The Issue with Steve Hayes. Want to know what is in this week's magazine? Lucky for you, our editor Steve Hayes is putting together a brief video preview. Check it out here.

A conversation with Mike Murphy. There was no Kristol Clear newsletter this morning, but Bill asked that I share this wonderful conversation he had with Mike Murphy about the upcoming midterms and 2020.

College commissions Women in STEM mural, students object. Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University commissioned a local artist to paint a mural celebrating women in the field of science. This was just last year. This year, however, students don't like it, so it's getting painted over. It's unclear why the students didn't like it, other than what the Plain Dealer vaguely reported: "[students] objected to how it represented women."

While the mural drew praise, "some have objected to the representation of women and discussed their issues with staff at the university's Flora Stone Mather Center for Women," the university said in the statement. "After learning about these concerns at the close of 2017, the department chair explored potential options to address them. Ultimately, he embraced the concept of a rotating series of murals for that space -- a new one roughly every two years -- with selections overseen by a student committee and including the Mather Center's director. One of the purposes of art is to inspire a response, and part of the mission of a university is to encourage the free exchange of ideas and perspectives. The project and the discussions that have followed illustrate the power of each."

Women in science: creating jobs for women in the arts. Scientia et bonis artibus!

Meet the dogs of Chernobyl. Every time there is a natural disaster, somebody inevitably has to leave their beloved pets behind. In Chernobyl, the dogs have remained and repopulated. The Guardian has a sad look at the ancestors of the atomic dogs.

The age of the lifetime guarantee comes to a close. Famed retailer L.L. Bean has scrapped its lifetime guarantee for its products. It's sad, but not an unreasonable choice, given that people were abusing it. 

A 27 year-old retiree? Not really, but the clickbait mavens at MarketWatch teased us with the story of Gwen Merz, who is about to quit her full-time job.

To reach those goals, she has been maxing out her retirement accounts — a 401(k), a health savings account (HSA) and a Roth IRA — and she purchased a rental property in Iowa that earns her more than $1,000 a month. She also hosts a podcast she hopes to monetize, and she sells stained glass that she creates herself. She writes about her experiences on a blog, Fiery Millennials.

Monetizing a podcast and selling hand-crafted artisanal stained glass isn't exactly "retiring." Perhaps the writer needs a refresher course on the term.

Speaking of Millennials and the future... a married couple sold all of their belongings to buy a boat and set sail to traverse the globe. Their boat sank within days. Of course, they've started a GoFundMe account so they can get back on track to live their dreams of not working.

Speaking of dreams... Stephen F. Hayward found a depressing Twitter thread highlighting how the California dream is dead. 

Who pays for figure skating royalties? That was a question my wife had last night during the live portion of the Olympics. I did not realize that this was the first year lyrics were allowed. But if you're wondering about the royalties, some answers can be found here.

Fumigate the GOP. That's what Tom Nichols argues in an interesting op-ed at USA TODAY. He argues that the GOP needs to be sent out into the wilderness in the era of Trump to once again find itself:

Of course, no one should underestimate the ability of the Democrats to screw up an election, and it’s possible that the midterms and the 2020 election will end up breaking for Trump’s GOP. If that happens, the Republican Party has no future. I and many others, including younger people, will leave, and the GOP will become largely a regional party, confined to islands of older white voters in the South, the Rust Belt and the mountain states who will be gone in 30 years and who will take the GOP with them.

At that point, some other party — not a “third way” but a new conservative party — will have to take the GOP’s place. That process will take decades, and I will not live to see it. And so I’d prefer to revive the GOP after it is forced back into the minority, when we can have a real fight within the party about what it stands for and who it should support by reforming the Republican National Committee, the primary process and the platform.

The GOP needs to be returned to its foundations in conservative ideas instead of left to drift in mindless rage and willful ignorance. It does not need to be abandoned, nor does it need to be burned to the ground. But it definitely needs to be temporarily evacuated and fumigated.

And so, for the near future, the GOP losing is the only way to win. I’ll stay for now, because I believe in a loyal opposition — even if it has to be within my own party.

Certainly some food for thought.

Lincoln and the banks. Over at the ABA Banking Journal, Evan Sparks has a worthwhile story about Abraham Lincoln and finance. Most people overlook Lincoln's non-war contributions to our country's history, and Sparks illuminates this brilliantly in an admittedly nerdy piece:

By the time of Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, so many national banks had been chartered and so many state banks had converted that many believed state banks would disappear entirely. But it was not to be. After Lincoln’s death, state banks fought for their existence and the dual chartering system that is so distinctive of U.S. banking became a fixed feature. But Lincoln’s great financial policy accomplishment—a distributed central bank, as we might call it today—endured and evolved.

He is remembered today for his achievements in winning freedom for slaves and in restoring the bonds of union. Without his vision, articulated and developed over decades, of a national banking system, the federal government might never have been able to sustain the war. Lincoln’s greatness as a banking president made possible the accomplishments for which we rightly revere him today.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em? Devin Nunes, embattled chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has started his own news website. Politico reports: 

Resembling a local, conservative news site, “The California Republican” is classified on Facebook as a “media/news company” and claims to deliver “the best of US, California, and Central Valley news, sports, and analysis.”

But the website is paid for by Nunes’ campaign committee, according to small print at the bottom of the site. Leading the home page most recently: a photograph of Nunes over the headline, “Understanding the process behind #ReleaseTheMemo.”

Who thought this was a good idea? His staff, apparently:

Asked for comment about “The California Republican” website, Anthony Ratekin, Nunes’ chief of staff, said in an email Saturday: “Until Politico retracts its multitude of fake stories on Congressman Nunes, we will not go on the record.”

Like the old saying goes... If you can't beat #FakeNews... join 'em.

Save the date! Join us at the 2018 Weekly Standard Summit. This May 17-20 at the historic Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, join Stephen F. Hayes, Fred Barnes, and Michael Warren and special guests Bret Baier and A.B. Stoddard as they discuss the future of American politics. Book your tickets now.

—Jim Swift, Deputy Online Editor

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