Political Questions

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Friday Morning Briefing

1 week ago | stevehayward.substack.com | Steven Hayward

• A week after Trump’s victory in November, the Chronicle of Higher Education ran a feature by Case Western University English Professor Michael Clune entitled “We Asked For It: The Politicization of Research, Hiring, and Teaching Made Professors Sitting Ducks.” A key excerpt:Over the past 10 years, I have watched in horror as academe set itself up for the existential crisis that has now arrived. Starting around 2014, many disciplines — including my own, English — changed their mission.
Wednesday Morning Briefing

1 week ago | stevehayward.substack.com | Steven Hayward

So the nation is transfixed—or at least Democrats and the news media—by the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the “Maryland Man” who has suddenly topped “Minnesota Man” as the object of media obfuscation. He is the Salvadoran national the Trump Administration deported to El Salvador along with a bunch of Venezuelan gang member who curiously the left isn’t even trying to defend, even as the Biden Administration didn’t life a finger against any of this gang.
The Pen Is Mightier

1 week ago | stevehayward.substack.com | Steven Hayward

Note: The following is the lecture I delivered for the Declaration of Independence Center at the University of Mississippi (“Ole Miss”) on March 27. My case was that William F. Buckley Jr deserves to be considered the most influential journalist or literary figure in American history—greater even than Mark Twain or Walt Whitman. On the occasion of the 100th birthday of William F.
Tuesday Tidbits

1 week ago | stevehayward.substack.com | Steven Hayward

• Forgot to flag yesterday the latest episode of the Three Whisky Happy Hour podcast, with John Yoo back in fighting form. And fight it was, as John and I are skeptical of Trump’s tariff strategy, while Lucretia is all in, and uses her Ricardian comparative advantage to good effect. Meanwhile, we asked AI for some song lyrics for the podcast, and some of stanzas it came up with are surprisingly appropriate:Political Questions is a reader-supported publication.
Monday Morning Briefing

1 week ago | stevehayward.substack.com | Steven Hayward

Let’s skip over Trump, tariffs, temper-tantrums from the left, and other terrors, turmoil, and tumult of the moment. Because I need a break. Last week was my fifth week in a row on the road for the entire week, and I right now I can’t even remember where I’ve been. I need to have a stern talking-to with my scheduler, which I will do tomorrow morning when I look at him in the mirror while I am shaving.
The Good News on the Tariffs

1 week ago | stevehayward.substack.com | Steven Hayward

Editor’s note: My old pal David W. Kruetzer, a retired economist, abhors tariffs and trade restrictions like most everyone with a grounding in free market economics. But that may not be the whole story. David sends along the following thoughts that are roughly congruent with my own, and graciously gave permission to share them with readers here. —SteveBy David W. KreutzerHere’s the good news on the Liberation-Day tariffs: They are incredibly bad.
Some Weekend Mischief

1 week ago | stevehayward.substack.com | Steven Hayward

• It is worth 12 minutes of your time to take in Bill Maher’s account of visiting President Trump. You may or may not like Maher, but it is certain that the left is definitely not going to like this, because hating Trump 24/7 is their obsession:I still think if Maher really wants to help Democrats, he should run for governor of California. Political Questions is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Friday Morning Briefing

2 weeks ago | stevehayward.substack.com | Steven Hayward

• So are tariffs back ON today, or OFF? I can’t keep up. • My pal Henry Olsen thinks tariffs are here to stay, because Trump holds the high cards:If he’s committed to using some level of tariffs to remake the global trading system — and he seems to be — he’s going to get his way. . . The fact is that the era of globalization is over.
Wednesday Morning Briefing

2 weeks ago | stevehayward.substack.com | Steven Hayward

• Like most sensible people, I’m watching the market meltdown with a mix of anxiety and opportunism. I’ve actually been buying the last few days. Like Warren Buffett the last 18 months, I’ve been a net seller, keeping cash in short t-bills and waiting for a market pullback. I even has some S&P puts, but I sold them a couple weeks ago at a decent profit, but missed out on the mayhem of this last week, which is what they were designed for.
Rethinking Foreign Policy, Part 4

2 weeks ago | stevehayward.substack.com | John Yoo

Editor’s note: The three-part attack on John Yoo last week has summoned forth a copious response from John here. We realize that by now we are tasking the patience and attention span of our readers (or at least require some kind of schematic drawing and a scorecard), and we may have to move this argument over the a podcast. —SteveWhat I love about arguing with Straussians is that they cannot agree on what they agree about.