National Archives - Alex's Asteroid Astrology

April 26th, 2024 at 03:35pm by Alex Miller

A Pecker in the Hand Is Worth Two in the Box

The witness box, that is. And the pecker in question is David Pecker, National Enquirer publisher, long-time Trump friend and political ally, and currently exhibit A in the Manhattan DA’s criminal case against the former US president. Everybody knew that Pecker, once he’d gone soft on Trump, was gonna spew, but nobody knew how hard he could make it for The Donald. (And that’s the last of the cheap double entendres you’ll get from me in this article. Maybe.)

April 23rd, 2024 at 03:48pm by Alex Miller

Man Self-Immolates Outside Trump Trial

On Friday, 21 April 2024, just across the street from the Manhattan courtroom where jury selection in Donald Trump’s hush money trial had recently concluded, a man set himself alight, first dousing himself with a liquid accelerant. Police responded immediately, being onsite for courthouse protection, but were unable to stop the flames for several minutes; the man was later pronounced dead at a local burn center.

April 17th, 2024 at 09:08am by Alex Miller

Trump Trial #1 Begins

The first of Donald Trump’s four pending criminal trials began on Monday, 15 April 2024, with jury selection. Perhaps not coincidentally, it was also Tax Day, and without doubt, the ordeal of Trump on trial will be taxing for us all. Trump kicked off the event with a series of his trademark untruths as he bloviated to reporters before entering the Manhattan courtroom for his trial’s appointed start time of 9:30 AM EDT. The former president characterized the proceedings as “persecution,” “an attack on a political opponent,” and “an assault on America,” averring that “every legal scholar says this case is nonsense” and an “outrage.”

None of that is true, but Trump did state one accurate fact: “Nothing like this has ever happened before, there’s never been anything like it.” Indeed, this is the first criminal prosecution of a former US president and current presidential candidate in history. Congrats, Donnie! You’ve just set two new records!

March 28th, 2024 at 09:48am by Alex Miller

Eclipse Notes: Of Bombs, Bonds and Bridges

Hold onto your cosmic hats! We’re gonna do a down-and-dirty overview of three stories that made the news in recent days – the terrorist attack in Moscow on March 22^nd that left more than 130 dead; the diminution of Donald Trump’s civil fraud bond on the 25^th; and the catastrophic bridge collapse in Baltimore on the 26^th. Each deserves a deeper dive, buy hey! I’m only human.

March 8th, 2024 at 10:05am by Alex Miller

Happy Birthday, SCOTUS!

The Supreme Court of the United States (AKA SCOTUS) just had a birthday! Established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, the Court turned 235 on March 4, 2024 (and she doesn’t look a day over 200!). The Court’s motto is “Equal Justice Under the Law,” but for much of its chequered history it may as well have been, “Often Wrong, But Never in Doubt.” We don’t have to go as far back as the 1857 “Dred Scott” decision (which found that the U.S. Constitution did not extend American citizenship to people of black African descent) to find a real head-scratcher. More recent examples include “Heller” in 2008, which confirmed the Second Amendment gun rights free-for-all; “Citizens United” in 2010, which granted corporations the same free speech rights as individuals regarding political spending; or the 2022 ruling in “Dobbs” which eliminated nationwide reproductive health rights (though to be fair, it was also SCOTUS that confirmed those rights, in 1973’s “Roe v Wade”).

February 29th, 2024 at 08:27am by Alex Miller

Redefining Childhood: Alabama Supreme Court Rules Frozen IVF Embryos Are Children

In a shocking/not shocking ruling on February 16, 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court has stated that frozen embryos intended for possible in vitro fertilization use are, legally, children, and their destruction can be prosecuted under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. The 8-1 decision by the exclusively Republican nine-member Court allows couples whose frozen embryos were inadvertently removed from storage and allowed to deteriorate to sue a Mobile, Alabama fertility clinic for the wrongful death of their “children.”