The fraud of public ‘ejukashun’

I’ll preface this by saying I know many teachers who serve in the public school system who are student-focused and take their responsibilities seriously. They are working uphill, however, in an ecosystem that no longer ensures Johnny knows his “3Rs” before going out into the world. Publicly funded education, whether K-12 or university, has become bloated by bureaucracy and its attendant agendas, and focuses on its core mission only to the extent necessary to preserve its lifeblood: funding. Now that the public worldview is openly hostile to the Christian faith, it’s time for a mass exodus. Beyond that, even non-Christians should agree that examples like this show the system needs draconian doses of accountability (to include jail time for fraud). The best way to instill that accountability long term would be to privatize education entirely. Local taxes should fund students, not systems. If students’ parents find they’re not being served well, they should be free to take their resources to a place that will do better. Instead, millions, if not billions of tax dollars are being poured into rat holes like this:

The report confirms administrators at Augusta Fells improperly changed grades and pressured teachers to give students grades they did not earn. The internal investigation also found students were scheduled in classes that did not exist and/or that they did not attend, when they should have been withdrawn due to lack of attendance…

Fox45 News also obtained a list of 21 seniors enrolled at Augusta Fells in 2019. These students were enrolled, even though it appears they were not attending the school. Ghost students, as they’re known by educators, can be used to inflate enrollment numbers and increase the tax dollars a school receives. We spoke to a man who was enrolled at the school, even though he was in jail. (emphasis added)

North Avenue’s internal investigation confirms these findings, saying approximately 100 students had questionable status, and may not have been actively attending school while still remaining on the rolls…

In July, Fox45 reported that 41% of all Baltimore high school students have a 1.0 GPA or lower. Among freshmen it was 51 percent who had a D average or lower. I suspect if the city looks it will discover that similar fraud is taking place at other schools, i.e. students who never show up for classes that don’t exist. Augusta Fells may have been the worst school in Baltimore but it’s far from being the only one that is failing the students and parents who live there.

These children are being crippled for life, left as ill-functioning adults with little hope for the future. What should be the penalty for inflicting that on the next generation? No wonder public schools are embracing Critical Race Theory. Better to teach their minority students (of which there are many in Baltimore) that it’s “whitey” holding them back, so they don’t figure out it’s the education unions and associated public bureaucrats.

Sadly, it’s no better in post-secondary education. As a former competitive debater, I’m appalled to present to you the Cross Examination Debate Association’s 2014 national champions, from Towson University:

If there is to be any future for our country, we must rescue our children from this grist mill.

Tripling down – and getting personal

I’ve written before about attorney Lin Wood’s accusations against Supreme Court Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Stephen Breyer. Last night, Wood tripled down:

I pointed out before that Wood is an expert defamation lawyer. He is also admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court. The fact he has not yet been sued, nor barred from the Supreme Court, nor disciplined by his State bar, makes this ongoing series of tweets stand out amid the noise since the election. But don’t count on seeing any coverage of these accusations in the corporate media.

In fact, I’m noting an interesting trend here on WordPress with my humble little blog. The first time I wrote about Wood, I kept getting error messages, failure to save drafts, and such. It also kept trying to block me from using certain tags on the post. I ended up rewriting the entire post before it was over. I chalked it up to imperfections of the internet. Today, however, as I tried to upload the tweet above, WordPress went nuts, claiming I was not an authorized editor of this account, etc. Multiple attempts to add it failed. If you look closely, you’ll see I subtly modified the background color of the tweet by running a few pencil lines of a slightly different color in Photoshop. I then screenshot the open file, capturing another photo behind it on the sides. It then uploaded on the first try with no issue at all.

What does this mean? Given online chatter I’ve seen about algorithms being used by social media to suppress information, it would appear Wood’s tweet has been targeted. Adding other colors to the background and additional information around the side defeated the algorithm.

