Tea at Trianon: Transcript of Trump’s speech on US strikes on Iran

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, June 22, 2025

Transcript of Trump’s speech on US strikes on Iran

From the AP:

For 40 years, Iran has been saying. Death to America, death to Israel. They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs, with roadside bombs. That was their specialty. We lost over 1,000 people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East, and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate in particular. So many were killed by their general, Qassim Soleimani. I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen. It will not continue.
I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we’ve gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel. I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they’ve done. And most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight, and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades.

Hopefully, we will no longer need their services in this capacity. I hope that’s so. I also want to congratulate the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan ‘Razin’ Caine, spectacular general, and all of the brilliant military minds involved in this attack. (Read more.)

From Sharyl Attkisson:

The U.S. has not formally declared war since World War II, yet it has engaged in countless military operations, and even war, without prior congressional approval.
From Trump’s first-term hits on the Islamic extremist terrorist group ISIS that grew to power under Obama, to Biden’s retaliatory strikes in Syria, the U.S. has frequently relied on expansive interpretations of executive authority to justify unilateral action.
Legal precedent supports President Trump’s position.
The U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities are igniting a firestorm of debate over presidential war powers, with critics arguing that President Trump’s decision to act without prior congressional approval violates the Constitution.
The strikes, targeting sites like Iran’s heavily fortified Fordo nuclear facility, follow a pattern of U.S. military actions abroad that sidestep Congress, a practice spanning decades.
But the high-stakes nature of bombing Iran—a regional powerhouse with the potential for devastating retaliation—has brought renewed scrutiny to this contentious issue.
Why do these strikes spark such outrage when unilateral action is so common? And what does history tell us about America’s approach to war powers?
Read on for details. (Read more.)

From Direct Line News:

To the brave and noble people of Iran—those with fire in their hearts and the memory of freedom in their bones—hear this message with clarity: The time is now.
For more than four decades, your nation has been chained by a theocracy that hijacked your revolution and replaced one tyrant with another—only this one cloaked himself in religious robes and pretended his brutality was divinely sanctioned. Since 1979, the radical mullahs have ruled your land with cruelty, paranoia, and isolation. They turned Persia—a cradle of civilization—into a regime synonymous with oppression, terrorism, and fear.
But Iran is more than its rulers. Iran is its people. And the people remember.
A Legacy Stolen
Once, your homeland was a beacon of science, poetry, medicine, and liberty. Long before Western Europe knew the concept of a republic, Persians had drafted declarations of human rights. While other empires were burning books, you were building libraries. While others glorified conquest, you built gardens and wrote love poems. The very word “Iranian” should stir pride, not fear.
Yet the ruling clerics—the Ayatollahs and their cronies—have done everything they can to bury that legacy. They tell you your only future is jihad. That women should be silent. That dissent is blasphemy. That your neighbor Israel must be destroyed. That America is the “Great Satan.”
But deep down, every honest man and woman in Iran knows the truth: this regime does not speak for you. It never has. (Read more.)