Tea at Trianon: Power Grid Attacks

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, December 12, 2022

Power Grid Attacks

From Just the News:

Two Duke Energy power substations in Moore County, N.C., sustained damage from gunfire last weekend, leaving tens of thousands without power for several days. A separate gun-related incident on Wednesday saw an individual with a rifle open fire roughly one half of a mile away from a third Duke Energy power station in South Carolina. There were neither injuries nor power outages as a result of the South Carolina episode.

Kershaw County Sheriff Lee Boan said on Thursday that there was no evidence the gunman had aimed for the power station. "I currently have no reason to believe this shooting incident has anything to do with an attack on the hydro station," NBC News reported him as saying. "As of right now, I'm just not seeing the connection between the two."

Nevertheless, the bureau is analyzing shell casings found from both sites, attempting to discern any potential links. No suspects have yet been identified in the North Carolina shootings, though law enforcement agencies have issued "active warrants" for suspects. Moreover, Moore County and Duke Energy have pooled together to offer cash rewards for information on the attack's perpetrators. (Read more.)

From The Daily Mail:

The two attacks on Portland's electrical substations were pre-meditated, officials said, as other states are on 'high alert' after Washington and North Carolina were also targeted. Officials in Oregon are still probing the Thanksgiving electrical attacks at Portland General Electric and Bonneville Power Administration in Clackamas County. In total, at least seven attacks have been recorded in the US in recent weeks. In North Carolina, the FBI is currently investigating if their grid attacks were triggered by opponents of a drag show. (Read more.)