There’s a saying: once is an accident, twice a coincidence, three times is enemy action. While I’ve only experienced this twice, given that both times it was writing about the same subject, I’m inclined to think we’re beyond coincidence. I moved this site from Blogger to WordPress in 2013. In seven years, I’ve never seen it do what it has with these two posts. I could play devil’s advocate and say social media is squelching defamatory accusations — except the lack of reaction by Roberts, the Supreme Court, and Wood’s home bar seem to indicate they’re not treating them as defamatory.

Make of all this what you will. There are, of course, other things happening these days. Yesterday during a hearing by the Georgia Senate, an IT expert reported a live hack of a Dominion machine in use for the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff races — proving both that the machines are online (they aren’t supposed to be), and can be hacked. In addition, a statistical expert who works with the Department of Justice released a non-official report alleging widespread fraud in Georgia and Pennsylvania during the election. (Note: paragraph edited to clarify the report is not an official DOJ product.)

Stay hopeful and keep praying. Truth always wins in the end, no matter the attempts to block it.

UPDATE: Quadrupling down! When I read this tweet just now, I blurted “Oh my God,” causing my wife momentary concern. Wood has either just committed professional suicide and made himself an outcast for all time, or we’re about to see some extraordinary things. I didn’t have to modify this tweet, but it may be new enough the algorithms aren’t looking for it yet. Stay tuned.

The Deep Breath

The need for discernment in the days ahead will be greater than ever. To paraphrase Tolkien from Return of the King, “It’s the deep breath before the plunge… the board is set; the pieces are moving.”

I believe the United States currently faces its greatest crisis since 1861. Yes, we’ve fought against Nazis, Soviets, etc, but as Abraham Lincoln put it more than 20 years before the Civil War, “if destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.” As things currently stand, no matter who is inaugurated January 20, roughly half the country will consider him an illegitimate president. Trump supporters have good reasons to believe the election last month was manipulated to produce a Biden victory. But should Trump’s challenges prevail in the state legislatures and courts, and overturn that verdict, the unprecedented chain of events will seem equally shady to the Left, who simply cannot abide the Bad Orange Man.

Unless there is indisputable evidence the public can see and easily understand, I don’t see how this situation resolves without a high probability of the two factions resorting to blows. Not one, but two retired three-star military officers have suggested publicly that Trump use some form of martial law, during which the military would oversee a new election — one supposedly safeguarded against the chicanery that appears to have occurred in November. As a retired military officer, who swore to uphold the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, I’m instinctively appalled at any suggestion the president take such action. Suspending standing law during an ’emergency,’ real or perceived, has often been the first act of a would-be tyrant. Regular readers of this blog know I have been a Trump supporter, and believe his actions and agenda have been largely good for the country. But I’ve also noted more than once he is a flawed character, and his public displays reveal a temperament that needs external moderation and governance. Unbound, even briefly, by the framework carefully crafted by our nation’s founders, it is not clear what sort of executive he might become.

And yet… is that more dangerous than the real possibility of a Leftist cabal seizing unchallenged power (including the Senate, which is still up for grabs) through what appear to be constitutional means, but are in reality a sham version of what is supposed to be an expression of the people’s will? If the president has conclusive evidence the election was severely compromised, and neither the State legislatures nor the courts will intervene, what does the president’s own oath to the Constitution require in response? Faced with large-scale (and, after Ft. Sumter, violent) rejection of Federal authority in 1861, Lincoln did not hesitate to act, suspending the right of habeas corpus, and issuing a call for 75,000 militia — in essence, preparing to apply martial law in the States attempting to secede. Lincoln’s actions were controversial then (four additional States — Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas — seceded rather than comply) and debated today, but there is no question they helped achieve his stated purpose: to enforce the Union.

In issuing his call for militia, Lincoln cited “combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the Marshals by law.” Is it possible today, as some accuse, that not only Democrat, but some Republican officials, are unwilling to consider evidence that would vindicate the president? That they would rather see him defrauded of office, because he is not of their globalist/corporatist clique that crosses party lines? Possibly. We foolishly like to think “it can’t happen here,” but history certainly provides ample exhibits of the complete corruption of legal and governmental structures. Would such deliberate derelictions of duty constitute “combinations” that justified the president to act outside the Constitution in an effort to save it?

