Outside the Beltway

Thomas gets the ball rolling, and I take off from there.

Two unclassified after-action reports shine a new—if one-sided—light on the evacuation.

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

Yet another grim milestone.

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

The silly season has commenced a mite early.

The safety gap between affluent, white and poor, minority communities has grown over the last three decades.

A pioneering Black actor is gone at 94.

Apparently, New York and Oregon are not the same place.

The longtime Senate leader is gone at 82.

Democrats and Republicans are playing by different rules.

There is a lot of anger out there.

The convicted criminal has taken his shenanigans to court.

Humanitarian instincts rightly trumped security concerns.

An unsatisfying first(?) response.

Thirteen Marines and dozens of Afghan civilians are dead in a much-anticipated attack.

The evacuation could soon become a terrorist target.

It’s no better than Joe Manchin’s.

The indicators are pointing in the direction of caffeine being good for most people.

A problematically wide-open election in difficult times.

Biden’s America is a place and idea in which the trappings of empire or glory are ephemera in comparison with perennial human relationships—families; friendships; communities; schools; neighbors; partners.

There’s a word for people who use outrageous violence to terrorize.

In hindsight, there were more than a few clues.

Usually candidates don’t talk about how bad things are across the country while appealing to be re-elected.

A reckoning for 2500 Kosovar Serb civilians who were slaughtered is at hand.