Outside the Beltway

Much of Atlanta city government has been forced to rely on pen and paper this week thanks to a Ransomware attack.

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.

In selecting John Bolton as his National Security Adviser, Donald Trump has signaled to the world that he’s likely to take action that will only serve to make the world a more dangerous place.

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

The United States has joined Great Britain and much of Europe in retaliating against Russia for the attempted murder of a former Russian spy on British soil.

Not surprisingly, John Bolton has some links to particularly shady people on the right.

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

The incoming National Security Advisor reportedly wants to purge those who aren’t sycophants.

The President issued an incredibly confusing order that contradicts the advice of his generals and is probably illegal.

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.

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

Top White House staffers were preparing to fire several troublesome figures at once when the President suddenly upended the plan.

Uh oh.

Republicans on Capitol Hill worried about all the leaking coming from the Trump White House would be wise to actually do the oversight the Constitution compels them to do.

A new report confirms that the White House has indeed required staffers to sign non-disclosure agreements that are clearly not enforceable.

President Trump continues to obsequiously praise Russian President Vladimir Putin

The network’s longtime “strategic analyst” is “ashamed” of his association because they’ve become a “propaganda machine.”

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

A package exploded in San Antonio overnight. It was believed bound for Austin. It would be the fifth in a spree of bombings in the city this month.

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.

Not unexpectedly, Russia has retaliated for Great Britain’s retaliation for Russia’s apparent assassination attempt on British history.

The FBI’s former deputy director was shamefully fired late Friday night, after which President Trump gloated on Twitter.

H.R. McMaster appears to be on the way out as National Security Adviser. The important question is, who replaces him?

ProPublica has retracted an explosive but erroneous report about the nominee to be the next CIA Director.

The selection of Mike Pompeo as the next Secretary of State makes it more likely that President Trump will take the foolish and dangerous step of withdrawing the United States from the nuclear deal with Iran.

The nominations of Mike Pompeo and Gina Haspel could be in trouble in the Senate.

By all accounts, Gina Haspel is exceedingly well qualified to be the next C.I.A. Director, but she has a troubling past that the Senate will need to at least force her to answer questions about.

While the nature of Rex Tillerson’s firing as Secretary of State was shocking in its abruptness, taken in context with the rocky nature of his tenure it was hardly surprising.

Rex Tillerson was an awful Secretary of State who simply had to go, It’s quite possible his successor will be an even greater disaster.

Nine years later, at least one member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee is admitting what seemed at the time a rather obvious fact.

Ending an investigation that was flawed and tainted with partisanship from the start, the House Intelligence Committee has abruptly concluded its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

The statute of limitations has expired. But he should never have been asked the question to begin with.

By threatening to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran, Donald Trump is making it far less likely that any upcoming talks with North Korea will succeed.

Absent changes in policy, the nation’s most hallowed military cemetery will run out of space in two decades.

Service members deployed to Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Niger, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Tunisia, and Uganda qualify.

There won’t be any tanks, but it looks like President Trump will get his military parade.

Kids are more likely to be killed driving to school than shot while there. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and prevent them.

A disturbing report in the Miami Herald highlights the farce into which this trial has descended.

In Defense One, Butch Bracknell and I explain “Why ‘Different Spanks for Different Ranks’ Are Often Justified.”

Four social media stars have been fired from their television show after the revelation that Pamela Gellar is their mother.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham says war against North Korea would be worth it. Ignoring the fact that it would result in casualties unlike anything America has seen since the Vietnam War.

John Bolton is leading a cry for preemptive war against North Korea.

Will the NRA lobby to have these on America’s streets?

We form stereotypes about generational cohorts when they’re very young and then freeze them.

President Trump has announced that he’ll be imposing significant tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. This is an unwise decision.

With the Winter Olympics over, the next step on the Korean Peninsula is utterly unclear.

President Trump continues to deny the reality of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, and he’s failing to act to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Despite the activism we’ve seen in the wake of the school shooting in Florida, it’s unlikely that we’ll see significant Congressional action on guns.

This is very much why the security clearance process requires so much financial disclosure.