That such a case is being voiced — loudly — in some quarters shows the peril we are in. I only know this: if Trump “crosses the Rubicon,” as some are urging, he’d better be prepared to show indisputable evidence of its necessity, including complicity in an election scheme by all the normal entities (legislatures, courts, etc) that should have blocked it. Otherwise, any legitimacy he has will be forfeited in the public’s mind, and that is where the real battle is always fought.

Precipitous action without ironclad evidence will likely destroy the barely United States — and may do so even with it. Our republic has been sick for a long time — some would argue since the end of the War Between the States. Like ancient Rome, we have our patrician families: Clinton, Bush, Kennedy, and other, more regional surnames that recur every election. They jostle for power with public consequences, just as their counterparts did centuries ago. The personal ambitions that subverted the celebrated virtues of Republican Rome, and eventually its society, are the same sinful ones present in our own.

Pray, fellow patriot. For wisdom, clarity and discernment for all our countrymen. For selfless statesmanship of a kind that occasionally manifests and diffuses explosive situations. For decisiveness by those who may be called upon to act in extraordinary circumstances. And most of all, for a turn to Christ, who alone can bridge the wide fault lines that have grown dangerously active in this country. Pray, and pay close attention, for in these circumstances, deception abounds.

American insurgency

“The guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea.” – Mao Zedong

Under cover of protesters reacting understandably to what appears to be yet another instance of police brutality, the enemies of our nation have launched what amounts to a full-blown insurgency.  Pallets of bricks conveniently show up in time to be thrown through store windows.  Networks of celebrities are providing bail money for those who are arrested.  Politicians are pledging support to Antifa, even as the Federal government finally labels it a terrorist organization (spoiler: it always has been).  And the airwaves are thick with misinformation and misdirection, minimizing the extent to which actual violence and destruction have become daily routine over the past week.

And if that wasn’t enough, at least one potential agent provocateur has now been arrested while posing as a National Guardsman.  Keep that in mind the first time you hear of an incident between a Guardsman and a ‘protester.’  Things are not always as they seem, especially in press reports.

This is perhaps the most dangerous moment for the U.S. since 1861.  President Abraham Lincoln rightly pointed out:

At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow?  Never!–All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. (emphasis added)

And so it was our adversaries, beginning in the Cold War, began the “long march” through American institutions, seizing control of the means to shape the culture in such a way as to alienate a significant portion of the population from loyalty to the United States.  Their efforts were greatly aided by the deep scars of slavery and racism in our country.  One of the major reasons any sort of lasting racial reconciliation eludes us is that the issue is too useful a wedge for gaining influence — and yes, this is a trick used by partisans of many persuasions.  Remember the adage “divide and conquer.”

Now we’ve arrived at a point in our cultural programming where trying to rightly discern between protest and pillaging is dismissed as ‘racist.’  Now Mao’s ‘fish’ in the above quote can swim easily in the ‘sea.’  If only pillaging were the only goal, however.

Mao Zedong literally wrote the book on insurgency, after successfully fighting the Japanese in World War II and toppling the post-war Nationalist government of China.  He identified three phases to a revolutionary insurgency:

(1)  Organize: Build cells and support
(2)  Guerilla Warfare: Undermine the Government
(3)  Conventional (open) Warfare to topple the Government

Our internal enemies are well organized and enjoy considerable support from “the commanding heights” of society: educators, politicians, entertainers, wealthy ‘movers and shakers’ and so forth.  The violence we now witness is the movement into phase two.  Our Federal, State and local leaders are confronted with a choice: show restraint, in which case they look weak, or crack down, in which case the propaganda machine will work overtime to paint them in the worst possible light.  Either way, the insurgents seek to reduce support for our government.  President Trump has openly criticized State and local leaders for not doing more to control the violence.  Contrary to published reports, he is not calling for the arrest or abuse of peaceful protesters.  (Don’t rely on reports: listen to the man’s own words.  And notice ABC’s headline for the linked video.  Do they match?)  The corporate media blur the distinction between protester and criminal so that the president’s calls for law and order appear to be an effort to curb legitimate expressions of dissent.  Heads, they win.  Tails, he loses.

