June 29, 2026 — Scott Johnson
In this past weekend’s Wall Street Journal Review section Richard Brookhiser reviews four new books on Thomas Jefferson. This should be a big week for Jefferson as we celebrate the semiquincentennial anniversary of his immortal handiwork. As John Adams said in his last words, “Thomas Jefferson still survives.” Jefferson had actually died a few hours earlier, but Adams got it right in the larger sense we observe this week. Along
»
June 29, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Miranda Devine assesses the legacy of Barack Obama as seen in The Obama Presidential Center. Her current New York Post column provdes an on-the-scene report from “the Obamination”: [T]he library-that-is-not-a-library is a monument to the self-regarding former president. Obama is the central focus of the entire museum, with enormous portraits and photographs of Barack and Michelle as imperial rulers, and dozens of installations, interactive exhibits and videos depicting his inspirational
»
June 28, 2026 — Scott Johnson
What starts in Califoria doesn’t stay in California. A proposed “billionaire tax” has made its way onto the ballot in this year’s election. In “Exit the billionaire,” I looked to Hoover Senior Fellow Joshua Rauh to explain why it would make the state poorer in the long run. Well, as a famous economist once said, in the long run we are all dead. Proponents of the tax will live it
»
June 28, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Vice President Vance has bragged about “the deconfliction channel” Washington and Tehran agreed to set up during talks in Switzerland. Representatives from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the US Army’s Central Command are to sit together — where else? — in Qatar: “One of the things we wanted to come out with [was a] channel on the Iranian side [for reducing conflict], which we did,” Vance said in an
»
June 28, 2026 — Scott Johnson
I haven’t thought abut Gordon Lightfoot since he died at the age of 84 in 2023. Yesterday Albert O played “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” on WUMB’s Highway 61 Revisited and it brought back the memories. Borrowing from what I wrote in 2023, I want to recall him briefly this morning. Lightfoot was a proud Canadian, but one wouldn’t call him a Canadian folk giant. He was a folk giant simply —
»
June 27, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The reign of Luis Ottley as St. Paul Academy head of school is at least of local interest. St. Paul Academy is a large and venerable institution. On the other side of the river, Blake and Breck have not suffered anything like the humiliation that Ottley has delivered to SPA in response to parents who have had the temerity to criticize him. He has wielded his authority to dismiss the
»
June 27, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Michael Oren is the Israeli historian and author of Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present (2007), among other excellent books. In the first chapter of Power, Faith and Fantasy he tells the story of our submission to, our subsequent struggle against, and our final victory over the Barbary pirates. Turning to that chapter this morning, I see how much of it I have
»
June 26, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The Temporary Protected Status conferred on immigrants from designated countries provides yet another example of the meaning of “temporary” government programs. The meaning of “temporary” must be subsumed under a broader category of Newspeak that includes government programs adopted under the banner of “emergency.” Bruce Springsteen captured the spirit of the thing in “For You” on his first album: “Your life was one long emergency.” Governors including Minnesota’s ineffable Tim
»
June 26, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Is the Strait of Hormuz open or closed? The Iranian thugocracy has sold the opening of the Strait to us twice, first in the April 8 ceasefire agreement and again, most recently, in the Memorandum of Understanding. Under the Memorandum of Understanding, the thugs are reaping huge and immediate finanicial gains. Based on President Trump’s public comments, one may infer that the many concessions made to the thugs in the
»
June 26, 2026 — Scott Johnson
James Freeman devotes his daily Best of the Web column to the proposition that “California leads the world in taxing the rich” (“Another socialist deception targets the Golden State’s economy”). In the column he takes up the “billionaire tax” that will appear on the ballot in November. We have covered the obvious problems that pervade the proposed law. Now that it has qualifed for the ballot, it is sure to
»
June 25, 2026 — Scott Johnson
This past February, near the end of Operation Metro Surge, a parental member of the St. Paul Academy “community” leaked a school email to Liz Collin of Alpha News. From Assistant Principal for Student Life Stacy Tepp (she/her/hers), the email specified the venue’s “ICE protocol” for the Winter Dance. Tepp’s message announced: “If ICE is present, adults will help ensure that everyone is in the building safely and doors are
»
June 24, 2026 — Scott Johnson
I headlined my post on St. Paul Academy alumnus Tim Sheey’s appearance on Fox News with Brian Kilmeade “Senator Sheehy explains.” The Wall Street Journal headlines its editorial on the same segment “Tim Sheehy explains Iran.” The Journal’s editors write: The Trump Administration is working overtime to sell its deal with Iran and assail anyone who questions sanctions relief for the regime that has massacred thousands of its own people.
»
June 24, 2026 — Scott Johnson
St. Paul Academy parent Matt Bauer declined an interveiew with Star Tribune reporter Eva Herscowitz in connection with her page-one-story on the troubled reign of Luis Ottley as head of school, but his experience is at the heart of it. Ottley threatened Bauer’s children with dismissal on the eve of his older son’s high school graduation and matriculation at the Naval Academy. He actually dismissed Bauer’s younger son from enrollment
»
June 24, 2026 — Scott Johnson
In the Memorandum of Understanding to which the United States and Iran agreed, President Trump granted Iran an immdediate concession. Under the concession, the United States has issued a general license to Iran. Under the general license, Iran is authorized to sell oil in dollars for 60 days. If we granted this huge concession in exchange for anything, it must have been Iran’s agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz
»
June 24, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The Democrats’ wave of the future lapped the shore again yesterday in New York’s congressional primaries. It’s the Mamdani wave — a wave carrying a combination of socialism and rank anti-Semitism. In other words, it’s a wave of the future that harks back to the past. It portends nothing good. Politico highlights the socialist component of the wave. According to results posted here by the New York Times, Mamdani-endorsed candidates
»
June 23, 2026 — Scott Johnson
There is much more to be said about the terms of the ceasefire under which the Iranian regime is now raking in the billions (under the general license granted by Secretary Bessent that I posted yesterday in “First tango in Lake Lucerne”) . We must have lost the war. President Trump has posited the alternative to the deal as a global depression. I didn’t think a master dealmaker would reveal
»
June 23, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Star Tribune reporter Eva Herscowitz worked on the page-one story published on Sunday over a period of weeks. Focused on controversies that have roiled St. Paul Academy during the tenure of head of school, Herscowitz interviewed 11 parents and students for the story. She also reviewed documentary materials related to the controversies. Most of the parents and students — those who have found Ottley to be at fault in the
»
