Outside the Beltway

Comments

1. Michael Reynolds says:
   Monday, 19 January 2026 at 06:46

   MLK day is a such a DEI thing. I mean, why does he have to be Black?

   In slightly more serious news: Senators Kaine and Warner consigned to ‘the cuck chair.’

   2
2. Scott says:
   Monday, 19 January 2026 at 08:39

   Heather Cox Richardson on MLK and heroism:

   You hear sometimes, now that we know the sordid details of the lives of some of our leading figures, that America has no heroes left.

   When I was writing a book about the Wounded Knee Massacre, where heroism was pretty thin on the ground, I gave that a lot of thought. And I came to believe that heroism is neither being perfect, nor doing something spectacular. In fact, it’s just the opposite: it’s regular, flawed human beings choosing to put others before themselves, even at great cost, even if no one will ever know, even as they realize the walls might be closing in around them.

   It means sitting down the night before D-Day and writing a letter praising the troops and taking all the blame for the next day’s failure upon yourself in case things went wrong, as General Dwight D. Eisenhower did.

   It means writing in your diary that you “still believe that people are really good at heart,” even while you are hiding in an attic from the men who are soon going to kill you, as Anne Frank did.

   It means signing your name to the bottom of the Declaration of Independence in bold script, even though you know you are signing your own death warrant should the British capture you, as John Hancock did.

   It means defending your people’s right to practice a religion you don’t share, even though you know you are becoming a dangerously visible target, as Sitting Bull did.

   Sometimes it just means sitting down, even when you are told to stand up, as Rosa Parks did.
   None of those people woke up one morning and said to themselves that they were about to do something heroic. It’s just that when they had to, they did what was right.

   On April 3, 1968, the night before the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a white supremacist, he gave a speech in support of sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Since 1966, King had tried to broaden the civil rights movement for racial equality into a larger movement for economic justice. He joined the sanitation workers in Memphis, who were on strike after years of bad pay and such dangerous conditions that two men had been crushed to death in garbage compactors.

   After his friend Ralph Abernathy introduced him to the crowd, King had something to say about heroes: “As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about.”

   Dr. King told the audience that if God had let him choose any era in which to live, he would have chosen the one in which he had landed. “Now, that’s a strange statement to make,” King went on, “because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around…. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.” Dr. King said that he felt blessed to live in an era when people had finally woken up and were working together for freedom and economic justice.

   He knew he was in danger as he worked for a racially and economically just America. “I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter…because I’ve been to the mountaintop…. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life…. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”

   People are wrong to say that we have no heroes left.

   Just as they have always been, they are all around us, choosing to do the right thing, no matter what.

   Wishing us all a day of peace for Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2026.

   15
3. becca says:
   Monday, 19 January 2026 at 09:11

   When we were looking for a place to live in Memphis, we looked at some new loft apts still under renovation. The realtor pointed out the view from one unit looked out on the Lorraine Motel across the street, like that was a good selling point. I found it sad and depressing.

   Today we will virtually attend a gathering at the Civil Rights Museum in downtown Memphis in honor of King Day.

   4
4. Charley in Cleveland says:
   Monday, 19 January 2026 at 09:32

   Behind the curtain this morning at the White House:

   Vought: “I thought you told the boss to cancel MLK Day?”
   Miller: “I drafted the EO….he must have forgotten to sign it.”
   Vought: “I want federal workers to dread having a day off. Can we dock everyone who doesn’t show up today?”
   Miller: “Let’s do it. By the time it gets litigated half the workers will have quit, and the rest of them will be afraid to accept back pay.”
   Vought: “I never dreamed running the country would be this easy.”
   Miller: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning….”

   5
5. charontwo says:
   Monday, 19 January 2026 at 09:50

   Piece in the Atlantic about the process of tyranny displacing democracy:

   “AtlanticGift”

   Heading:

   America Is Watching the Rise of a Dual State

   For most people, the courts will continue to operate as usual—until they don’t.

   By Aziz Huq

   (The piece heavily references a book by an eyewitness describing how that worked in 1930’s Germany).

