Outside the Beltway

Anti-Semitic violence has increased markedly over the past two years. So has the spread of far-right “anti-Globalist” conspiracy theories. This is not a coincidence.

Is it too much to ask for truth about basic facts from the White House Press Secretary?

Hillary Clinton is hinting about maybe running in 2020 again. Is she serious, or is this just a publicity stunt?

More explosive devices sent to prominent Trump critics, including Robert DeNiro and Joe Biden, have been located.

Minority rule and self-reinforcing cleavages are not a a healthy combination.

The Russians are interfering in our electoral system again, and they’re using our own hyperpartisanship to accomplish their goals.

President Trump is heaping praise on a Congressman who physically assaulted a reporter.

Jamal Khashoggi’s final column includes a message that should resonate far beyond the Arab world it was addressed to.

Part III is here (a lot sooner than Part II was).

The second installment of a seemingly forgotten series.

President Trump is choosing money and moral cowardice over human life in his response to the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.

Fear-mongering of various types on full display.

The Merrick Garland precedent is power politics, nothing more.

The Twenty-Fifth Amendment has been in the news a lot lately, but what would it actually take to use it to remove a President from power?

Former President Obama took on his successor in his first major political speeches since leaving office.

Just how far should White House staffers and civil servants go in protecting the public from an erratic president?

A significant advance for LGBT rights in the world’s most populous democracy.

Thankfully, they chose not to help.

Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos received a very generous sentence in return for his guilty plea.

The second day of questioning for Judge Brett Kavanaugh was a bit rockier than the first, but nothing happened that seriously threatens his eventual confirmation.

Donald Trump is a bad, inept, and potentially dangerous President. That doesn’t mean that a ‘soft coup’ inside the White House is the answer to the problem he presents to our democratic republic.

The first day of the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings was much ado about pretty much nothing, but then that can be used to describe a process whose outcome is pretty much foreordained.

Another “progressive” victory over a longtime Democratic incumbent, but this one is a bit different.

The military regime in Myanmar has sentenced two reporters to prison for reporting on the repression of the Rohingya Muslims.

Social media has altered the way writers and readers interact in odd ways.

President Trump is alienating our allies and making friends with dictators, and the world is responding as you might expect they would.

Another milestone set to be crossed.

At a minimum, Trump is betraying his oath of office. That is one hell of a minimum.

It took less than twenty-four hours for President Trump to essentially repudiate his purported attempt to walk back the appalling comments he made in Helsinki.

Some Democrats want to compel President Trump’s translator to testify about his private meeting with Vladimir Putin. That’s a bad idea.

President Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin was an even bigger disaster than anticipated.

Forget the “republic v. a democracy” abstraction. The numbers show some serious flaws in translating popular will into government.

A reference point for the future.

The Strzok hearing provides a return to this timeworn favorite.

The Office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller has issued indictments against twelve Russian intelligence officials for election-related hacking, and in the process has shown most of the arguments made by the President and his surrogates regarding the Russia investigation are nonsense.

On the eve of the NATO Summit, President Trump continues to engage in tactics that seem to serve no purpose other than to undermine America’s most important and successful alliance.

The President is generating so much outrage on a daily basis that we’re missing important stories.

Recent polling finds that Americans aren’t feeling quite so patriotic right now. It’s understandable, but we shouldn’t give up hope.

The right-wing government in Warsaw has purged more than one-third of the members of the Polish Supreme Court in a crackdown on political opponents.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a populist from the left, rode a wave of populism and public disdain for the outgoing President to a landslide win in Mexico

There is a frustration and a growing sense that the American political system is illegitimate.

The current discussion about SCOTUS is a good excuse to look at how other countries handle these things.

Convicted leaker Chelsea Manning lost a bid for the Democratic nomination for Senate in Maryland, to the surprise of nobody.

Turkey’s authoritarian leader is going to be around for a long time.

A new survey shows that Americans are increasingly unable to tell the difference between fact and opinion. That’s a problem.

Madison was right about politicians and ambition. He just didn’t see the how it would all play out.

Either the President of the United States is a knowing liar or he is very easily duped. Neither is a comforting thought.

Another unilateral withdrawal from an international institution.

The Department of Justice’s Inspector General found that former F.B.I. Director James Comey was ‘insubordinate’ in regard to the Clinton email investigation, but found no evidence of political bias at the Bureau.

Dan Coates, the Director of National Intelligence, has issued a strong warning that has received little attention.