Continuation The Trump Presidency: Part 23

[Captain_Swoop]

Trump Retweeted

Breitbart News
@BreitbartNews
REVEALED: An anti-deportation group partnering with George Soros's Open Society Foundation is one of the groups behind the "defund the police" movement.


President Trump's justice department is defending women's sports from an Idaho lawsuit by transgender activists, and from the Supreme Court.

[acbytesla]

Originally Posted by Lennart Hyland

Sorry for not being updated but why did Trump fire this Berman? Because of the Giuliani investigations?

We have no confirmation he did.

[shemp]

Originally Posted by Bob001

What do you think you mean? Barr told Berman that Trump had fired him. But CNN screened video of Trump saying he didn't know anything about Berman and did not fire him. You don't think that's a problem?

My original post:

Quote:

Trump has fired Berman, Barr says

Quote:

(CNN)Attorney General Bill Barr said Saturday that President Donald Trump has fired Geoffrey Berman, the powerful US attorney for the Southern District of New York who has investigated a number of associates of the President.

"Because you have declared that you have no intention of resigning, I have asked the President to remove you as of today, and he has done so," Barr wrote in a letter to Berman. "By operation of law, the Deputy United States Attorney, Audrey Strauss, will become the Acting United States Attorney, and I anticipate that she will serve in that capacity until a permanent successor is in place."

But then, moments ago, CNN claimed that Trump denied any involvement.

So let's change that one word:

Quote:

Trump has fired Berman, Barr says

Quote:

(CNN)Attorney General Bill Barr said Saturday that President Donald Trump has fired Geoffrey Berman, the powerful US attorney for the Southern District of New York who has investigated a number of associates of the President.

"Because you have declared that you have no intention of resigning, I have asked the President to remove you as of today, and he has done so," Barr wrote in a letter to Berman. "By operation of law, the Deputy United States Attorney, Audrey Strauss, will become the Acting United States Attorney, and I anticipate that she will serve in that capacity until a permanent successor is in place."

But then, moments ago, CNN claimed said that Trump denied any involvement.

It's ******* semantics, that's all it is! I didn't make a big deal of it, but for some reason Stacyhs seems to think I'm implying that it isn't quite true. And what business is it of yours anyway?

Jesus ******* Christ on a Pogo Stick! From now on I'll have all my goddamn posts vetted by the language police!

[Lennart Hyland]

Originally Posted by Captain_Swoop

Trump Retweeted

Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!

“THE SILENT MAJORITY IS STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE.”

Is that a threat by Trump? You will not be allowed to protest against police killing George Floyd? Now thats something...

[Captain_Swoop]

Can't help thinking Trump's rally is going to cause a Klandemic

[Lennart Hyland]

Originally Posted by acbytesla

We have no confirmation he did.

Ok fine but why are they trying to remove Berman?

[dudalb]

Originally Posted by Lennart Hyland

Sorry for not being updated but why did Trump fire this Berman? Because of the Giuliani investigations?

Partly. SDNY is also conducting other investigations potentially vry damaging to Trump.
THis seems to have backfired;and is making Trump look bad on grounds of simple copetence.

[dudalb]

Originally Posted by Captain_Swoop

Can't help thinking Trump's rally is going to cause a Klandemic

Me, I am waiting for the parodies of the title Song of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma" to spring up....
I can do the first verse:

'Oklahoma,where the Covid sweeps down from the Plains"..


Though the Rodgers and Hammerstein song that really applies to the Trump supporters is form South Pacific ; "You have to be carefully taught" great song, and one of the most cutting comments on bigotry I have seen.

[Captain_Swoop]

Bill Barr? I barely know the guy.

[Stacyhs]

Originally Posted by shemp

My original post:



So let's change that one word:



It's ******* semantics, that's all it is! I didn't make a big deal of it, but for some reason Stacyhs seems to think I'm implying that it isn't quite true. And what business is it of yours anyway?

Jesus ******* Christ on a Pogo Stick! From now on I'll have all my goddamn posts vetted by the language police!

No, I did not and do not think that. You wrongly inferred that. I was merely pointing out that claiming something is not the same thing as a video of Trump saying something. And I thought that was made even clearer with my explanation that claiming something can be debated but a video showing Trump saying it was not. It had absolutely nothing to do with you implying anything at all.

[Stacyhs]

Originally Posted by dudalb

Me, I am waiting for the parodies of the title Song of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma" to spring up....
I can do the first verse:

'Oklahoma,where the Covid sweeps down from the Plains"..


Though the Rodgers and Hammerstein song that really applies to the Trump supporters is form South Pacific ; "You have to be carefully taught" great song, and one of the most cutting comments on bigotry I have seen.

Randy Rainbow already used Oklahoma! for his parody of Omarosa.

https://www.thewrap.com/randy-rainbo...-parody-video/

[Segnosaur]

Originally Posted by dudalb

Quote:

Sorry for not being updated but why did Trump fire this Berman? Because of the Giuliani investigations?

