April 23, 2024 — Steven Hayward
As you may know, the supposed slow-growth of wages since the early 1970s has long been a cause-celebre among the left’s equity crowd. It is usually attributed to lower income tax rates, or the demonic powers of “neoliberalism.” One factor that is seldom considered, at least by the mainstream media and the celebrated egalitarian academics like Thomas Piketty, is the role the sharp rise of economy-wide government regulation that began
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April 22, 2024 — Steven Hayward
One of the most interesting aspects of the current political scene is the polling evidence showing Donald Trump gaining strength among minority voters, which is causing panic among Democrats. Why is this happening? Explanations run the full spectrum, from inflation to wokery, but here’s some curious evidence (from an Economist/YouGov survey) that it may be as simple as having children: Chaser—while we’re looking at Trump-Biden surveys, this one is fun
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April 20, 2024 — Steven Hayward
So I’m just going to come right out and say it: in the privacy of the voting booth in November, Bill Maher is going to vote for Trump. The only question is whether he will admit it directly, or continue, between rote Trump denunciations, to provide strong hints week after week, like yesterday’s rant about pedophilia in Hollywood. Along the way he says, “Governor DeSantis was right” about Disney. C’mon
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April 20, 2024 — Steven Hayward
This week’s ad-free episode is probably better thought of as a Two Whisky Happy Hour, because John Yoo is away on a lecture- and Philly-cheesesteak-procurement tour back east, and Lucretia is also out of action this weekend, too, though she appears in this episode by proxy, so to speak. So two whiskies it is. Last weekend, Lucretia and I offered a keynote duo-presentation for Ammo Grrrll’s annual CommenterCon conference in
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April 20, 2024 — Steven Hayward
This is the week we learned at long last about Joe Biden’s forgotten uncle “Bosey,” who secretly received the congressional medal of honor for single-handledly subduing an entire tribe of New Guinea cannibals before single-handedly defeating the Japanese at Hiroshima, while rescuing Corn Pop’s eventual father while he was at it. (Apparently “don’t” wasn’t a word in his vocabulary.) What other Ripley’s-worthy family secrets is Joe from Scranton withholding from
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April 19, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Next Monday, April 22, is Earth Day. Again. But on Monday I’ll be “returning to the scene of the crime,” in a manner of speaking, to revisit the annual Earth Day project I carried on for nearly 20 years starting way back in 1994: the Index of Leading Environmental Indicators. Back when I started doing that annual report, The Economist magazine suggested that claiming the environment is a cause for
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April 19, 2024 — Steven Hayward
It’s not exactly news that a large portion of Democrats are anti-Israel, but it now appears to be a majority. The latest Gallup survey shows Israel with net negative sympathy among Democrats for the first time. This marks the end of bipartisan support for Israel in American politics. Will this change historic voting patterns? As Trump likes to say, we’ll have to see what happens.
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April 18, 2024 — Steven Hayward
As I have been half-joking for months now, it must be discouraging for the climatistas to turn out to block a road, deface a museum, or commit some other nihilistic act, only to find the pro-Hamas protestors got up earlier and beat you to the bridge or the airport. That will teach the climatistas to sleep in! So the climatistas have had to step up their game, in today’s case,
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April 18, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Joe Biden is back doing what Democrats always do—engage in class warfare, demanding that the rich “pay their fair share.” On the very rare occasions a reporters asks a Democrat to offer a precise definition of what “fair share” is, Democrats change the subject, because what “fair share” always means is “more.” (But don’t ever accuse liberals of being greedy for other people’s money, because they think it belongs to
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April 18, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Yesterday we noted the exchange in the House hearing with Columbia University president Minouche Shafik in which she was asked about the use of the term “folx” in Columbia University’s School of Social Work. President Shafik professed ignorance of the term, but this is very likely an outright lie, as the term has been catching on in academia for a long time, like “Latinx.” Here, perhaps, is a clue to
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April 17, 2024 — Steven Hayward
I remember when my grandmother reached her mid-90s, and she would tell old stories I had never heard before (and thus had no idea how true they might be), and then immediately repeat them like she was stuck on a tape loop. John notes below that Biden today twice told the story of his uncle’s World War II experience—not previously told that I am aware of—and how he may have
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April 17, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Columbia University is a hotbed of anti-Semitism right now, and has seen more than its share of ugly incidents since October 7. Right now Columbia president Minouche Shafik is testifying before the same House committee where Harvard’s Claudine Gay self-immolated last fall. I’ve watched a few minutes of the proceedings, and it is clear that Shafik is much better prepared than was Gay to give halfway sensible answers to the
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April 17, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Given the news about NPR (and even the New York Times, currently enduring its own internal Maoist struggle sessions, which I’ll discuss separately), this chart hardly needs any explanation. Though I’ll add that if the media keeps going in its current mode, I’m sure they can drive public trust all the way down to zero.
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April 17, 2024 — Steven Hayward
In yesterday’s item about the suspension of longtime NPR business editor Uri Berliner for telling the truth about NPR’s deep ideological bias, I meant to conclude by saying that the obvious next step would be his dismissal from NPR. And today the other shoe dropped: Berliner has “resigned” from NPR, but make no mistake, it was quite clear that NPR’s new Stasi management would no longer tolerate his presence. And
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April 16, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Last week the Wall Street Journal‘s James Freeman wrote about the wishful thinking of California elites who waive away any of the sensible causes for the droves of people leaving California (resulting in a sustained net population loss over the last few years for the first time in 170 years) such as high taxes, senseless regulation, rising crime, unaffordable housing etc. Maybe Mr. Newsom is just unlucky. This week in
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April 16, 2024 — Steven Hayward
We noted here last week the withering critique of National Propaganda Radio (NPR) by longtime NPR editor Uri Berliner. Turns out that NPR recently hired as its new head a complete commie, Katherine Mayer. How commie? Nate Hochman has some of the very many receipts: And just as James Damore was cashiered from Google when he questioned leftist orthodoxy, National Review is reporting that Uri Berliner has been suspended without
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April 15, 2024 — Steven Hayward
With everyone’s favorite day (April 15) hard upon us, worth noting how state income tax rates fall out. Pick your home state accordingly:
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