Tea at Trianon: Deal with the Cartel

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

Thursday, February 27, 2025

Deal with the Cartel

From Sharyl Attkisson:

President Trump has named eight killer drug cartels to the list of foreign terrorist organizations. That’s part of his effort to secure the US southern border and cut down on trafficking of fentanyl and other illegal drugs that have been distributed in record proportions in the past four years.
Trump’s executive order names the infamous Tren de Aragua in Venezuela; Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) based in El Salvaor; and Cártel de Sinaloa, Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, Cártel del Noreste (formerly Los Zetas), La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cártel de Golfo (Gulf Cartel), and Cárteles Unidos, all in Mexico, as terrorist organizations. That designation opens up a host of new enforcement actions and penalties for those dealing with the criminal groups.
But you might be surprised to know that the US admits having a signed cooperation agreement with at least one of these groups: Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.
I was surprised this story didn’t receive more attention when I first reported it in 2011.
At the time, I was breaking shocking news on the “Fast and Furious” controversy where the US was actually engaged in secret operations to facilitate the delivery of assault rifles and other weapons into the hands of Mexican cartels.
Many sources and law enforcement officials were telling me that it was an open secret in their corners that the US cooperated with the Sinaloa cartel in order to supposedly get information on other cartels that we considered worse, such as the Zetas. We were even allowing the Sinaloa cartel to traffic drugs in America— or so the story was told.
While it sounds unbelievable, there seemed to be confirmation that came in a court case in Chicago against a key Sinaloa cartel member, the son of a top Sinaloa leader. (Read more.)