monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

layman wrote:

"International law" is an oxymoron.

America First, Baby!

So no Geneva Conventions, agreements and treaties with nations, no diplomats etc etc?

A New York federal prosecutor who refused to resign when he and 45 other prosecutors were asked to by the Trump administration says he has been sacked.

"I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired," said Preet Bharara on Twitter.

Mr Bharara was first asked to remain in his post by President Donald Trump, when they met after the election.

But on Friday he was included in a list of prosecutors appointed by former President Barack Obama who were asked by the Justice Department to step down.

Mr Bharara's tweet continued: "Being the US Attorney in SDNY (South District New York) will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life."

Presidents often order appointees of the previous administration to resign but the decision to replace so many in one swoop raised eyebrows.

Mr Bharara's inclusion in the list came as a particular surprise. He told reporters in November that he had been asked by Mr Trump to stay on, and had agreed.

The prosecutor rose to prominence after pursuing high-profile corruption cases and cases against Wall Street bankers.

He won a $1.8 billion ($1.5 billion) insider-trading case against hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors, the largest in history. SAC was forced to close down.

And among his current cases was an investigation into fundraising by New York mayor Bill de Blasio.

After it was reported on Saturday that he had refused to resign, top New York Republican Brian Kolb tweeted: "Good for Preet, he is doing the job he was appointed to do!"

Mr Bharara's office and the Justice Department refused to comment further, according to the Associated Press.

Aviation enthusiasts will have to wait a little longer to see a restored World War Two Spitfire take to the skies after a carburettor issue halted its maiden flight.

Spitfire NH341 flew 27 combat missions between June and July 1944 before it was shot down near Caen in France.

The French Resistance helped Canadian pilot Jimmy Jeffrey return to his unit.

The aircraft underwent a three-year restoration costing £3m. It was set to take off from Duxford on Saturday.

Aero Legends spokesman Elliot Styles said visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of the Spitfire in the air were still able to get up close to the aircraft at the Imperial War Museum.

He said "teething issues" were not unexpected for maiden flights and NH341 would still fly throughout the year.

Spitfire NH341 remained in France until Aero Legends Ltd bought it in 2011.

Aero Legends owner Keith Perkins said he was "totally unaware" of the plane's history before he bought it.

It was flown by nine pilots from the Royal Canadian Air Force's 411 (Grizzly Bear) squadron during its short service.

Flt Lt (later Squadron Leader) H C "Charlie" Trainor shot down two German Messerschmitt 109s while flying NH341.

The aeroplane was described as "better than anything else" by Flying Officer Tommy Wheler, now 96, who destroyed several German mechanised transports during his 24th sortie in the Spitfire.

It was shot down on 2 July 1944 over Normandy but WO Jeffrey managed to bail out.

The French Resistance helped him return to his unit - having first taken him to a nearby town for a hair cut and to buy some cheese.

Spitfire NH341 has been converted into a two-seat trainer plane as part of the £3m restoration.

Trump


What does Trump mean?

Trump = Fart


Example

‘"He trumped in class this morning."’

Axelrod: Obama Misled Nation When He Opposed Gay Marriage In 2008

Barack Obama misled Americans for his own political benefit when he claimed in the 2008 election to oppose same sex marriage for religious reasons, his former political strategist David Axelrod writes in a new book, Believer: My Forty Years in Politics.

Axelrod writes that he knew Obama was in favor of same-sex marriages during the first presidential campaign, even as Obama publicly said he only supported civil unions, not full marriages. Axelrod also admits to counseling Obama to conceal that position for political reasons.

The admission of Obama's embrace of deception also calls into question the President's stated embrace of a new kind of politics in 2008, when he promised to be unlike other politicians who change their views to match the political winds.

As a state senate candidate in 1996, Obama filled out a questionnaire saying "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages." After two years in office, Obama began telling reporters he was "evolving" on the issue, and supported the repeal of the Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act.

As a candidate for president, Obama told Rick Warren's Saddleback Church that marriage could only extend to heterosexual couples. “I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman," Obama said at the time. "Now, for me as a Christian — for me — for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God’s in the mix.”

So, ya think Trump lies, eh?

You are trying very hard to find fault wherever you can. However it appears to me that you fail rather competely to see or detect anything that doesn't fit your preconceptions. That's a fairly advanced form of intellectual blindness.

Our defense department has now been given (for the first time) the mandate to defeat and destroy ISIS, and we can at least hoipe that the resolution of the even more complex associated political questions will soom begin. That's a big change from the remote detachment and episodic drone assasinations of the previous administraqtion.

The Congress is now engaged in the messy process of drafting
replacement legislation for Obamacare and the messy details of disdagreement, dialogue and compromise over the details - things that weren' t done eight years ago when Obamacare was enacted (and have been largely absent for the past eight years) , and that are at the very essence of democratic process.

Action on tax reform and infrastructure programs will soon follow, while ill-conceived administrative rules are cancelled and an overinflated, complacent Federal bureaucracy is about to begin.

Looks like effective swamp-draining to me.