Outside the Beltway

Come for the shots fired at the cabinet, stay for the weird digression.

Thinking about the intellectual foundations of contemporary immigration policy.

A clear violation of the laws of war. But do they apply?

A childhood friend claims he had PTSD from his actions.

A suspect, an Afghan national, is in custody.

Bret Stephens wants to oust Maduro in Venezuela.

Surging resources to immigration enforcement comes with tradeoffs.

Support is low, but opposition is tepid.

The former Defense Secretary and Vice President is gone at 84.

It’s not an unprecedented stance.

The Pentagon’s couch cushions are huuuuge.

A million dollars a day.

What could possibly go wrong?

I guess if we fail to vaporize you, you get treated like a criminial.

The SOUTHCOM commander has resigned and the Senate is debating, but it won’t matter.

Congress, Schmongress.

She was not amused by the administration’s workaround.

The obvious has been made expllicit.

A long and unusual speech has implications for civil-military relations.

A reaffirmation rather than a revelation.

Blowing up boats because they might have drugs on them is not justifiable, legally or morally.

A few more details have emerged.

Every general and admiral in a command billet has been called for a last-minute gathering about some unspecified topic.

A little bit more than the law would allow.

Memories are fading, as they are wont to do.

To be fully human requires living with and in sometimes unresolvable contradictions

Another day, another step closer towards military policing in the US.

A meme that is as muddled and authoritarian as the President who posted it

A potentially costly rebrand and strange bedfellows.

A historically inaccurate bit of symbolic silliness.

It is unusual and a problem.

The former White House physican (and current Congressman)’s demotion for misconduct has been reversed.

Who needs due process when you have drones?

A very different way to run a railroad.

Wildly unpopular policies in hyperpolarized times.

Representative Comer doesn’t understand much, it would seem.

Politicizing the military is legal, but dangerous.

The takeaway of Hegseth’s video and the Pentagon’s clarification is meant to be obvious. 

The last survivors want us to remember the horrors of nuclear war.

Trump’s One Weird Trick to end the war in Ukraine.

An unusual diplomatic approach.

Team Trump and the DIA assessment of the Iran bombings.

The preliminary DIA assessment has been leaked.

Is that really a good idea?

For all practical purposes, the Constitutional war powers have been stood on their head.

Maximalist claims are almost surely overstated.

What? Retaliation from Iran?

The war is on.