Posts by Alex Miller

TNY NY eve

Happy New Year, Donald!

As 2019 dawns, what does the New Year have in store for The Donald? He’s just passed the halfway mark of that stunningly horrific Solar Return, with almost six months still to run on his celestial sentence, and no “get out of jail free” card in sight!

 

But it’s not just the embedded factors in that chart which threaten Trump’s personal sanity and our collective safety – the cosmos continues to apply serious pressure to crack this nut, and much of it is coming in the next few months. Two eclipses and two planetary stations vie for the honor of the ultimate Trump Takedown, increasing presidential stress levels to the breaking point. But the coup de gras may well be the antics of his celestial referent, asteroid Troemper.

Continue reading

TMC cover

Merry Christmas, Donald!

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, the POTUS gave to me: one ousted White House Chief of Staff; an ill-advised Syrian pullout; one retiring Defense Secretary; a dissolved Trump charity; one sentenced former “fixer”; Trade Wars with China; a deferred sentence for a former National Security Adviser; five DOJ investigations into his conduct; four dictator cronies; three tanking stock markets; two departing Cabinet Secretaries; and a partial governmental shutdown in a pear tree.

 

One might think, with asteroid Santa coming to its station on Christmas Day, conjoined Donald Trump’s natal Ascendant, that the holiday haul for the 45th President might be pretty good. But apparently, Santa only has coal left in his magic sack.

Continue reading

YC cover

Here We Come a-Carol-ing

It’s that most wonderful time of the year! Well, it’s the loudest, anyway. Christian, Muslim, Jew or Pagan, it’s virtually impossible to avoid Christmas Carols in America during any given December. Classic yuletide tunes drift from every store’s PA system; street corner musicians put their jazzy spin on holiday favorites; radio stations devote all their programming hours to seasonal music; church, school and community choirs belt out a litany of sacred and secular harmonies; TV ads for everything from cars to candies are scored to jolly jingles. It’s the interminable symphonic backdrop of the Christmas Crush, that frenzied, hectic, crazy-making post-Thanksgiving mad dash to pick the presents, wrap them, string the lights, deck the halls, trim the tree, bake the cookies, buy the festive foods and (e)mail the festive cards.

Continue reading

HA cover

2018 Holiday Asteroids

You know Dasher and Dancer, and Prancer and Vixen, but do you recall that there are asteroids named Rudolf, Santa and Yule? Though none of these were designated for the holiday they have come to represent, they function very well as markers of its importance in the lives of those who have made Christmas a central focus of their biographies.

Continue reading

bush cover

Aster-Obit: George H. W. Bush

On Thursday, 30 November 2018, George H. W. Bush died at his home in Houston, Texas, at age 94. The 41st president of the United States, Bush was the son of a Senator, the father of the 43rd US president and of a former governor of Florida. Bush served two terms as Vice President for Ronald Reagan before succeeding to the office for a single term, losing the presidency to Bill Clinton in 1992. The subsequent friendship which grew between the two men (Bush and his wife Barbara often referred to Clinton as another son) was a beautiful example of a nonpartisan spirit that seems quaint and antiquated in today’s cruder, rough-and-tumble political atmosphere.

Continue reading

Pelosi cover

AAA Profile: Nancy Pelosi, The Once and Future Speaker

When the 116th Congress convenes on January 3rd, 2019, it’s likely to have a most remarkable woman at its head. If chosen Speaker by the incoming Democratic majority in US the House of Representatives, it won’t be Nancy Pelosi’s first crack at wielding the gavel. The California-based Representative made history in 2007 when she became the first female Speaker of the House, a post she held until the 2010 electoral rout against the Affordable Care Act, spearheaded by the Tea Party, tossed Democrats out of power for 8 years. But progressives and Pelosi are back, and 2018’s Blue Wave has once again turned the tide in DC.

Continue reading