Media
September 18, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The degradation and decline of the city of Minneapolis proceed apace. 5 Eyewitness News has posted the report by Jay Kolls (video below) from inside the city’s “autonomous zone,” a/k/a the Free State of George Floyd. Whatever you do, you don’t want to be in need of police help in the Free State of George Floyd — Marcia Howard to the contrary notwithstanding. Compare and contrast Kolls’s report with the
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September 18, 2020 — Scott Johnson
While I was otherwise engaged with Magistrate Judge Thorson and officials from the Minnesota Department of Health yesterday — settlement negotiations continue for another week or two, during which I am bound to confidentiality — the rest of the MDH crew held another press briefing. I have posted MPR’s audio recording of the briefing below. It is worth a listen to tune into the voice of Assistant Commissioner Dan Huff.
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September 17, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Paul G. Cassell is the Ronald N. Boyce Presidential Professor of Criminal Law and University Distinguished Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. He is also the foremost scholar of the “Minneapolis Effect” reflecting the spike in murders following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. Professor Cassell describes the effect in the opening of today’s Wall Street Journal
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September 17, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The Minnesota Department of Health held its 100th COVID-19 press briefing yesterday as I reach the 100th installment of this series. On April 27 the MDH silently expelled me from the briefings without notice or explanation — and refused to tell me why. What happened? After obtaining Governor Walz’s response to my Data Practices Act request seeking the answer, I filed the lawsuit against MDH officials pending in federal court.
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September 15, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Since the Department of Health held its third press briefing of last week this past Thursday, the authorities have attributed the following numbers of deaths to COVID-19: 13 (9/11, 8 in long-term or congregate care facilities), 9 (9/12, 7 LTC), 13 (9/13, 9 LTC), and three (9/14, 0 LTC). Hospitalizations continue at an extremely low number (235 total, 135 in intensive care). The data simply do not conform to the
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September 14, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Is it possible for any of the four former Minneapolis police officers charged in the death of George Floyd to receive a fair trial? In Minneapolis? If not in Minneapolis, anywhere else in Minnesota? Is it possible that a Hennepin County jury won’t have the external effects of not guilty verdicts in mind when they retire to deliberate? I’ve had those questions in mind since expedited criminal charges were filed
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September 11, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The Minnesota Department of Health held the third of its press briefings this week yesterday afternoon. It focused on long-term care facilities. As I get the message from the assembled bureaucrats, they have made great progress and are doing a wonderful job. LTC deaths have fallen from 80 to 73 percent of all deaths attributed to COVID-19, but they nevertheless represent only 52 percent of August fatalities. Progress is masked
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September 10, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, Steve discussed Bob Woodward’s bit about President Trump allegedly downplaying the Wuhan coronavirus. Calling for a shutdown of the U.S. economy seems like an odd way to downplay something, but I suppose Trump could have highlighted the threat by hiding in a bunker. Woodward wants us to believe that Trump intentionally deceived the American people. He knew how serious the virus was, but hid its seriousness from the public
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September 10, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The Washington Free Beacon’s David Rutz has compiled another SUPERcuts video, this one to document the media’s in-kind contribution to the Biden presidential campaign. The Beacon has posted the video under the headline “Media take it easy on Biden,” though that doesn’t quite capture the self-abasement of the “reporters” involved. Rutz comments: “Even in their limited access to Joe Biden in the 2020 campaign cycle, mainstream journalists have taken to
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September 10, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The Department of Health is squeezing three briefings into a four-day work week. Audio of this week’s second briefing is posted below. Accordingly, I’m back with another update sooner than I anticipated. MPR’s report on yesterday’s briefing and data is posted here. MPR’s update blandly transmits data that belies the persistence of one-man rule. However, MPR’s report is hedged and buffered in a manner that makes it extremely difficult for
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September 9, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Have you heard? Bob Woodward—pause for reverential ooohs and aaahs here—has a new book out, with the claim that Trump lied about COVID-19 when it first erupted way back in early February. “Trump admits he lied about COVID-19 threat in new Woodward book,” says the Puffington Host headline. But what did he actually say according to the story? “You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” Trump said in
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September 9, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Jeffrey Goldberg’s well-timed hit on President Trump in the Atlantic depended on unnamed sources. Given his present adversity to Trump, former National Security Advisor John Bolton would support Goldberg’s hit if true. Notwithstanding the “confirmation” of aspects of Goldberg’s story by unnamed sources in other reports — in the clip below Martha MacCallum alludes to Jennifer Griffin’s on Twitter — Bolton’s denial that Trump’s comments went down as reported by
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September 9, 2020 — Scott Johnson
When we last checked in on the Minnesota data in part 95, the occasion was a press briefing conducted by Governor Walz. Kevin Roche took in Walz’s briefing the following day and commented on it in “He Speaks, I Listen, I Cringe, I Summarize.” All of Kevin’s comments provide a much needed contrarian analysis. They also bear on what I have to say in light of yesterday’s press briefing (audio
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September 8, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Jeffrey Goldberg’s claim that President Trump disparaged American soldiers who died in Normandy is collapsing. As we have noted, John Bolton, no friend of Trump, was present when the president allegedly made the comment. Bolton says it didn’t happen. Similarly, former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Zach Fuentes, who was also in the room, denies that Trump made the remarks attributed to him. He says: I did not hear
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September 7, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Especially tomorrow, Thursday and Friday, as I will be guest hosting. Dan Proft is a top-notch radio personality. He does the morning show on Chicago’s AM 560 The Answer, together with Amy Jacobson. Beginning last December, he also hosts the Dan Proft Show on the Salem Radio Network from 9 pm to midnight, Eastern. I have been a guest on the Answer’s morning show many times, and have guest hosted
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September 7, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The lead story in today’s Washington Post is called (in the paper edition) “Trump has history of disparaging military.” If you read the story — and I’m not recommending that you do — you won’t find much alleged disparagement. For example, Trump didn’t disparage the military when he said he was lucky to get a high number in the lottery that determined who would be drafted during the Vietnam War
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September 6, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Last week, I described how, 50 years ago, Philadelphia Phillies fans basically ran the team’s star player, Dick Allen, out of town. Today, I’ll discuss how the great Tom Seaver, who died last week, was run out of New York. Mets fans adored Seaver. They didn’t run him out town. A sportswriter did. Seaver was the best pitcher of the 1970s. For my money, he’s one of the ten best
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