Tea at Trianon: Fear Not

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

Thursday, May 7, 2020

Fear Not

From David Limbaugh:

There's no evidence that anyone is passionately for Biden, except maybe his family. He never was inspiring, but in his present state, he couldn't get an illiterate pyromaniac to attend a book burning. The only reason his candidacy was resurrected is that, once again, Crazy Bernie leaped into the Democratic presidential punch bowl, and no one could flush him. That left to party honchos the task of jumping on the Biden moped and endorsing him with enough phony sincerity to take Sanders out with couplike ferocity.

Many election influencers, such as the economy and foreign policy, can change rapidly. A president can preside over a growing economy for his entire presidency until a financial meltdown reframes the political landscape a month before the election. An act of war or the eruption of a bona fide presidential scandal can cause a dramatic uptick in or erosion of support. But nothing in modern times has so radically altered the status quo in this country as COVID-19.

If the election had occurred before the pandemic, it would have been a referendum mostly on Trump's economic record. If the election had been in April, it might have turned on his perceived response to the virus. If the election were today or sometime in the next few months, as our focus increasingly shifts from corona fears to jobs anxiety, it would turn largely on his handling of the economic "reopening." Who knows where the economy will be in November? If the virus fiercely rebounds shortly before the election, or if the economy hasn't recovered, Trump could be blamed, fairly or not.

I have no intention of predicting the outcome of the November election now. We can rationally discuss the variables, but until we see how these monumental events play out, no one -- I repeat no one -- knows whether President Trump will be reelected, or why or why not. (Read more.)

From Byron York at the Washington Examiner:

A big development in the fight over 53 secret interviews the House Intelligence Committee conducted during its Trump-Russia investigation. Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell has sent a letter to chairman Adam Schiff notifying him that transcripts of all 53 interviews, over 6,000 pages in all, have been cleared for public release. "All of the transcripts, with our required redactions, can be released to the public without any concerns of disclosing classified material," Grenell wrote to Schiff in a letter dated May 4.

The Intel Committee did the first probe into Russia's 2016 campaign interference and allegations of Trump-Russia collusion. Even today, its findings make up most of what we know about the affair. As part of that investigation -- it was run by then-majority Republicans -- the committee interviewed some key witnesses in the Trump-Russia matter: Donald Trump Jr., Steve Bannon, Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates, Michael Cohen, Hope Hicks, and many more.
(Read more.)