November 28, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Paul A. Rahe holds the Charles O. Lee and Louise K. Lee Chair in the Western Heritage at Hillsdale College’s Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship and is one of the country’s most distinguished scholars of history and politics. His personal site is here. In view of his study of Republics Ancient and Modern, Professor Rahe is the academy’s foremost authority on the history of republics. Although his subsequent work
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November 27, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Our friends at the Claremont Review of Books have released three articles on the 2024 election from the forthcoming issue. In the first of the three CRB editor Charles Kesler takes up “America’s red shift.” Subhead: “Now who’s on the wrong side of history?” Charles is Dengler-Dykema Distinguished Professor of Government at Claremont-McKenna College. He brings his professional expertise to bear on the election in this article. Bill Voegeli and
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November 27, 2024 — Scott Johnson
In last year’s “let’s go crazy” session of the Minnesota legislature Democrats brought us the legalization of marijuana for adult use. The Star Tribune covered the bill (here) in the celebratory style they brought to the law mandating the placement of tampons in boys’ bathrooms, the law making Minnesota a mecca for abortion, and the law establishing Minnesota as a “trans refuge.” Of course, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz led the
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November 27, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Democrats have released a message from Kamala Harris. As posted on X, it runs 29 seconds. It is illustrative of Harris’s vacuity and weakness as a national candidate running on her own steam. It’s so bad, you have to wonder — as the title of one of David Crosby’s contributions to the Byrds’ Fifth Dimension album puts it — “What’s Happening?!?!” Vice President @KamalaHarris’ message to supporters. pic.twitter.com/x5xMUGTtkz —
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November 26, 2024 — Scott Johnson
President Biden had a message for Attorney General Merrick Garland. Three New York Times reporters dutifully conveyed the message to Garland in April 2022, just in case he hadn’t grokked it already: The attorney general’s deliberative approach has come to frustrate Democratic allies of the White House and, at times, President Biden himself. As recently as late last year, Mr. Biden confided to his inner circle that he believed former
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November 25, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Free Press has compiled the video below to accompany Olivia Reingold’s story “WATCH: What Really Happened Between Daniel Penny and Jordan Neely.” Subhead: “For the first time, our exclusive compilation of bodycam and bystander footage reveals, minute by minute, the scene on that F train.” The Free Press video was prepared in collaboration with Free Press video journalists Tanya Lukyanova and Jana Kozlowski and “structured to unfold in real
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November 25, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Roman poet Juvenal famously asked in Satire VI: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?, or Who will guard the guards themselves? Thus it is with NewsGuard. Who will guard NewsGuard itself? At Just the News, Paul Bond demonstrates why we need a NewsGuard guard in “Among the media watchdogs, NewsGuard, which often targets conservative outlets, is most feared.” NewsGuard is a brick in the wall meant to protect us from “misinformation.”
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November 25, 2024 — Scott Johnson
With apologies to Carole King, watching the video below puts me in mind of her song. When you’re down and troubled, and you need some lovin’ care, and nothin’, nothin’ is goin’ right, close your eyes and think of the bullet we dodged, and soon you will be able to brighten up even your darkest night. It takes a Kamala Harris to teach us that laughter is not always the
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November 24, 2024 — Scott Johnson
I anticipated that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz would be a flop as the vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket with Kamala Harris. However, the campaign brought us a Walz we had never previously seen back home. I did not anticipate he would prove to be a freak. What was it with the mock humility? With the effeminate theatrics? With that wave? If only he were saying goodbye. Jake Schneider
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November 24, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The prominent historian Niall Ferguson recently tells a story for our time in his Pharos Lecture “The treason of the intellectuals: How the Nazis conquered German universities” (video below) and in his 2023 Free Press essay “The treason of the intellectuals.” The video includes Ferguson’s conversation with Noel Malcolm beginning at about 32:00. On the subject of the conquest of German universities by the Nazis, I would add this footnote
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November 24, 2024 — Scott Johnson
I’ve been covering Minnesota Attorney General since he first ran for Congress in 2006. Most recently, I summarized some of my research on Ellison in the 2023 City Journal review/essay “The anti-cop attorney general” and in the 2024 Power Line post “Ellison denies and defames.” Suffice it to say I’ve been beating my head against the wall to expose Ellison for a long time. Ellison now seeks to lead the
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November 24, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Jesse Colin Young turned 83 this past Friday. I wrote up this installment of my Sunday Morning series in honor of his 80th birthday. Listening to Albert O hosting Highway 61 Revisited on WUMB yesterday morning, I was alerted to his birthday last week. I want to give this celebration another spin in slightly revised form this morning. If you remember it, or have no interest, as Yeats put it
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November 23, 2024 — Scott Johnson
We have gotten some help to resolve technical issues and at long last to restore our beloved share buttons to this site. Looking pretty, pretty good, the buttons — Facebook, X, and email — have been repositioned from our sidebar to the spot just above the heading of our posts. You can’t miss them. If you find anything that strikes your fancy in our lineup, please take advantage of the
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November 22, 2024 — Scott Johnson
In a brutal allusion to the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, Matt Taibbi declares in a paywalled Racket News post that “The emperor has no brains.” He’s referring to Joe Biden. Less tartly, Byron York observes in his Examiner column “With raging wars and an addled president, it’s a perilous moment.” They both cite Biden’s public statement in the Amazon (White House transcript here, video below). According to Biden, “History
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November 22, 2024 — Scott Johnson
We have followed the post-election theater in Pennsylvania’s Senate race. As the AP recognized three weeks ago, GOP challenger Dave McCormick defeated incumbent Democrat nullity Bob Casey. Yesterday Casey finally conceded the race, but not before the recount began. This is how it stood when Casey pulled the plug: The concession comes days into a pricey recount that Casey could have waived. He gained just four votes from the first
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November 22, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Ammo Grrrll revives an old question: HOW DO YOU SPELL RELIEF?! She writes: Many years ago, a popular indigestion product featured a television commercial in which the voiceover asked: “How do you spell ‘relief’?” And then, in big bold letters across the screen, plus more voiceover, it answered the question thusly, R-O-L-A-I-D-S. Fair enough. That commercial was played over and over and over again for several years — to the
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November 21, 2024 — Scott Johnson
I have four propositions with which many readers disagree. First, William Barr was an outstanding Attorney General of the United States in the first Trump administration. Second, if it weren’t for Barr, the Mueller investigation would still be going strong persecuting innocent citizens. We would be entertaining proposals to convert it into a permanent commission. Third, I agree entirely with Barr’s critique of President Trump’s endgame on January 6. I
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