Outside the Beltway

The United States can’t do any good in Syria, but we can do a lot of bad.

Given a choice between Robert Mueller and Donald Trump, most Americans are siding with Mueller. Unless they’re Republicans that is.

Hang on, the ride on the Trump Train is about to get a lot bumpier.

Out of the blue, President Trump plans to pardon Dick Cheney’s former Chief of Staff, but the move seems to have more to do with James Comey than it does Scooter Libby.

Trump suggests US might seek to rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Without Congressional authorization, any attack on Syria would be illegal, but don’t expect Congress to do anything about it.

Once again, President Trump’s foreign policy tweeting is causing problems.

Some Republicans are suggesting that Paul Ryan should be pushed out as Speaker before the November elections.

Mark Zuckerberg’s second day before Congress was somewhat more contentious than the first, but at the end of the day it’s still unclear that more regulation is the answer to the issues raised by recent Facebook “scandals.”

President Trump took to Twitter this morning and decided poke a stick in the eye of the Russian bear.

In addition to opening up the Speakership, there’s a legitimate possibility that Wisconsin-11 flips to the other party.

John Boehner is now pro-weed. The world just keeps getting weirder, man.

Stormy Daniels is talking to the Feds

Paul Ryan won’t be running for re-election this year, opening up both a Congressional seat and a leadership spot.

Not surprisingly, a joint Senate Committee failed to really lay a glove on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at yesterday’s hearing.

The United States has several options in Syria. None of them are good and one of them would be disastrous.

Late last week, Hawaii became the seventh state and eighth major American jurisdiction to legalize assisted suicide.

President Trump isn’t reacting well to the raid on his attorney’s office.

In a move apparently connected to the Stormy Daniels affair, Federal authorities have raided the office of longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

Republicans are raising the fear of impeachment to motivate a base that could become disaffected heading into November.

Governor Rick Scott has entered the race to challenge Bill Nelson in Florida, creating what is likely to be one of the most closely watched races of the year.

We’re set to return to the era of trillion dollar budget deficits, and Republicans won’t do a thing about it.

The answer is, of course, no. Really, this is a post about the wall as policy.

Trump’s tariff plan isn’t going over well in farm country, and that could cause problems for the GOP in November.

Just about a year after President Trump attacked Syria over the use of chemical weapons, the Assad regime has again used chemical weapons. There’s not much we can do about, nor should we.

Maureen Dowd blames the Internet for women having sex with men they find unattractive.

President Trump’s call for National Guard troops isn’t going over well even with Republican Governors.

The DJIA (and other markets) are not too happy about all of this trade war talk.

Tim Pawlenty is attempting a comeback in Minnesota. It won’t be easy.

President Trump is continuing his dangerous and misguided trade war rhetoric,

President Trump won’t attend nerd prom again this year. That’s a good thing.

Another Federal Court loss for gun rights activists challenging state laws banning “assault weapons.”

Yet more troubling news about the proposed citizenship question on the 2020 Census.

March’s Jobs Report fell far short of expectations.

The Atlantic fired one of their few conservative voices for saying women who have abortions should be hanged. Was this beyond the pale?

Donald Trump broke his silence on Stormy Daniels. That was a bad idea.

A woman who was fired after a photograph of her giving the middle finger to President Trump’s motorcade went viral is suing her former employer. She doesn’t have much of a case.

Former Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen appears to be poised to give Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn a run for her money in the Volunteer State.

Thanks to a combination of sensationalism and outright lies, a fairly conventional story about an annual protest march in Mexico was turned into Fox News fodder that raised images of an invading army of illegal immigrants.

The “caravan” of immigrants that sent the President off the deep end on immigration issues is basically coming to an end.

Leland Bohannon objects to same-sex marriage on religious grounds. What rights should he have to act on that belief?

President Trump is talking about pulling American troops out of Syria, but his own White House is contradicting him.

President Trump wants to send the military to the Mexican border. This is both unnecessary and a bad idea.

Robert Mueller is telling the President’s lawyers that Trump is a “subject” of his investigation, but not a “target,” that’s not as significant a distinction as it may seem to be.

Begun the trade wars have.

The woman who wounded three people at the video company before killing herself posted insane rants all over social media.

New York and nearly two dozen other jurisdictions have filed a lawsuit seeking to bar the Trump Administration from asking about citizenship in the 2020 Census.

President Trump seems intent on walking away from the nuclear deal with Iran. If he does, he’ll be handing a gift to Iran and harming American national interests significantly.

More than 1200 refugees, mostly from Honduras, are trying to come to the United States. What should we do about it?

News anchors at dozens of local stations owned by conservative-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group were recently required to read a script mandated by corporate headquarters, and it’s leading to some bad media coverage for Sinclair.