Fred and Barney?

BINGO:  If you had Jeffrey Epstein committing suicide on your Trump Bingo Card, you’re a winner.  I’ll admit that I was one of those people who thought that Epstein’s first attempt was just his way of trying to get himself out on bail or at the very least into a less awful prison setting than a genuine attempt to off himself, still it’s unimaginable that prison authorities didn’t have him under twenty-four hour watch given his prior attempt, the incidence of suicide among accused pedophiles, the prominence of the people who he could have implicated and the arrangement agreed to between the Justice officials overseeing his case and prison authorities.  That deal mandated that Epstein have a cellmate and that he be checked on every thirty minutes.  Well, he didn’t have a cellmate nor was he checked in on regularly.  The Epstein saga is prime grist for conspiracy theorists abound, so while it’s despicable, it’s not all that surprising that Trump, the conspiracist-in-chief, retweeted one particularly noxious one assigning the blame for Epstein’s demise on Bill Clinton, who like Trump is rumored to have been a beneficiary of Epstein’s “largesse.” It is worth noting that the 2000 pages of previously sealed testimony released late last week included a statement by Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s accusers, that though she had been “gifted out” to a number of Epstein’s friends, including among others Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and Hedge Fund master of the universe Glenn Dubin, who is now married to one of Jeff Epstein’s former girlfriends, she never had any physical contact with either Trump or Clinton. Of course Kellyanne Conway, the Trump spokesperson who continues to decline further and further into the pits of Hell defended Trump’s Clinton accusation, saying that he merely wants “everything to be investigated” and if that involves throwing mud at a Clinton or two, even better.  As to that investigation, we should all take great solace in knowing that Attorney General Barr whose father advanced Epstein’s career by hiring him to teach at the prestigious Dalton School even though he was a college dropout was “appalled” by Epstein’s apparent suicide and is now overseeing an inquiry into his death.  Senator Ben Sasse, who when he isn’t voting for Trump’s judicial nominees and tax cuts pretends to be outraged about Trump’s contribution to the country’s moral decline demanded that Barr’s investigation be thorough saying that heads should roll and that people should be be fired for allowing the Epstein suicide to take place. In any case though the criminal case against Epstein is now kaput, the civil cases will continue and a conspiracy case against one or more of Epstein’s abettors is expected to continue as well.  Though it’s highly likely that she’ll conclude that Epstein did commit suicide, late yesterday the medical examiner responsible for Epstein’s autopsy said that she wasn’t ready to state the official cause of death yet likely because she is still waiting for some lab results.  As to those conspiracy theories, forget about the Clintons, there are so many other places to point the finger including Trump who tends to blame others for things he’s done, MI 6 on behalf of the Royal family who can’t be all that happy about the very credible Prince Andrew stories, or even a rogue Mossad agent on behalf of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, another one of those people who has been caught up in the Epstein web. The list goes on and on.  As to hateful retweets, Trump who is supposedly upset about all those commentators and candidates calling him a racist hasn’t just been busy on the Epstein front, he’s also been actively retweeting missives from Katie Hopkins, a far-right British commentator who has made denunciations of migrants and Muslims a “staple of her public discourse.” British headlines routinely label Hopkins a “racist” and a “bigot” for her views about immigrants and if you want to convince people that you’re not a racist, you should retweet racist stuff, right? As to that whole racist thing, as well as Trump’s sanity or lack thereof, he appears to have lost the support or the support for now of communication director for eleven days Anthony Scaramucci.  Over the weekend the Mooch, who really should be irrelevant but for some inexplicable reason isn’t, told Axios that said the current state of affairs in Washington is like "the early episodes of 'Chernobyl' on HBO, where the reactor is melting down and the apparatchiks are trying to figure out whether to cover it up or start the clean-up process." He added that he and other Republican supporters would consider finding a replacement candidate ahead of the presidential elections if Trump "doesn't reform his behavior."  Nice, but makes one wonder why it took Scaramucci so long to realize that “eventually” Trump “turns on everyone and soon it will be you and then the entire country.”

Cruelty Update:  Trump admitted that the raids on the Mississippi plants, the ones that resulted in the round up of 680 undocumented migrants, a few of whom were actually legal and many others who were already wearing INS issued ankle bracelets, were done mostly to scare the crap out of other “illegals” around the country.  Despite the number of children who were terrorized by the raids, Trump was pleased with the way they were carried out and wants everyone to know that many more similar raids are in the works.  Last week the Washington Post’s David Farenthold reported that Trump’s various real estate businesses continue to knowingly rely on the services of a number of undocumented migrants who make up a skilled group of workers known as the Los Picapiedros (the Flintstones) because they  build and repair fountains and waterfalls, sidewalks and rock walls at the company’s winery and its golf courses.  When asked why neither the Trump family businesses nor the Mississippi businesses were being targeted for employing “illegals” both Mark Morgan, the acting head of Border Patrol, and Kevin McAleenan, the acting head of Homeland Security hedged and hawed and said that maybe there were investigations going on that the public doesn’t know about, pretty much an admission that no one in the Homeland universe really cares about what’s going on in Trump’s businesses nor do they have much of an interest in going after any of the businesses employing undocumented migrants because if they do, how will they be able to justify ignoring Trump’s violations?  Both officials defended the Mississippi raids and claimed that the press was exaggerating the impact of the raids on the affected children because who cares if little Latino kids are terrorized anyway?  Mark Morgan saw nothing wrong with the raids going forward while El Paso was still burying those killed in the Latino targeted murder spree but Kevin McAleenan acknowledged the timing was “unfortunate.” He’ll probably be fired for that admission shortly.

Other News:  Trump raised $12 million during his Hamptons sojourn.  While hobnobbing with the Republican elites, he made fun of Stephen Ross’ Equinox “problem,” dissed South Koreans but talked again about his fine relationship with pen pal Kim Jong un of North Korea who despite their close friendship continues to shoot off missiles.  Trump also asserted that he is for background checks for gun owners, something that he’s promised before but then reneged on.  Something awful is going on in Russia beyond the crackdown on dissidents.  Apparently they had some kind of radiation leak after work on their newest nuclear weaponry went awry, we know that because a few scientists have died, people in the affected area are lining up to buy iodine and the government kind of admitted that something happened.  Things aren’t going all that well in Hong Kong either where residents continue to demonstrate against Chinese oversight.  This morning all flights into and out of Hong Kong’s busy airport were cancelled.  Not to worry about any of this though, Trump who is now on vacation, is focused on more important things like tweet slamming the Mooch and complaining about “Little” Donny Deutsche’s newish MSNBC program that he claims he only accidentally watched.