   On September 20, 1938, a man who had witnessed the rise of fascism packed his suitcases and fled his home in Berlin. He arranged to have smuggled separately a manuscript that he had drafted in secret over the previous two years. This book was a remarkable one. It clarified what was unfolding in Berlin at the time, the catalyst for its author’s flight.

   The man fleeing that day was a Jewish labor lawyer named Ernst Fraenkel. He completed his manuscript two years later at the University of Chicago (where I teach), publishing it as The Dual State, with the modest subtitle A Contribution to the Theory of Dictatorship. The book explains how the Nazi regime managed to keep on track a capitalist economy governed by stable laws—and maintain a day-to-day normalcy for many of its citizens—while at the same time establishing a domain of lawlessness and state violence in order to realize its terrible vision of ethno-nationalism.

   Fraenkel offered a simple, yet powerful, picture of how the constitutional and legal foundations of the Weimar Republic eroded, and were replaced by strongman-style rule in which the commands of the Nazi Party and its leader became paramount. His perspective was not grounded in abstract political theory; it grew instead from his experience as a Jewish lawyer in Nazi Berlin representing dissidents and other disfavored clients. Academic in tone, The Dual State sketches a template of emerging tyranny distilled from bloody and horrifying experience.

   As Fraenkel explained it, a lawless dictatorship does not arise simply by snuffing out the ordinary legal system of rules, procedures, and precedents. To the contrary, that system—which he called the “normative state”—remains in place while dictatorial power spreads across society. What happens, Fraenkel explained, is insidious. Rather than completely eliminating the normative state, the Nazi regime slowly created a parallel zone in which “unlimited arbitrariness and violence unchecked by any legal guarantees” reigned freely. In this domain, which Fraenkel called the “prerogative state,” ordinary law didn’t apply. (A prerogative power is one that allows a person such as a monarch to act without regard to the laws on the books; theorists from John Locke onward have offered various formulations of the idea.) In this prerogative state, judges and other legal actors deferred to the racist hierarchies and ruthless expediencies of the Nazi regime.

   Skipping past a lot more discussion,

   Today, we are witnessing the birth of a new dual state. The U.S. has long had a normative state. That system was always imperfect. Our criminal-justice system, for example, sweeps in far too many people, for far too little security in exchange. Even so, it is recognizably part of the normative state.

   …

   The CEOs who paid for and attended Trump’s second inauguration can look forward to the courts being open for the ordinary business of capitalism. So, too, can many citizens who pay little attention to politics expect to be unscarred by the prerogative state. The normal criminal-justice system, if only in nonpolitical cases, will crank on. Outside the American prerogative state, much will remain as it was. The normative state is too valuable to wholly dismantle.

   For that reason, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Trump’s lawyers—despite running roughshod over Congress, the states, the press, and the civil service—were somewhat slower to defy the federal courts, and have fast-tracked cases to the Supreme Court, seeking a judicial imprimatur for novel presidential powers. The courts, unlike the legislature, remain useful to an autocrat in a dual state.

   Building a dual state need not end in genocide: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore have followed the same model of the dual state that Fraenkel described, though neither has undertaken a mass-killing operation as the Nazis did. Their deepest similarity, rather, is that both are intolerant of political dissent and leave the overwhelming majority of citizens alone. The peril of the dual state lies precisely in this capacity for targeted suppression. Most people can ignore the construction of the prerogative state simply because it does not touch their lives. They can turn away while dissidents and scapegoats lose their political liberty. But once the prerogative state is built, as Fraenkel’s writing and experience suggest, it can swallow anyone.

   5
6. Kathy says:
   Monday, 19 January 2026 at 09:55

   No AG post on this momentous occasion?
7. charontwo says:
   Monday, 19 January 2026 at 09:56

   @charontwo:

   There is a David French piece in the NYT that builds on the Atlantic piece while also addressing accountability in depth.

