Tea at Trianon: Protecting Joe

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

Monday, May 4, 2020

Protecting Joe

From The Stream:

Joe Biden is credibly accused of walking Donald Trump’s talk. And he’s getting away with it. (For nearly 30 years.) The same people who condemned Trump have proven Trump’s point. Now does this mean Biden is guilty? No. He’s presumed innocent. However, Reade has corroboration. In just the past few days, a clip was uncovered of Reade’s mom calling into CNN’s Larry King Live show in 1993. She spoke in vague terms about her daughter’s experience. Of something happening with a prominent Senator and nothing being done about it. The only option the daughter had left would have been to go to the media, but she had too much respect for the Senator to ruin him publicly.

When Reade did come forward 27 years later, she mentioned her mom calling Larry King. However, CNN couldn’t be bothered to locate their own clip. I mean, it’s just a sexual assault allegation against the presumed Democratic nominee. Right? CNN is not a news organization. They just play one on TV.

“Sure,” you say, “But that’s her mom. And she’s not specific.” But what if a former neighbor says Reade told her the exact story she’s telling now soon after the alleged assault? What if that neighbor is a Never Trumper who will be voting for Biden even though she believes every bit of Reade’s allegation? Her name is Lynda LaCasse. You can read her account here.

All told, Tara Reade should be taken very seriously, right? Well …(Read more.)

From The Federalist:

It wasn’t the quality of the allegation that led to this reaction. Blasey Ford had no evidence she had ever met Kavanaugh, much less that he had tried to rape her. She wasn’t sure about any detail related to the event other than that she had precisely one beer and that Kavanaugh had tried to rape her. She didn’t know how she got to the alleged event, where it was, how she got home, or whose house it was. None of the four witnesses she identified to reporters as having been at the event in question supported her claim. That included her close friend Leland Keyser, who was pressured by mutual acquaintances to change her testimony that she had no recollection of the event in question. Kavanaugh had an army of close friends and supporters who testified to his character throughout his adolescence and adulthood.

Nevertheless, over the next ten days, thousands of articles were published in newspapers and online while broadcast and cable news outlets devoted their entire schedule to covering the accusation. All hands were on deck to legitimize the allegation, paint the accuser in the most sympathetic light possible, downplay the many problems with her story, and ignore exonerating information. Anybody who supported Kavanaugh, from high school friends to sitting U.S. senators, was subjected to hostile media treatment and accusations of being a rape apologist.

The nation watched in horror as the federal judge, a happily married father of two young girls, was repeatedly called a rapist. MSNBC contributor Jason Johnson called Kavanaugh “the fifth guy in the gang rape.” That was after Michael Avenatti’s client Julie Swetnick claimed, absurdly, that Kavanaugh was the secret leader of a serial gang rape cartel that roamed the streets of suburban Maryland. One reporter admitted that she was trying to spin another murky claim from a Kavanaugh classmate at Yale specifically to show a pattern of misconduct. (Read more.)