Mike Johnson can't have it both ways...

Earlier this year, Trump's own DOJ announced that when it came to the Epstein files, that there was no there there. That is that there was no evidence that would lead the DOJ to open investigations into any previously un-indicted individuals.

But this morning, prior to the vote on releasing the Epstein files, Johnson condemned the Democrats and the Biden administration for not taking up this issue when they had their chance.

If what Trump's DOJ said was true, then it was also true four year ago.

As I've said all along, it was Trump and the MAGA crowd who made Jeffery Epstein an issue during the 2024 campaign and if you look into it, you can see how this all went back to the birth of MAGA during the 2016 campaign when they attacked Hillary and the Democrats over all sorts of stories about pedophilia, remember 'Pizzagate'. I think that during Trump's first term, despite Epstein's indictments and eventual 'suicide', the pedophilia issue sort of died down. However, when Trump was lanuching his 2024 campaign, in order to stir up the MAGA base and it's still deep seated, smoldering conspriacy theories over pedophilia, he made this pormise to release the Epstein files, along with the files on JFK, Martin Luther King Jr, UFO's, etc. Anyway, I think Trump just assumed that while these issues would make for good sound bites to toss around during his stump speeches, that once he was back in office, it would all go the way it had gone during his first time around, that is that the whole pedophilia issue would be forgotten as he implemented what was his really on his mind, that is 'Project 2025'.

And as far as I can find, it appears that the only mention of pedophilia in 'Project 2025' was with respect to using it to undermine LGBTQ Rights.

OCU

I still think it's going to be a long time before any of us on the outside are actually going be seeing the Epstein files. I think we'll hear a lot hype and rhetoric and people telling us that what we're seeing is everything, but I suspect that in the end, we're not going to see all that much more than what has already been released, leaked or reported on. Now I'm sure there will be a significant number of people who will look at it and say that it was good enough, and that may last for awhile, but I think eventually there will be a realization that there's still more that's been kept from the rest of us, hidden by that 'smoke' I mentioned earlier. Anyway, time will tell...

OCU

I think this latest move by Trump, saying that the House should vote on releasing the Epstein files may be a bit of a smoke screen. First off, he knows that it would still need to pass in the Senate, which is not a done deal. And even if it does, he could still balk at signing it for some last minute reason. And then we have the fact that he's ordered the DOJ to open an investigation into all of the Democrats whose names appear in the files. So even if does pass the House and Senate, and he does sign it, the DOJ could claim that since there's now an investigation underway, that they're not able to release the bulk of the material since that could compromise their investigation, which they could then drag out for months, if not years.

OCU

Now lets see if he gets five-years in prison as have other people in Texas. Of course, Smith isn't a black female...

Mrs. Baird's?

#14 | Posted by Corky at 2025-11-16 02:38 PM

Yes, it was a Mrs. Baird's Bread plant in Fort Worth. I was there in September 1971. It was my first field assignment since graduating from engineering school. We were installing a couple of baked goods lines in a new building. Now one of these was a large, high production (200 loaves/minute) beard line. Our company supplied the flour handling system, the mixers, dough dividers, dough rounders, the intermediate proofer, the final proofer, oven and most of the conveyors. The other line was a cake line where we provided just the oven and most of the conveyors.

And speaking of rain, while we were in the final stages of getting these two production lines up and running, it started to rain, and we discovered that the building's roof leaked like a sieve. While the contractor was fixing the roof, we spent nearly a week trying to protect all of our wiring and drying out cable ways before we could actually test/start the machinery.

As I said, this was my first field assignment and I was there something like three weeks. The highlight of the trip was that on one of the weekends, Oklahoma was in town to play Texas, and while there was no way that I could've gotten into the game, I did spend the evening before the game in downtown Dallas, which was an experience in itself.

OCU

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent bleated that beef prices are high because immigrants are smuggling diseased cattle from South America across the border:

#3 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2025-11-16 08:30 PM

I don't know about you, but I can't recall seeing any pictures of people swimming across the Rio Grande with a cow in tow or dragging a cow over a border fence or standing in line seeking asylum with a cow next to them.

OCU

Trump just got three more candidates for pardons...

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Hit texas for the eclipse. never seen it rain so hard in my life.

#11 | Posted by Alexandrite at 2025-11-16 12:43 PM

Yes, our oldest son lives about 25-miles West of Houston. On one of our visits there, the night before we were to head home, it rained seven inches. Now the parking lot of the hotel was flooded, but not so that you couldn't drive out, and on our way home, many of the rivers which were virtually dry when we drove in, were full to their banks, but hadn't flowed over the highway so we weren't really inconvenienced.

