Tea at Trianon: The Triad of Power

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, November 1, 2026

The Triad of Power

From Tierney's Real News:

Once you put the numbers side by side, you immediately understand why so many mainstream commentators, corporate institutions, and online influencers default to the European Union’s framing or soft-pedal Communist China. The European Union (EU) offers a comforting vocabulary of “rules,” “values,” and managed decline. It flatters an entire class of credentialed professionals who prefer process over outcomes.
Communist China (CCP) offers massive scale, deep pockets, and the quiet promise that American primacy is fading anyway—so the smart play is to hedge, compromise, and accommodate.
Both of these narratives let people sound incredibly sophisticated while ignoring the exact same set of undeniable facts: the United States still holds the largest nominal economy, the highest individual productivity, and the only military capable of projecting devastating power at a distance. The other two blocs know this. They are actively trying to close those gaps on their own terms.
The deeper conflict isn’t just about territory; it is about what the world should actually look like. (Read more.)