Do not lose sight of the fact that during all of this chaos, the public is not paying attention to the recent declassification and release of very damning documents that show how contrived and politically motivated the entire “Russia Russia Russia” hoax was, and how Michael Flynn was wrongly targeted as part of that process.  Powerful people have great reason to do anything to keep focus from turning to these developments.  Many have remarked about 2020’s penchant for disaster. Think of the main media themes in the U.S. this year: in January, it was impeachment.  Hardly had that fizzled than we were told COVID would kill us all, so better shut society down.  Once it was clear society was tired of being shut down and was de facto on the way to opening up, suddenly a case of police brutality sets the nation on fire.  (By the way, want to see ‘diversity?’  Look at the four officers involved and fired — it wasn’t a gang of white cops, but photos of officers Thao, Kueng and Lane don’t appear in the Minneapolis Star’s report on Monday. Why is that?.)

None of these events are occurring in isolation.  This is not a normal election year.

I believe the experience gained in our overseas fights must be put to use here at home, and quickly.  The networks of support for organizing violent, criminal activity, must be rolled up, and those involved forced to pay a high price for their incitements.  There are very good reasons not to like Donald Trump, who is a deeply flawed man.  But many of his opponents (on both sides of the aisle) are no longer the “loyal opposition” — they are literally fifth columnists who are a domestic threat to the Constitution of the United States, willing to overturn an election through rumor and innuendo from within the apparatus of shadowy government agencies.  Never forget that our leaders and our armed forces take an oath requiring them to defend that document against ALL enemies, foreign AND domestic.  At the very least, there are a large number of people guilty of sedition in this country.  And while treason is a word too lightly tossed around these days, an argument could be made it’s applicable in some cases as well.

Even if the government moves effectively to end the current crisis, it’s not finished.  The reason insurgency is so hard to defeat is that unless the ideas and motives behind it are completely discredited, even losing in stage three can leave a small cadre of the committed to begin all over again.  This is the type of war we have been fighting in Afghanistan and the Middle East since 9/11, and the reason Al Qaeda and Islamic State still persist, however diminished.  Killing combatants is easy.  Killing an idea is damned well impossible.  (I use “damned” deliberately, as the resiliency of Marxist and Jihadist aspirations, despite the long historical record of horrors in their names, shows the hellish perniciousness of their deceit.)

This is why the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.  We have been lulled into complacency, our attention directed anywhere other than where it needs to be.  Whether the insurgency grows to phase three or is knocked back to the starting line for another generation depends on Americans learning what’s really going on.  Lots of dots need to be connected to see the picture.  The question is whether we have the attention span and discernment to do so anymore.  Otto von Bismark, the statesman most responsible for the creation of a unified Germany in the 19th Century, is said to have remarked “God has a special providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America.”

I certainly hope that still holds true.

Be armed and vigilant

This is not ‘protesting:’

If you confront these groups, you need to be prepared with more than just a tire wrench, or whatever it was the husband was holding.

For all the people who’ve asked in recent years “why does anyone need an AR-15 with 30-round magazines:” here’s your answer.  No matter how unjust the treatment of George Floyd was, there is no justification for randomly attacking a business and its owners with deadly weapons (and yes, a 2×4 is potentially a deadly weapon).

This is not a game.  If you find yourself in this situation, you are on your own.  The past three nights have shown the authorities are incapable or unwilling to provide a defense.  Don’t be a soft target.  Be a rooftop Korean.

Most of all, don’t let yourself be harmed for fear of what people might call you for defending yourself.  The inherent right of self-defense is the foundation of all other rights we have.  What we’ve been seeing is organized violence.  Anyone foolish enough to volunteer to be a foot soldier for it has no room to complain when they get hurt or killed.  Play stupid games, win stupid prizes (warning: language).

May God break this fever before our society tears itself apart.

