Halloween Brexit

David Cameron, who started the whole mess, in Riyadh meeting King Salman on the day that Britain was supposed to leave the EU.

Photo: Saudi Press Agency. 

No quid pro quo, right?

Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2019

Word Choice

Donald Trump, announcing the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,  carefully thanked the nations of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Russia. Not the governments.  

Not caught sitting down

Jordan's King Abdullah (with his son Hussein), perhaps having learned well from Donald Trump's experience 3 days beforehand, not to look like Nancy Pelosi is standing up to him.

Photo: Petra (Jordan News Agency)

Brexit quote of the day

Terminator 3 --

John Connor : No, you shouldn't exist. We took out Cyberdyne over ten years ago. We stopped Judgment Day. 
Terminator : You only postponed it. Judgment Day is inevitable.

The Donald Trump travel guide

His description of the car and motorcycle collision that has become a diplomatic incident:

I believe it was going down the wrong way, because that happens in Europe.  You go to Europe and the roads are opposite.  And it's very tough.

Perfidious Albion

One minor question amid the much bigger Brexit questions -- is the transparently obvious Tory strategy to blame Ireland and Germany for a disorderly Brexit named Project Devil Eire or Project Asgard? 

The Unionist veto

Financial Times --

Steve Baker, head of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, said he would support the new deal if the DUP followed suit. “On the union it's clear to me we don't have a right to trump the DUP,” he said.

All of Brexit and all of United Kingdom politics has been defined down to the position of one small  regional political party on one probably unworkable proposal. 

There is always a tweet

"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." - Aristotle

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2013

The selfie of doom

لا تعليق pic.twitter.com/KbXMcJlw8K

— Saad Hariri (@saadhariri) April 9, 2018

That's Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri's famous selfie with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince MBS and Moroccan King Mohamed VI ("M6"), in Paris in April 2018. It hasn't been a good couple of days for the trio.

M6 was supposed to go to Paris for Jacques Chirac's funeral but couldn't due to a heavy lung infection.

Saad Hariri saw the world find out via the New York Times and the intrepid South African tax system about his bizarre US$16 million payment to a Cape Town bikini model.

And MBS had to navigate a lot of barbed remembrances of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.