Media
December 4, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Kevin Roche is the former general counsel of UnitedHealth Group and former chief executive officer of its Ingenix division. We were law school classmates and these many years later wrote “False alarm” for the Summer issue of the Center of the American Experiment’s Thinking Minnesota magazine together. Kevin is the Minnesota version of Alex Berenson. He brings a knowledgeably heterodox perspective to the public health issues raised by the COVID-19
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December 3, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Joe Biden is old, frail, and mentally impaired. My motto for him is I’ve got half a mind to be president. His performative trot to the lectern on election night was obviously intended to persuade us that he is up to the task, but I thought he was putting himself at some risk, and that seems to be the case. According to reports, such as this AP story, Biden sustained
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December 1, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Governor Walz took over Monday’s regularly scheduled Department of Health press briefing yesterday. He advertised it as a “deep dive” on the data that is now to become a feature of Monday briefings with Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm, who performed the “deep dive” with slides that mostly do not appear in the video I have embedded below. (The cited data are accessible at the MDH Situation Update,
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November 30, 2020 — Steven Hayward
There’s a refrain on the left that is now so familiar as to be unremarkable. The form runs, “Even Reagan wasn’t as bad as [insert current Republican president here].” It got a workout under George W. Bush, and it’s gotten heavy use under Trump. And already I’ve seen several articles in the New York Times and elsewhere saying, “Whatever the GOP offers us after Trump will be even worse.” To
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November 30, 2020 — Scott Johnson
I’ve been following the stories on the assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, but they are confusing and conflicting. On November 27, for example, the New York Post reported that Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in “an ambush.” The story added that Fakhrizadeh was “seriously wounded” during a battle between the gunmen and his bodyguards before being rushed to a nearby hospital. On November 29 the Post reported that the
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November 30, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Jon Tevlin worked as a Star Tribune reporter and columnist for 20 years, retiring in January 2018. He perfectly represents the low average and high self-regard of the reporters and editors at the paper. Like just about everyone at the Star Tribune, Tevlin conceives of himself as a high-minded man of the world, but he is a benighted twit. In his last column for the newspaper Tevlin unburdened himself: I
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November 29, 2020 — Scott Johnson
My law school classmate Kevin Roche wrote the column DON’T BLAME MINNESOTANS FOR GOVERNMENT INCOMPETENCE for the opinion pages of the Star Tribune. For whatever reason, it wasn’t accepted for publication. The column makes important points of general applicability to the epidemic as it has manifested in current hotspots including the Upper Midwest. Kevin is the former general counsel of UnitedHealth Group and former chief executive officer of its Ingenix
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November 25, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Governor Walz has preempted the regular Department of Health press briefings over the past 10 days. Yesterday’s briefing (audio below) was the first since November 13, covered in part 125 of this series. The catastrophe that has befallen our nursing homes due to the epidemic was addressed only indirectly, in terms of staffing, but the Star Tribune’s Chris Serres and Glenn Howatt cover it in a manner that is entirely
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November 24, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Is there a governor who has turned in a more disgraceful performance in connection with the COVID-19 epidemic? I don’t think so. Yet he turned his press conferences to good use, portraying himself fighting the good fight in heroic terms. In his press conferences Cuomo played the role of a competent and candid public servant. The Washington Free Beacon’s Graham Piro notes that “Cuomo has taken heat for ordering thousands
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November 24, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Governor Walz convened yet another COVID-19 press conference yesterday afternoon (video below). The verbiage flowed in the usual torrent. His performance made me wonder if the Emmy Foundation gave Walz a fair shot before it chose to recognize New York Governor Andrew Cuomo with an Emmy for his press conferences. Like Cuomo, Walz deserves some kind of recognition for what he has wrought in his press conferences. Indeed, Walz’s failure
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November 22, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The Washington Free Beacon’s David Rutz has compiled another of his SuperCuts videos, this one featuring a few illustrative condemnations of President Trump as Hitler. This one-minute video could easily be expanded to an hour or two, and it makes an important point. The brain-killing sages presented to us on a daily basis are highfalutin’ hacks and/or morons. The list extends far beyond the few who make an appearance in
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November 21, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post claims that the “Black community” is angry over claims of vote fraud by President Trump and his legal team. It’s true that some of the claims of fraud center on precincts that are populated almost entirely by Blacks. However, I doubt that many Blacks care about the Trump campaign’s allegations of fraud and I suspect that even fewer are outraged by them. The Post cites five Blacks
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November 21, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Governor Walz’s most recent shutdown order became effective overnight. He seized control of the public relations this week by taking over each of the press briefings usually run by the Minnesota Department of Health. He concluded with a bang yesterday, convening a briefing on mental health issues exacerbated by the shutdown and related restrictions. He also hosted several guests from mental health services along with Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and
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November 19, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Governor Walz convened yet another press conference this afternoon to present Minnesota health care providers and executives speaking up on his behalf in support of his lockdown order. Walz opened with reference to the 72 new deaths attributed to the epidemic today. It is another record. Fifty-one of the 72 were residents of long-term care facilities (he didn’t mention that). The median age of decedents remains 83, according to the
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November 19, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Reading the New York Times is kinda fun right now, in a clinical sense. They seem to be having psychotic break over the election results, since the massive “blue wave” didn’t happen, and even more worrisome, Trump improved his share of the non-white vote so significantly. And now that the Times is snug and secure in its warm, Upper West Side bubble blanket with the presumption that Agent Orange has been
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November 19, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Governor Walz announced a new set of lockdown measures in a televised 26-minute torrent of verbiage last night (video below). The authorities attributed 67 new deaths to COVID-19 in the data released yesterday morning. Fifty-one of these deaths occurred among residents of long-term care facilities. Yet nowhere in his announcement or the following press conference (audio at the bottom) did this subject come up. Pulitzer Prize-winning Star Tribune health care
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November 18, 2020 — Scott Johnson
My friends at Justice and Drew on Twin Cities News Talk AM 1130 invited me to discuss the resolution of my First Amendment press access lawsuit against Minnesota Department of Health officials this morning. Drew Lee kindly clipped the audio at my request (below). I would like to note the comments of unqualified support by Fluence Media’s Blois Olson and the Minnesota Reformer‘s Patrick Coolican on the resolution of the
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