(Scott Johnson) Reason has posted statistician Aaron Brown’s excellent column “The shameless attack on a climate change dissenter.” The “dissenter” is Steven F. Koonin, a University Professor at New York University with appointments in the Stern School of Business, the Tandon School of Engineering, and the Department of Physics. He served in the Energy Department under the Obama administration (“where his portfolio included the climate research program and energy technology strategy”) and
Author: Scott Johnson
Clapper’s claptrap
(Scott Johnson) Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is one of the Deep State 51 who lent his credibility to the open letter to the castigation of the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop. According to Clapper et al., the emails reported by the Post “ha[ve] all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” Given to Natasha Bertrand, the letter was published by Politico in conjunction with the
It came out of the sky
(Scott Johnson) White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declared at yesterday’s press briefing (transcript here) that they have no indication of alien involvement in the recent proliferation of “objects” over the United States and Canada. “I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is no — again, no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity — (laughter) — with these recent takedowns,” KJP told reporters. What’s so funny ’bout
La-la means I love you
(Scott Johnson) Written by William Hart and Thom Bell, produced by Thom Bell and Stan Watson, “La-La (Means I Love You)” is a classic of Philadelphia soul, vintage 1968, and a memorable hit for the Delfonics. What a beautiful pop song. Hart sang the shimmering falsetto lead on the hit single. Do they make them like this anymore? Laura Nyro responded deeply to the song. As she did with so many of
The Biden docs, round 2
(Scott Johnson) NBC News broke the story that a second set of classified documents were found in Joe Biden’s possession at an undisclosed location this past November. The NBC News story is here. The story has now been confirmed and reported roughly everywhere. Among the many accessible stories are those by the AP here and the Washington Post (via JWR) here. I cant’ get enough of it. Here are a few facetious
Jeff Beck, RIP
(Scott Johnson) Guitarist Jeff Beck died on Tuesday at the age of 78. I learned of his death via Jim Farber’s New York Times obituary, which does a good job of covering Beck’s long career in music. The documentary Still On the Run — The Jeff Beck Story (2018) is also out there for viewing and (as I recall) explores his interest in building cars as well as making music. He appeared
Applying Pelosi’s precedent
(Scott Johnson) AP congressional reporter Farnoush Amiri report via Twitter (below) that Speaker Kevin McCarthy will follow through on his promise to remove Reps. Eric Swalwell (Intelligence), Adam Schiff (Intelligence), and Ilhan Omar (Foreign Affairs) from their committee assignments. Of the three, I think Schiff is the worst. He should be tarred and feathered and run out of town for abuse of his position as Intelligence committee chairman to perpetuate the Russia
Biden explains
(Scott Johnson) President Biden held a joint press conference yesterday with Prime Minister Trudeau and President López Obrador in Mexico City. The White House has posted the transcript here. The press conference followed a meeting at the so-called Three Amigos Summit. I would prefer to think of them as the Three Egregios. They are egregiously destructive leaders. North America is in bad hands. Following a reading of prepared statements by the Three
Notes on the Twitter Files (13)
(Scott Johnson) Elon Musk opened the Covid-related records of old (pre-Musk) Twitter to Alex Berenson. Berenson has posted a 29-part Twitter thread conveying his findings. The thread can be accessed here. I have embedded the first tweet in the thread below. 1/ For those of you who’d rather see the whole Gottlieb #TwitterFiles in a thread… here goes! On August 27, 2021, Dr. Scott Gottlieb – a Pfizer director with over 550,000
Biden unclassified
(Scott Johnson) CBS News seems to have broken the story that Vice President Biden left office with classified documents in 2017. The New York Post follows up here. The Washington Post story here (behind the Post paywall) carries the bylines of four reporters. All the stories on the related investigation cite the statement of Biden attorney Richard Sauber. I have tracked down the statement on Twitter (below). Sauber’s statement implicitly distinguishes this