Tea at Trianon: Trump is Succeeding

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, October 19, 2018

Trump is Succeeding

From The Washington Post:

As President Trump’s first two years in office come to a close, we’ve seen two originalist justices confirmed to the Supreme Court, 26 originalist appeals court judges confirmed, 10 more nominated , and 41 new district court judges on the bench and dozens more pending. Add to that: the repeal of the sequester on defense spending and a massive military rebuild underway; a massive tax cut of unprecedented depth and structural change; a renegotiated trade deal between the United States, Mexico and Canada; withdrawals from the awful Iran deal and, in effect, the absurdist Paris accord; the rollback of job-killing and bureaucrat-empowering regulations by the hundreds; an economy surging while unemployment drops to 3.7 percent ; and a new entente in the Middle East (one that arose despite U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel) that sees the United States and Israel aligned and cooperating closely with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and now a new government in Iraq against the expansionist Iranian theocrats.

Did I mention the devastation and defeat of ISIS in its physical “caliphate”?

That’s not even the entire list of accomplishments, but it’s enough to have silenced the #NeverTrumpers who used to mock Trump-supporting conservatives by posting a street sign carrying the name “Gorsuch” above rising floodwaters. Those of us who follow the president’s often confusing, loud, extemporaneous and disruptive presidency not by his tweets but by his administration’s deeds and those of congressional Republicans are amused that the #NeverTrump rump has stopped the “but Gorsuch” nonsense. (Read more.)

Trump as a father-figure. From The Washington Examiner:

When rapper Kanye West visited the Oval Office last week, every news outlet covered it, and every new outlet commented on what a pointless circus it was. They’re basically correct—Kanye’s stream of consciousness rambles and exuberant exclamations mostly do not shed light on the policy or politics of our day. But one moment did plant itself in my brain, and when MSNBC’s Craig Melvin asked me about Kanye’s visit, this was the part I said was most interesting. Like Melvin, I didn’t notice the importance at first. My wife did. She watched clips afterwards that were tweeted out, and this particular one, she watched fully expecting inanity. But there’s a deeper insight there, whether conscious or unconscious. Here’s the relevant transcript:

This hat gives me a different power in a way. You know my dad and my mom separated, so I didn’t have a lot of male energy in my home. And also I’m married to a family that, you know, not a lot of male energy going on. It’s beautiful though. You know it’s something about, you know I love Hillary, I love everyone. Right. But the campaign, ‘I’m with Her’ just didn’t make me feel, as a guy, that didn’t get to see my dad all the time. Like a guy that could play catch with his son. It was something about when I put this hat on, it made me feel like Superman. You made a Superman. That’s my favorite superhero and made a Superman cape for me.

(Read more.)

Has treason been committed? Here is an article from last year but worth revisiting. From American Thinker:

To some, any comparison between the Clintons and the Rosenbergs is a bridge too far, yet both gave aid and comfort to a strategic enemy, Russia, aid that enhanced the capability of America’s enemies to wage nuclear war on the United States. The Rosenbergs trafficked in the design of nuclear weapons while the Clintons trafficked in the raw material for nuclear weapons -- uranium. It is a distinction without a difference not lost on former deputy assistant to President Trump, Sebastian Gorka:

Gorka spoke during an interview with Fox commentator Sean Hannity on his show Hannity. The two discussed Secretary of State Clinton’s involvement in the 2009 U.S. decision to allow the sale of Uranium One, a Canadian mining firm with licenses to mine American uranium deposits in Kazakhstan. “If this had happened in the 1950s there would be people up on treason charges right now,” Gorka told Hannity of the decision to allow the sale of Uranium One…

“This is equivalent to what the Rosenbergs did and those people got the chair,” Gorka said. “Think about it. Giving away nuclear capabilities to our enemies. That’s what we’re talking about.”
Gorka was referring to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed by electric chair in June 1953 after they were accused of giving top-secret nuclear weapon designs to the Soviet Union.

(Read more.)