June 4, 2020 — Steven Hayward
One of the most-read unsigned editorials ever to appear in the Wall Street Journal editorial page appeared in 1993, entitled “No Guardrails.” It is rare that an unsigned editorial at any daily paper has much of a half-life, but “No Guardrails” was one those that you clipped out and kept handy. Dan Henninger, nowadays the Journal‘s regular Thursday columnist, was the author of the editorial, and it is worth sampling
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June 4, 2020 — Steven Hayward
It is a long running theme that the United States and Europe have been dissipating their inherited moral capital, and with the asset side of our civilizational balance sheet running dangerously low, we can see the consequences in front of us over the last seven days. Take New York City Mayor Warren Wilhelm Bill de Blasio, who is, let’s face it, a literal Communist. You could tolerate him so long as
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June 3, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Funny how the COVID-19 crisis has nearly disappeared from the news, after having been the subject of wall-to-wall media attention for three months. Riots have a way of doing that, though the mass rioting doesn’t seem to have concentrated the mind of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio very much, fueling further rumors that he really has shot his brains with his heavy reported dope-smoking. In this special, two-segment edition
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June 2, 2020 — Steven Hayward
John took issue with my hypothesis here yesterday that the rioting under way could redound to Trump’s advantage, and his case is perfectly reasonable: Trump has been deprived of the main trump (heh) cards of incumbency, which are peace and prosperity. I agree that things look very tough for Trump right now, but one thing we know about him for certain by now is that he is a tough, relentless
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June 1, 2020 — Steven Hayward
There was a popular cliche early in the Trump presidency in response to each hysterical leftist bleating about the supposed dark night of fascism Trump represented, which went: “Do you want more Trump? Because this is how you get more Trump.” And I have a distinct memory of walking onto Sproul Plaza on the Berkeley campus the morning after the Milo riot in February 2017, where a large knot of
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May 30, 2020 — Steven Hayward
“Decadence” is one of those familiar terms that is trivialized or rendered comic by overuse—perhaps you’d say from decadence itself. And while most people think decadent is mostly a synonym for “sumptuous,” it has a wider and deeper meaning, which is the subject of Ross Douthat’s new book, The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success. Douthat, a columnist for the New York Times and author
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May 30, 2020 — Steven Hayward
The American Political Science Review, the premier academic journal for political science (an article published in APSR will often secure tenure for a young academic) is very pleased with itself for announcing its new editorial staff, which for the first time is all women: A few people have raised eyebrows not so much about whether the female skew is an overwrought expression of identity politics or “diversity,” but rather for the
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May 30, 2020 — Steven Hayward
I thought Sarah Huckabee Sanders was the greatest White House press spokesperson of all time because of the way she treated the press corps (that’s pronounced “core,” Mr. Obama) like unruly and slow-learning kindergarten kids, as they deserve to be treated. But Kayleigh McEnany has turned it up to 11, not only treating the press corps like children, but as the enemy as well, which they are. And note the
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May 29, 2020 — Steven Hayward
It was nought but 72 hours ago that the biggest racial controversy of the moment was an unpleasant encounter between a dog walker and a bird watcher in Central Park in New York, which is not exactly the Edmund Pettus Bridge redux. It is quite clear that both of the Coopers in the story behaved badly, and it is delicious that the woman who defaulted to racial stereotyping turns out
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May 27, 2020 — Steven Hayward
• Obama’s national security aide Ben Rhodes famously remarked that young journalists “literally know nothing,” but today someone at The Hill newspaper abused their ignorance privilege with this epic tweet: What—did Germany murder seven million Jews before noon today? I musta missed that breaking news. The tweet has been deleted, but seriously Hill people, shouldn’t you just delete your entire Twitter account? If The Hill had any sense of shame
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May 27, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Well, all good Wednesday things must come to an end, and with the coronavirus quarantine starting to end—whether by intention or by civil disobedience—this will be the last edition of a Midweek in Pictures, at least until Anthony Fauci changes his mind, discovers a new virus. We might revive a special midweek edition depending on the nature and pace of the fall campaign, and with Biden making three or four
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May 26, 2020 — Steven Hayward
As we’ve reported previously, California has gone all-in on the “zero-bail” nonsense that crime is just part of middle class oppression or something. Here’s today’s story of how this is working out, from Placer County, a Sierra foothills region east of Sacramento: Placer County Sheriff’s Office: Just after midnight early Monday morning, our graveyard-shift deputies initiated a traffic stop on a vehicle with suspended and expired vehicle registration, in Auburn. The
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May 26, 2020 — Steven Hayward
There are quite a few raised eyebrows about today’s story in Politico with the headline “The General Election Scenario That Democrats Are Dreading.” The story is built around the economic forecast of the former chief economist for President Obama, Jason Furman, who is now a professor at Harvard. I sat next to Furman once at one of those big deal luncheons in Washington DC back when Furman was in the
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May 25, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Even if Biden’s age problem wasn’t so obvious, it would still count against him for a simple reason, which I call “Hayward’s Unified Field Theory of Successful Democratic Nominees.” Since World War II Democrats generally win the White House with a younger nominee, usually in his 40s, with a clear generation-changing message about the future: think John F. Kennedy (“New Frontier!”), Bill Clinton (who openly claimed to be a “New
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May 23, 2020 — Steven Hayward
This may well be one of my favorite episodes out of all 188 that we’ve done to date—certainly one of the most interesting. My guest this week is John M. Ellis, distinguished professor emeritus of German literature at UC Santa Cruz. Prof. Ellis is out with a terrific new book, The Breakdown of Higher Education: How It Happened, The Damage It Does, & What Can Be Done About It. This slim
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May 23, 2020 — Steven Hayward
You can almost feel it: more and more Americans are saying “nuts!” to the shutdown, and the politicians are starting to “adjust” their reopening schedules, supposedly linked to “new information,” but the relevant new information is that civil disobedience is spreading. Meanwhile: Slow Joe keeps handing out gifts seven months before Christmas. Headlines of the week: And finally. . .
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May 22, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Good grief, it is not even noon out here on the Left Coast, but Slow Joe has already managed to top his idiocy that John flagged earlier. Appearing on a black radio show in which he blurted out at the end, “Well, I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” But if you read the entire story
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