Tea at Trianon: Fresh Details of the Capitol Riot

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, March 18, 2021

Fresh Details of the Capitol Riot

From National Pulse:

New information about the failure to protect the U.S. Capitol – despite intelligence suggesting a pre-planned attack – asserts that it was President Trump’s team that forced the issue of National Guard deployment, while Army officials at the Pentagon were more concerned about the backlash they might face from the media, the DC Mayor, and the political left.

The Washington Post claims to have seen a draft, internal memo from the Pentagon revealing that military planners rejected the idea of National Guard deployment ahead of the Capitol riot. This follows the news – first reported by Vanity Fair – that Trump had insisted on deploying 10,000 Guard troops in part to ensure the security of the event he was speaking at, 45 minutes walk down the road.
“You’re going to need 10,000 people… You do what you need to do. You do what you need to do,” Trump told his Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller.

Miller rightly pointed out, “…you know, someone’s going to have to ask for it.”

Now we know Miller tried his best, despite no D.C. request for Guard troops. He obeyed The Commander-in-Chief’s orders and attempted to ensure a Guard deployment in the face of an obstructionist Pentagon. (Read more.)