   “NYTGift”

   Also discussed at Steve M’s place:

   https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2026/01/are-we-in-lawless-state-or-non-lawless.html
8. Michael Reynolds says:
   Monday, 19 January 2026 at 09:58

   @becca:
   We looked at a house in Marin County that had a great view. Of San Quentin. Nope.

   1
9. becca says:
   Monday, 19 January 2026 at 10:46

   @Michael Reynolds: Our house in San Rafael had a beautiful view of the Marin Civic Center, another scene of political violence.

   2
10. Kathy says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 11:43

    The Nobel Peace Prize is chosen by a committee designated by the Norwegian parliament. I wonder if their rules allow for barring a person or organization from ever receiving a Nobel Peace Prize. Asking for an enemy.

    4
11. al Ameda says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 12:34

    @Michael Reynolds:

    @becca:
    We looked at a house in Marin County that had a great view. Of San Quentin. Nope.

    I still can’t believe that ‘they’ haven’t closed that prison and moved the entire operation to a new facility located betweeen Bagdad and Needles.

    @becca:
    @Michael Reynolds: Our house in San Rafael had a beautiful view of the Marin Civic Center, another scene of political violence.

    I lived in San Anselmo, and I often walked the trails and fire roads through the hills to a place above Terra Linda, with a great view of the Civic Center and the bay beyond. And yes, the 1970 shooting of Judge Haley, also Angela Davis was implicated because she owned the guns that Jonathan Jackson smuggled into the Civic Center courtroom.

    2
12. Kingdaddy says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 12:36

    To the surprise of no one, Stephen Miller doesn’t understand Star Trek.

    https://newrepublic.com/article/205406/stephen-miller-star-trek-idiot

    1
13. Jay L. Gischer says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 13:39

    @Kingdaddy: Oh I heard about that. What a dumbass.

    1
14. becca says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 14:06

    @al Ameda: that was a big story, even at Davidson Junior High.

    1
15. Michael Reynolds says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 14:09

    Fuck induction stovetops. I don’t care if the planet has to die of greenhouse gasses, fuck induction.
16. becca says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 14:27

    I just rediscovered Juan Cole at Informed Comment. Glad I did.

    First I learned of a new security umbrella à la NATO, but between Türkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Türkiye apparently no longer has faith in The US and some European members to protect them from Israel, should it attack.

    Reportedly, Pakistan has a larger military force than Israel, along with its nuclear arsenal, but lacks finance. Along comes Daddy Bonesaw to fill the gaps.

    New World Order, indeed.

    2
17. Scott says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 14:36

    Starting to add in some documents in Turbotax as they arrive. This is my tax process. Get document in, add it into the program, save, and wait for another one. Just happened to look at the difference between a 1040 and a 1040-SR. Here’s the difference: Larger print for seniors. That’s it. Made me laugh. Does the phone help speak louder when you call also?
18. Sleeping Dog says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 15:01

    @becca:

    Juan Cole is a go to for analysis of the middle east.

    1
19. Kathy says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 15:34

    @Kingdaddy:

    Back in the 90s DS9 did an ep where Dax is reunited with an old lover. They’re both bonded to female hosts now (look up Trill/symbiont physiology). Skipping a lot of exposition, and the gist of the episode, there’s a moment when both women kiss.

    Whether this was a first or not, it generated a lot of controversy (because of course it did). At the time, I frequented Trek message boards; I forget whether on the internet or still on pre-internet BBSes. While there was a great deal of discussion, there were also a few regulars whom I’d describe as MAGAts, though the term did not exist in those blissful days…

    I wondered why they even watched any Star Trek, given it has been a diverse show from the start, and very liberal since the 60s. I wonder the same thing today with the modern MAGAts.

    At that, I’m fairly certain people would have been far less critical of Discovery, had the protagonist not been a black woman.
20. Gustopher says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 17:03

    @Kathy: Discovery is fun, because you can try to spot the straight white male character, and it gets harder season after season to the point where it’s just recurring characters. It’s got to be really hard for a racist to find anyone to identify with.

