Tea at Trianon: A Historic Meeting at the Border

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, April 27, 2018

A Historic Meeting at the Border

I wonder how many Americans realize what a huge breakthrough has happened...and Trump did it. From The Guardian:

The Peace House, has been spruced up in anticipation of the summit. Live TV coverage showed Moon and Kim pause for photographs in front a of a new mural of North Korea’s Mount Kumgang. The mountain is regarded as a symbol of conciliation and cooperation between the two Koreas, but a joint tourism project there was suspended in 2008 after a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier.

When they begin their official talks later this morning, the leaders will sit precisely 2,018 millimeters apart - in a nod to the year of their historic summit - on opposite sides of a specially designed table with gentle, rounded edges. They will sit on chairs with backrests that feature a Korean peninsula design....
Meanwhile President Donald Trump said on Thursday that North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has made nuclear weapons concessions before even sitting down for talks, while the U.S. hasn’t given up anything.

Trump told Fox & Friends that his tough approach toward the North, and now his willingness to engage with Kim, had reduced the risk of nuclear war. He contended that North Korea has “given up denuclearisation, testing, research” and that “we’re going to close different sites.”

“I’m saying to myself ‘wait a minute, all of these things he’s given up and we haven’t even really that much asked them,’” Trump said. He added: “We would have asked them, but they gave it up before I even asked.”

He added: “This is a much more dangerous ballgame now, but I will tell you it’s going very well.” (Read more.)

julygirl said...: Had to watch China Cable TV and EWTN to find any reporting regarding this very historic meeting. Our alphabet cable channels were preoccupied with slander mongering and any other items they could dredge up to undermine current administration in the White House.; April 27, 2018 at 10:04:00 AM EDT