Tea at Trianon: JFK’s Revenge

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 13, 2026

JFK’s Revenge

From The New Criterion:

Thanks mostly to President Trump, the Communist regime in Cuba is on the brink of collapse, with oil supplies cut off and much of the country without electricity or power. Cubans are dealing with food and medicine shortages and with the breakdown of public services. Prices are high and rising rapidly; inflation approached 40 percent last year. The Trump administration recently imposed new sanctions on Cuban leaders and on economic and political organizations that continue to support the regime. Pressures from Washington are certain to continue, notwithstanding complaints from progressives who hope to keep the Cuban government intact.

It is little wonder that protestors are in the streets of Cuba shouting “Down with Communism.” The spirit of the Cuban revolution, completed in 1958 by Fidel Castro amid promises of reform, prosperity, and freedom from U.S. imperialism, turned to ashes decades ago, long before El Comandante died in 2016. The regime is now collapsing for real. Those who can are getting out, just as they did decades ago.

The Cuban economy was never self-sufficient. It was propped up for decades by subsidies from the Soviet Union, in return for pledges to spread Castro’s revolution throughout Latin America. The collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991 provoked a severe economic crisis across Cuba as that aid dried up. During Barack Obama’s presidency, Cuban leaders entertained hopes that the United States might bail out the revolution with new subsidies and favorable trade policies. Donald Trump put an end to that fantasy after he was elected in 2016.

More recently, Venezuela, under Maduro’s left-wing government, stepped in to supply Cuba with low-priced oil, in exchange for Cuban military and medical support. That arrangement ended when President Trump toppled Maduro’s regime at the beginning of this year. Cuba now has nowhere else to turn. The regime has run out of other people’s money. (Read more.)