MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL AT MIDSEASON

Before I get into baseball, a further look at the fractious Epstein matter.  First some history:

• March 2005:  Police in Palm Beach Florida begin investigating Jeffrey Epstein after the family of a 14-year old girl reported she was molested at this mansion.
• 
  He bought the place in 1990.
• Two miles south is Mar-a-Lago, which Donald Trump has owned since 1985.
• Epstein's home was razed soon after it was sold in 2019.

• May 2006:  Palm Beach police charge Epstein with multiple counts of unlawful sex with a minor.

• 
  June 2006:  Clearly, Epstein influenced State Attorney Barry Krischer, who sent the case to a grand jury that heard from only one accuser, so the only judgement was to charge Epstein with one count of solicitation of prostitution.

• 
  July 2006:  FBI becomes suspicious and opens investigations into Epstein's activities not only in Florida, but also New York and elsewhere.
• 2007:  Federal prosecutors prepare an indictment against Epstein.
• June 2008:  Epstein pleads guilty to one count of soliciting prostitution from a minor and is sentenced to 18 months in jail, and other charges.
• 
  July 2009:  Released from jail, but multiple women accuse him of various abuses.  
• One of the accusers, Virginia Giuffe says that Epstein and girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell set up sexual encounters with high-profile individuals starting when she was 17.  This list included royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen and rich/powerful men.  Was Donald Trump one of them?
• This is the list that could easily have been tampered with through various presidential terms.
• 
  November 2018:  The Miami Herald revisited the handling of Epstein's case, and somehow re-involved is Donald Trump's then Secretary of Labor, Alexander Acosta, who was a federal prosecutor in Florida during the 2008 Epstein plea deal.
• July 2019:  Epstein is arrested on federal sex trafficking charges.  Trump defends Acosta.

• 
  10 August 2019:  Guards find Epstein dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York City.  Investigators concluded he died by suicide.  Note that this is during Donald Trump's first term.
• July 2020:  Ghislaine Maxwell charged.
• December 2021:  Jury convicts Maxwell in multiple charges involving minors.
• June 2022:  Maxwell is sentenced to 20 years in prison.
• December 2023:  A federal judge ordered the unsealing of court documents revealing the names of dozens of those involved with Epstein, where former President Bill Clinton might have been indicated...and many others.
• January 2024:  First batch of documents was unsealed on 3January2024.  Many more were released, but these documents shed little new light on any details involving the sexual abuse of underage girls.

• 
  February 2024:  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law to allow release of grand jury records for the 2006 investigation.
• July 2024:  A Florida judge released transcripts detailing 2006 grand jurty testimony accusing Epstein of sexually assaulting numerous underage girls at his Palm Beach mansion.
• February 2025:  The Trump Department of Justice released files regarding Epstein to a small group of conservative influencers.  

So here is the current situation:

• Attorney General Pam Bondi did not release the files to the press.
• Somehow, through all of this, the issue now seems to be whether something is being hidden about Epstein's suicide... or not.

• 
  Files can be changed and redacted over this nearly 20-year period.  The only person who could confirm if there was an Epstein list, and who were on it, is Ghislaine Maxwell.  She has offered to speak to Congress about the client list.  She is imprisoned in a federal women's prison in Tallahassee, Florida.  She will be there until 17July2037.  Boy, if she commits "suicide"....

• 
  Considering that his DOGE associates have certain files from this Trump administration, what does Elon Musk have?
• Time magazine today published a timeline of the Trump-Epstein relationship.  Worth a read.
• Here is one possible list:

