Outside the Beltway

An example linked to USAID

An accurate description.

The new administration is gutting the senior ranks of the civil service.

Partisanship is more important than institutional autonomy.

Piling absurdity atop cruelty.

A billionaire troll with a West Wing office.

Not all norms.

Going out on another unforced error

The Curtis Yarvin interview.

It “literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”

The honey badger strikes again.

The real crime is what’s legal.

Eleven weeks with no accountability.

Our transitions are too long.

I question the timing.

Some discussion of history, politics, and policy.

A disturbing loyalty test.

Autocracy in America.

Thinking out loud, as one does.

Appointing unqualified loyalists is only the start.

The President-Elect is testing the guardrails early.

And, more broadly, about the normalization of Trump

When the abnormal ceases to be.

Not knowing the results of an election a week later is unacceptable.

The US was not exceptional.

The guardrails may not hold this time.

Floating the idea that NC should just award its EVs to Trump.

Trump, Bezos, and the slippery slope of authoritarianism.

Hitler comparisons.

Each state sets its own election rules. That’s not a good thing.

Plus: Governor Glenn Youngkin helps out.

“Scum” and the “enemy from within.”

RCV is now banned in the state.

A chilling feature from the Wall Street Journal.

They have a preference but may not vote.

By one vote.

The skews may offset.

Part the gazillioneth.

Mark Robinson is the latest example.

Does it really all come down to Pennsylvania?

It could all come down to Pennsylvania.

Musk finds an alpha male-dominated “republic” to be “interesting.”

An FNC report on the Alaska House race is a mess.

Because I think too much about this stuff.

Facts versus framing, with a little Mandela effect thrown in for good measure.

Sometimes all we have is the choice of how we react to events.

A shocking if perhaps unsurprising development.

The far right won the first round. The far left won the second. It’s a mess.