Outside the Beltway

President Trump took to Twitter this morning and decided poke a stick in the eye of the Russian bear.

Paul Ryan won’t be running for re-election this year, opening up both a Congressional seat and a leadership spot.

Not surprisingly, a joint Senate Committee failed to really lay a glove on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at yesterday’s hearing.

Controversies involving Jimmy Kimmel and “The Simpsons” highlight a perennial question.

The United States has several options in Syria. None of them are good and one of them would be disastrous.

The Marvel superhero film passed ‘Titanic’ in US ticket sales. Unless we adjust for inflation. Which we absolutely should.

For every Trump tweet, there is literally something that says exactly the opposite.

A response to one of the most deadly chemical attacks in the Syrian civil war has come, probably from Israel. What’s next?

Trump’s tariff plan isn’t going over well in farm country, and that could cause problems for the GOP in November.

Dan Drezner notes some challenges on this topic, and I add some of my own thoughts.

President Trump is continuing his dangerous and misguided trade war rhetoric,

Argumentation without the intent to persuade is masturbation, not journalism.

The Atlantic fired one of their few conservative voices for saying women who have abortions should be hanged. Was this beyond the pale?

Donald Trump broke his silence on Stormy Daniels. That was a bad idea.

A woman who was fired after a photograph of her giving the middle finger to President Trump’s motorcade went viral is suing her former employer. She doesn’t have much of a case.

Thanks to a combination of sensationalism and outright lies, a fairly conventional story about an annual protest march in Mexico was turned into Fox News fodder that raised images of an invading army of illegal immigrants.

The “caravan” of immigrants that sent the President off the deep end on immigration issues is basically coming to an end.

Old-fashioned notions of journalistic neutrality are chafing young reporters in the Age of Trump.

A blog post and resulting Twitter exchange point to a larger problem in our political dialog.

More than 1200 refugees, mostly from Honduras, are trying to come to the United States. What should we do about it?

News anchors at dozens of local stations owned by conservative-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group were recently required to read a script mandated by corporate headquarters, and it’s leading to some bad media coverage for Sinclair.

In a bizarre Twitter rant, President Trump declared a DACA deal “dead,” blaming Democrats when it’s clear that it’s largely his fault.

Their website has been scrubbed! Tillerson has all but vanished! The sky is falling!

A Federal Judge In New York City is allowing a lawsuit against the President’s DACA order to go forward, and he based part of his ruling on the President’s own rhetoric.

Under the proposal certain visa-seekers (such as China and India) would have to have their social media presence scrutinized.

After initially praising the completion of a trade deal with South Korea, President Trump is now suggesting he may withhold final approval contingent on progress on talks with North Korea. This makes no sense whatsoever.

Within hours after being fired as Secretary of Veterans Affairs, David Shulkin was fighting back.

Descriptions of Robby Jackson as “Trump’s personal physician” mischaracterize his qualifications for the job.

After several days of speculation, it was confirmed that the leaders of North Korea and China had met in Beijing. This was meant as much for external consumption as it was the relationship between the two nations.

If you recall your grade school civics, you already knew this.

Fourteen months into his presidency, he has no idea how the federal budget works.

Normally attorneys would be jumping at the chance to represent the President of the United States. With Donald Trump, the lawyers are distancing themselves from him as fast as they can.

Like many Presidents before him, Donald Trump wants a line-item veto. Getting there won’t be easy, nor should it be.

A well-meaning journalist brushes off critiques by experts in the field. He owes it to his readers to keep learning.

Personal attacks on teenagers whose friends were murdered is a strategy sure to backfire.

The Department Of Justice is proposing a rule change that would ban bump stocks, but it could run into legal problems.

The President’s new attempt to ban transgender Americans from serving in the military is as legally defective as the original ban was.

From Europe to the Middle East, to Asia, America’s allies are concerned about what the selection of John Bolton as National Security Adviser means going forward. They should be, and so should every American.

Congress passed a funding bill to avert a shutdown with time to spare early this morning, but now the President is threatening a veto.

Is Google acting as a good citizen here? Or abusing its market dominance?

Profiles in courage? With Republicans in the Trump Era, it’s more like profiles in cowardice.

President Trump continues to obsequiously praise Russian President Vladimir Putin

The Nigerian terrorist group has released an unknown number of the 110 girls kidnapped from a boarding school last month.

Sometimes, it’s all in the framing.

A famous name enters the race to challenge Andrew Cuomo, but it’s unlikely she’ll have much of an impact.

We don’t yet have enough information to assign blame here. Naturally, that’s not stopping anyone.

The head of the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation admitted yesterday that the committee was never focused on any potential evidence of collusion.

Local and federal authorities are investigating a spree of explosions terrorizing Austin, Texas.

If you’re tired of the restraint being shown by this President, you may be in luck.

The fact that Andrew McCabe was fired before he could retire means that he will lose out on some significant pension benefits, but. contrary to some media reporting, he won’t lose his pension completely.