It’s time for another installment of Cosmic Grab Bag, AAA’s catchall collection of smaller stories that were skipped in real time, but deserve honorable celestial mention. In this issue we deal with a royal “first” in religion, a World Series outcome, a royal demotion, and a Supreme Court hearing.
Stories frequently cross the digital transom that catch my eye, but don’t necessarily merit a full article on their own. But the celestial correspondences are worthy of notice, so from time to time I compile these unrelated stories into an asteroid omnibus bill, if you will. In this edition, we’ll tackle a challenge to same-sex marriage, a disturbing melding of government with the private sector, a Senate grilling for a Cabinet Secretary, and a record-making Royal visit.
Swifties the world over were gob smacked by the announcement on 26 August 2025 that pop icon Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, NFL star Travis Kelce, were engaged. The couple had been dating for just under two years, a record for Swift, who is noted for the brevity of her entanglements, and the fodder her failed relationships have been for her music career. No date has yet been set for the wedding, but it is not expected to occur before the 2026 Super Bowl, due to her tour commitments and his playing schedule.
Keeping up with the latest Trump-related mishigas is a fulltime job these days, as the Distractor-in-Chief writhes and squirms in the white-hot spotlight of the Epstein files debacle. Like vermin desperately crawling from beneath an overturned rock, stunned by their exposure to sunlight, Trump is throwing everything he has at the wall, hoping something – anything – will stick long enough to shift focus from the dumpster fire that is the MAGA rebellion to his Attorney General’s assertion that the Epstein case is closed, with no further revelations of elite pedophile wrongdoing to come.
One of the main pillars of the MAGA (“Make America Great Again”) movement, and a major component of that coalition, has been conspiracy theories and theorists. From the JFK and MLKJ assassinations to the moon landing and Clinton-sponsored pedophile rings run out of pizza shops, conspiracy is the air many MAGA folks breathe. And one of the most popularized conspiracy theories involved Jeffrey Epstein, credibly accused of having sex with underage girls, and sharing this illicit activity with numerous well-heeled, famous friends and acquaintances. Epstein never came to trial, having died in prison of an apparent suicide, but was rumored to have a secret client list naming his cohorts; his manner of death was also judged suspicious in MAGA world.
OK, Tesla makes electric vehicles, which don’t run on gasoline, but you get the idea. Once valued in excess of a trillion dollars, Tesla Motors stock has plunged in 2025, shedding some $380 billion in value since January, which, not coincidentally, is when founder Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, began his stint with the second Trump administration, as head of the now notorious DOGE, Department of Government Efficiency. The extra-governmental task force, with no statutory authority beyond the President’s fiat, attempted to trim $2 trillion from the federal budget, but came up a bit short.
