Tea at Trianon: Worse Than A Waste of Time

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

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Worse Than A Waste of Time

From The New York Post:

After months of hype and pseudo-drama ginned up by the left, public and secret testimony and breathless “smoking-gun” headlines, it’s taking the Senate just two weeks to bring an end, finally, to the impeachment circus. And it is ending with the always-inevitable acquittal of President Trump.

What a tragic, monumental waste of time it has been. After all, anyone capable of rudimentary arithmetic could have seen this foreordained outcome coming from Day One.

Indeed, it’s not entirely clear why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the rest of the leading luminaries of the Democratic Party even decided to embark upon this national exercise in political self-flagellation. Math is a stubborn thing, and Democrats constitute a Senate minority — a far cry from the two-thirds supermajority required for conviction under Article I of the Constitution.

It is true, of course, that many on the left have been juiced up by an all-encompassing impeachment fervor since the day President Trump was inaugurated. Who can forget the infamous Washington Post headline from Inauguration Day 2017: “The campaign to impeach President Trump has begun.”

But impeach him for this? Really? (Read more.)

From Real Clear Politics:

It will only end when the American people reelect Donald Trump in November and fire Nancy Pelosi and Tlaib for being in charge of the House. If you want to exonerate the president, American people, and you want to deter future impeachments like this, make sure President Trump gets reelected. And let's fire Nancy Pelosi. And what happened to the Nancy Pelosi that was thoughtful, prayerful, said impeachment could only be done bipartisan? Tlaib and these people took over the Democratic Party. And Chuck Schumer is having AOC breathing down his neck in terms of a Democratic primary. Chuck Schumer is scared to death to lose his job to AOC. And that's why this debacle continued in the Senate. (Read more.)

From Real Clear Investigations:

In the early evening of Jan. 20, the police report states, Solomon’s Apple MacBook laptop and computer bag, valued at around $1,800, were stolen from his 2019 Toyota SUV parked at 1776 F St. NW, across from the White House’s Eisenhower Executive Office Building. No windows were broken, and there were no other signs of forced entry. Authorities suspect the thief or thieves used an electronic jamming device to open the car door lock.

Solomon said that, other than the bag, nothing else was stolen from his car, including cash he used for the Metro. The computer and bag, which also contained his U.S. Capitol press security badge, were discovered the next day nearly a block away from where his car had been parked. The contents of the bag had been dumped out on a picnic bench near the FDIC building. The location had no security cameras, so there is no known video surveillance footage that can be reviewed. Authorities described it as one of the few “dark spots” in the area.

Solomon, who noted that an iPod was missing from his bag, says he is working with computer forensics experts to determine if any of his laptop information was exploited or if his hard drive was scanned within the period the laptop went missing.

“It's a pretty professional job,” he said of the break-in, "but it's probably just a coincidence.”

“It was probably just a street criminal searching for pass codes,” he added. "Or it could be someone searching for my Ukraine stuff. We don’t know at this point.” (Read more.)