Brace up! Yes, I do realise that, like me, you have just stumbled out of bed and swallowed your toast as you shuffled round your kitchen in your 'jimjams' with a mug of tea clutched in your hand - oh, alright then, coffee, if you are American - and having slumped down before your computer, the very last thing you want to look at is this photograph, but 'Man Up!', you don't come to D&N for a good time, er, in fact, I'm not sure why anyone comes to this blog at all but that, perhaps, is a question for another day, in the meantime cast your eyes on this delicious photo:
Warms the cockles of your heart, doesn't it? Sublime young love!
Now, for goodness sake, mop up the tea/coffee from your keyboard!
Zimbabwe: Out of the frying pan into the ovens! So, that nasty mass-murderer and thief, Robert Mugabe, has, well, not so much been overthrown as politely shown the door. And on the streets the mugs the people are celebrating which is a bit odd given that the man who is taking over is - wait for it! - another mass murderer and thief, Emerson Mnangagwa, who made his name (if you can call it that) by overseeing the slaughter of tens of thousands of Ndebeles in Matabeleland. Well, good luck with that one, Zimbabwe!
"This most Marie Antoinettish of monarchs-in-waiting": Ouch! Now, if I was Prince Charles ("Which thank the Lord I'm not, sir!"), I might burst into tears at that cruel - but spot-on accurate - jest. Thank heavens that Julie Burchill is unlikely ever to write anything about me!

Alas, poor Charles, being an archetypal "straight-backed chinless wonder" (© John Osborne from Look Back in Anger) has earned a lashing from Ms. Burchill because one of his early letters has come to light in which he displays some vintage, one might almost say, 'rotting', anti-Semitism. I will not attempt to paraphrase darling Julie - I wouldn't dare! - but do read her piece, it is the equivalent of one of those lashings that our Arab friends enjoy so much.
Pure, undiluted acid - delicious! I just 'lurve' The National Review. Normally it provides a serious commentary, mostly on American politics, but occasionally, perhaps provoked by the stinking swamp, they lose their 'cool' and just let rip! Today, Mr. Kevin D. Williamson has had his muzzle removed and been let off the leash. Alas, whilst he obviously has a deep and abiding detestation of Mr. Steven Mnuchin, who is Trump's Treasury Secretary, Mr. Williamson forgets his gentlemanly manners and stomps all over Ms. Louise Linton, Mr. Mnuchin's third wife who, whatever else she is, is gorgeous!
As The Sun (We love it!) put it, it obviously shows that Mr. Mnuchin has a good eye for figures! Anyway, I will leave you to check the link and enjoy Mr. Williamson's obliteration of the lady but as a taster, this is what he thinks of Mr. Mnuchin:
Mnuchin, formerly of Goldman Sachs, is pure Wall Street malignity in concentrated form, a guy who looks like he was born wearing a blue suit and braces. And that, in itself, is okay: A little Scrooge McDuck–style sphincter-clenching is kind of what you want in a Treasury secretary. But Mnuchin is not satisfied to be a pure example of one kind of awful: He has to adulterate his Wall Street awfulness with Hollywood awfulness. You’ll see his name in the credits of a few big-budget movies (including the recent Wonder Woman film and The LEGO Movie) and on a bunch of campaign-donation checks written to Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Kerry, Al Gore, Kamala Harris, and other erstwhile friends of Wall Street. But movies are where his heart is.
Crikey!
Better watch out, the US Navy is about! In view of the multiple collisions involving ships of the 7th Fleet - there have been five so far this year! - it is being proposed that all US ships must have a rowing boat in front of them carrying a sailor with a loud hailer! According to Mr. Rick Moran at The American Thinker, the reason for this spate of collisions is not at all clear but I have a sneaking suspicion that our favourite American ex-matelot from deepest Arkansas may be a conduit for some of Barney Magroo's hooch produced 'up in them thar hills'. Only a suspicion, mind!
No more Rumbles today
Whats this rubbish about just stumbling out of bed?
It's almost two bells in the First Watch down here and the family have just left after the ritual Sunday evening family dinner and am now sitting with a cold beer in front of the computer.
I truly do not know why we bother with failed African nations. Just leave them to kill each other off if they so desire. Welcome those who want to join the 21st Century and f--k the others.
Posted by: AussieD | Sunday, 19 November 2017 at 09:45
Poor old Harvey W. You can almost hear him saying, "Honestly you don't think I am that desperate I'd grope Shrillary. Do you"?
Posted by: AussieD | Sunday, 19 November 2017 at 10:03
I'm with AussieD on the Africans. We should just accept that the 60-year long struggle by the white, Christian West to drag them out of the stone age - has failed.
Posted by: backofanenvelope | Sunday, 19 November 2017 at 10:12
Well, BOE, looking back on a couple of thousand years of Christian Europe, I'm not too sure we have done any better!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 19 November 2017 at 10:34
Maybe she is groping around him looking for his check book?
