Outside the Beltway

It would be fitting but, alas, won’t happen.

Is the past still the past?

Misc. stories worth noting, but that I don’t have time to write about.

Bloomberg waffles on China while Sanders has a soft spot for Castro.

The House Judiciary Committee has revealed the Articles of Impeachment against the President that it will vote on later this week.

WIth North Korea’s end of the year deadline for progress on talks quickly approaching, it is clear that the Trump Administration’s policies with regard to the DPRK have failed.

With the clock ticking down to the end of the year and a deadline imposed by the DPRK on talks with the U.S., the Trump Administration’s North Korea policy is in a shambles.

Donald Trump’s pardons of soldiers convicted of war crimes sends the wrong message to the military, to our allies, and to the world.

Reversing decades of policy, the Trump Administration reversed decades of policy on settlements in disputed territory.

There’s no rational explanation for this.

The time for sitting on the sidelines is over. Donald Trump cannot be allowed to get away with his usurpation of power, his disdain for the law, or his continued policies that have damaged the country.

President Trump took to Twitter late this morning to fire his third National Security Adviser.

Another day, another Trump temper tantrum.

After urging from President Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has barred two Muslim-American Congressmen from visiting Israel. It is a foolish and outrageous decision.

The Trump Administration has effectively declared economic warfare against the government of Nicolas Maduro. It won’t succeed, and will further victimize the already suffering Venezuelan people.

The House of Representatives passed a defense spending bill that seeks to limit Presidential authority when it comes to striking Iran and aideing the Saudi war on Yemen.

Joe Biden delivered his first major foreign policy address of the campaign. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than what we have right now.

The Trump Administration unveiled new sanctions against Iran yesterday. They’re unlikely to accomplish the entirely unrealistic goals the President claims to have in mind.

The planes were apparently in the air, and the ships in position, for an American attack on Iran last night. Then the order to pull back came in.

Tensions are increasing in the Persian Gulf as the Iran war hawks seem to be winning the battle for the President’s support.

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 Trump Administration continues to misstate what the DPRK agreed to regarding its nuclear program. That’s why talks between the two nations are stalled.

The DPRK sent a message to the United States over the weekend, but it’s unlikely the President was listening.

The White House claims to want to talk to Iran but the President’s actions make clear that negotiation is the furthest thing from his mind.

The Trump Administration is taking an unnecessarily militaristic approach toward Iran, and that poses real dangers for the country and for the Middle East.

The ongoing apparent attempted coup in Venezuela is already leading to talk of American intervention in the event of a crackdown. That would be unwise and unjustified.

The Trump Administration’s policies toward Iran aren’t going to work, but that’s because they aren’t supposed to work.

The Wall Street Journal tries, and fails, to defend President Trump’s indefensible veto of the Congressional resolution regarding the war on Yemen.

President Trump has not surprisingly vetoed a Congressional resolution to limit American support for the Saudi war on Yemen. His defense for doing so is utterly absurd.

Because of course he did.

The Trump Administration still doesn’t have realistic goals for its negotiations with North Korea.

The Saudis tortured an American citizen, but the Trump Administration doesn’t care.

In the end, the reason the Hanoi Summit failed is because the Trump Administration is pursuing an unattainable goal.

Rather than pulling completely out of Syria the United States will be leaving behind a token force of about 200 troops. This is a mistake.

The Trump Administration continues to drive a wedge between the United States and Europe, can it ever be repaired?

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.

The self-appointed Acting President of Venezuela has said he doesn’t rule out the idea of American intervention in his country, but we should rule it out immediately.

More than any recent President, Donald Trump displays a tremendous amount ignorance about the world. Even worse is the fact that he seems proud of it.

As threatened late last year, the Trump Administration has withdrawn from the Intermediate=Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. This is a mistake.

The Trump Administration is reportedly preparing to withdraw the small contingent of American troops from Syria. If it actually happens, this would be a good move.

In a small, but meaningful, step, the Senate has rebuked the Administration’s policies toward the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

President Trump is expected to name a former Fox News host as Ambassador to the United Nations.

Notwithstanding the temptation to do something, both the United States and NATO need to resist the temptation to get involved in the latest conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

In what has to qualify as one of the most horrifying displays of moral depravity on the international stage, the Trump Administration is saying it doesn’t really care if the Saudi Crown Prince is a murderer or not.

President Trump recently blamed former President Obama for “losing” Crimea. It was never ours to lose.

President Trump is preparing to scrap a thirty-year-old treaty that marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War. It would be a foolish mistake.

Saudi Arabia is reportedly developing an explanation for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi that defies credulity.

The evidence that Saudi Arabia murdered Washington Post columnist and American Permanent resident Jamal Khashoggi appears to be incontrovertible.

Last Tuesday, Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain a document he needed. He hasn’t been seen since.

President Trump’s second speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations wasn’t much better than the first, but it it did get the world laughing at us.