Tea at Trianon: A Whistleblower Arrested

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

Saturday, May 11, 2024

A Whistleblower Arrested

From Courthouse News Service:

While she was working as deputy director of the commission, according to prosecutors, Zapata requested the three ballots. She then used her governmental access to get the home address of Janel Brandtjen of Menomonee Falls — a Republican member of the Wisconsin Assembly who frequently makes false assertions of fraud in the 2020 election — and had the fraudulent ballots mailed there.

She admitted to her actions — including to her boss, Milwaukee Election Commission Director Claire Woodall-Vogg — shortly after the fact, but claims she requested the ballots only to expose a loophole in the absentee voting system. Westphal swatted down the notion that the defendant was a legitimate whistleblower who gained and shared information.

“She is not exposing the information; she is committing election fraud ... that’s not blowing the whistle on the problem, that’s aggravating the problem,” the prosecutor said.

Far from alleviating the mis- and-disinformation, stress and anxiety in her office, Zapata added “to the anxiety and stress in this office by creating this false narrative that people are doing this,” Westphal said. (Read more.)