The clueless would-be rulers

Today’s must-read, by Walter Mead:

This is not what his critics expected. At 49% overall job approval in the latest Gallup poll, and with 60% approval of the way he is handling the coronavirus epidemic, President Trump’s standing with voters has improved even as the country closed down and the stock market underwent a historic meltdown. That may change as this unpredictable crisis develops, but bitter and often justified criticism of Mr. Trump’s decision making in the early months of the pandemic has so far failed to break the bond between the 45th president and his political base.

One reason Mr. Trump’s opponents have had such a hard time damaging his connection with voters is that they still don’t understand why so many Americans want a wrecking-ball presidency. Beyond attributing Mr. Trump’s support to a mix of racism, religious fundamentalism and profound ignorance, the president’s establishment opponents in both parties have yet to grasp the depth and intensity of the populist energy that animates his base and the Bernie Sanders movement. . . .

That a majority of the electorate is this deeply alienated from the establishment can’t be dismissed as bigotry and ignorance. There are solid and serious grounds for doubting the competence and wisdom of America’s self-proclaimed expert class. What is so intelligent and enlightened, populists ask, about a foreign-policy establishment that failed to perceive that U.S. trade policies were promoting the rise of a hostile Communist superpower with the ability to disrupt supplies of essential goods in a national emergency? What competence have the military and political establishments shown in almost two decades of tactical success and strategic impotence in Afghanistan? What came of that intervention in Libya? What was the net result of all the fine talk in the Bush and Obama administrations about building democracy in the Middle East? . . .

On domestic policy, the criticism is equally trenchant and deeply felt. Many voters believe that the U.S. establishment has produced a health-care system that is neither affordable nor universal. Higher education saddles students with increasing debt while leaving many graduates woefully unprepared for good jobs in the real world. The centrist establishment has amassed unprecedented deficits without keeping roads, bridges and pipes in good repair. It has weighed down cities and states with unmanageable levels of pension debt…

…Mr. Trump’s supporters are not comparing him with an omniscient leader who always does the right thing, but with the establishment—including the bulk of the mainstream media—that largely backed a policy of engagement with China long after its pitfalls became clear. For Americans who lost their jobs to Chinese competition or who fear the possibility of a new cold war against an economically potent and technologically advanced power, Mr. Trump’s errors pale before those of the bipartisan American foreign-policy consensus…

…the U.S. establishment won’t prosper again until it comes to grip with a central political fact: Populism rises when establishment leadership fails. If conventional U.S. political leaders had been properly doing their jobs, Donald Trump would still be hosting a television show. (emphasis added)

To reinforce the point, Exhibit A, from the just-passed Senate coronavirus relief bill:

The legacy media portion of the establishment is no better, in their deranged hatred both for Trump and those in the country who prefer risking him rather than the proven failures of past leadership.  CBS screamed in a headline recently that a man died and his wife was seriously hurt after taking an anti-malarial drug (hydroxycloroquine) Trump and Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo have expressed optimism about as a possible treatment for COVID-19.  The problem?  What the Arizona couple actually did was notice their fish tank cleaner contained the chemical, and consumed it as a preventative measure, without consulting any medical expert.  Only two-thirds of the way through the story does it clarify the headline: “The difference between the fish tank cleaning additive that the couple took and the drug used to treat malaria is the way they are formulated.”  In other words, despite the headline, the couple didn’t take the drug.  They drank fish tank cleaner!  A factual headline, though, wouldn’t have been potentially damaging to Trump, which seems to be the primary goal of all mainstream journalism these days, facts and context be damned.

We’re supposed to be practicing social distancing.  But the elites in this country are (and have been for some time) so far out of touch with the common person’s daily experience that it shouldn’t be a surprise the latter has had more than enough of the former.

It’s not just the military

A former Naval officer makes an observation in The Atlantic magazine:

I spent nine years on active duty in the U.S. Navy. I served as an aircraft commander, led combat reconnaissance crews, and taught naval history. But the first thing I did upon joining the military, the act that solemnized my obligation, was swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution. How strange, then, that despite all of my training, the millions of taxpayer dollars devoted to teaching me how to fly, lead, and teach, not once did I receive meaningful instruction on the document to which I had pledged my life.

