Outside the Beltway

Whether Don Blankenship wins or loses in West Virginia, his success is yet another example of how Donald Trump has changed the GOP for the worse.

Seven years after deactivation, the U.S. Second Fleet will be patrolling the North Atlantic again.

They hired Israeli Private Investigators to dig up dirt on former Obama officials, including Ben Rhodes and Colin Kahl.

The former SecState is engaging in some shadow diplomacy.

The new Secretary of State is an improvement over the worst Secretary of State in history.

Israeli Prime Minister gave a speech yesterday designed to undermine the nuclear deal with Iran. The evidence was unconvincing, but the speech was really only aimed at an audience of one.

The United States is apparently looking to Libya as a guide for upcoming talks with North Korea. The DPRK most likely sees the fate of that nation and its leader as a warning.

President Trump’s on-again, off-again visit to Great Britain appears to be on again.

Andrew Sullivan wonders, “Will there always be an England?”

There are reasons to be skeptical about the dawning of a new age on the peninsula.

Ronny Jackson did not invent the practice of giving Ambien and Provigil to high-level government workers.

The meeting between Kim Jong-Un and Moon Jae-In was historic, but many questions and caveats remain.

For better or worse, Mike Pompeo will be confirmed as the 70th Secretary of State by the end of this week.

French President Emmanuel Macron is in the U.S. hoping to lobby President Trump to keep the United States in the nuclear deal with Iran. He’s got his work cut out for him.

The Kim regime has announced the end, for now, of its nuclear and ballistic missile testing programs. To understand why they made this concession, one needs to read between the lines.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Cuba has a new President and he isn’t named Castro, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to see significant change in the near future.

Top positions in the State Department are vacant, and there’s only one person to blame for that.

There is no obvious strategy and even the expressed rationale makes no sense.

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

Even the United Nations has given up trying to maintain an accurate estimate.

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.

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

Controversies involving Jimmy Kimmel and “The Simpsons” highlight a perennial question.

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

A response to one of the most deadly chemical attacks in the Syrian civil war has come, probably from Israel. What’s next?

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.

Dan Drezner notes some challenges on this topic, and I add some of my own thoughts.

The great negotiator in the White House is likely underestimating the tools available to Xi.

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

Begun the trade wars have.

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?

Another significant development on the Korean Peninsula.

After several days of speculation, it was confirmed that the leaders of North Korea and China had met in Beijing. This was meant as much for external consumption as it was the relationship between the two nations.

In selecting John Bolton as his National Security Adviser, Donald Trump has signaled to the world that he’s likely to take action that will only serve to make the world a more dangerous place.

A well-meaning journalist brushes off critiques by experts in the field. He owes it to his readers to keep learning.

Turkish security personnel who assaulted peaceful protestors in America’s capital will go free.

Americans actings as agents for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been working hard to manipulate the President.

The Nigerian terrorist group has released an unknown number of the 110 girls kidnapped from a boarding school last month.

To nobody’s surprise, Vladimir Putin has won re-election to another term as Russia’s President.

Theresa May’s government has not hit Russian oligarchs nearly as hard as they deserve because the UK benefits from turning a blind eye.

A contest with no serious challenger will make him the longest-serving Russian leader since Stalin.

Not unexpectedly, Russia has retaliated for Great Britain’s retaliation for Russia’s apparent assassination attempt on British history.

One of the supposed “adults” in the Trump administration has no class.

The Treasury Department has designated five entities and 19 individuals tied to the Russian government for cyber espionage.

The selection of Mike Pompeo as the next Secretary of State makes it more likely that President Trump will take the foolish and dangerous step of withdrawing the United States from the nuclear deal with Iran.

Theresa May has expelled 23 Russian diplomats and convened the North Atlantic Council.