Tea at Trianon: What Did We Learn and What Comes Next?

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, January 20, 2025

What Did We Learn and What Comes Next?

From The Daily Wire:

President-elect Donald Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan indicated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may be adjusting their plans after a widely reported leak detailed the agency’s intention to begin a mass deportation operation in Chicago.
Homan, the former Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, addressed a widely reported leak indicating that the Trump administration would launch a deportation operation in Chicago in an effort to capture over 300 illegal aliens with violent criminal records.
“We’re looking at this leak and will make a decision based on this leak,” Homan explained. “It’s unfortunate because anyone leaking law enforcement operations puts officers at great risk.” Homan also told The Washington Post that the new administration “hasn’t made a decision yet” on the potential immigration raids in Chicago.
The plans were leaked just days after the Chicago City Council shot down a measure that would’ve allowed the city’s police to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement agents working to deport illegal aliens arrested for a sex crime involving a minor, “drug-related activities,” “gang-related activities,” or “prostitution-related activities.” (Read more.)

From Amuse on X:

The modern battlefield is no longer confined to trenches and airstrips; it extends to the palm of your hand. As TikTok faces a legislative ban starting on Sunday, its CCP-controlled successor, RedNote, is rapidly filling the void. This new social media platform has captured the attention of an alarming demographic: young U.S. military personnel. Unwittingly, they are providing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with real-time intelligence on America’s forces. While one soldier’s post of a training session or a day on an aircraft carrier may seem harmless, the aggregated data from thousands of such posts creates a mosaic of intelligence. It is a mosaic the CCP can weaponize against us. The implications of RedNote’s data practices represent a monumental threat to national security, exposing the vulnerability of America’s defenders to foreign surveillance and influence.
Sun Tzu once observed, "Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster." In today’s world, one might amend that to include infinite information. RedNote, operating under the guise of a harmless entertainment app, has unparalleled data-collection capabilities. From GPS tracking to facial and object recognition, RedNote siphons information from its users at a granular level. When aggregated across thousands of accounts, this information paints a precise and comprehensive picture of U.S. military operations, personnel movements, and even strategic assets. (Read more.)

An interview with Sidney Powell, HERE.

Our local GOP podcast, HERE.