Outside the Beltway

The Governors of Connecticut and New York are joining President Obama and Hillary Clinton in favor of a really bad idea.

Should Donald Trump be classified as a fascist?

The Cobbler’s Son Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

Representatives from 195 nations reached an agreement supposedly devoted to addressing global climate change, but it’s really more hype than anything else.

As longtime OTB readers may have noticed, I’m not writing much these days.

Remembering a legend on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Ted Cruz surges to a lead in the latest Iowa poll, setting up a seemingly inevitable showdown between the Texas Senator and Donald Trump.

Some analysts are already suggesting that Russia’s two month old intervention in Syria is becoming a quagmire. That seems to be a premature judgment, but it’s not accomplishing much more than anything the West is doing.

A Mormon Republican Senator visits an Arizona mosque.

A pseudonymous government relations professional examines “The Radicalization of Luke Skywalker: A Jedi’s Path to Jihad.”

Rand Paul is likely to miss the main stage for next Tuesday’s debate, so his campaign is already calling on CNN to change the rules.

Ben Carson threatens to leave the GOP over recent reports about plans for a brokered convention, but with his poll numbers collapsing one wonders why anyone would care if he did.

A New York Judge has upheld an injunction against Draft Kings and Fan Duel. It’s probably correct under New York law, but that just means the law needs to be changed.

Polling shows that most Americans oppose Donald Trump’s plan to bar Muslim’s from immigrating to the United States, but Republicans are far more receptive to the idea.

The quadrennial fantasy of a brokered convention, which American politics has not seen since 1952, is rearing its head again, and it’s no more likely now than it was when we talked about this four years ago.

North Korea’s mercurial leader now claims to have thermonuclear weapons, but analysts are saying this is likely braggadocios nonsense.

Notwithstanding the hopes of many Republicans, Donald Trump continues to be the person to beat in the race for the party’s 2016 Presidential nomination.

Sarah Palin has joined such luminaries as Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke in endorsing Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim immigration plan.

The man who killed three and wounded several others at a Colorado Planned Parenthood seemingly admitted guilt and motive in a courtroom outburst, but questions about his mental capacity remain.

A divided Supreme Court heard argument today in a case involving affirmative action in college admissions that is before the Court for the second time in two years.

A new poll appears to show that a majority of Republicans support Donald Trump’s plan to bar Muslims from immigrating to the United States.

The Director of the F.B.i. told Congress today that the San Bernardino shooters were apparently radicalized much earlier than previously believed.

Donald Trump continues to have a commanding lead in the Granite State, but it’s unclear whether he can translate poll support into votes when the primary rolls around.

Going to or, preferably, graduating from college makes it far more likely you’ll have a job. The numbers don’t lie.

Donald Trump’s plan to exclude Muslims from the United States is provoking condemnation, and confusion, around the world.

The Supreme Court heard oral argument today in a case that could have big implications for redistricting, and the make-up of state legislatures and the House of Representatives.

Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have mostly avoided attacking each other, but if the polls are any indication that detente may be about to come to an end in the Hawkeye State.

I am having a hard time seeing a system of districts based on eligible voters and not simply population.

Donald Trump’s plan to bar all Muslim immigration to the United States is being widely condemned by his fellow Republicans and others, but the proposal probably won’t hurt him politically in a Republican Party that is deeply bigoted against Muslims in general.

The Justice Department has launched a widespread investigation into the operation of the Chicago Police Department in the wake of the murder of LaQuan McDonald.

Donald J. Trump continues to turn the dial higher and higher on his fascist demagoguery.

The Supreme Court has declined to accept an appeal challenging a law barring certain types of so-called ‘assault weapons’ in a Chicago suburb.

As we deal with the fall out from the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, we need remember the years after September 11th, 2001 and avoid holding an entire religion responsible for the actions of fanatics.

Europe’s anti-immigrant, xenophobic far right scored major victories in France yesterday.

For an Oval Office address delivered on a Sunday night, President Obama’s speech last night sounded more like a statement read from the podium in the press room.

Time the Monday OTB Caption Contest^TM

NATO is extending full membership to the tiny nation of Montenegro, and there doesn’t seem to be a good reason why they’re doing it.

The attack in San Bernardino has seemingly left the Administration’s anti-terror strategy in disarray, so the President is addressing the nation tonight to say, well, something I guess.

The We’re All Bozos On This Bus Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

The German Parliament has approved expansion of the nation’s involvement in the campaign against ISIS, but that doesn’t make the current campaign any less incoherent.

The no-fly list is a flawed, arbitrary mess that has kept innocent people from flying for years. Using it to deny people rights recognized by the Constitution is, quite honestly, insane.

Yesterday, cable news networks, and most especially MSNBC, showed their profession at its most pathetic.

Donald Trump just keeps leading in the polls, and Republicans keep arguing that it can’t last.

The probability that the shootings in San Bernardino were at least inspired by ISIS and/or other Jihadist terror networks is increasing.

The November Jobs Report was good, but there still aren’t signs of the kind of stronger economic growth we need to see.

No, there really haven’t been 355 ‘mass shootings’ since January 1st. Not unless you’re relying on completely unreliable data.

Donald Trump’s speech yesterday at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition was as bizarre as anything else we’ve seen from him.

Mass shootings rightly grab our attention. But the obscure the overall picture of violent crime.