Tea at Trianon: Oval Office Showdown

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

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Oval Office Showdown

From The Vigilant Fox:

Trump began the meeting by congratulating Carney on his election victory and offering warm praise that helped ease some of the tension in the room. It was classic Trump: build rapport first, then move the pieces.
But what happened next caught everyone off guard.
Carney, who had built his entire campaign around posturing against Trump, suddenly flipped the script.
“Thank you for your hospitality, and, and above all, for your for your leadership,” Carney said. “You're, you're a transformational president.”
He then echoed Trump’s policy priorities—focusing on the economy, the border, and the fight against fentanyl—and presented them as his own vision for Canada. (Read more.)