1. Ghislaine Maxwell
2. Virginia Lee Roberts Giuffre [Epstein victim]
3. Prince Andrew of England
4. James Michael Austrich
5. Philip Barden
6. REDACTED
7. Cate Blanchett
8. David Boies
9. Laura Boothe
10. Evelyn Boulet
11. Rebecca Boylan
12. Joshua Bunner
13. Naomi Campbell
14. Carolyn Casey
15. Paul Cassell
16. Sharon Churcher
17. Bill Clinton
18. David Copperfield
19. Alexandra Cousteau
20. Cameron Diaz
21. Leonardo DiCaprio
22. Alan Dershowitz
23. Dr. Mona Devanesan
24. REDACTED
25. Bradley Edwards
26. Amanda Ellison
27. Cimberly Espinosa
28. Jeffrey Epstein
29. Annie Farmer
30. Marie Farmer
31. Alexandra Fekkai
32. Crystal Figueroa
33. Anthony Figueroa
34. Louis Freeh
35. Eric Gany
36. Meg Garvin
37. Sheridan Gibson-Butte
38. Robert Giuffre
39. Al Gore
40. Ross Gow
41. Fred Graff
42. Philip Guderyon
43. REDACTED
44. Shannon Harrison
45. Stephen Hawking
46. Victoria Hazel
47. Brittany Henderson
48. Brett Jaffe
49. Michael Jackson
50. Carol Roberts Kess
51. Dr. Karen Kutikoff
52. Peter Listerman
53. George Lucas
54. Tony Lyons
55. Bob Meister
56. Jamie A. Melanson
57. Lynn Miller
58. Marvin Minsky
59. REDACTED
60. David Mullen
61. Joe Pagano
62. Mary Paluga
63. J. Stanley Pottinger
64. Joseph Recarey
65. Michael Reiter
66. Jason Richards
67. Bill Richardson
68. Sky Roberts
69. Scott Rothstein
70. Forest Sawyer
71. Doug Schoetlle
72. Kevin Spacey
73. Cecilia Stein
74. Mark Tafoya
75. Brent Tindall
76. Kevin Thompson
77. Donald Trump
78. Ed Tuttle
79. Emma Vaghan
80. Kimberly Vaughan-Edwards
81. Cresenda Valdes
82. Anthony Valladares
83. Maritza Vazquez
84. Vicky Ward
85. Jarred Weisfeld
86. Courtney Wild
87. Bruce Willis
88. Daniel Wilson
89. Kathy Alexander
90. Miles Alexander

If you're not into baseball, return tomorrow, when I will take a closer look at Donald Trump's Big Ugly Law.  Featured will be New York Times' Opinion columnist since 1995, Thomas Friedman who won Pulitzer Prizes in 1983, 1988 and 2002.  He just wrote How Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill" Will Make China Great Again.  

Can you hear it — that roar coming from the East? It’s the sound of 1.4 billion Chinese laughing at us.

The Chinese simply can’t believe their luck: that at the dawn of the electricity-guzzling era of artificial intelligence, the U.S. president and his party have decided to engage in one of the greatest acts of strategic self-harm imaginable. They have passed a giant bill that, among other craziness, deliberately undermines America’s ability to renewably generate and store electricity — through solar, wind and batteries, in particular.

And why? Because they view those as “liberal” energy sources, even though today they are the quickest and cheapest ways to boost our electricity grid to meet the explosion of demand from A.I. data centers.

I watch a lot of Major League Baseball because I now have 6 ESPN Fantasy Baseball teams.

• You might recall my plight earlier this year.
• I drafted four ESPN teams in March.  This is all free, so no money is at stake.
• The season started on March 18 in Japan.  Then, after two games, there was a break until the regular season began on March 27.
• On April 15 I flew off to Osaka for the World Expo.  The next day I tried to access my teams.  Couldn't.  In Japan and throughout our cruise from Yokohama to Vancouver, I could not make any adjustments.
• Then when we reach Vancouver, one month into our trip, I suddenly was able to link with my teams.
• All my teams on April 15 were #1, #1, #2, and #3.  My teams on May 15 were #4, #6, #6 and #9 in ten-team leagues.  The rational decision would have been to abandon them.  But I guess that's not me.
• I have now had a re-access to my teams for a little more than a month.  Today, they are #2, #2, #3 and #3.
• I did draft two more teams about 12 days ago, and they are #1 and #2.
• The Major League is in a mid-term break for their All-Star game, which is today.  Most teams have played 97 games, so they are around 60% into the season.  I need to reach #1 with 40% of the season left.
• 
  Yesterday was the home run derby, won by Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh.  I have him on one of my teams.
• Leads the Major Leagues in homers with 38.
• Raleigh's family participated:  father pitched and brother caught.
• Read that article, hearwarming.  You can also watch Pittsburg's Oneil Cruz hit a ball an incredible 513 feet.

• 
  About the Major League and standings:
• In the American League, the Detroit Tigers lead the Minnesota Twins by 11.5 games, so should win the Central League.  The other two are competitive.
• All three National leagues are sufficiently competitive today, so no team is dominating.  The Los Angeles Dodgers have have a lot of injuries to pitchers, so if a couple of them return and do well, they will become the favorite to win the World Series, which starts with Wild Card playoffs on October 1.

• 
  Depending on how many games are played, the World Series could end as late as November 2.

We have a long trip planned from mid-November to mid-January, so I will not get any fantasy NFL teams this year.  Super Bowl LX will occur on 8February2026 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

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