratic Narcissist-in-Chief, or listen to our better angels and chose a different path?

The good news is that Donald Trump will be resoundingly rejected by the American people. The bad news is that their opinion is secondary at best.