Author Archives: Scott Johnson

January 21, 2021 — Scott Johnson

Coronavirus in one state (150)

The past three Minnesota Department of Health press briefings have been devoted to the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in Minnesota. They carry on in the disingenuous spirit to which we have grown accustomed but otherwise are lacking in general interest. Barring unforeseen circumstances I will cut back this series to installments in which I can report my own exchanges with the department (my own, that is, with a little »
January 20, 2021 — Scott Johnson

The man with the Biden laptop

Featured image I learn from Rowan Scarborough’s excellent Washington Times story that the man who turned over Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop to the FBI has a GoFundMe page to defray legal expenses and that he has posted tell-all videos with his story. The man’s name is John Paul Mac Isaac. If he were the protagonist in a political thriller, he would be depicted as the average man whom circumstances serve up as »
January 20, 2021 — Scott Johnson

Genocide in Xinjiang

Featured image Secretary of State Mike Pompeo leaves office today after his incredibly consequential tenure advancing the foreign policy of the Trump administration. Today the Wall Street Journal has published Pompeo’s column “Genocide in Xinjiang.” Around the time the column was posted online yesterday, the Department of State posted Pompeo’s Determination of the Secretary of State on Atrocities in Xinjiang. Incoming Secretary of State Antony Blinken endorsed the determination in his testimony »
January 19, 2021 — Scott Johnson

Walz then and now

Featured image While the Twin Cities were torched by BLM and other rioters following the death of George Floyd this past Memorial Day, Governor Tim Walz wrung his hands and bloviated in sympathy with the rioters. When things got hot he shifted the blame to others including the Minneapolis mayor (partly true) and alleged outsiders (mostly false). I posted videos of two of his press conferences here on June 1 while we »
January 19, 2021 — Scott Johnson

The casino exception…and how to get it

Featured image Twenty-one tribal casinos dot the Minnesota landscape (see list here). Many of the casino set-ups include hotels, bars, and restaurants. They are big business operations and substantial contributors to Minnesota’s DFL Party. And they remained open for business as usual throughout the recent shutdown that otherwise hobbled smaller restaurants — smaller restaurants that had managed to survive so far. Many haven’t been so fortunate. So far as I am aware, »
January 19, 2021 — Scott Johnson

1776 Commission reports

Featured image The United States will not survive without a true understanding of its founding. President Trump appointed a commission chaired by Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn with members including Charles Kesler, Matthew Spalding, and Victor Davis Hanson to advance such an understanding. Other members of the commission and contributors to the preparation of the report are set forth on page 41. The commission released its report yesterday. I have embedded it »
January 19, 2021 — Scott Johnson

The night the lights went back on

Featured image Power Line reader Matthew Mashburn (mmashburn at georgia-elections.com) is a member of Georgia’s State Board of Elections. He offers the following account of election night as he saw it in Fulton County, Mr. Mashburn writes: Since I was at Fulton County Tabulations on Election Night and watched the story behind the Suitcase Video unfold in real time right in front of me, I hope to shed some additional light for »
January 18, 2021 — Scott Johnson

The prophetic voice

Featured image When Martin Luther King, Jr., brought his nonviolent campaign against segregation to Bull Connor’s Birmingham, he laid siege to the bastion of Jim Crow. In Birmingham between 1957 and 1962, black homes and churches had been subjected to a series of horrific bombings intended to terrorize the community. In April 1963 King answered the call to bring his campaign to Birmingham. When King landed in jail on Good Friday for »
January 17, 2021 — Scott Johnson

Shapes of things (12)

Featured image With a quizzical message asking if “this thing is on,” Parler CEO John Matze has just has announced that Parler is returning soon (screenshot below). This is the message posted under Technical Difficulties: Now seems like the right time to remind you all — both lovers and haters — why we started this platform,” the status update said. “We believe privacy is paramount and free speech essential, especially on social »
January 17, 2021 — Scott Johnson

After the lights went out

Featured image Power Line reader Matt Mashburn is a member of Georgia’s State Election Board. He has sent us this update on the night the lights went out: I am following up on John’s great post on election fraud. As you will see from my site Georgia-Elections.com, hunting fraud is something I do every day all day long (when I’m not wasting my time defending myself against krakens). I thought, when presented, »
January 17, 2021 — Scott Johnson

Descent of the adversary culture

Featured image Dartmouth Professor of English Jeffrey Hart opened my mind to the great tradition and more during the four years I was his student. A long-time senior editor at National Review, Professor Hart contributed “The secession of the intellectuals” to NR’s 15th anniversary issue in 1970. Thinking of Power Line’s own 15th anniversary a few years back, I returned to that essay. NR editor Rich Lowry kindly arranged for the publication »
January 16, 2021 — Scott Johnson

Woods File gone missing

Featured image Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham has released 11 transcripts of interviews conducted during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s inquiry into the origins and aftermath of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation — i.e., its indispensable to the Russia hoax perpetrated by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Graham’s press release is posted here. The transcripts have all been posted online and made accessible here. John Solomon extracts the highlights »
January 16, 2021 — Scott Johnson

AT’s Dominion statement

Featured image Under the editorial hand of founder Tom Lifson, American Thinker has long been one of my favorite right-leaning sites. I therefore watched AT go down the Dominion rabbit hole with growing incredulity. When Sidney Powell appeared as a Trump campaign lawyer at the Trump lawyers’ November 19 press conference in Michigan (transcript here), she raved about an international conspiracy centered on Dominion. “What we are really dealing with here and »
January 15, 2021 — Scott Johnson

Shapes of things (11)

Featured image A reader working for a global tech company writes to offer the following speculation on the meaning of “full retro” in Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s comments here: [I]t is possible that Dorsey is referring to a part of the “agile” software development methodology called a retrospective or “retro.” A retro is a meeting or series of meetings that look back on a project or portion of a project in order »
January 15, 2021 — Scott Johnson

Obama blues again

Featured image In the ninth and final verse of “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again,” Bob Dylan observes: An’ here I sit so patiently Waiting to find out what price You have to pay to get out of Going through all these things twice That’s the question that occurred to me watching the gentleman from Madame Tussauds put the COVID-19 pandemic to political use last night (video below). With »
January 15, 2021 — Scott Johnson

Shapes of things (10)

Featured image The suppression of Parler by the coordinated action of Google, Apple, and Amazon was the inspiration for this series. Parler is a leading indicator of what what Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey calls the “full retro” in the adjacent post. In the annals of Orwellian neologism, that is one for the books. Parler Chief Policy Officer Amy Peikoff appeared for an interview in medias res last night on Tucker Carlson’s FOX »
January 15, 2021 — Scott Johnson

Shapes of things (9)

Featured image Last night Project Veritas gave us a look inside the sausage factory at Twitter with a secretly recorded video of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey talking about his censorship plans beyond President Donald Trump. If I understand Dorsey’s preview of coming attractions correctly — it depends in part on the meaning of “full retro” — we ain’t seen nothing yet. Never go full retro. According to Project Veritas President James O’Keefe, »