Outside the Beltway

An odd bureaucratic reshuffling, seemingly out of the blue.

Already the longest-serving former President, he’ll pass George H.W. Bush as the longest-living tomorrow.

Because of course he did.

A racist scholar took some fascinating photos of an enslaved man in 1860. Now, his descendants want the rights to them.

Last November the state voted overwhelming to amend its constitution. The lawmakers they elected at the same time are sabotaging it.

The consolidation of Super Tuesday makes the current system even more broken than before.

On one level, it is rather amusing; on another is it quite insidious.

Two-thirds want social media platforms to ban harassment and racist, sexist, and other offensive speech.

The HUD Secretary’s practice of treating Friday as a light-duty day is just fine by me.

David Gergen lives in a fantasy world.

The business of the news is business–and it’s a weird business.

How finite is prestige?

Graham is blocking a vote on a non-binding resolution on the Mueller report.

Labor law has not kept up with our changing economy.

Some context for ongoing discussions.

Some basics on the US party system.

Would a similarly-situated woman be getting such over-the-top coverage?

A further attempt at explanation.

A WaPo writer takes a round-about path to demonstrate the obvious.

Happy Friday.

Free expression sometimes enables horrible crimes. How does a free society deal with that tension?

Congrats to Dave Schuler on his blogiversary.

Another white supremacist attack raises disturbing questions about our information environment.

The Southern Law Poverty Center has fired its co-founder for vaguely-specified reasons.

Pew has a new study that confirms our basic understanding of “independents.”

Congress is doing its damned job for a change.

The President’s latest ravings are “very bad, very bad.”

Sometimes symbolism is important. This is one of those times.

Minutes after a Federal judge added 43 months to his sentence, New York state prosecutors unsealed an indictment that could yield another 7 years.

An over-the-top police response to a non-violent offense.

Massachusetts Democrat Seth Moulton makes an argument familiar to OTB readers.

The Democratic Speaker of the House says there will be no charges against the Republican President barring an “overwhelming and bipartisan” consensus.

Actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman are the most famous of dozens of rich folks trying to get their kids into elite schools.

The woman famous for losing the Georgia governor’s race is eyeing a bigger job.

Never say I can’t admit agreement when agreement is due.

Beto O’Rourke hasn’t officially said that he’s running for President, but he’s certainly sending all the signals you’d expect from a Presidential candidate.

For their 2020 convention, Democrats are headed to the Midwest.

The Trump Administration still doesn’t have realistic goals for its negotiations with North Korea.

Looking to OTB readers for insights into an argument with which I’m struggling.

President Trump will ask for $8.6 billion for his border wall in his Fiscal Year 2020 budget. He’s unlikely to get it.

Why rational discourse seldom changes the minds of some people.

Disgraced former Chief Justice of Alabama Roy Moore is apparently “seriously considering” running for Senate in 2020.

Not good, not easy to win.

A mystery within a mystery . . .

Mandatory vaccination laws raise personal liberty issues that ought to be taken seriously, but in the end, public health concerns weigh heavily in favor of laws mandating vaccination.

It’s that time of year again, and once again people are asking if it isn’t time to drop the whole ritual of changing time every six months altogether.

The former Vice President is seen as “just right” by likely Caucus goers.

The key remains the military.

It’s been a rough two years under Trump, but America’s institutions are surviving.

More polling evidence that the public does not support Trump’s emergency declaration or his wall.