Posted by: whitewall | Sunday, 19 November 2017 at 11:49
Déjà vu
Posted by: Up2L8 | Sunday, 19 November 2017 at 12:01
BOE,
This black preacher might agree with you...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17m8OnHC7dQ
Posted by: whitewall | Sunday, 19 November 2017 at 12:09
Oooops, Uppers, I'd forgotten that one - well, it was a month ago!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 19 November 2017 at 12:10
Was unable to resist, Duffers. She just won't go away, although, Aliceville, Alabama would be nice for a start.
Posted by: Up2L8 | Sunday, 19 November 2017 at 12:21
Here is His Royal Tampon Wannabe's money "insight":
For my money, he is not only a tampon wannabe but also a royal douchebag.Posted by: TheBigHenry | Sunday, 19 November 2017 at 15:16
Dammit all, Henry, he is the, er, splendid result of several generations of in-breeding!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 19 November 2017 at 17:13
Zimbabwe is actually run by a junta. The reason Mugabe's been sent packing is he had the poor judgement to attempt substituting his wife for their candidate. North Koreans would officially brand Mugabe a "dotard".
Posted by: Bob | Sunday, 19 November 2017 at 20:18
Thanks Uppers for the reminder of David's 'Title Competition' - too bad I only read (somewhere I can't recall) what either (probably Hillary) was saying to the other:
Close but no cigar!
Now David - you know Barney hasn't that contract - had he, t'wouldn't a been this bad:
https://audioboom.com/posts/6457374-avoidable-fitzgerald-and-mccain-what-is-to-be-done-jerryhendrixii-davidlarter
Still though, mighta been avoided had nobody thought it a good idea to name a ship McCain. Maybe that rowboat you mention.
Posted by: JK | Sunday, 19 November 2017 at 20:30
JK, I'm just relieved that they weren't taking part in a live-firing exercise - the mind boggles!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 19 November 2017 at 21:21
For my money, he is not only a tampon wannabe but also a royal douchebag.
Shalom TBH
With a bit of luck HRT [His Royal Tampon] will predecease my old Boss and we can skip straight to HM William IV [who won't be my Boss as I am retired] though as a staunch Monarchist he'll be my Sovereign.
Posted by: AussieD | Sunday, 19 November 2017 at 22:22
Shalom AD
At least, Will, has his Mum's Spencer blood in him (I presume the same Spencer family as Marlborough?). I doubt he'd wannabe any woman's tampon, like the German side of his family.
When and if he is crowned and chooses to retain William as his name, however, he will have to settle for William V.
Posted by: TheBigHenry | Monday, 20 November 2017 at 01:45
Ah TBH counting the Williams can be fun.
Technically William will be the fourth William for the Scots: There was a king of the Scots known as William the Lion, then there was William III, and William IV. For Wales he would technically be their third William: after William III and William IV [as numbered by the English]. For England he would be the fifth: after William the Conqueror, then William II, then William III, and finally William IV.
I split the difference to call him William IV but if I were to be difficult [I heard that Duffers] then for us he would be William I as here in Oz we haven't had any preceding Williams. On that basis of course his grannie would be Elizabeth I to us but Duffers mob will have to decide what number William uses but I suspect you are right and he will, on the basis of taking the highest number, be William V.
I'd like to be around to see him crowned but if HRT Charlie meets with a dreadful accident in order for that to happen it wasn't me.
Posted by: AussieD | Monday, 20 November 2017 at 02:35
AD,
The Roman numerals associated with the names of the English monarchs do not correspond to a count of monarchs of a given name in the entire Anglosphere. They are based on the sequential nomenclature of the monarchs of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, beginning with the Conqueror. There have been four such monarchs named William; six Georges; eight Edwards; and, of course, eight Henrys.
There have not been any English nines. The Fwench, however, have had around eighteen Louis. Some say every king of France must be named Louis. It's part of their constitution. And all of their emperors must be named Napoleon. Moreover, every French emperor must invade Russia, in order to check whether or not global warming had begun. So far, it appears that it has not, at least not in Russia, especially not in winter.
Posted by: TheBigHenry | Monday, 20 November 2017 at 06:51
How about King Willy?
Posted by: backofanenvelope | Monday, 20 November 2017 at 08:18
TBH you need to allow us Monarchists our little eccentricities. As for Les Frogs a good friend of mine who transferred from the RN to the RAN always referred to them as "the Antient Enemy" [and Antient for him was not a spelling mistake].
boe he obviously does given he is now a father.
Posted by: AussieD | Monday, 20 November 2017 at 08:43
Back in the day, when I had to do ship recognition, we all identied the Frog ships because they had 3 turrets at the back.
Posted by: Backofanenvelope | Monday, 20 November 2017 at 09:30
I have been devoting some thought to this knotty subject. As I understand it, the heir to the throne gets to call himself what he likes. Subject to some caveats. He can't be Henry VIII because we've had one already. Nor can he be Elizabeth II. But in support of transgender people everywhere, he could be Elizabeth III. Or he could be Abdulmejid IIl. Abdulmejid II was the last Ottoman Caliph and we could say London was the new centre of the caliphate.
Personally, I favour Algernon I.
Posted by: backofanenvelope | Monday, 20 November 2017 at 10:56