Tea at Trianon: Meanwhile, in Cuba....

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, July 13, 2021

Meanwhile, in Cuba....

From The Daily Wire:

The communist Cuban dictatorial regime began cracking down on pro-freedom protesters on Sunday that stormed the island nation’s streets. Numerous arrests were reported as widespread internet outages spread across the nation.

Cubans took to the street in rarely seen demonstrations to protest the impoverished conditions of the island, their lack of freedom under the far-left Marxist regime, and did so while chanting “Liberty” and “Freedom” and waving an American flag.The Washington Post reported:
José Miguel Vivanco, director of Human Rights Watch’s Americas division, said his group had received reports that at least 20 people had been arrested. He added that the organization had received reports of violence being used by Cuban forces, a claim echoed by social media users sharing videos of wounded protesters.
“This is pretty massive,” Vivanco said. “My sense is that this is a combination of social unrest based on a lack of freedoms, and covid, and economic conditions. The lack of access to electricity. The blackouts. … People are screaming for freedom.” (Read more.)

Also from The Daily Wire:

Numerous videos that were posted online showing the protests had “suddenly disappeared” as government censors appeared to take action to stop the movement from growing. “The people are dying of hunger!” one woman shouted, “Our children are dying of hunger!” Other chants included “We want freedom” and “We want vaccines.”

“Florida supports the people of Cuba as they take to the streets against the tyrannical regime in Havana,” Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis wrote on Twitter. “The Cuban dictatorship has repressed the people of Cuba for decades & is now trying to silence those who have the courage to speak out against its disastrous policies.” (Read more.)

More HERE and HERE.