AE on Telly News (NEW CONCEPTS)

[Ishmael]

Yes. He's wealthy. Plenty of girls to choose from. I don't buy the non-statutory rape allegations.

But then, what the hell was going on. Everyone says it was underage girls (even grossly underage girls) and blackmail. But where is the evidence?

And yet; there seems no rational explanation for Epstein's wealth other than that someone gave him the money.

[Mick Harper]

He was the brains behind a Ponzi scheme for which the official head was given twenty years. But never indicted. Then there was the billionaire who gave him Power of Attorney and then complained that Epstein only stole fifty million. It would seem that having powerful 'friends' was the key to his success but, like you, I still can't see it. He must be more than a super-salesman. He transferred half a billion offshore two days before his suicide so, they said, none of his accusers could sue. As if he would care at that stage. In fact them bringing civil suits might result in a reverse O J Simpson and set him free!

However I don't buy the idea that the powers-that-be used sex to bring him down. One gets the strong impression that American prosecutorial authorities are not capable of that degree of subtlety. I am convinced the key to the mystery is the link with Robert Maxwell. The reason? An applied epistemological one: Rule xiv part 4(c): one crook per crime or one conspiracy per crime but not two accidentally conjoined criminals in two crimes.

I am prepared to bet that Ghislaine's trial will only deal with sex.

[Hatty]

[Mick Harper]

Yes, that is interesting. In both cases it was a surprise. Despite both men being 'ruined', both had options. Both, for instance, could have skedaddled to Israel and beyond legal retribution. Money to follow. In Epstein's case the surprise was the arrest itself. The authorities seemed amazed he just flew into New York bold as brass, and this points to Epstein not being part of anything larger since he ought to have had the whisper. But was he really, in his own mind, facing a particularly swingeing sentence? The charges were not that serious -- though admittedly under the American system, they would have added up to a hundred and fifty years or whatever if an example had to made.

In Maxwell's case, nobody seemed to know what he was doing, out there on the high seas. He was always known as the Bouncing Czech rather than the Flying Dutchman.

[Grant]

The "obvious" explanation is that Epstein blackmailed his guests to provide inside knowledge which he used to enrich himself. Some of that knowledge went to security services who protected him when the police got too near. But even they couldn't keep protecting him in the age of Me Too so he was disposed of.
We know that Robert Maxwell was involved with Mossad so is that where Ghislaine came in? I can't imagine she will spill the beans because she's seen what happened to Jeffrey.

[Mick Harper]

[Mick Harper]

Epstein reportedly transferred half a billion to his brother two days before his death. But if things get really rocky you can always move the assets to one sibling and shift the debts to another who then declares bankruptcy and you can all divvy it up later. Talking of siblings-in-the-news, Ghislaine's brother featured in the Guardian this weekend

[Grant]

Insider trading is not that technical. In my lowly position in the City I’ve been given a few insider tips which would have paid off spectacularly if I’d had any real money to invest. Imagine how much inside information would have come my way if I’d had a stable of 17 year old girls to service my informants? I think that’s where Epstein’s money came from. It’s not much of a step from there to providing useful stuff to the intelligence services, especially if politicians regularly went to Epstein’s parties.

[Mick Harper]

Who is the most unfashionable film director around at the moment? Correct, Guy Ritchie. So when Netflix put up one of his elderly offerings, RocknRola (2008), I was intrigued enough to watch it. Very good it was too. I can see now why Dawn French married him.

[Mick Harper]

Amazing Grace (BBC R4X)

You would think that half an hour of learned discourse on a single song would get at least the words and the tune right. Our BBC-selected hectorate failed to notice that the bloke what wrote the words made up his entire life story and they couldn't even be bothered with the tune, the current tune, the American one that got it featured on the Radio 4 Soul Music series in the first place. They spoke quite a lot in measured tones about a previous rumpty-tumpty British version which made up for it, so that was all right then.

Unexpected factette: the sales of a Scottish regimental pipe band's version earned them a platinum disc which was in pride of place in their colonel's tent during Desert Storm. The pipers were left at home.

[Mick Harper]

Battle of Britain: The Longest Day (Channel 5)

[Mick Harper]

Man at the Helm (BBC R4X)

It is not often that I watch box sets reel to reel all day in the approved manner of students, alcoholics and other ne'er-do-wells, and then only for something artistically redeeming, but I made an exception for the four half-hour episodes of this tosh.

[Mick Harper]

Channel 4 News

More on the aren't-men-beasts theme. This was Johnny Depp suing the Sun for calling him a wife-beater. Reporting the trial, it was clearly signaled he was good as

[Mick Harper]

Battle of Britain (Channel 5)

I trust you all spotted the AE flaw in our preparations. Having blown the budget on an infrastructure of radar stations, plane spotters, state of the art telecommunication nets and the rest, everything has arrived at Uxbridge for the actual decision-making. Did you see all those WAAFs pushing their little dubries across southern England and the panjundrums of Fighter Command gazing down on the dubries to assess the overall situation and saying "Scwamble, all awailable Biggin Hill sector squadrons"? Yes, well, they couldn't tell where the German planes were because it was recorded in little numbers on the dubries which were unreadable by the decision-makers in the gallery.

But suppose they are eagle-eyed enough to read the numbers on a dubry. So what? The brain cannot compute what that number means unless it has read and remembered what all the other numbers on all the other dubries say. And you just can't unless you're a Wylie-style chess ace. And he'd be up in a kite testing deflection angles in combat situations or at Bletchley Park with C H O D' Alexander.

All they needed were dubries with heights proportionate to numbers of German planes and everything would have been clear in an instant. But they didn't think of it in time. Typical! Too much money spent on high-tec and not enough on AE. No wonder we won the war.

[Mick Harper]

Strippers vs Werewolves London Live, 10 pm.

A plotline new to me. It seems, paraphrasing the blurb, that a pack of blood-thirsty werewolves are attempting to avenge the death of a fellow wolf who was killed in a strip club. That's all well and good, and one's heart goes out to the chap and so forth, but what was he doing there in the first place, that's what I'd like to know. And where was the doorman? 'It's collar and tie, sir, no exceptions.'

Stars Steven Berkoff so you need have no fears about it being exploitative.