Outside the Beltway

Don’t expect the Congress (i.e., the Senate) to pull us out of this shutdown mess.

Former Vice-President Joe Biden will reportedly decide on whether or not he’ll be entering the race for President in the near future.

The Supreme Court is taking up the issue of partisan gerrymandering. This time, though, they’re likely to reach the merits of the cases rather than punting like they did last year.

Nancy Pelosi is Speaker of The House again after eight years out of power, but there’s little time for her to celebrate.

Begun, the 2020 campaign has.

The latest entry in the unity third party presidential candidate genre is just as bad as they always are.

An argument against “bothersiderism” in this case and, yet again, noting the problem with single seat districts.

Jacob T. Levy has a column worth a read.

French authorities are investigating reports that Russian interference may be helping to exploit and expand the five-week-old “yellow vest” protests.

Current attempts to take power away from the state executive branch illustrates a lot of what I have been writing about for years.

Moscow continues using information warfare to sow division in Western society.

Protests that have killed four and injured hundreds have been rewarded and show no sign of ending.

An effort by the Federal Government to prosecute Wikileaks founder Julian Assange raises serious First Amendment issues.

Some examples from 2018 of the problems with single seat districts.

It isn’t about foreign policy, it is about self-serving manipulation of the public.

Three Democratic Senators are suing the Acting Attorney General, asserting that his appointment was unconstitutional.

In what has to qualify as one of the most horrifying displays of moral depravity on the international stage, the Trump Administration is saying it doesn’t really care if the Saudi Crown Prince is a murderer or not.

Yes, there can be real problems with election activities, but that does not excuse POTUS’ lies about fraud.

Trump, Scott, and their allies are not doing America any favors.

With their House majority secure, Democrats must now select their leadership team for the next two years. It’s not going smoothly.

CNN fires back in the Administration’s ongoing war with the news media.

Today in bad columns.

The NYT is trying to start a conversation.

Florida has begun the recount process in both the Senate and Governor’s races. Where it goes from here is anyone’s guess.

The issues are different than in Florida or Arizona, but the Georgia Governor’s race remains unresolved as Stacey Abrams hopes to find enough votes to force the race into a runoff.

Bret Stephens’ piece this week adds up to not much.

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.