Tea at Trianon: Waiting Game

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, April 16, 2026

Waiting Game

From Tierney's Real News:

President Trump’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz has shattered the Iranian regime’s long-held illusion that it could simply outwait American resolve. By choking off crude exports from Kharg Island, Trump’s pressure campaign has forced Iran into a storage crisis with just 13-16 days before tanks overflow.
The Iranian regime now finds itself in a corner. With nowhere to ship its oil, Iran faces a looming crisis: Kharg Island doesn’t have enough tanks to hold the crude being pumped from its fields. If the exports remain stalled, the regime will soon have no choice but to cut off oil extraction on the mainland entirely.
Trump’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, aimed squarely at Iran’s crude exports from Kharg Island, doesn’t just raise the stakes- it changes the game entirely. This is no longer about lost revenue or discounted barrels. It’s about physics. Oil has nowhere to go. And when oil can’t move, everything stops.
Iran’s export infrastructure depends heavily on Kharg Island. Oil from Iran’s fields is pumped to the island through undersea pipelines and then stored in tanks and then loaded on oil tankers - mostly headed to China. If oil tankers stop loading at the Island, crude begins to pile up. Once storage tanks on the Island fill - and by some estimates, that could happen in as little as two weeks - Iran must shut down oil extraction AND production all together! (Read more.)