You’re getting all the news you need on Jeffrey Epstein and don’t need me adding to it. Yesterday I wrote here that it likely was a suicide. But I have to admit questions keep arising. Here’s just a few as this whole thing continues to baffle.
The NY Post reported today he hanged himself with bed sheets by tying them to the top bunk. Well he was six feet tall, so how did that work?
They reported he folded his legs at the knees. So we are supposed to believe as he lost consciousness they never hit the ground?
Then his cellmate (required for returned to cells for ex suicide inmates) just happened to be removed that evening — and not replaced?
Add it was a job requirement for two guards to check on him every 30 minutes. Well that night they didn’t do so at the time of this incident for hours.
Then we learn one of the two guards was not a guard at all.
Now add this.
July 23rd was the first time there “was an apparent suicide attempt”. I say apparent because it has never been verified that is what it was. Epstein said he “couldn’t recall” what happened and his cellmate at the time (a former police officer who was a four time killer) said “he saw nothing”.
So there are lots of questions and we again say AG Barr is the best hope for any answers. There will be pressure from some very powerful and influential people to get this off the news and buried. Barr is going to have to stand up to it all. I think he will.
The Deficit:
We’ve talked endlessly here about the growing deficit and the need to address it. Well this AM here’s the report on where we are:
The U.S. fiscal deficit has already exceeded the full-year figure for last year, as spending growth outpaces revenue.
The gap grew to $866.8 billion in the first 10 months of the fiscal year, up 27% from the same period a year earlier, the Treasury Department said in its monthly budget report on Monday. That’s wider than last fiscal year’s shortfall of $779 billion — which was the largest federal deficit since 2012.
For people who do so much for our children and grandchildren do we not understand what we are passing on to them?
The Iowa Kernels:
One great tradition of the Iowa Fair is individuals 18 and over are asked to place a corn kernel in a bucket of the candidate of their choice. More than 20,000 have been cast already. Here’s the results:
Joe Biden 24 percent, Pete Butigieg 16 percent, Elizabeth Warren 15 percent, Kamala Harris 11 percent and Bernie Sanders at 9 percent.
By the way there are an additional 14 candidates registering higher than NY Mayor DeBlasio who had 23 kernels and has spent considerable time in the state.
Afghanistan:
This is another example of the President getting out ahead of a story. A few weeks ago he talked about getting out of Afghanistan and a peace agreement. He desperately wants to end this war, but reaching a bad deal, as President Obama did in Iraq would lead to an even worse situation. Well here in Afghanistan he apparently was willing to deal with the Taliban. This is the same Taliban that allowed Osama Bin Laden to exist and build his terrorist army.
Yesterday though, the talks with the Taliban ended without an agreement. The negotiations, held since last year in Qatar, sought a deal in which the US would withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in exchange for the Taliban guaranteeing they wouldn’t allow the country to once again become a base for Islamic militants.
A member of the Taliban negotiating said: “We prolonged our meeting with the hope of reaching a peace agreement but it could not happen.”
The President sometimes speaks long before he should on things.
Speaking of the President, for a guy who surrounds himself “with only the best people”, you can add Anthony Scaramucci, “The Mooch” as another miss. There’s a pretty long list of people on that list.