Outside the Beltway

Last week, the Mexican Supreme Court pushed that country further down the road toward legalization of marijuana for all purposes.

Democrats have flipped the Senate seat currently held by Republican Jeff Flake.

In addition to being mandated by the Constitution, birthright citizenship goes to the core of what it means to be an American.

The GOP is likely to lose control of the House of Representatives tomorrow, but could this actually help Trump?

Overwhelmingly, legal experts agree that President Trump is wrong about birthright citizenship and the Fourteenth Amendment.

In another sign of the rapid secularization taking place in that country, Irish voters last weekend voted to rescind the nation’s centuries-old, albeit not recently enforced, law against blasphemy.

President Trump is now claiming he will end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants via Executive Order. He clearly lacks the authority to do this.

The vise is tightening on the Catholic Church.

Donald Trump is talking about a tax cut that appears to exist only in his own mind.

Republicans passed a tax cut bill in December they hoped would help in the midterm elections. It has turned out to be a big dud.

Alaska’s Independent Governor Bill Walker has suspended his campaign and endorsed his Democratic rival in the hope of blocking a Republican victory.

Marijuana is now legal in Canada, and many people are watching the country to see how it adjusts to this change.

Part III is here (a lot sooner than Part II was).

American involvement in the genocidal Saudi war on Yemen is getting more complicated. This is a bad idea.

For the second time this year, a Federal Court has struck down a state law designed to punish businesses that engage in a boycott aimed at Israel.

The State of Texas is arguing in Court that a school district can force a student to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. This is a blatant violation of the First Amendment.

Donald Trump has been in office just over 600 days, and he’s proven beyond any doubt that he doesn’t care if what he says is the truth or not.

As expected, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo easily fended off a challenge from actress Cynthia Nixon. Let the Presidential speculation begin.

The Federal Budget Deficit is set to end the Fiscal Year close to $1 trillion, and to continue growing after that.

With the Democratic Primary just days away, Andrew Cuomo’s Democratic challenger in New York is making headlines thanks to a rather odd culinary choice.

Delaware Democratic Senator Tom Carper beat back a challenge from a ‘progressive” challenger in Thursday’s primary.

Donald Trump is a bad, inept, and potentially dangerous President. That doesn’t mean that a ‘soft coup’ inside the White House is the answer to the problem he presents to our democratic republic.

An Oregon state agency is suggesting that Walmart’s decision to restrict arms sales to bar people under 21, but over 18, from being able to purchase firearms violates state law.

Washington said farewell to John McCain today in a service that both remembered his spirit and his heroism, and stands as a sharp rebuke to what politics has been reduced to in America today.

A Federal Judge in Texas has declined to grant a request to bring the DACA program to an end, but its days appear to be numbered unless Congress acts.

Former Vice-President Biden’s eulogy for his friend John McCain is a lesson in what has gone wrong with American politics.

California is taking a major step in Criminal Justice reform by eliminating cash bail.

As expected, Rick Scott easily won the GOP nomination for Senate in Florida, setting up one of the most highly anticipated Senate races of the year.

Another step forward in the seemingly unstoppable movement toward nationwide legalization.

Laura Ingraham has responded to the deluge of criticism to her foolish and disturbing commentary. This response is also disturbing. Her attempt to walk back the racist tone of her monologue falls flat. Her statement trying to make her views more clear reveal more of her limited thinking on this matter and in general.

In an obvious effort to pander to the city’s taxi industry, New York City is placing new limits on ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft.

In a rare red-state victory for labor unions, Missouri voters rejected a right to work initiative by an overwhelming margin.

Kris Kobach, the controversial Secretary of State of Kansas who is also a Trump ally, holds on to a slim lead in the GOP Primary for Governor.

A Federal Appeals Court has found that a Trump Administration policy purporting to punish so-called sanctuary cities is unconstitutional.

A powerful political network is distancing itself from the Trump-dominated Republican Party.

President Trump is suggesting he may force a government shutdown over his immigration policies just a month before the midterm elections.

The recent report of 4.1% GDP growth over the previous quarter is indeed welcome news. However, taking a look at the data both recent and in the past and there are some reasons to be concerned about GDP growth in general.

Trump’s trade war will claw back 25% of the growth in GDP, slightly more than 20% of the wage growth and more than wipe out all the jobs his tax cuts would provide.

The Garden State has put a hold on marijuana prosecutions in anticipation of full legalization by the end of the year.

New York and several other states have filed an incredibly dubious lawsuit against the Republican’s new tax law.

Three new polls show that Republicans basically agree with the leader of their party when it comes to the issue of Russian interference in American elections.

California’s Democratic Party endorsed “progressive” upstart Kevin de León over Senator Dianne Feinstein, but this is unlikely to stop Feinstein from winning election to a sixth term in office.

With Brexit negotiations proceeding slowly, Theresa May loses her Brexit Minister and, more significantly, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who is likely to become one of her leading critics inside the Conservative Party going forward.

A Federal Judge in California has largely rejected a Trump Administration challenge to a series of new laws in California designed to protect so-called “sanctuary cities.”

The National Debt has passed $21,000,000,000,000 for the first time in history just as the nation begins its return to the era of trillion dollar budget deficits.

Jim Jordan, who heads the powerful House Freedom Caucus, is being accused of ignoring reports of sexual abuse by a team doctor while he was a coach at The Ohio State University.

What was once a rare symbol of national mourning has become so commonplace as to be meaningless.

The current discussion about SCOTUS is a good excuse to look at how other countries handle these things.

The House of Representatives has left town after once again failing to pass an immigration reform bill,, thus likely ensuring that nothing will be passed before the midterms.