It’s a fair statement.  I’ve always been interested in the history of our nation and its institutions, so when I served on active duty I had a fairly solid knowledge of our Constitution.  It surprised me how many others did not — and moreover, how many didn’t care.  A member of one of the teams I once led was an enlisted legal resident from the Philippines (did you know citizenship is not required for military service?  You do now…).  She was studying for her citizenship exam, and we were all cheering for her to complete that lengthy process.  Out of curiosity, I asked to see the study materials she’d been given.  It was fairly detailed, and I realized if she mastered it she’d likely have a better grasp of how our nation is supposed to function than most high school graduates do today.  (This is why LEGAL immigration processes and paths to citizenship, rather than amnesties, are important).  For fun, I tossed a few basic questions from the book out to the rest of the team, and was disappointed in how little they could answer.  Like the author of the linked article, I reminded them they’d sworn an oath to protect the Constitution, so they might want to know what’s in it.

The military is in many ways a reflection of the society from which it’s drawn, and this is but one example.  There is a glaring lack of basic understanding of our institutions, particularly among those who are handed the privilege of voting at the tender age of 18.  I taught High School for a year after leaving the military.  The seniors I had for Government were roundly disinterested in the subject (to be fair, they weren’t thrilled with many others, either).  I explained they wouldn’t play any of their sports without knowing the rules.  So why were they content to begin adult life without knowing them?  Frankly, it was a depressing experience.

Almost 2,500 years ago, one of the most successful republics in history inscribed 12 tablets with basic social laws, and placed them in a public forum for all citizens to see.  This action did not create a utopia, of course, and by today’s standards some of the laws are quite questionable.  But it did foster an idea later expressed as “lex rex”  (“the law rules”), as opposed to governance being merely the whimsy of those in power.  Though that republic later fell into tyranny and then disarray, later documents such as the Magna Carta continued this line of thought: that there were limits even to a king’s power.

What limits today do Americans recognize on Uncle Sam and his little cousins, the States?  Can Sam simply take your money without due process?  What about your home?  Is the 2nd Amendment subject to curtailment by the States?  Did the writers of the Constitution intend for the government to be a dispenser of welfare?  Are we supposed to have equal justice under the law, or is your risk of prosecution for similar offenses dependent on whether you are a former deputy FBI director or someone working for a president who acts as an ‘outsider?’

Short of the Bible, there is no more important document in our society’s fabric than our Constitution.  Yet the average American today is alarmingly ignorant of both.  Is it any wonder our nation is so troubled?

Vote fraud? There’s an app for that

The Democrats start the 2020 presidential campaign with a debacle in Iowa:

As hour after hour slid by on Monday night, it started to become clear to anyone paying attention that something was wrong with the Iowa Democratic Party’s counting of the results in the first caucus of the 2020 Democratic presidential race. Something was very wrong.

That there is no winner — or even a single tabulated result — reported by the party early Tuesday morning (or even a time to expect that result) speaks to the depth of the issue in what is the one major job of officials in every election: counting the votes.

As Iowa Democratic Party officials scrambled to explain what had gone wrong — “inconsistencies” in the tally — they were careful to note, in the words of a party spokeswoman, “this is not a hack or an intrusion.”

Then what’s the problem?  Given the shenanigans the Democratic National Committee played in shoving Bernie aside for Her Hillariness in 2016, and the surprise announcement over the weekend that final commercial polling data wouldn’t be published, is it really that much of a stretch to think something underhanded may be going on here?  The party is very clearly in fear Bernie may win the nomination — not necessarily because of policy differences, but because unlike most of them, he’s open about his desire to take America down the road of socialism.  For all they call themselves “democrats,” that party’s leadership clearly believes they know better than the average American.  What’s the saying?  “The voters decide nothing.  Those who count the votes decide everything.”

“It would be natural for people to doubt the fairness of the process,” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in an emailed statement. “And these are the people who want to run our entire health care system?” (emphasis added)

A fair observation, that.

