August 9, 2020 — Scott Johnson
On FOX News this morning Maria Bartiromo hosted Steven Schrage on her Sunday Morning Futures. Schrage is the gentleman who first connected Carter Page with FBI informant Stefan Halper at Cambridge in 2016. The interview runs just under nine minutes (video below). Take it in along with Schrage’s long narrative account “The spies who hijacked America.” Schrage provides this preview of coming attractions: There is far too much to tell
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August 9, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The best analysis I have found so far on the August 4 explosions in the port of Beirut is set forth in David Wurmser’s August 7 column “Lebanon: What happened?” Also useful is this backgrounder disseminated by the Shurat HaDin/Israel Law Center. I thought readers might find it of interest. With Shurat HaDin’s kind permission, I am posting it below: As the Lebanese people struggle to recover from the catastrophic
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August 9, 2020 — Scott Johnson
I’ve written about Chris Hillman several times over the years. In 2017 he released a new disc with his long-time friend and musical partner Herb Pedersen (Bidin’ My Time, produced by the late Tom Petty and Herb). In April 2018 Chris and Herb came through town to play at the Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant in downtown Minneapolis, where we saw them up close. I snapped the photo at right
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August 8, 2020 — Scott Johnson
President Trump conducted an impromptu press conference yesterday at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Those at the club were invited to watch the president meet the press. The American Thinker’s Andrea Widburg notes that one of the reporters opened, not with a question, but with an accusation: “You said that the pandemic is disappearing, but we lost 6,000 Americans this week, and just in this room, you have
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August 8, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Fatalities attributed to COVID-19 continue at an extremely low level in Minnesota. Over the past two days the authorities have attributed 7 (8/6) and four (8/7) new deaths to the epidemic. The median age of decedents is 83 (per the Department of Health’s weekly report dated 8/6). Of the 1,640 deaths attributed to the epidemic, 1,241 — 75 percent — have occurred among residents of long-term care facilities. Long-term care
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August 7, 2020 — Scott Johnson
In the court of public opinion, Derek Chauvin and the three other Minneapolis police officers who detained George Floyd have already been found guilty of murder. Indeed, jury foreman Tim Walz has delivered the verdict several times over. Former state and federal prosecutor George Parry nevertheless disputes the verdict in his American Spectator column “Who killed George Floyd?” Mr. Parry has also just published the column at Knowledge Is Good
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August 7, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Ammo Grrrll notes THINGS THAT NEVER GET OLD IN LEFTY-LOONY WORLD (Another Ongoing Series). She writes: Calling Every Republican President Hitler Linda Ronstadt, once a pop singer of some talent, opined that President Trump was not only Hitler, but that it’s the Mexicans who are the “new Jews.” No matter how many “new” Jews appear on the scene, Ye Boring Olde Jews seem never to drop off the bottom of
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August 6, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The editors of the Star Tribune have spoken up to endorse challenger Antone Melton-Meaux over incumbent Fifth District Rep. Ilhan Omar in next Tuesday’s DFL primary. The Star Tribune’s endorsement comes in today’s editorial “Melton-Meaux, for integrity and progress.” Challenger’s desire to find common ground sets him apart from incumbent Omar. Understand that the Star Tribune sits squarely in Omar’s district. As she has become an intergalactic superstar, the Star
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August 6, 2020 — Scott Johnson
FOX 9 is our local FOX station. FOX 9 investigative reporter Tom Lyden has done an excellent job covering the war between Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as revealed in recently disclosed text messages in the days following the death of George Floyd. Who is responsible for the great harm that has befallen the Twin Cities? That is the question. However, this is not a binary
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August 6, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Our efforts to understand the epidemic in one state are clouded by the efforts of the authorities to sustain one-man rule and the panic on which it is based. They are also clouded by the faithful alliance of the press with the authorities. Over the past two days in Minnesota the authorities have attributed four (8/4) and 9 (8/5) new deaths to COVID-19. Seventy-six percent of all deaths attributed to
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August 5, 2020 — Scott Johnson
If you’re wondering about the explosion that rocked Beirut yesterday, you may want to check out the Times of Israel staff report “Mystery swirls around what caused ammonium nitrate to explode in Beirut.” The Times of Israel report is the best I have seen so far. The Times of Israel site has more in the Gambrell/Federman AP story “Expert says ‘cheap pyrotechnics’ likely lit up ammonium nitrate in Beirut.” The
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August 5, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey are engaged in a blame-shifting war in which each points to the other the cause of the destruction that befell the Twin Cities in the riots that followed George Floyd’s death. The Star Tribune forms one front of the war in the article “Mayor Frey: Gov. Walz hesitated to deploy National Guard during Minneapolis riots.” Subhead: “E-mails and texts show urgency;
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August 4, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Now that Minneapolis is the eye of the Democrats’ hurricane of destruction, the ad below deserves a national audience. Titled Democrat politicians ruined Minneapolis, the 30- second video gives a short course in Minnesota’s kakistocracy. Starting with Governor Tim Walz and our two United States Senators, it’s Democrats all the way down. A narrow Republican majority in the state senate has saved us from the full catastrophe. The video has
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August 4, 2020 — Scott Johnson
I offered my notes on Minnesota’s Fifth District primary race here over the weekend. This is a footnote to my notes. The nonfeasance of the local media in the case of incumbent Rep. Ilhan Omar has become an eternal verity. On the national scene, only FOX News presents an exception. The nonfeasance of the local media continues in the pitiful coverage of the DFL primary pitting newcomer and challenger Antone
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August 4, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Kyle Hooten reported over the weekend for Alpha News: “Minneapolis police tell residents to obey criminals and ‘be prepared’ to be robbed.” Subhead: “Police say that Minneapolis residents should obey criminals and “be prepared” to be robbed amid a wave of violent crime in the city.” Kyle updates his story in the linked tweets below, but make no mistake. This is another milestone on Minneapolis’s road to ruin. Minneapolis City
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August 4, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The authorities attributed only two new deaths to COVID-19 in the data reported yesterday. Neither decedent was a long-term care facility resident. Woo hoo! Yet long-term residents continue to account for 76 percent of all deaths attributed to the epidemic. Yesterday’s results continue the low fatality rate in the data since mid-June — unexpectedly. The authorities told us we were to be inundated by thousands of hospitalizations and deaths this
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August 3, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Who can take a city, burn it to the ground? The Umbrella Man can, at least according to the search warrant affidavit filed by Minneapolis police officer Erika Christensen last week. The Star Tribune’s Libor Jany told me he came across Christensen’s affidavit in a routine review of new court filings. He reported on the allegations of Christensen’s affidavit in “Minneapolis police say ‘Umbrella Man’ was a white supremacist trying
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