In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

I was finishing up yesterday's post with a remark about unanticipated consequences of the Russo-Ukraine War, and the image above came to mind. It's a photo of the French army occupying the Ruhr district in Germany in 1923 as a result of German defaults on reparation payments after World War I. Ukraine President Zelensky has called on Russians to learn the words ‘reparations’ and ‘contributions’. He stressed that Russia would reimburse Ukraine for everything that was destroyed during the war. Something like this must inevitably occur if the world is to avoid a circumstance where Russia simply withdraws from Ukraine, rebuilds for some period of years, and tries the same thing again. The same applies to war crimes. The evidence of large-scale executions of civilians in the liberated Kyiv suburbs Bucha and Irpin is an indication that such massacres are probably even more widespread and will need full investigstion and prosecution. The problem is enforcement. Ukraine alre...

The suddenness of the Russian collapse and retreat around Kyiv is just another illustration of how consistently Ukraine has outperformed the conventional wisdom throughout the war. Just a few days ago, reports that the Russians were digging trenches in the Chernobyl radioactive area were taken as a sign that they were going to stay there and use it as a base to reconstitute their forces, at minimum to keep Ukraine's army tied down around Kyiv while they shifted their efforts to Donbas. All of a sudden, the reports instead were that as of Thursday. Russian troops had left the Chernobyl facility entirely , with other reports that the soldiers who had been digging trenches were being treated for radiation sickness. Although most discussions of the developments around Kyiv characterize them conservatively as an organized strategic withdrawal by the Russians to refocus their forces, the report from the BBC below stresses that the withdrawal was forced by Ukrainian attacks and, given ...

When I wrote the old blog on subjects like "continuing" Anglicanism, I ran into contextual distractions, including a supposed Orthodox option for people dissatisfied with Episcopalianism, or indeed novus ordo Catholicism. The poster child for this option is Rod Dreher : Raised a Methodist, he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1993, and subsequently wrote widely in the Catholic press. Covering the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal, starting in 2001, led him to question his Catholicism, and on October 12, 2006, he announced his conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy. At the time, Dreher had argued that the scandal was not so much a "pedophile problem", but that the "sexual abuse of minors is facilitated by a secret, powerful network of gay priests", known as the "Lavender Mafia" Various correspondents over the years have urged this option on me, but as far as I can tell, the option isn't popular, there are certainly accounts from people wh...

There's a lot of new opinion across the spectrum that something's changed. For instance, at CNN : A top legal analyst at CNN said it is possible President Biden’s son Hunter Biden could be indicted by the U.S. government following an investigation into his foreign business dealings. “This is a very real, very substantial investigation of potentially serious federal crimes,” Elie Honig said Wednesday morning on the network. “We are seeing federal prosecutors in Delaware do exactly what you would expect to see federal prosecutors do in this situation.” Honig said it appears the investigation into Hunter Biden’s business overseas is “gaining steam.” Another take on CNN's report suggests there are questions about an issue that caught my eye more than a week ago: WATCH: Even CNN confirms that Hunter Biden is under investigation for “money transfers,” “business activities in China,” “Burisma,” and the "source" of the funds he used to pay his tax bills. pic...

Yesterday morning I opened my phone to find a headline in the UK Daily Mail: EXCLUSIVE: Living her best life! Hunter Biden's wife Melissa Cohen, 35, flaunts her toned body on Ipanema Beach in Rio as her husband faces grand jury probe into his murky finances thousands of miles away . I've got to think Hunter's second marriage is one of the under-reported events of our time. Hunter Biden's wife Melissa Cohen was spotted going for a swim on a beach in Brazil while her husband is thousands of miles away facing a grand jury probe into his murky finances and business deals. . . . The mother-of-one appeared to enjoy the waves solo in her yellow top and navy blue-patterned bottoms, but several Secret Service agents were nearby at all times, costing US taxpayers thousands. South African-born Melissa is in town for the Orphaned Starfish Foundation's benefit for the LGBTQ+ community, orphans, indigenous children and victims of trafficking and abuse. She is the guest of...

There's been a lot of reaction to President Brandon's multiple gaffes over the weekend in Poland, which I've discussed here, as well as to his more recent attempts to claim they weren't gaffes at all. For instance, Doocy: "The big things you say on the world stage keep getting walked back." Biden: "What's getting walked backed?" Biden: You told troops they are going to Ukraine, the U.S. would use a chemical weapon, and called for regime change in Russia. Biden: "None of the 3 occurred." pic.twitter.com/cwZPzANIoC — Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 28, 2022 Elsewhere, When Biden was asked by Fox News reporter Peter Doocy to clarify his assertion that Russian President Vladimir Putin would trigger a “response in kind” if he used chemical weapons, the president grew indignant. “I’m not gonna tell you. Why would I tell you?” he replied. “You gotta be silly.” When Doocy told Biden the world wanted to know what he meant, he dismisse...

Over the weekend, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Kuleba said of the meeting with US representatives in Warsaw , "Today is a real opportunity to thank the United States for everything it has done for Ukraine so far. We thank every nation – not all assistance is reported in the media, but I know what every country has done, and we thank every one of them. But no one has done more for Ukraine throughout this time than the United States," the foreign minister stressed. Yet Ukraine President Zelensky remarked on the same day, NBC: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thinks Biden is “all talk" and lacks the courage to respond to Russia pic.twitter.com/2M4FxC0fSc — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 27, 2022 The story at the Red State blog observes, That’s the correct take, regardless of whether one personally thinks the US should be more involved in Ukraine at the moment. If Biden weren’t trying to present himself as a savior, “uniting'” the world against R...