Power Line

This special episode marks the revival of the classic format edition with one-on-one conversations between Steve and a special guest, with the first in the series being author Michael Walsh, discussing his terrific new book, A Rage to Conquer: Twelve Battles That Changed the Course of Western History. One way to get a feel for the candor and bracing character of Michael's book is this passage from the Afterword, reflecting on the ambivalent reaction to the 9/11 attack:"The imperial Romans would have gone full delenda est on Saudi Arabia, razed its cities, destroyed the Kaaba, leveled the mosques, occupied the oil fields, seized its wealth, executed its leaders, and sold the populace into slavery; they knew an existential struggle when they were in one."Our conversation ranges far beyond the four corners of his book, into music, Ireland (Michael's ancentral home and part-time residence today), the suicidal multiculturalism of Europe, and why the Chinese military threat is overrated. Steve has other guests lined up for future classic format episodes, and from time to time John and/or Lucretia will join in. But you're going to have to stock up on more whisky.

This week's episode expands the format to include a guest appearance by environmental scientist Ken Green, whe recently joined the ranks of contributors to Steve's "Political Questions" Substack (sign up for free if you haven't already), where this week he celebrates the demise of the "Endangerment Finding" that derives from the Statute-That-Cannot-Be-Named in John Yoo's presence. But along the way Ken raised an eyebrow for certain enthusiasms of the MAHA movement, which in turn raised the eyebrows of a certain "Lucretia," so we decided to let then havie out a bit.The result of one of our livelier episode ever, where discussion of "junk food" and other aspects of America's nitrition was conducted against the background noise of John Yoo munching on a bag of Cheetos. We also have brief considerations of the proposal for a mid-decade census, and the fuss over Gerrymandering in Texas and elsewhere.

This week the 3WHH lives up to its name, as two of us were half in the bag—maybe more than half in the bag in Steve's case—when we recorded late in the evening because difficult travel schedules, but after Steve and Lucretia had completed consumption of twice the USDA's recommended daily allowance of adult beverages. The always sober-minded John Yoo is the host for this week, and we'll leave it to listeners to tell us whether this episode is bouncier than usual. How could not be since we open with discussion of what is clearly the most important news story of the week: Sidney Sweeney's American Eagle "good jeans" ad campaign that has the left losing its mind. No—seriously, this is more than a mere tempest in a D cup: it's the clearest sign yet that our culture has fully turned the corner away from wokery, while leaving enough space for the left to beclown itself further.Speaking of beclowning, Kamala Harris isn't going to run for governor of California, but is going to punish us anyway with a book, out late next month. We can hardly wait.While this is an ad-free episode, it is not a tariff-free zone, and we ponder the evidence about whether Trump is succeeding with his tariff brinksmanship. Cheers!

We lead this week's show with a few short news announcements, including new menu items from McDonalds to excite John, and the debut of a new podcast competitor: Hadley Arkes and his merry band at the James Wilson Institute have launched "The 'Natural Law Moment' Podcast," surely goaded by our constant mangling of his central arguments. WE hope to have a crossover episode with Hadley at some early opportunity, if we can ever get our difficult schedules sorted out.This round-robin format episode features a vigorous discussion of whether Obama and the Deep Staters (sounds like a bad bar-band, no?) are vulnerable to criminal charges for their obviously bad faith behavior in creating the Russia Hoax back in 2016, whether Obama is immune from prosecution because of the ruling last year of Trump v. US, and whether these actions properly rise to the level of "treason" as is alleged by DNI Tulsi Gabbard. Our second segment reflects on a pair of articles Steve and John wrote for a Civitas Outlook symposium last week on "Statemanship and the American Presidency." John Yoo's entry slobbers over the legacy of Andrew Jackson, whileSteve's entry, "Taming the 21st Century Prince," is a more philosophical exploration of the issue, and, contrary to the careless calumnies and reckless imprecations of John, does not contain a single reference to the Clean Air Act!And our final segment delves into a recent bold law review article by a young lawyer friend of ours, Deion Kathawa, entitled "'We the People' Are the Last Word on the Meaning of Our Constitution." His argument is bracing: Congress, because it is the political organ closest to the people, should have the power to override Supreme Court decisions. While agreeing with Kathawa's premise about the ultimate constitutional sovereignty of the people on account of the first principles of the Declaration of Independence, we're skeptical about his proposed remedy. What do listeners think? (We hope to have Deion on as a guest at some point soon to defend himself.)Finally, some new AI generated 3WHH custom poetry, and more revenge bumper music.

