October 2, 2023 — Scott Johnson
California Governor Gavin Newsom promised to appoint a black woman to replace the late Dianne Feinstein in the Senate, so you know this is a man who has his priorities in order. Politico reveals that Newsom will appoint Laphonza Butler to fill Feinstein’s seat. Butler apparently does not reside in California — Politico reports that she is registered to vote in Maryland. However, Butler owns a home in California. When
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October 1, 2023 — Scott Johnson
This is an entirely personal note about my first friend in life — Scott Sansby. We have been friends since my family moved from Moorhead to St. Paul in 1958. Let me put it this way. We have been friends since the Eisenhower administration. We became friends that summer and then went to grade school together for the following five years. Scottie has a wide world of friends, but we
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September 30, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Democrats have rewritten their rules and schedule to accommodate the requirements of President Biden. Biden is not wildly popular in his own party. Those in the know — they know that Biden needs all the help he can get. He needs help remaining upright in public. He needs help in the Democratic caucuses and primaries to stave off embarrassment. It’s not an edifying sight. Running a quixotic campaign for the
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September 30, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I haven’t thought about the late comedian Pat Paulsen in a long time. He started running for president in 1968 and kept at it on a quadrennial basis, more or less like a comic version of Minnesota’s own boy wonder Harold Stassen (although Stassen himself became a punch line). See the history set forth in “Pat Paulsen for president!” The Library of Congress has even found a place in its
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September 29, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Alex Thompson reports that President Biden is working on a critical project for his re-election bid: Make sure he doesn’t trip. Thompson’s Axios scoop runs under the headline “Biden team’s don’t-let-him-trip mission.” The Biden team is worried that one more public tumble might convince voters that Biden is not up to the job. I believe that voters already come to that view, and with good reason. The physical manifestation of
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September 29, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Clifford D. May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times. He is a veteran reporter, foreign correspondent, and editor for the New York Times and other publications. Cliff’s most recent column is “Reading the UNGA tea leaves” (at FDD, where it is posted with links). Cliff has kindly given us his permission to post his column on Power
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September 29, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Thinking through the case against New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, Ammo Grrrll has formulated PERFECTLY LOGICAL REASONS TO HAVE GOLD BARS AND HALF A MILLION IN CASH HIDDEN IN YOUR HOUSE! She writes: Do we have THE best “Parliament of Whores” (hat-tip the late, great P. J. O’Rourke) that money can buy, or what? Sure, some might see the words “Bob Menendez” and “New Jersey” and think there must be
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September 28, 2023 — Scott Johnson
The Republican candidates for president assembled minus President Trump for an event televised on the Fox Business channel last night. The event was held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley. The debate was moderated by Dana Perino, Stuart Varney and Ilia Calderón. Who is Ilia Calderón and what was she doing there? She posed hostile questions in heavily accented English. “Why have you fleeped?” she
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September 28, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday the House Ways and Means Committee posted a press release headed “Bombshell: Ways and Means Releases New Documents Revealing Hunter Biden Selling Access to White House, Investigators Blocked from Pursuing Evidence Related to President Biden.” The newly released documents are accessible online here. The press release includes highlights from the newly released documents. What’s it all about? New York Post columnist Miranda Devine is the go-to journalist on the
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September 27, 2023 — Scott Johnson
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has posted a press release in his continuing investigation of the Biden family business. In the press release Comer announced that, according to subpoenaed bank records he has obtained, in 2019 Hunter Biden received a $10,000 wire from Wang Xin and a $250,000 wire from Jonathan Li and Tan Ling. Both wires originated in Beijing and listed Joe Biden’s Wilmington home as the beneficiary
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September 27, 2023 — Scott Johnson
The UAW is striking the Big Three American auto companies. On behalf of its members, the union is fighting the Man for substantially higher pay and substantially less work. One doesn’t read about it much, but one of the big reasons why the UAW is fighting right now is the shift to electric vehicles. See, for example, the Yahoo! Finance backgrounder here explaining “why the shift to EVs is such
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September 26, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Senator Robert Menendez wants to hang on to his Senate seat and who can blame him? It has served him well. The pending indictment against Menendez alleges a mind-boggling level of depravity and corruption. Among other things, he seems to have abused his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a disgusting manner. The betrayal of trust involved is difficult to fathom. Having dodged the bullet on the corruption
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September 26, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Axios has posted a barebones report that Hunter Biden has a new lawsuit. NRO has slightly more on it here. In the new lawsuit Biden accuses Rudy Giuliani and attorney Robert Costello of “hacking into, tampering with, manipulating, copying, disseminating, and generally obsessing over data that they were given that was taken or stolen from Plaintiff’s devices or storage platforms, including what Defendants claim to have obtained from Plaintiff’s alleged
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September 24, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Jews begin the observance of Yom Kippur at sundown tonight with the Kol Nidre prayer service. Ten years ago our friend Rachel Paulose asked to join us at our service. Since then she has regularly attended the service with us and join my family when we break our fast, although we are out of town this year. Next year in the Twin Cities! The first time around at services with
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September 24, 2023 — Scott Johnson
“Biden poll disaster” is how Drudge flags the just-released ABC News/Washington Post poll results reported here by Gary Langer (PDF with full results, charts, and tables posted here). Clicking on the story, I thrilled to the beat of the first few paragraphs. President Joe Biden’s job approval rating is 19 points underwater, his ratings for handling the economy and immigration are at career lows. A record number of Americans say
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September 23, 2023 — Scott Johnson
President Biden will travel to Michigan to join the picket line of auto workers on strike nationwide. “Tuesday, I’ll go to Michigan to join the picket line and stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create,” Biden Xeeted yesterday on the site formerly known as Twitter. Tuesday, I’ll go to Michigan to join the picket
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September 23, 2023 — Scott Johnson
In John Updike’s short story “Bech in Czech” (collected in Bech at Bay), Updike’s fictional alter ego is sent to Czechoslovakia on a cultural exchange program through the United States government in 1986, while the country is still Communist. Bech attends a party of dissident writers, one of whom had been imprisoned. Bech reflects: Jail! One of the guests at the party had spent nearly ten years in prison. He
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