Outside the Beltway

The President’s latest ravings are “very bad, very bad.”

Massachusetts Democrat Seth Moulton makes an argument familiar to OTB readers.

Why rational discourse seldom changes the minds of some people.

The key remains the military.

It’s been a rough two years under Trump, but America’s institutions are surviving.

A second Federal Judge has found that the Commerce Department violated the law when it moved to put a question about citizenship on the 2020 Census form.

The Saudis tortured an American citizen, but the Trump Administration doesn’t care.

With criminal charges and an election hanging over his head, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is looking to the political right for support and survival.

In what was basically a throwaway line, Joe Biden said something nice about Mike Pence. The reaction from his fellow Democrats says a lot about our current political culture, and none of it is good.

The President of the United States and the most-talked-about freshman Representative in ages could not be more different.

Nancy Pelosi is tired of Democrats voting to please their constituents.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being charged with three charges of corruption even as he faces an election in just over a month.

Kevin Drum uses some clever sleight-of-hand to demonstrate a hard truth about the human condition.

And if you don’t know, now you know.

US policy is creating nonconstructive confrontation.

There’s only one solution to the D.C. statehood issue. It’s called retrocession.

The House of Representatives has begin the process of challenging the President’s recent declaration of a ‘national emergency’ at the southern border.

A North Carolina Congressional Election that was tainted by Absentee Ballot Fraud will be redone.

Justice Clarence Thomas argues that a 55-year-old precedent should be overturned.

There is a bit of a disjuncture between the terminology and the reality (but that does not excuse Trump’s current actions).

Some thoughts on the current mess.

President Trump’s impending decision to declare a national emergency to get funding for his border wall will quickly face serious legal challenges. It may be more vulnerable than the White House suspects.

The former Attorney General is seriously pondering a presidential bid. Seriously.

The arguments against withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan are becoming weaker and weaker.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is the latest entrant into an already crowded field for the Democratic nomination.

…there is only one plausible pathway to get there.

His critique is rather telling.

The President is an ignoramus and a blowhard and a petulant child but he’s operating within the Constitutional limits of his office.

The way we elect Presidents make it unlikely that a third-party candidate like Howard Schultz could ever actually win the the Presidency.

The Speaker was dealt a winning hand and played it with the skill of a seasoned pro. But the outcome was all but inevitable.

In both cases, appeals to emotion are not diminished by disregard for accuracy.

The situation in Venezuela entered a new stage yesterday as opposition leader Juan Guaidó claimed the nation’s Presidency.

Could Maryland Governor Larry Hogan be just the kind of Republican to challenge Trump in 2020?

Thoughts on politics and constitutional powers.

A leading conservative makes a truly bizarre defense of the President.

The efforts by Speaker Pelosi and President Trump to leverage their institutional powers raise interesting questions.

As the government shutdown continues, Washington is coming to resemble a fight between toddlers. Except the toddlers have the excuse of not knowing any better.

Theresa May survived the Labour Party’s call for a no-confidence vote, but the future for her and for her country remain as hazy as ever.

Nancy Pelosi is “suggesting” to the President that the State of the Union be rescheduled for a time after the government shutdown ends, but it clearly seems like more than just a suggestion.

Later today, Theresa May’s Brexit deal will face a decisive vote in the House of Commons in a vote that could have implications for May’s own hold on power.

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.