Tag archive: Nemesis

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Hurricane Helene

Atlantic storms with PNAs (Personal-Named Asteroids) equating to their designated names, which find these connected to the Sun when they make landfall, often prove to be among the worst, most powerful and destructive hurricanes on record, not to mention the most expensive.  Such was the case with Hurricane Irma, which made landfall in Florida on 10 September 2017, with the Sun conjunct asteroid Irma (estimated cost $65 billion); and Hurricane Maria, which made landfall in Puerto Rico ten days later, with asteroid Maria exactly squared the Sun (estimated cost $115 billion).  And such is the case now, with Hurricane Helene striking Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane, the largest ever to hit the region, on September 26th, under a precise conjunction of the Sun with asteroid Helena (with an early estimate of the storm’s damage at $95-110 billion).

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Sean “Diddy” Combs Arrested

On 17 September 2024, rapper and recording mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs (AKA Puffy, Puff, and Puff Daddy, at various points in his career) was arrested on federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution.  The charges largely stem from Combs’ infamous “freak-offs,” coerced sex acts performed by sex workers which Combs allegedly orchestrated and filmed, in marathon sessions lasting for days, fueled by drugs which kept performers compliant.  Combs has been denied bail as a flight risk, and remains incarcerated.

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Trump Assassination Attempt, Take Two

On 15 September 2024, history repeated itself with a second assassination attempt against former US president and current GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, golfing at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.  Shots were heard on the course at approximately 2 PM EDT, and Secret Service agents quickly whisked Trump out of harm’s way.  Details are still sketchy, but it seems the shots fired were from advance Secret Service agents, who noted a gun barrel protruding from a wooded fence line area as they scouted the course two holes ahead, roughly 400 yards beyond where Trump was playing.  Shots were fired at Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, who never actually saw Trump or discharged his weapon before he abandoned his AR-15-style rifle in the bushes and fled the course.  He was apprehended several hours later.

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The Trump/Harris Debate

From the moment she stepped on stage at the presidential debate held at Constitution Hall in Philadelphia, PA on September 10, 2024, Kamala Harris dominated, striding purposefully across the platform to force Donald Trump to shake hands with her as an equal.  Trump had been evading that moment (as indeed, he avoided even glancing her way throughout most of the debate), but she walked directly into his space and demanded compliance with the time-honored norm.

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The Georgia School Shooting

Ah, back to school!  I remember it well – the bookbags and lunchpails that had to conform to what was currently “cool” to avoid merciless taunting; catching up with what friends did over the summer break; the new pens, pencils, notepads and markers; readjusting to subpar school cuisine; the new clothes that were another potential pitfall of derision; and of course, the mass shootings.

No, wait – that one’s new.  Well, new-ish; it’s been a quarter century since Columbine inaugurated a whole new rite-of-passage for American schoolchildren, replacing dodgeball with dodgebullet, and each year since, it seems we just keep upping the ante.

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Debby Down(pour)er

Hurricane Debby made landfall as a Category 1 storm in the small town of Steinhatchee, in Florida’s Big Bend, at about 7 AM EDT on August 5, 2024.  Debby had been named as a Tropical Storm just two days before, an unusually short interval between naming and effect.  Winds began falling rapidly shortly after Debby went inland, and she was downgraded to Tropical Storm status again within a few hours, but Debby’s impact is expected to be felt in the arena of rain, with as much as 30” predicted in some regions.  Already as of this writing (August 6), Debby has dropped some 16” in Manatee County, Florida, and historic flooding is expected in Georgia and the Carolinas.

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