    Before the time jump you have Lorca, Pike and maybe Spock (Bones would point out that he’s a half-breed, and everyone would laugh because space racism is funny, so…). After… Admiral Dilf (although the actor is Israeli, so does that really count? Plus he is shown to be in an interracial marriage, so anyone counting closely for racist reasons wouldn’t count him), and David Cronenberg.

    I think it’s very funny.

    Especially when it’s just Cronenberg and he looks so dramatically out of place with his big, chunky glasses and his very toned down future-fashion.

    But, as funny as it is, I think they also overdid it, particularly after the time skip. Representation matters, even for straight white men.

    But it is very funny.
21. dazedandconfused says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 17:10

    @Jay L. Gischer:

    A dumbass who thinks he, and only he, knows what’s best?
    He’s puzzled Thanos was cast as a bad guy too, I reckon.

    Miller is a sort of a Goebbels to this administration, but he wants to be it’s Himmler. If he ever gets real power he will kill people.

    1
22. JohnSF says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 17:32

    @becca:
    The Saudi-Pakistan defence association is of long standing.

    The Saudi’s were a major source of finance for the Pakistan nuclear weapons programme.
    And the Saudi purchase of Chinese ballistic missiles with too high CEP for conventional utility is anothe clue.

    If those buggers aren’t set up to mate to Pakistani nuclear warheads you can paint me green and call me a gherkin.

    3
23. dazedandconfused says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 18:14

    Caught the first episode of the new iteration of the Game of Thrones franchise last night, Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. It was well done. Have to see where it goes but the opening was a pleasure. A step in the other direction for them, away from grandiosity and towards simplicity. It’s the people that matter, not the grand stage.

    It seems to me the US industry creates far more caricatures than characters these days. Maybe all the Shakespearian training is saving the Brits from that disorder. I really don’t know.

    2
24. Kathy says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 18:16

    @Gustopher:

    Discovery is fun, because you can try to spot the straight white male character,

    Saru.

    If Spock counts and all…

    1
25. becca says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 18:21

    @JohnSF: so Türkiye is new to the arrangement, correct?
26. Jax says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 19:02

    @dazedandconfused: What service was it on? I hadn’t even heard there was a new one coming out!
27. Kathy says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 19:21

    I’m currently watching “The Franchise” on HBO. It’s about the production of a superhero movie. Contrary to my recent common practice, I’m streaming an ep each day.

    The plan is to junk either Netflix or HBO by next weekend, and then decide whether I want Amazon Prime Video (for the Hazbin Hotel and associated Hellaverse), or Paramount+ to finish rewatching all Trek sometime this year and next.

    On cooking matters, I made chicken breasts in the oven, along with some potatoes and turkey hot dogs. You really need more chicken and fewer potatoes and hot dogs to get the chicken-drippings flavor effect on the latter two. I expect to get it right when I cook the Xmas turkey sometime in May…

    You also need more chicken drippings for the gravy. I had to add a little butter to get the roux before adding the chicken stock.

    And some peanut butter just to stir @becca’s curiosity about my culinary preferences 😉

    I didn’t make a side, no time. I also cooked my weekly dinner of stir fried vegetables (green onions, bell pepper, carrots, and soybean sprouts), mixed with rice and seasoned with soy sauce, black pepper, and garlic.
28. JohnSF says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 19:31

    Ironic historical footnote time:
    Denmark sold some islands to the US in 1917.
    Now known as the US Virgin Islands
    Among those islands was Little Saint James.
    More commonly known today as “Epstein Island”
    Make of that what you will.

    1
29. Kathy says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 19:44

    They can put a man on the Moon, but they can’t provide a multibillion dollar aircraft carrier with working toilets.

    @JohnSF:

    A document related to that transaction also recognizes Danish sovereignty over Greenland.

    2
30. JohnSF says:
    Monday, 19 January 2026 at 19:53

    @Kathy:
    Maybe Trump is getting them mixed up?

    1
31. dazedandconfused says:
    Tuesday, 20 January 2026 at 00:09

    @Jax: HBO/Max.