December 8, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I wish National Review would let Andrew McCarthy’s columns out from behind its paywall, but it is not to be. I have paid the big bucks to read Andy’s columns and found the fee worth it, but it rubs against the grain of the Internet. Surely some one or two of NR’s benefactors could spring for whatever it would take to free up Andy’s columns, at least on occasion. I
»
December 8, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I understand you are deliberating with your family over a run for reelection as president. Speaking from outside the family, I want to share a few thoughts with you. The day you were sworn in you were older than Ronald Reagan the day he left office after two terms. Hey, the job is keeping you “young.” You are an inspiration to nursing home residents across the United States. You make
»
December 7, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson have made it a mission to expose the Biden family corruption at whose apex sits President Biden. Their various reports, speeches, and correspondence are all accessible here. Most recently, they summarized the fruits of their research in this letter letter dated October 26, 2022 (“[t]he letter summarizes key elements of the Biden family’s engagements with individuals linked to the Chinese communist party and Chinese
»
December 7, 2022 — Scott Johnson
This is a postscript to my November 9 installment of “After last night” on this year’s midterms. • In a perfect coda to the disappointing outcome of the 2022 midterm elections, Raphael Warnock won reelection to the Senate from Georgia last night. He did it by taking 51.4 percent of the vote in his runoff against Herschel Walker for a full six-year term. Walker fell about 100,000 votes short out
»
December 6, 2022 — Scott Johnson
James Baker is a key player in old Twitter’s suppression of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop reporting before the 2020 election. Jonathan Turley noted his ubiquity as a player in the scandals of the past six years in “Six degrees of James Baker.” After including him in my “Notes on the Twitter Files” this morning, I now have to add this mind-boggling postscript. It never occurred to me
»
December 6, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Herewith a few short notes on the Twitter Files disclosing the suppression of the New York Post’s reporting on the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop three weeks in advance of the 2020 presidential election. • Twitter is a powerful instrument for good and evil. Elon Musk’s efforts to create a new Twitter with a favorable disposition to free speech has made him an enemy of the regime. They are crying
»
December 5, 2022 — Scott Johnson
New York Times media reporter Michael Grynbaum gives us the Times’s first take on the Twitter Files. RealClearPolitics links to an accessible version of Grynbaum’s story published at DNYUZ. Turning to the story posted here on the Times site, I see that Grynbaum’s story is published on page B5 of today’s Times. Between the national news and the sports section falls the shadow. Grynbaumn provides a bemused account of the
»
December 4, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Michael Ramirez’s daily editorial cartoon of this past Friday (below) comments on the pathetic response of the Biden administration to the insanely brave protests inside the Chinese and Iranian regimes. He titles it “A deafening silence.” (Subscribe to Michael’s Substack site here.) The New York Post reports “Biden snubs question on China protests amid son Hunter’s biz ties.” The related New York Post editorial is headlined “White House offers mere
»
December 4, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Dave Seminara’s Spectator column (behind the Spectator paywall) looks on the upside of the downside of the midterms for Republicans. Republicans won the cumulative popular vote for congressional candidates, but what about it? “The popular vote win shouldn’t be a cause of celebration for Republicans, who should have performed even better in the critical races given President Biden’s abysmal record. But there are also causes for concern among Democrats, a
»
December 4, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I saw three shows over the past week. Last weekend I saw the Belfast Cowboys, a 20-year-old Minneapolis group I had not heard of before. This week I saw the Todd Rundgren/Daryl Hall show at the State Theater. They played to a packed house. Both Rundgren and Hall appear to have tapped into the fountain of youth. I thought to myself, I’ll have what he’s having (what they’re having). The
»
December 3, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Matt Taibbi and Douglas Murray debated Malcolm Gladwell and Michelle Goldberg on the proposition “Be it resolved, don’t trust mainstream media.” Taibbi and Murray took the affirmative, i.e., the mainstream media are not to be trusted. The event took place this past Wednesday under the auspices of the Munk Debates in Toronto, Canada. Before undertaking his dive into the Twitter Files, Taibbi wrote it up here at his Substack site
»
December 2, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I need to take an unpaid sick day or two to recover from the nasty flu virus that has descended upon me. I will survive. I hope to be back Saturday or Sunday. If not, I will be chalking up a few more unpaid sick days. More importantly, I hope to have something to say about the news of the day. If it were Covid, perhaps I could attribute my
»
December 2, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Ammo Grrrll takes note of UNPAYABLE DEBTS and UNSUNG HEROES. She writes: Since last week’s column missed Thanksgiving by just a day, I believe it is still appropriate (and is always appropriate) to think about our many Unpayable Debts. Gratitude is out of favor; entitlement is The Current Thing, along with hatred for and disparagement of every single blessing we have inherited. But most of my readers do not care
»
December 1, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, creation of a new regime favoring free speech, and promise to account for the platform’s past censorship must be one of the most important stories in the country. The Biden administration has now announced that it is keeping an “eye on Twitter” in the wake of Musk’s purchase. They yearn for the old days when stories unfavorable to Biden were mercilessly barred from the platform.
»
December 1, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Randy Newman’s “Mama Told Me Not To Come” is a funny song. The Tom Jones video that I posted here over the weekend milks the humor by placing Jones’s performance at the party depicted in the song. I observed that the premise of the song is wide-eyed shock, but added that nothing is shocking anymore. The saga of Department of Energy Deputy Secretary Sam “Not the Man” Brinton tests the
»
November 30, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I serve on the board of Alpha News and am proud of the work that this small outfit does to provide an alternate source of news in the Twin Cities. Editor Anthony Gockowski’s scrupulously detailed story on Sam “Not the Man” Brinton has struck a nerve. It has been featured on FOX News and covered across the pond. On Twitter Bill Glahn has noted the impact of the story. In
»
November 30, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Complementing this year’s Center of the American Experiment Golden Turkey Award to the Feeding our Future fraud, the center has released Bill Glahn’s 20-minute video summarizing the story so far (below). Bill is the indefatigable chronicler of the fraud’s highways and byways. He shot the video before the first wave of informations and indictments in the case were handed up on September 19, but I concur with Bill’s assessment that
»
