Outside the Beltway

Another case where the cruelty is the point?

Last night New York City experienced what turned out to be a short-lived blackout mostly limited to Manhattan’s West Side, but it brought back memories of much bigger events.

A silly story for the silly season.

Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire investor previously charged with sex crimes involving minors, has been charged with sex trafficking involving minors.

In memos to his superiors, the British Ambassador to the United States had an exceedingly frank, and negative, assessment of the current occupant of the White House.

Democrats clashed, to some degree, in last night’s inaugural debate of the 2020 season but they clearly agreed far more than they disagreed.

The Alaska Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s sex offender registry violates due process protections in the state and Federal Constitutions.

Maine has become the eighth state to pass a law allowing terminally ill the choice to bring their lives to a dignified end.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg laid out his foreign policy platform in a speech this week. It’s certainly an improvement over the current President.

The lineups for the first Democratic debate of the 2020 season are set but some candidates are likely to be unhappy.

A trio of new polls shows Elizabeth Warren slipping past Bernie Sanders into second place in the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination

The participants for the two-night opening debate of the 2020 campaign season have been announced, and the candidates who were excluded aren’t happy.

Presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway stands credibly accused of multiple violations of Federal law. The President will do nothing about it.

At least some conservatives appear to finally be recognizing that their movement has been taken over by grifters and frauds. The only question is, what took them so long?

Thirty years ago, when the veterans of D-Day were still relatively young and still largely with us, President Reagan delivered one of the finest speeches of his Presidency.

The original ‘scandal’ was silly. The follow-up is sillier.

David Brooks joins the long line of commenters predicting the GOP’s demise.

Further progress for advocates of marijuana legalization from the Land of Lincoln.

Having exhausted their word list and the competitors, the contest ended with octo-champs.

In the latest development in the child sex abuse investigations in the Catholic Church in the United States, five former Priests in Michigan have been arrested on sex abuse charges.

Some 2020 Democratic hopefuls are turning to a surprising source for counsel.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has informed Congress that he will not comply with a subpoena seeking the President’s tax returns, meaning that we’re headed for a court battle.

Two youngish Rhodes Scholars turned mayors are getting covered differently.

More good news for Joe Biden, this time out of South Carolina.

In a first of its kind move, voters in Denver have voted to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms.

The New York Times has obtained about ten years worth of Donald Trump’s tax returns from the late eighties to early nineties. They don’t tell us much that we didn’t already know.

California is the latest state to try to force all Presidential candidates, including the President, to release their tax returns as a condition for getting on the ballot. It’s not at all clear that this is permitted under the Constitution.

Ballot measures across the country would deny access to those who refuse to release tax returns.

Pete Buttigieg is getting a lot of attention for a relatively unknown candidate. but it’s unclear if it can last.

Cory Booker’s message of unity isn’t going over well with Democratic voters eager for a fight.

As Democrats at the state level seek to limit the ability of parents to decline to vaccinate their children. they are facing resistance from Republican colleagues.

Are people fleeing blue states to avoid repressive taxes? It depends who you’re asking.

Princeton historian Sean Wilentz lays to rest a pernicious idea propagated by . . . Princeton historian Sean Wilentz.

Senate Republicans are pushing for the end of minority obstruction—and the Democrats can’t wait.

In 2016, a crowded Republican field yielded an unlikely nominee. Could history repeat itself in 2020?

Labor law has not kept up with our changing economy.

Democratic candidates for President are quickly voicing support for marijuana legalization.

Last week, the House passed two bills to strengthen the laws regarding background checks for guns, but they’re not likely to even make it to the floor of the Senate.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan continues to sound like someone seriously considering running against Donald Trump.

The American Civil Liberties Union has joined the list of groups with lawsuits against the President’s declaration of a “national emergency” at the southern border.

The lawsuits against President Trump’s “national emergency” have begun. Except more.

Pope Francis defrocked former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after decades of allegations of abuse of young boys and seminarians.

Two new reports identify hundreds of Catholic Priests who have been credibly accused of abusing children over the past decades.

In a rare display of assertiveness in the foreign policy arena, the House voted yesterday to bar U.S. assistance in Saudi Arabia’s genocidal war on Yemen.

New polling indicates that a solid majority of Democrats are more interested in finding a candidate who can beat Donald Trump in 2020 than they are with finding a candidate that agrees with them on specific issues.

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is the latest entrant into the race for the 2020 Democratic Nomination.

Pensions and health care costs for the elderly are crowding out other vital spending.

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

For the first tine in nearly ten years, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving Second Amendment rights.

As expected. California Senator Kamala Harris has entered the race for President.