A Lesson in Power

In 1815, there was an intriguing editorial shift as Napoleon returned to France following his exile on Elba.

Le Moniteur Universel, which was the official government newspaper, reported:

• March 9: "The Anthropophagus has quitted his den."
• March 10: "The Corsican Ogre has landed."
• March 11: "The Tiger has arrived at Gap."
• March 13: "The Tyrant has passed through Lyons."
• March 18: "Bonaparte is only sixty leagues from the capital."
• March 19: "Bonaparte is advancing with rapid steps, but he will never enter Paris."
• March 20: "Napoleon will, tomorrow, be under our ramparts."
• March 21–22: "The Emperor has arrived at Fontainebleau" and "His Majesty the Emperor made his public entry. Nothing can exceed the universal joy." 

~

Andrew Roberts, in his massive biography of Napoleon, notes:

"On March 21, the Moniteur, which once again changed its editorial policy the moment he returned to power, printed the name NAPOLEON in capital letters no fewer than twenty-six times in the course of four pages, telling the news of his triumphal return."

[Photo by Nicolas HIPPERT at Unsplash]

A French Perspective

In the voting booths, it's a historic realignment. For the first time in modern history, anti-system parties are simultaneously leading in the three major economies of Europe. Reform is crushing everything in the UK with a Starmer at -61 net popularity. The AfD ahead of the CDU. The RN higher than ever. Italy governed. Austria, Portugal, the Netherlands tipping. Trump reelected. Milei turning Argentina around live.

This isn't a wave. It's the entire Western bloc rejecting the same software at the same time. Why now? Because the ideology made the mistake that its previous version took 70 years to make: it took power. An opposition ideology is irrefutable. An ideology in power produces results. From 2020 to 2024 it governed, and reality started sending its refutations again, like Budapest 1956, like the boat people. Everyone saw the unmanageable cities, the collapsing schools, the BLM founders buying four mansions with the cause's money. The people didn't need to read Foucault. They looked at who was getting rich preaching sacrifice.

And then there's the factor that neither the USSR nor French Theory ever had to face. In 2024, Peter Thiel dines with Elon Musk. Thiel tells him: if Trump loses, I'm leaving the country. Elon replies: "There's nowhere to go." There's nowhere to go.

Thiel goes home and two hours later understands what he just heard: Elon no longer believes in Mars as a refuge. Because the socialist government and the woke AI would follow him to Mars. The man who builds rockets to leave Earth had just concluded that escape was impossible.

What did he do with that despair? He didn't emigrate. He bought the global public square, broke the censorship monopoly, put his fortune into the fight. This man is now on track to become the first trillionaire in human history, and he has made the destruction of this ideology an explicit goal.

- Brivael Le Pogam, co-founder Argil

[Photo by Cecilia Miraldi at Unsplash]

Hmm

 

Looking Good

 

Charge!

 

Calendar Correction

I have just learned that today, June 10, is designated not as Father's Day but as:

National Black Cow Day

National Iced Tea Day

National Frosted Cookie Day

National Egg Roll Day

National Herbs & Spices Day

National Ballpoint Pen Day

I will celebrate National Ballpoint Pen Day, but every day should be Father's Day.

[Photo by Greg Rosenke at Unsplash]

"Soundbreaking"

 

First Paragraph

 They died on the same day. And it was no ordinary day. It was the Fourth of July, 1826, exactly fifty years from the date the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. This, "our fiftieth anniversary," as Daniel Webster exclaimed, was "the great day of National Jubilee."

- From Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson by Gordon S. Wood

Crank It Up

 

This Is Brilliant

 

Author/Journalist and All-Around Nice Guy Joel Engel has launched "Classical Boys Music" on YouTube showing large machinery combined with classical music.

For boys of all ages.

[Photo by Marius Le at Unsplash]