Tea at Trianon: California Dreaming

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

Tuesday, June 2, 2026

California Dreaming

From Tierney's Real News:

President Trump has endorsed Steve Hilton and Hilton asked Bianco to drop out so that a Republican can advance to the general. He is refusing. The latest polls show there is NO WAY for Bianco to win yet he refuses to drop out and support Hilton so that he CAN!
Why Bianco won’t drop out is the real question. He trails badly and has no path to win, yet he stays in and splits conservative votes — exactly what Democrats need for their “doomsday scenario” to play out.
Why? Because Bianco is another Koch Libertarian 3rd party ringer - a Democrat in disguise - who wants to split the vote and help Democrats win! His actions PROVE THAT. Bianco is on camera stating he’s for amnesty! There’s no denying it!
BIANCO: “California is one of the largest immigrant populations in the country and illegal immigrant populations in the country. But we have to address it. We have to make it right. Whether they came across illegally into the country — legally or not — is irrelevant, because we allowed it to happen. So now we just have to fix it. Secure our borders. Don’t let it happen again. And now we have to give a path to citizenship to the ones that are here.” (Read more.)