Partly. SDNY is also conducting other investigations potentially vry damaging to Trump.

Some of the cases that the SDNY was working on (or had worked on in the past):

- Investigating Guiliani for events relating to Ukraine
- Indicted Parnas and Fruman (Guilliani associates) for campaign finance violations
- Investigating Deutsche bank (which does a lot of dealings with Stubby McBonespurs)
- Prosecuted Michael Cohen for tax fraud and campaign finance violations
- investigating Trump's inaugural committee for possible fraud (including accepting foreign contributions)
- Charged Republican Chris Collins (a Trump supporter) with insider trading
- Prosecution turkish-owned bank Halkbank for violating Iranian sanctions.

The last one is especially significant, because 1) Bolton mentioned that Trump had told the Turkish leader he would end the investigation, and 2) Barr himself had attempted to end the prosecution.

See: Business Insider

So plenty of ways that the SDNY has made life difficult for the Trump, and even more ways that it could cause problems in the future (especially if Trump loses the next election and no longer has the protection of the DoJ.)

[Trebuchet]

Boogaloo Boys at the rally. CNN said the cops told them guns not allowed.

Popehat:

Quote:

Look, people are criticizing the Trump campaign for having that lady with the "I can't breathe" shirt arrested, but let's remember: this even is a safe space for Trump supporters. It's not a place for speech-violence. Consider their feelings.

[Stacyhs]

Barr actually praised Berman for his work so why is he being fired?

Quote:

Rather than argue that Berman was being removed for cause, the attorney general lavished praise on the prosecutor, saying he performed with "tenacity and savvy."

"The attorney general, himself, acknowledged that there was no reason for his removal," Weinstein said.

USA Today

This is obviously at the instigation of Trump who is angry over the investigations. Trump's claim that he has nothing to do with it is just another of his big fat lies.

[zorro99]

Outdoor rally cancelled, not enough attendees.

[Segnosaur]

Originally Posted by Stacyhs

Barr actually praised Berman for his work so why is he being fired?

Rather than argue that Berman was being removed for cause, the attorney general lavished praise on the prosecutor, saying he performed with "tenacity and savvy."

"The attorney general, himself, acknowledged that there was no reason for his removal," Weinstein said.
USA Today

This is obviously at the instigation of Trump who is angry over the investigations. Trump's claim that he has nothing to do with it is just another of his big fat lies.

I don't know... I could see Barr "going rogue" in his attempt to protect Stubby McBonespurs, by pro-actively going after someone who could harm him.

[alfaniner]

Originally Posted by Trebuchet

Tulsa police have arrested a woman for trespassing wearing an "I Can't Breathe" shirt in the rally line. She had a ticket and everything. And it's not even noon there.

Isn't this a flagrant violation of Free Speech rights?


Funniest news report I've heard in weeks: "President Trump decided to cancel his speech to the overflow crowd because of the lack of an overflow crowd."

and

"Trump campaign Tweets out 'There's still space! Come on down!'"
This is with about an hour to go.

Perhaps I should give more props to the people of Oklahoma (meaning potential attendees) than I thought they merited. Maybe he'll do it anyway, but they'll only show close-ups of small groups, making it look like hundreds, or worse, only show the crowded parts inside the venue.

(eta) Oh, look at the size of that crows. Talk about shrinkage! That has got to be god damn embarrassing. I love it!
I'd almost bet he claims falling ill.

[Segnosaur]

Originally Posted by zorro99

Outdoor rally cancelled, not enough attendees.

What outdoor rally? Where/when?

Have a reference? Haven't seen anything about it on the inter-tubes.

[Stacyhs]

Originally Posted by zorro99

Outdoor rally cancelled, not enough attendees.

FAKE NEWS! CNN is reporting my outdoor rally didn't have enough people. There were so many people there the likes of which have never been seen before! There were at least twice as many people as any outdoor rally Obama had! But Fake News CNN won't show you that! People are saying it was the largest outdoor rally crowd in US history, probably the world! A lot of people don't know that.

[acbytesla]

Originally Posted by Lennart Hyland

Ok fine but why are they trying to remove Berman?

We can only speculate. Many people believe that some of the investigations the SDNY are performing are getting too close for comfort.

[Delphic Oracle]

There has been discussion of "overflow venues." I would expect 200 packed into a sports bar with the TVs tuned in to the speech would be even more dangerous than an arena (lots of void space and powerful HVAC). The rally will be substantially risky. The "watch parties" will be much more so.

[Stacyhs]

Berman has agreed to step down:

Quote:

In a statement Saturday evening, Berman said that because Barr had respected “the normal operation of law” by appointing his deputy to lead the office, he would step aside.

WAPO

[Stacyhs]

There are a lot of empty seats in the arena. So much for the million tickets Trump said were requested. He couldn't even fill the arena.

ETA: I don't know if it is due to this or not, but this idea is priceless:

Quote:

President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign says 1 million people have registered for tickets to his June 20 campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., the first since the outbreak of the coronavirus put a halt to large-scale gatherings months ago.