And about 50-years ago, when I was on my first field assignment as an engineer, I was helping to start-up a bread line at a large commercial bakery in Fort Worth. Anyway, my boss called and they said that they needed someone to run over to Alexandria, Louisiana to mark-up a set of architectural blueprints for an older building that was going to be converted into production bakery. Anyway, on my way back, I had just crossed over into Texas from Shreveport, when it started to rain. It was the heaviest rainfall that I think that I have ever experienced. I had to pull off the side of the road and just wait it out, and I have to say, not a single car or truck passed me while I waited out the 30-minutes or so that it took for that storm to pass till where it had slowed enough that you could safely drive. If I never see rain like that again, I won't miss it. And I was in a Typhoon once that hit Tokyo where they shut the trains down. but that was mostly wind.

OCU

This was probably not a particularly good time to bring this issue up...

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Yes, before this is over, we'll get perhaps three or four inches of rain. Last year we only had five and half for the full year (July to July) here in SoCal. And we had nearly an inch a few weeks ago, so it appears that we're heading into a wet winter. Now what's really important is that it snows up in the Sierras as that's the water we drink next year. Granted, this current rain will help to green up our lawns (at least for those of us who live down on the well drained flat lands), saving us from having to water the grass for the next couple of weeks or so.

OCU

Only the best...

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Republicans can only lay the blame for this loss at the feet of Trump and his immigration policies. I suspect that this will not be the last such electoral result.

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Trump continues to behave in a manner which results in America becoming more and more isolated from the rest of the world.

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My wife and I were at a wedding this past weekend in Houston (granddaughter #2) and afterwords our oldest son, the father of the bride, flew to Houghton, MI with his youngest daughter (our granddaughter #4) on Sunday. He went so that he could participate in the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Monday. He was only five years old when it happened, but he always seemed to remember that event and of course Gordon Lightfoot's song didn't help. Anyway, despite the cold and snow, our son and his daughter, who's attending school at Michigan Tech, my alma mater, and a few of her classmates, went out to a beach on the shores of Lake Superior last night, lit a bonfire and sang along with Lightfoot's, 'The Wreak of the Edmund Fitzgerald'. They seemed to enjoy themselves (at least the video that they sent looked like they were even if it was dark and cold looking).

Our son flies back home to Houston on Thursday.

OCU

And when the agent who was hit by the sandwich was testifying, he was asked how he was 'injured', and he said that the sandwich had been thrown hard enough that he felt it hit him through his body armor and that he could smell the onion and mustard.

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But Trump's press secretary claims that the AG department is moving ahead with providing partial SNAP benefits, which would seem to contradict what her boss has been telling everyone.

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What could possibly go wrong...

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Senior Justice Department and FBI officials expressed frustration that FBI Director Kash Patel publicly disclosed an investigation into what he called a "potential" Halloween weekend terrorist plot near Detroit, MI, before investigators had a chance to flesh out key details, including whether the attack actually was imminent.

#3 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2025-11-01 05:11 AM

It may be worse than that...

Michigan Lawyer Says The Halloween Terror Plot That FBI Director Kash Patel Described Never Existed

If the US does restart the testing of nuclear weapons, Trump's going to be very disappointed when he discovers that these test are conducted underground. I suspect that he was looking forward to going out to someplace like Nevada or New Mexico and watching big bright flashes of light and mushroom-shaped clouds.

OCU

And now Don Jr. is making jokes about how this was one way of getting rid of the urinal that Michelle Obama had installed in the bathroom off of the First Lady's office, which was in the East Wing.

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Trump was right, there's vote fraud everywhere, just that it always seems to be a Republican. Do they really think that since they're a Republican that they can get away with it? But if she had been a black women in Texas, she'd be sent to jail for five years. Lets see what she gets. There was another recent case of a women sending in the absentee ballot of her dead mother because she knew that she would've voted for Trump if the ballot had arrived before she passed. And all she got was an order to write an essay and to read a book on democracy.

OCU

US president's son-in-law was instrumental in getting deal " which could bring him huge windfall if plan to redevelop Gaza ever comes to fruition

And I can just hear it now from the right-wing media...

"Hunter Biden's laptop..."

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It's just a matter of time before someone is killed...

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My wife and I participated in the 'No Kings' rally earlier today, in our case we were down in Laguna Hills (there was no rally in Irvine as they have a rally every Sunday in front of city hall).

There were probably 2,000 to 3,000 people there. It covered the sidewalks, on both sides of the street, for about three city blocks, plus down some of the side streets and in other places where people could gather.

There were a lot of people in costume, inspired I guess by what's been happening in Portland for the last week or so.

Note that it was totally peaceful and there were no counter-protestors.

And my 'Gulf of Mexico' T-shirt was a hit, with many people asking if they could take a picture.

OCU

My wife and I just got back from the 'No Kings' rally, in our case we were down in Laguna Hills (there was no rally in Irvine as they have a rally every Sunday in front of city hall).

There were probably 2,000 to 3,000 people there. It covered the sidewalks, on both sides of the street, for about three city blocks, plus down some of the side streets and in other places where people could gather.

There were a lot of people in costume, inspired I guess by what's been happening in Portland for the last week or so.

Note that it was totally peaceful and there were no counter-protestors.

And my 'Gulf of Mexico' T-shirt was a hit, with many people asking if they could take a picture.

OCU