Tea at Trianon: Doomsday Bunkers?

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

Monday, October 26, 2026

Doomsday Bunkers?

Interesting. From Tierney's Real News:

Here is the short version of what my earlier reports established, so you don’t have to start from zero:
- Iran has already demonstrated ballistic missiles with ranges that can reach U.S. bases, Europe, and the U.S. East Coast. The next step is mating nuclear warheads to them. They have proven the delivery capability. Pretending they would never use it is the delusion.
- Iran’s leadership is driven by Twelver Shia eschatology. This is not ordinary great-power competition. Key elements of the regime view the destruction of the current world order (and the conditions that bring the return of the Mahdi) as a religious duty, not a last resort.
- The White House ballroom project is not primarily a party venue. It is a hardened military complex: multi-story underground facilities, drone-proof and missile-resistant construction, military hospital, secure command spaces, biodefense systems, and rooftop drone/air-defense capacity. Court filings and official statements have described it as essential for continuity of government and presidential protection against nuclear, missile, and drone threats. (Read more.)