Tea at Trianon: Our Flag Is Still There

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, November 9, 2024

Our Flag Is Still There

From Sebastian Gorka:

They laughed at him the first time.
When Donald Trump came down the escalator of Trump Tower nine years ago, the commentariat thought is was all a big joke. Or at best, a publicity stunt for his world-spanning commercial empire.
It wasn’t.
Despite having to run against more than a dozen Republican primary contenders, and then the female half of the Clinton dynasty, he crushed them all. And on Tuesday night, he did it again.
Not only did the 45th President boggle the pollsters to defeat the incumbent Democrat Vice President and blast through the requisite 270 votes in the Electoral College, the brash real estate mogul and reality TV star crushed Biden’s diversity hire in the popular vote too. By more than 4,000,000 votes! And it was utterly delicious to be with my former Boss Tuesday night at the MAGA HQ that is Mar-a-Lago to watch the results come in, along with the likes of America First stars like Elon Musk and Dana White.
So how did the man the “elite” wrote off twice pull it off again, against all the odds? What’s the secret sauce to his double-header of victories? Easy: Donald Trump. (Read more.)