Follow the money

Trump’s election in 2016 set off waves of anger in the political class.  But then, anger is usually the reaction when one’s investments crater:

This kind of organized pay-to-play barely veiled bribery has got to be abolished.

Straining credulity to infinity and beyond

There’s been plenty of memery online about Jeffrey Epstein.  It’s so easy even I can do it:

While all this has done a good job of keeping the story of Epstein alive, it’s really not all that funny when you look closely as his alleged “suicide,” as the CBS program “60 Minutes” did Sunday.  Attorney General William Barr himself said there were “serious irregularities” involved in the case.  There are just too many “monumental failures at all levels,” in the words of former Federal prison warden interviewed by CBS.  As the saying goes, once is chance, twice is coincidence, but three times is enemy action.  So exactly how many ‘failures’ were there in this so-called suicide?

1. After what was reported as an earlier attempt, Epstein was placed on suicide watch… for only a week.

2. Epstein claimed the first incident was actually an attack by his cellmate, a former police officer jailed for a murder believed to be related to drugs and Mexican organized crime. The cellmate’s lawyer obviously denies the accusation.

3. After release from suicide watch, Epstein was returned to a cell and required to have a cellmate. The night before his death, though, his cellmate was released, and no new one was assigned.  Epstein’s lawyers say during their visit the day before his death, their client was “upbeat” and looking forward to an upcoming bail hearing.

4. The night of his death, two guards required to check on him every 30 minutes failed to do so for over 10 hours, and are now facing charges of falsifying logs to conceal the fact (revealed by video) they were web surfing or sleeping instead.

5. Regarding video, however, in response to requests from the lawyer for the inmate Epstein said attacked him, the Feds have now given differing explanations for why footage from the day of the first incident isn’t available. The latest story is that they preserved video from the wrong cell.

6. The camera that should have captured footage of Epstein’s cell door and of the other cells in the block the night of his death was “corrupted,” and no footage exists.

7. Though there are photos from Epstein’s cell showing nooses and other items after his death, there are no photos of his dead body inside the cell, even though such an incident requires preservation of evidence as a crime scene.  Instead, Epstein’s body was taken to an emergency room before any photography occurred.  Did the 6-foot Epstein hang himself by a sheet attached to his bed frame a mere four feet off the floor?  Nobody’s saying, and there’s no photos to explain how he pulled off his own demise in a facility allegedly designed to minimize the chances of such.

8. The forensic pathologist hired by Epstein’s family says the noose sketched in the autopsy report doesn’t match the wounds on Epstein’s neck, which appear more consistent with strangulation by a wire.  The wound was also on the middle of the neck, rather than just below the jawline, as would be expected in a hanging, and says he has never seen the three fractures present in Epstein’s neck in a case of suicidal hanging.  The pathologist acknowledges the public might believe he is biased by working for the family.  But he also says he’s hesitant to make a final judgment until all the evidence is in.

9. The government declines to give the pathologist video and additional forensic reporting, citing the ongoing criminal case against the two guards. ((Convenient, no??))

Given the high-profile nature of the Epstein case, the fact his jet was dubbed the “Lolita Express,” and his known connections to many famous and powerful people, it’s simply inconceivable that his incarceration was just bedeviled by all-around shoddy administration.  Two guards are on trial, but the warden was ‘reassigned.’  Why not fired outright?  What about the psychologist who cleared Epstein off suicide watch?

The day Epstein’s death was reported, I was at a relative’s house.  I was immediately infuriated, saying “they got to him.”  I’ve never even entertained the idea it was a suicide.  Evil is only too willing to hide behind perceptions of incompetence.  It’s said the devil cannot abide being mocked, but he’s happy for you to think he’s an impotent fool — the better to help you drop your guard.  The most aggravating thing about this is the lack of public outcry and demand for accountability.  Sure, Ricky Gervais may have slapped Hollywood with Epstein’s name at the Golden Globe Awards.  But like all the memes online, this is simply acknowledging the public’s not buying the official line this time.

How do we get from joking to justice?