So what do you remember from the Ancient Rome part of your world history class all those years ago? Antony and Cleopatra? Julius Caesar and Brutus? Nero fiddling away while Rome burned?

Emperor Trump has traded the fiddle for a set of golf clubs, but it's the same thing. We've got a Category 4 (Cat 5 until this morning) hurricane bearing down on the southeastern seaboard from Florida to the Carolinas, and he thinks the way to spend the Labor Day holiday is by playing a round of golf. It's telling, though, that he's not at one of his Florida courses, but safely out of range in Virginia. But wouldn't you think that he'd want to see what a formerly Cat 5 hurricane is like, since he said he didn't think he'd ever heard of such a thing.... Newsflash -- there have been four since he took office. And a few years ago there was that little thing called Katrina....

To all the LJ and real life friends whose mother tongue is French, I am so terribly sorry.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

One way or another, change is in the air. There will be a couple of first babies arriving (one possibly already here). The Brexit countdown clock is ticking very loudly in the UK (and if you have the slightest interest in this and haven't already seen it, Google "Gollum Brexit" and enjoy the brilliance of Andy Serkis). Here at home, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (aka the Trump presidency) will hopefully see one or two car tires punctured as the Democrats take control of Congress in two days' time and start laying spike strips in the road. And it's going to be worth the price of admission to watch Nancy Pelosi take on Trump (his big, beautiful Wall, which he sometimes calls a fence, or maybe Artistic Steel Slats, is "maybe a beaded curtain" in her telling). Ouch!

Here's wishing everyone who reads this a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2019!

adrianabr, I don't know if you still look at LJ, but if you do, I've just seen the news about the National Museum fire. Such a tragedy!

So Trump has cancelled his trip to London to open the new U.S. Embassy. Here's the reason he gave (via tweet, naturally): "Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for 'peanuts,' only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal."

(As usual, he got his facts wrong, but what else is new?)

In tweets of their own, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and former opposition leader Ed Miliband offered a different interpretation: "Many Londoners have made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome here while he is pursuing such a divisive agenda. It seems he’s finally got that message." (Khan) and "Nope it’s because nobody wanted you to come. And you got the message." (Miliband).

Boris Johnson (Foreign Secretary, sometimes known as "BoJo") couldn't resist sticking up for Trump (maybe they've bonded over their hairstyles?), tweeting: "The US is the biggest single investor in the UK - yet Khan & Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk. We will not allow US-UK relations to be endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall."

News flash, Boris -- the "puffed up pompous popinjay" currently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.

Theresa May, who still has that very ill-advised early invitation to Trump to make a state visit to Britain hanging around her neck like an albatross, appears to be studiously silent.

I'm guessing that the embassy staff is heaving a collective sigh of relief, and I don't blame them.

So our VSG (Very Stable Genius) president has decided to grace Davos with his presence this year. He'll be attending the World Economic Forum, where he apparently wants to talk about his "America First" agenda. I'm already anticipating the self-congratulatory tweets. :-(

Wolff's book sold out everywhere immediately. Apparently people were lining up at midnight waiting for bookstores to open so they could get a copy. Shades of Harry Potter release parties!

The bookstores are not only sold out, but the warehouses are empty as well. The publisher is already doing a second printing, which will probably also go quickly if my local bookstore, with its waiting list of 300 people is anything to go by. I was advised to wait a couple of weeks if I want to get my hands on a physical book, or to go ahead and just buy it as an ebook.

I could add a tagline to my icon and say "and they're all reading Fire and Fury".

Great interview/duel over the weekend between CNN's Jake Tapper and the White House's Stephen Miller. Voices were raised and blood was drawn. The interview is out there on YouTube if you want to see it.

Donald Trump and his lawyers are delusional if they think that issuing a cease-and-desist order to keep Michael Wolff's book Fire and Fury out of bookstores and out of people's hands is going to do anything except increase the demand. Sort of like pouring liquid on a fire to douse it, and then discovering the liquid was gasoline....

The release date has been advanced from next Tuesday to tomorrow morning; I'm hoping my local bookseller isn't sold out by the time I can stop in after work.

Anyone want a copy? foudebassan? jenni_snake? Tavi?

According to a cartoon in today's Financial Times, neither Donald Trump nor Kim Jong Un possesses the biggest nuclear button. That one belongs to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. :-)

Just about 30 minutes to go here until 2017 is put to bed, and as I'll probably be asleep when the calendar page turns over, I'll wish everyone Happy New Year! now before blowing out the candle and turning off the lights. See you all next year. <3