Among the revelations of this week's episode that were entirely predictable when you think about it: "Lucretia" was a child TV star in Mason City, Iowa, on the local non-PBS kid's show "Bart's Clubhouse"; John Yoo confesses he was bad at sports as a schoolkid; and as everyone can guess, in childhood Steve merely aspired to be a walking historical analogy when he grew up. Meanwhile, poor Phil Munoz, last week's drive-by guest, is still in therapy. . .So what's all this about the Epstein Files? Does Richard Epstein still have any unexpressed thoughts at this point. . . Wait. What's that? You mean Jeffrey Epstein's files? Never mind. Anyway, we weigh the evidence and circumstances as to whether Epstein's exploits merit elevation to the status of plausible conspiracy or not. And this week saw the fulfillment of Glenn Garvin's classic 1983 article, "How Do I Hate NPR? Let Me Count the Ways." And Steve offers his favorite recipes for how he'd like to see Big Bird cooked.Other name checks on this episode include Zohran Mamdani, Upton Sinclair, Tony Podesta, Jasmine Crockett, and Craig Masback (bonus points if you know that name). And some exit music in a minor key to bring listeners back donw after this extra-exuberant episode (and also to annoy Lucretia. . .).

Behold the great 3WHH fugitive episode. Although it was posted over the weekend, somehow an Internet gremlin or something disappeared it! But now it's back, in its restored glory. (Well, almost restored. Steve had a problem with his mic that was undetected while we were recording, and we weren't able to improve it much in pist-production. We have to cut out a whole new segment on prog rock!)And what glory there is: Lucretia hosts this week as we welcome a special guest, Prof. Phil Munoz of Notre Dame, though he is on assignment this semester at the University of Texas at Austin. Phil decided to try to outflank even Lucretia with the bold proposition that the Mahmoud v Taylor decision, which empowered parents to have their children opt-out of phonics instruction in the LGBTQ alphabet, was actually a defeat for social conservatives. It's a lively discussion, as we did our bnest to make Phil regret his decision to join the show this week.

The 3WHH bartenders take time away from the news headlines and court cases to take up some aspects of patriotism (but also with a tutorial for John about the mellotron!).  We start with an origin story of sorts for John himself, as he is an immigrant to the U.S., and as such provides a good reminder of how immigration ought to be understood and practiced. From there, Lucretia meditates on the curious recent survey results showing that love of country among Democrats has precipitously declined over the last decade or so. We agree that our dessicated education system has a lot to do with this—did we really think the Howard-Zinnification of our history would be without consequences?—but we need to wonder why Republicans seem to be immune to these calumnies against our great country. Lucretia fingers the Progressives, and that leads to the final gonzo segment for the holiday, where Steve settles scores from slanders against him when he missed an episode three weeks ago, and makes the evidently futile attempt to school John about the mellotron and the inherent greatness of the brief shining moment of progressive rock—"rock and roll that went to college," as Jody Bottum calls it—in the early 1970s, which, come to think of it, is when the Clean Air Act was first enacted.So come for the patriotism (and a sharp and unexpected argument about Daniel Bell), and stay for the awesome music!

A NATO potentate may—or may not—have said this week that President Trump is the "daddy" of the alliance, but daddy is firmly back in charge here at the 3WHH, as Steve has finally decided to rejoin the American republic after several weeks abroad, during which time John and Lucretia pretty much ran amok. After noting that Trump is on a roll, with a sharp argument about whether Trump actually has true prudence in his grand strategy as well as tactical skill (John is skeptical), we get down to the main event: the flurry of big, last-day decisions of the Supreme Court. Beyond the case getting the most attention—limited nationwide injunctions from federal district court judges—the other cases, and this term as a whole, has a unifying theme: Parents Win! (Fitting for an episode entitled "Daddy's Home" don't you think?)Having now completed the three most consequential years of conservatives jurisprudence in decades, we end with a brief discussion of where constitutional originalism should go from here.  Stay tuned; we take note of sharp and growing divisions among conservative legal thinkers on this issue.

After last week's thrashing after leaving John and Lucretia with the car key to the podcast. Steve threatened to return this week like George Washington leading the troops to squash the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 (which, people who know their history will recall, was a total rout for the rebels), but since he is still in Ireland—the birthplace of Edmund Burke—the virtues of moderation, prudence, prescription, and magnanimity took over, sparing John and Lucretia from a verbal gullitoine blow. (How's that for a triple-historial-referencing!)But that doesn't mean there wasn't still some warfare, though we turned out bellicosity mostly toward Iran, and went through some arguments about why the U.S. ought to end the matter by taking out Forden, and why we should ignore the media-driven attempt to drive a wedge in MAGA world over the issue.From there, we have a lot to say about the Skirmetti decision, including savoring the deepening civil war inside the Democratic Party between its implacable identity politics wing and those Democrats who still have a lick of political sense.And finally, we end with a 3WHH-inspired limerick. That doesn't involve Nantucket.

Hoo boy—Steve wasn't able to work out the schedule (and internet acess in the Norwegian Sea) to join Joohn and Lucretia for this week's episode, so he left them completely unsupervised, resulting in what John and Lucretia described as an "unplugged" edition, blessedly free (supposedly) from any historical analogies.Steve thinks "unhinged" might be a better description of this heterodox episode, which somehow included quite a lot of history, just not in the usual edifying form that so many listeners have come to depend upon.You can guess the subjects. Go ahead: guess. Or listen here, and sign on to Steve's "Change.org" petition to require that the 3WHH never again go off without adult supervision. Or maybe you will like the ritual abuse Steve received in absentia.