Outside the Beltway

Milestones and memories from one in the books. Happy New Year to you all.

Democrats have unveiled what appears as if it will be their first effort to end the shutdown, but there are already signs Republicans will reject it.

President Trump is now threatening to close the border if he doesn’t get funding for his border wall.

Begun, the 2020 campaign has.

As 2018 draws to a close, there’s no sign that the government shutdown will end any time soon.

California is set up throw a huge curve ball into the 2020 Presidential nomination fight.

New polling indicates that President Trump is getting the blame for the ongoing government shutdown.

The TPP is about to go into effect without the US.

My mother has passed, aged 75 years.

Happy Friday.

I’m not saying it was aliens, but……..

A new law set to take effect in Utah before the New Year will lower the BAC limit for drunk driving by 40% to .05. Will the rest of the nation follow?

Congress will not be returning to Washington until some time next week. Thus guaranteeing that this shutdown will last at least through January 3rd.

The fact that this President is a congenital liar is well-known. The actual number of lies less than two years into his Presidency, though, is astounding.

Faced with the prospect of a large field like the one Republicans had in 2016, Democrats are trying to figure out how to handle debates. So far, the ideas being put forward are as bad as what the GOP ended up doing.

Is it possible that the solution to the government shutdown is letting the President pretend he got funding for his border wall even though he didn’t?

The numbers should guide policy, not silly symbols.

Good news for Notorious RBG.

With the economy appearing to sour, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is quickly becoming the President’s latest target of criticism.

The Supreme Court has rejected an attempt by the Trump Administration to have an injunction against its new asylum policy lifted.

Christmas is behind us, but don’t expect any progress when it comes to the government shutdown, which is in its fifth day.

President Trump tried to get into the Christmas spirit last night. He failed.

The damage done for Mickey Mouse in the name of Sony Bono is finally coming to an end.

Fifty years ago tonight, one of the most iconic photos in history was taken.

More evidence that Trump does not know what he is doing.

While it has an admitted populist appeal. the idea of Congressional pay being withheld during a shutdown is a non-starter due to the Constitution.

With Congress out of town until at least Thursday and negotiations apparently deadlocked, the White House is saying it’s likely the shutdown will last into 2019.

President Trump announced today that James Mattis would be out as Secretary of Defense by the end of the year.

A preliminary report from Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan found at least 500 Catholic Priests whose abuse of children had been covered up by Church officials.

President Trump has lost another one of his top advisers on the fight against ISIS.

One of the strongest climate regulations in the country is almost certainly unconstitutional.

There was no progress on resolving the government shutdown today, and little hope that anything will happen before late next week.

President Trump is now apparently on the warpath against the Federal Reserve Board Chairman he appointed only a year ago.

While the political media is spending a lot of time talking about it, the actual impact of this latest government shutdown is likely to be limited and possibly even unnoticeable to most Americans.

Trump doesn’t understand (nor respect) the role of the Fed.

The government entered its third shutdown of the year with little sign of an immediate resolution.

Happy Friday!

The Pentagon is being ordered to draw up plans to withdraw roughly one-half of the American forces remaining in Afghanistan. It’s about time.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent surgery to remove cancerous nodes from a lung, but reports seem to point to a quick recovery.

A Federal Judge has ruled that neither the Sheriff’s Office nor the School Board had a specific duty to protect individual students during the shooting last February in Parkland, Florida.

With just hours to go, a partial government shutdown is becoming more and more likely.

In what clearly appears to be a rebuke of the President, Defense Secretary James Mattis is retiring as Secretary of Defense.

Hours before the House was set to vote on a temporary funding bill for the government, President Trump has apparently changed his mind.

The North Korean government is making clear what it means when it speaks of denuclearization, and its far different from what the United States means.

New York State seems likely to join the list of states where marijuana has been legalized sometime next year.

Tennessee will have an open Senate seat in 2020 thanks to Lamar Alexander’s decision to retire at the end of his current term.

The Senate passed a bill that keeps the government funded through the beginning of February, but fails to provide any funding for the President’s border wall.

The Senate overwhelmingly passed major reforms in Federal sentencing and related laws. As the name of the bill implies, it’s a first step, but a good first step.

The Trump Administration is reportedly preparing to withdraw the small contingent of American troops from Syria. If it actually happens, this would be a good move.