Outside the Beltway

It might feel good but it has zero impact on Putin.

Pundits like Thomas Friedman struggle with premature prognostication.

Links and infographics.

Addressing an analytical pet peeve (and, more importantly, correcting a mistake).

NATO has stepped up in a pleasantly surprising way to resist the Ukraine invasion.

News and commentary of note.

Some of his numbers are worse than even Donald Trump’s.

Sanctions are already taking a toll. But the West could do more if it had the will.

Deterring Russia is a matter of principle.

The military threat is smaller, but the political one is bigger.

Putin’s forces are in Kyiv.

The first shoe has dropped.

The much-anticipated escalation has happened. Now to see how the United States and its allies respond.

Western intelligence agencies continue to predict an invasion under absurd pretexts.

How do we know when our government is telling us the truth?

The Biden administration is close to repairing the damage Trump caused.

There’s no keeping politics out of these Games.

But from what? Comparing two stories from Tennessee that show our society’s contradictory impulses when it comes to “protecting the children.”

The 46th President will follow the lead of the 40th in making a historic appointment.

Expert opinion on the standoff differs sharply.

The United States and its NATO allies are in a dangerous standoff.

A necessary but likely irrelevant gesture.

A roundup of reflection on a somber anniversary.

Misc. stories for your enjoyment.

Modern and Pfizer are your best bets, but most of the world has had other vaccines.

Kids are getting caught in the crossfire of the fight over COVID shots.

Russia’s leader sees the situation in the former Soviet Republic quite differently than the West.

Russia may invade Ukraine again. The United States would prefer otherwise.

Every now and again, it’s not Mitch McConnell’s fault.

A depressing magazine piece argues it is.

The Politician’s Syllogism rears its ugly head.

American cheese will henceforth be known as liberté cheese. And not because of the metric system.

A follow-up to yesterday’s analysis.

The Islamic Republic is very close to being able to fuel a single weapon.

A departure from the Internet-era tradition.

If it’s made in France, it’s “sparkling wine.”

The postmortems are well underway.

Some recent news items that add to concern about American democracy.

Gotta clear those tabs.

Some good news in the hacking wars.

“If the conservative cause depends on the populist appeal of one personality, or on second-rate imitations, then we’re not going anywhere.”

What constitutes a “low income” or “high income” country?

RussiaGate is back in the news but the story is unlikely to move the needle.

An exceptional choice that breaks the recent tradition of politicos in the post.

Four administrations and two decades later, it’s about to be over.

The media became the story but the President was the news.

Empowering authoritarians.

Reflections on the events of 6 January two months later.

The fecklessness of U.S. human rights policy in full display.