June 16, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I took a look at the New York Times’s drive-by defamation of the Babylon Bee last week in “Sting like a Babylon Bee.” The Times disparaged the Bee as a a “far-right misinformation site” that “sometimes trafficked in misinformation in the guise of satire.” The Bee is of course a site devoted exclusively to satire with a conservative bent. The Times’s reference to the Bee as a “far-right misinformation site”
»
June 15, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Sky News Australia has posted the video of Sharri Markson’s 16-minute report on the Wuhan lab that appears to have been the source of the Covid-19 scourge with the following summary appended: The Wuhan Institute of Virology kept live bats in cages, new footage from inside the facility has revealed, disproving denials from World Health Organisation investigators who claimed the suggestion was a “conspiracy”. An official Chinese Academy of Sciences
»
June 15, 2021 — Scott Johnson
As anticipated, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz declared a peacetime emergency yesterday by executive order for the sixteenth month in a row (the fifteenth by renewal of his original order). He let on that the end is in sight — somewhere over the rainbow. Walz’s current 30-day renewal is not as egregious as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s entry into the sixteenth year of his four-year term, but it as about
»
June 15, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Christopher Rufo has led the reporting on Critical Race Theory — i.e., the indoctrination thereof in our institutions. The Spring issue of the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, for example, carries Rufo’s essay on “The child soldiers of Portland.” Most recently, City Journal posted “The Woke-Industrial Complex,” his report on Lockheed Martin. For more, see his City Journal publications listed here. Yesterday Rufo posted the introductory video below on YouTube. He
»
June 14, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Winston Boogie Smith was the target of a North Star Fugitive Task Force arrest operation that cornered him on the afternoon of June 3 at the top of the parking ramp adjacent to Uptown’s Seven Points (better known as Calhoun Square). Smith appears to have engaged in a gun battle with members of the task force when they sought to arrest him on an outstanding warrant. The woman who was
»
June 13, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The Covid war is over, but Minnesota Governor Tim Walz carries on the fight. Tomorrow he will continue his one-man rule of the state by declaring another “emergency.” He will accordingly extend his emergency powers for another 30 days. Doing the arithmetic, Alpha News reports that this makes it the fifteenth month in a row that Governor Walz has ruled with emergency powers. The relevant statute limits the circumstances under
»
June 13, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I just finished reading Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America for the first time. I read it over the past two years or so in weekly lunch meetings with my friend Bruce Sanborn. Carleton College’s Professor Larry Cooper, also a friend, served as our preceptor. We used the terrific edition translated, edited, and introduced by Harvey Mansfield and Delba Winthrop that is published by the University of Chicago Press. Like
»
June 12, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I would like to recognize Minneapolis’s Star Tribune for its significant contribution to the degradation of the civic life of the Twin Cities and to the decline of Minneapolis. To say the least, owner Glen Taylor has a high tolerance for mediocrity. After all, the guy owned the Minnesota Timberwolves for over 25 years. Yesterday, however the Star Tribune was recognized for excellence in one category of this year’s Pulitzer
»
June 12, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Dominic Green’s New York Post column explains the offense the escapee from Madam Tussauds has given his British hosts. The column is “Biden opens European tour with slap at Brits.” However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson appears to be taking it well. Green is deputy editor of the Spectator’s world edition as well as a historian and journalist of the first rank. While our mainstream media serve Biden like the courtiers
»
June 11, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Having just stepped down as head of the Mossad last week, Yossi Cohen sat for an Israeli television interview regarding the agency’s mind-boggling operations against the Islamic Republic of Iran over the past several years. The Times of Israel has posted the story “In stunning, revelatory interview, ex-Mossad chief warns Iran, defends Netanyahu.” I recommend the whole thing to the attention of Power Line readers. That is one impressive intelligence
»
June 11, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Even some of her Democratic colleagues must be tired of Rep. Ilhan Omar. This tweet by Omar set off 12 Democratic colleagues who happen to be Jewish. We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban. I asked @SecBlinken where people are supposed to go for justice.
»
June 11, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Ammo Grrrll has a few LEFT-OVERS. She writes: For reasons I do not at all understand, “leftovers” have gotten a bad reputation. Now, I get it that there can be a limit. I once saw a cartoon in which a housewife, confronting an unhappy husband at the dinner table is saying, “Monday you liked beans. Tuesday you liked beans. Wednesday you liked beans. Now, all of a sudden, on Thursday,
»
June 10, 2021 — Scott Johnson
When I wrote yesterday about the meeting of Israel’s US/UN ambassador with AP executives on the destruction of the high-rise Gaza building with tenants including both the AP and Hamas, I had not found the statement AP spokesman Lauren Easton issued following the meeting. Here it is: The Associated Press appreciates the opportunity to meet with Ambassador Erdan to discuss the attack on the building housing our Gaza bureau and
»
June 10, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I have posted five previous editions of footnotes to our coverage of the trial of Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd. This edition bears on the pending case against Chauvin’s three former colleagues as well. My purpose here is to provide background on the legal issues for those who seek to understand them. Readers who think they know all they need to know about these cases are invited
»
June 9, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I wrote a lot last month about the protestations of the Associated Press when the IDF destroyed the high-rise Gaza office building in which it was holed up with fellow tenants including Hamas. The first post among several was “The AP goes Sgt. Schultz.” AP executives demanded information supporting the IDF’s targeted destruction of the building. Yesterday the IDF issued this announcement: During Operation “Guardians of the Walls” the IDF
»
June 9, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I’m not entirely sure whether satire degenerates in the hands of the left, but one could make the case. From Jonathan Swift to Evelyn Waugh, the greatest satirists writing in English have been conservatives of one stripe or another. As for the degeneration, Philip Roth’s stabs at satire might suffice by themselves to make that side of the case. By the same token, we may wonder if the understanding of
»
June 8, 2021 — Scott Johnson
If our cyborg president malfunctions, the ludicrous Kamala Harris will try to step into its very small shoes. What a lightweight leftist hack she is. She can’t even handle a friendly interviewer without embarrassing herself (video below). HARRIS: "We’ve been to the border. So this whole thing about the border."Harris: "We’ve been to the border."Harris: "We’ve been to the border."HOLT: "You haven’t been to the border."Harris: "I… and I haven’t
»
