Posts by Alex Miller

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Aster-Obit: Kobe Bryant

The world was shocked and saddened by the sudden death of basketball icon Kobe Bryant, who perished in a fatal helicopter crash on Sunday, January 26, 2020. Bryant, whose career spanned two decades with the LA Lakers, had been the third-highest scorer in the NBA, until he was eclipsed by LeBron James just the day before his death. With typical class and magnanimity, what turned out to be his final Tweet was in praise of the man who had just surpassed him: “Continuing to move the game forward @KingJames. Much respect my brother.”

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The 2020 Oscar Nominations

The 2020 Academy Awards are already upon us! Weeks earlier than usual this year, the Oscars will be presented on Sunday, February 9, at 5 PM PST in Los Angeles. We’re fortunate to have a large number of nominees with exact PNA (Personal-Named Asteroid) matches to represent them; two of the contenders even have asteroids named specifically for them! By placing these in the chart for the 92nd Academy Awards, we can rate the chances of their terrestrial counterparts, pinpointing who may walk off with Oscar gold, and who has to rasp out, “It’s an honor just to be nominated.”

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AAA Profile: Bernie Sanders

Despite a recent heart attack, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has maintained his slow and steady pace in his current bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, coming in reliably second or third in most polling. Bernie (I find it impossible to call him “Sanders”, so associated is he with his nickname) famously broke upon the national political scene when he challenged Hillary Clinton for the 2016 nomination, and while he failed in that attempt, he came remarkably close for someone with very little name recognition prior to throwing his hat in the ring. Bernie quickly became the darling of the progressive left, but also pulled from much of the same demographic of working class blue collar voters that fueled Trump’s grievance campaign. With fellow ultra-progressive Elizabeth Warren flailing of late, assuming Joe Biden stumbles and falls at some point early on in the process, Bernie Sanders would seem to be the man most likely to step into the breach. But would that be a winning choice for Democrats?

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Political Apprentice, Season Four: Series Finale?

It’s that time again, the preview of the White House’s upcoming year. Like any other entity, living and breathing or not, the Trump Administration has a “birth” chart, and thus, an annual solar return, which gives us a cosmic weather forecast for the year ahead. This one is cast for 5:30 AM EST on January 21, 2020, in Washington DC. Old Sol isn’t quite as reliable as we’d like, and sometimes returns to his birth degree and minute a day before or after the actual anniversary, in this case, January 20.

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Impeachment Update: The Lev-ity of the Situation

 

January 15, 2020 was yet another bad day for Donald J. Trump. Within hours, the impeachment articles against him had been signed and delivered to the Senate for his trial, and an associate, Lev Parnes, gave a devastating interview confirming the President’s direct involvement in the Ukraine aid-for-dirt shakedown. Trump had previously publically denied knowing Parnas, a statement which apparently insulted his henchman, causing him to flip on the boss.

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Asteroid Sleuth: The Case of the Holiday Horror

On Christmas Eve 2019 a Grindr hookup went horribly wrong, when 25-year-old Kevin Bacon (no, not that one) was killed and cannibalized by his date, 50-year-old Mark Latunski. Bacon, a hair stylist who was studying psychology, travelled 25 miles to Latunski’s home, where he was stabbed in the back, then had his throat slit. After his death, his corpse was strung up by the heels from the ceiling, his testicles were removed and eaten by Latunski, whose lawyer is claiming an insanity defense (gee, d’ya think?).

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