Tea at Trianon: On the Border

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, March 15, 2021

On the Border

From Dan Bongino:

Texas state Rep. Bryan Slaton has filed a bill designed to fund “border security enhancement projects.” The idea would be for Texas to build the wall with their own funds and then ask the Federal Government for reimbursement.exas state Rep. Bryan Slaton has filed a bill designed to fund “border security enhancement projects.” The idea would be for Texas to build the wall with their own funds and then ask the Federal Government for reimbursement. (Read more.)

Also from Dan:

...Mexico is now worrying that the wave of illegal immigrants moving through their country to get to America may cost THEM too much money and that numbers could spike even more once COVID-19 restrictions are dropped. The Cartels are also explaining to illegal immigrants how to manipulate America’s laughably lax immigration laws.

Communicating via social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and YouTube, smugglers update migrants on impending checkpoints, when freight trains they can jump on pass, where to stay and how to navigate immigration laws, the official added.

To ease their passage, smugglers advise Central American clients to register complaints with authorities saying they have been victims of extortion or, for young men, that they have faced death threats from street gangs, the assessments show.

And, as in previous years, migrants are being told to bring along children to make it easier to apply for asylum.

(Read more.)