But some social media users say they bought tickets with no intention of going.

"It would be really interesting if we all went to events.donaldjtrump.com and scooped up all the tickets for the rally in Tulsa so he was speaking to an empty crowd," said a June 12 tweet, which was screenshotted and shared more than 10,000 times as part of a Facebook post.

The Facebook post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Similar posts appeared elsewhere on Twitter and in widespread TikTok videos.

https://www.allsides.com/news/2020-0...ts-it-probably

ETA 2: The Trump campaign is blaming protesters for blocking access to the metal detectors. There were no protesters anywhere near the detectors.

[alfaniner]

Originally Posted by Segnosaur

What outdoor rally? Where/when?

Have a reference? Haven't seen anything about it on the inter-tubes.

CNN is showing (and reveling in) it. One probably won't see that on Fox News. Oohhhh, he's gonna be pissed! Also, most of the upper deck on the inside, and half of the main floor is empty.

How's he going to spin this? "Oh, everybody heard that the crowds were going to be huge, the largest ever, so they decided to stay home and watch it on TV. Not on that Fake News CNN station though, or MSDNC."
The above quote, saying that all the tickets were scarfed up by opponents who weren't going to come anyway, is a much better bet.

[Captain_Swoop]

When Eric Trump is your opening act and you can't even come close to selling out an arena, it's time to consider breaking up the band.

[Stacyhs]

Trump must be fuming. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

[acbytesla]

Originally Posted by Stacyhs

Berman has agreed to step down:

WAPO

Interesting. I wonder how the deputy will run the show.

[Segnosaur]

Originally Posted by Stacyhs

Berman has agreed to step down:

Yup.

Lindsey Graham (who is on the Senate Judiciary committee) has said he would follow the general guidelines that will allow senators from a state to veto nominees for that state's attorneys. IF Graham is honest and follows through, it means that the Democrats can block Trump from putting in his preferred choice.

From CNN

So, overall it may not work out so bad. Stubby McBonespurs and his lapdog Barr do not get to place their own guy in charge. His replacement will be Audrey Strauss, who had been working with him (so she knows the cases, and will probably follow though on whatever investigations they are working on.)

(Wikipedia)

[Captain_Swoop]

Official line seems to be that demonstrators scared the crowds away.

[shemp]

Originally Posted by Stacyhs

No, I did not and do not think that. You wrongly inferred that. I was merely pointing out that claiming something is not the same thing as a video of Trump saying something. And I thought that was made even clearer with my explanation that claiming something can be debated but a video showing Trump saying it was not. It had absolutely nothing to do with you implying anything at all.

Fair enough, let's call it a draw and move on.

[shemp]

So what happened to the million people who wanted tickets? Did they come dressed as empty seats?

[Stacyhs]

Originally Posted by shemp

Fair enough, let's call it a draw and move on.

No problem.

[Stacyhs]

Originally Posted by Captain_Swoop

Official line seems to be that demonstrators scared the crowds away.

The claim is that the protesters were blocking access to the metal detectors only there weren't any protesters near them.

[alfaniner]

Those speechwriters must be frantic right about now. He's going to have to read the updates from paper (72 point handwritten font, double-spaced) rather than the teleprompter as I doubt they will have time to transcribe it.

(20 minutes before speech)
Video shows workers already dismantling the outdoor pre-speech venue where Pence and Trump were supposed to be speaking right... about... now...

[Stacyhs]

Originally Posted by Segnosaur

Yup.

Lindsey Graham (who is on the Senate Judiciary committee) has said he would follow the general guidelines that will allow senators from a state to veto nominees for that state's attorneys. IF Graham is honest and follows through, it means that the Democrats can block Trump from putting in his preferred choice.

From CNN

So, overall it may not work out so bad. Stubby McBonespurs and his lapdog Barr do not get to place their own guy in charge. His replacement will be Audrey Strauss, who had been working with him (so she knows the cases, and will probably follow though on whatever investigations they are working on.)

(Wikipedia)

Only temporarily until...and if...Trump's nominee (Powell) is confirmed. A nominee who has ZERO prosecutorial experience is nominated to be the top prosecutor in the SDNY. Only the best!

[shemp]

Trump Campaign: The protestors and media frightened away Trump's supporters.

[p0lka]

Originally Posted by Stacyhs

Trump must be fuming. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

The Best orange fuming

[alfaniner]

Originally Posted by p0lka

The Best orange fuming

Schmuck a l'Orange.

[acbytesla]

Originally Posted by Stacyhs

Only temporarily until...and if...Trump's nominee (Powell) is confirmed. A nominee who has ZERO prosecutorial experience is nominated to be the top prosecutor in the SDNY. Only the best!

From what understand, that it is highly unlikely until after the election in November. And the person they have in mind is not a prosecutor.

[Stacyhs]

Originally Posted by acbytesla

From what understand, that it is highly unlikely until after the election in November. And the person they have in mind is not a prosecutor.

It will be interesting to see if Berman is nominated to the post again by Biden (if he wins).