Outside the Beltway

Sarah Palin has joined such luminaries as Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke in endorsing Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim immigration plan.

Donald Trump’s plan to exclude Muslims from the United States is provoking condemnation, and confusion, around the world.

For an Oval Office address delivered on a Sunday night, President Obama’s speech last night sounded more like a statement read from the podium in the press room.

The suspects in the San Bernardino shootings are dead, but that’s about all we know so far this morning.

The latest national poll of the Republican race shows Trump continuing to lead, Ben Carson fading, and Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio rising while the rest of the field is stagnant or sinking.

Blaming political opponents for criminal acts they clearly didn’t commit or advocate isn’t a political argument, it’s demagoguery.

Given his rhetoric, it’s fairly clear that Donald Trump is drawing from a poisonous political well. So there’s no point in failing to acknowledge reality.

The worst-moderated debate thus far may have reordered the field.

Once the Republican frontrunner, Jeb Bush is now floundering and dealing with donors worried that they may be backing the wrong horse.

After an eleven hour day on Capitol Hill, it was Hillary Clinton 1 House Benghazi Committee 0.

Whether they like it or not, it’s becoming quite apparent that Republicans may have to get used to the idea that Donald Trump really could be their nominee next year.

A new poll shows an up-tick in public support for some gun control measures, but gun control advocates can’t ignore the political reality that says those restrictions are unlikely to ever become law.

To listen to many of the Republican candidates for President, it would appear that the lights have been turned out on Ronald Reagan’s shining city on a hill.

There are no “anchor babies,” there are only Americans.

While new information seems to come out on a daily basis, Hillary Clinton would rather that everyone think that her private email server wasn’t really a very big deal.

Donald Trump’s immigration plan is would create a police state, violate people’s rights, and hurt America’s economy. And his supporters will most likely love it.

Like many Republicans, Jeb Bush continues to be willfully blind to the truth about the Iraq War.

Donald Trump’s assertion that he will get Mexico to pay for his border wall is being laughed at in Mexico City.

Donald Trump isn’t backing down from his post-debate meltdown, now the only question is what the polls will tell us when they come out.

The fallout from Donald Trump’s debate performance, and his comments afterward, continues, and it’s leading some to wonder if we may finally be at the end of this ridiculous charade.

An authoritarian ego trip for all to see.

Republicans have nobody to blame but themselves for the anti-immigrant Frankenstein in their midst.

In the end, the odds that Congress can actually stop the new deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program are pretty low.

A 1980 debate between Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush shows a different GOP.

Finally.

The winners of the Women’s World Cup will get paid far less than the men that played last year, but that’s not because of sexism.

Greek voters rejected the latest bailout package, but that only seems likely to make things even worse for them.

The Supreme Court’s decision on marriage equality seems to have revived an idea that has been mentioned before, but as it has always been, the idea of “getting government out of marriage” is little more than a simplistic slogan.

The US Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 that the U.S. Constitution contains a right to same-sex marriage.

The era of legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act is over.

Political reality shows us that the shootings in Charleston are not going to have any appreciable impact on the likelihood of any type of gun control law passing anywhere outside of the bluest of the blue states.

David Frum calls for several measures to reduce gun violence.

An important tenet of the internet is “don’t read the comments.” Well, I have violated that rule of late–which means more musings on the symbols of the CSA.

It’s been obvious from the moment the news broke that the murders in Charleston were rooted in racism, but some Republicans have had trouble acknowledging that.

The murders in Charleston have revived a debate that should have been over a long time ago.

A word that has come in recent years to be used to refer chiefly to Muslim fanatics obviously applies to a man who murdered nine people because they’re black.

The Supreme Court ruled that states don’t have to grant license plates that display the Confederate flag. Their decision has the potential to seriously harm the First Amendment.

A black leader is running a billboard campaign to improve his community. Racism ensues.

The head of the Spokane NAACP has apparently been lying about her racial background, and that’s led to a whole other argument.

Lee Siegel takes to the NYT to explain “Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans.”

Being required to demonstrate competency in liberal arts to teach is racially discriminatory, a federal judge has ruled.

Most Americans think that income inequality is a problem, but they don’t all agree on what to do about it.

A new poll shows that Americans have moved to the left on a wide variety of social issues.

Does an individual’s changed gender identity alter history?

Big news out of Baltimore and, perhaps, the beginning of justice for Freddie Gray.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are talking about fundamentally changing what it means to be an American, and it’s a bad idea.

Ta-Nehisi Coates is insightful and eloquent. He’s wrong in this instance.

The “racism” debate brought about by Barack Obama in 2000 is getting a spin-off.

Conditioning an Iranian nuclear deal on recognition of Israel is foolish, unrealistic, and very bad diplomacy.

Many of America’s top law firms have declined to accept cases defending bans on same-sex marriage, and that’s okay.