Tea at Trianon: Hope in the Ruins

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

Sunday, January 26, 2025

Hope in the Ruins

From Coffee and Covid: "Grateful locals even erected a Hollywood-style sign for the President...."

From Edward Feser at Postliberal Order:

Raymond Chandler wrote of “those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch.” When these notorious winds arrive, he noted, “anything can happen.” And it did happen, last week.
I’ve lived in Los Angeles my entire life, nearly six decades. During that time there have been several major earthquakes;many heavy rainstorms yielding devastating mudslides and serious flooding; countless major fires; and, in 2011, an especially destructive windstorm. But never before have I seen Santa Ana winds as powerful and wide-ranging as those that tore through L.A. last Tuesday.
Never before have I seen block after block of the city I love razed by Dresden-like firestorms. Never before have I personally known so many people whose homes were gravely threatened, seriously damaged, or in several cases completely destroyed, by a natural disaster.
Especially distressing was another personal first – my mother having to evacuate her home as one of the larger fires spread in the direction of the neighborhood I grew up in. At the time I write this, her home now appears to be safe. My immediate family and our own home are also fine. But a couple of the smaller fires that broke out last week were, for a time, alarmingly close. (Read more.)

The human factors. From Sharyl Attkisson:

It was November of 2018, flames blew through Paradise in less than 24 hours, torching more than 31 square miles. It became known as the Camp Fire, killing 85 people and destroying nearly 19,000 homes. The fire was caused by electrical transmission lines, owned and operated by PG&E. According to a 700-page investigation by the state, PG&E failed to inspect and maintain an aging electrical tower. It wasn't an isolated case. PG&E equipment reportedly sparked 19 major blazes in 2017 and 2018.
PG&E, pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter and agreed to pay $13.5 billion to victims of the Camp Fire and other fires, and hundreds of millions to the local government.
With many open questions in the latest fires, critics point to man made contributors to the resulting disaster: fire department budget cuts, canceled insurance policies, corruption scandals, the state’s destruction of dams that once held crucial water, an empty water reservoir near the main fire and broken or dry fire hydrants. (Read more.)

From Fox News:

The president and first lady Melania Trump then experienced the damage up close, meeting with local law enforcement and members of the community for a tour of the destroyed Pacific Palisades neighborhoods.
"Not even believable," Trump told reporters on site.
Trump sat down for a roundtable with LA Mayor Karen Bass and other state officials. When the president entered the room, individuals were heard chanting "USA, USA, USA!" Bass greeted the president and said that his presence was welcomed.
"This is an honor to be with you," during the meeting, saying that homeowners told him that they want to rebuild their homes in the area.
At one point, the president criticized Bass for not using her emergency powers to respond to the wildfires.
"You have emergency powers just like I do … you have to exercise them also," Trump told Bass, who responded that she did exercise them.
"I don't think you can realize how rough, how devastating it is until you see it," Trump said of the wildfire damage. "The federal government is standing behind you, 100%."
Trump said that he is going to waive federal permits for rebuilding in the area. "I'm gonna be the president to help you fix it," he said. "We're going to waive all federal permits... Because a federal permit can take 10 years... we don't want to take 10 days." (Read more.)

Meanwhile, in North Carolina....From BPR News:

President Donald Trump wants to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) – and during a visit to Western North Carolina on Friday he floated the idea of eliminating the agency altogether.
Trump landed at Asheville Regional Airport Friday morning on his first visit to North Carolina since the start of his second term. The western part of the state, along with neighboring communities in Tennessee, has been reeling since Hurricane Helene unleashed devastating flooding and landslides in the mountain region last September.
“ FEMA has been a very big disappointment,” Trump said. “They cost a tremendous amount of money. It's very bureaucratic and it's very slow. Other than that, we're very happy with them.”
Getting rid of FEMA would take congressional action and it is unclear if there is any support from lawmakers to do so. The agency is usually only called into a disaster area by a governor when the state cannot handle recovery alone.
Trump said he wants to restructure disaster response so that states handle resources that the federal government provides.
“ I think we're going to recommend that FEMA go away and we pay directly. We pay a percentage to the state, but the state should fix this. If the state did this from the beginning, it would have been a lot better situation,” Trump said.
Trump also announced that he has enlisted the Army Corps of Engineers to repair roads and bridges and is preparing to sign an executive order “slashing red tape and all bureaucratic barriers and permits to ensure the rapid reconstruction of the roads here in Western North Carolina.”
“We're going to go through a permitting process that's called no permitting. Just get it done,” he said.
In North Carolina, Helene caused an estimated nearly $60 billion in damage. A bipartisan federal funding bill signed into law last month by then-President Joe Biden allocated billions of dollars to disaster relief. But the aid will take months to arrive, and local officials say more help is needed.
The North Carolina General Assembly has, in three different rounds of legislation, allocated over $1 billion in state funding toward a range of recovery needs – from infrastructure rebuilding to rental assistance and from social services to support for daycares destroyed in the region. (Read more.)