Will (Charles) Atlas Shrug?

An opinion piece in Berlingske Tidende on Sunday raises some interesting questions about the future of the war in Ukraine, some of which are stated directly and some of which are merely implied. Will we still say “Slava Ukraini” if the US pulls the plug?Adam Holm, Berlingske.dk, May 21 The subhead or lede of the…

Let’s Provoke

NATO comes under new management in September: current Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will step down and he’ll be replaced with a fresh face. Probably a female face, because, according to Berlingske, “it would look good with a woman to lead the Western defense alliance.” The article by European correspondent Solveig Gram Jensen is entitled “Forget about…

Remember not to forget the war we forgot to prevent!

Tom Jensen is the editor in chief of Berlingske Tidende.  He uses a column on its editorial pages as his “center-right” (borgerlig) newsletter.  I’ve covered some of his previous “newsletters” in the past. Have you almost forgotten about the war in Ukraine?  Be careful with thatTom Jensen, Berlingske.dk, April 27 The upshot of this one…

The plot thickens

The Nord Stream pipeline sabotage is back in the news. Media: German police have located mysterious boat on Christiansø. Was used for attacks on Nord Stream, they claimMikkel Danielsen, Berlingske.dk, March 8 Long story short: five men and a woman using false passports rented a boat from a Polish boat rental agency in Poland. The…

Not every theory is a conspiracy theory

On September 26 last year—exactly five months ago tomorrow—a couple of underwater explosions 70 meters beneath the surface of the Baltic Sea caused three leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines. There is no question of the event having been anything but sabotage. Western governments still have no idea who was responsible. Given the resources available…

BREAKING: Opinion host caught expressing unauthorized opinions

It’s commonly believed that on September 26—more than three weeks ago—the Nord Stream pipelines were sabotaged. Three weeks isn’t a lot of time in most circumstances, but in warfare it’s an eternity: time enough to fight the whole Six Day War three times and take a long weekend. New Yorkers woke up to a beautiful…

“Eliminating the impossible”

It’s still a truth universally acknowledged that nobody knows who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines earlier this week, but the vaporous fog of ignorance has been coalescing into two general assumptions in the establishment media. The first is something like “We still don’t know who’s responsible, but it was obviously Russia.” The second: “Anyone who…

Whodunnit?

Things are getting kinetic in the Baltic Sea. On Monday, two underwater explosions caused three leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines carrying natural gas from Russia to Europe. The explosions and leaks occurred to the northeast and southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm. Quoth Danmarks Radio (DR): According to…

The Pirhana Brothers of Kiev

The EU wants to punish Russia for invading Ukraine by blocking all imports of Russian oil into the union. Toward that end it developed a sixth package of economic sanctions against Russia, and this package includes what would amount to an official oil embargo: a European ban on the import of Russian oil. Hungary has…

“Take That, Putin”

Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday Night. To nobody’s surprise, they racked up the most points of any country in the history of the competition. To my own surprise, however, the Danish media have been very transparent about the fact that the Ukrainian song wasn’t very good and that this was obviously a…

The Zelensky Gambit

Having been a resident of New York on 9/11, I’ll always think fondly of Rudy Giuliani. His performance as mayor that day—ironically enough an election day on which his successor was to have been chosen—is surely remembered warmly by everyone else who lived in New York City at the time. Amidst all the confusion and…

Marchons, Marchons!

The big news over the weekend was the lack of assaults at the Grammy Awards. Also interesting: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stunned the Grammy Awards on Sunday night with a surprise message in which he told the audience to “fill the silence with music.” DR has roused itself to meet Zelensky’s challenge: they’ve prepared a…

Say It Ain’t So, Joe

Ole Puddinhead outdid himself last week. His visit to Europe to attend the NATO summit in Brussels and deliver an address on NATO’s eastern flank in Warsaw presented an excellent opportunity to lay down some serious foreign policy markers and persuade Vladimir Putin that Russia is still welcome back in the community of nations if…

The Children’s Crusade

I always figured kids had a pretty easy time of it during war. Thanks to TV2 News, my eyes have been opened. A kid’s-eye view of war: “It’s all Putin’s fault”Sofie Synnøve Herschend & Alexander Østerlin Koch, TV2 News, Mar 19 Herschend & Koch are only writing about one particular set of children whose experiences…

The Curious Case of Carlson

“This was the story of Howard Beale,” announces the narrator at the start of the movie Network, “the first known instance of a man who was killed because he had lousy ratings.” Apparently the only thing more dangerous than lousy ratings is excellent ratings. Tucker Carlson is by far the most popular host on American cable…

Selective Indignation: The List

First Update The following companies have wholly or partly suspended operations in Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine. They are thereby punishing not the Russian state, but the Russian people. On the other hand, they continue to operate in China, which even the UN has acknowledged is conducting genocide against it Uighyur population. China…

Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Russians

A propos of what I wrote about Wednesday, DR has a piece today going into depth on just how wonderfully the Russian people are being punished. Here are the services and brands that the Russians now have to do without – and those that still workMarcel Mirzaei-Fard, DR.dk, Mar 10 Facebook is closed. You can…

A Movie We’ve Seen Before

I wrote last week about my reservations about our apparent strategy of winning a war without fighting a war. Today’s Berlingske has an article that’s kind of an update on that theme: Now the West wants to hit Russia on oil and gas: “They have a hard time retaliating”Emil Eller, Berlingske.dk, Mar 9 The article begins…