Outside the Beltway

On Wednesday, much of official Washington, and likely a good part of the country itself, will pause to watch what are likely to biggest hearings since the late 1980s.

As early as Tuesday, Boris Johnson could be confirmed as the winner in the race for Tory leadership. This will make him the next British Prime Minister. Not everyone in the United Kingdom is thrilled about that idea.

Some key numbers.

He could lose the popular vote by an even larger margin in 2020—and still coast to re-election.

California’s legislature has passed a law purporting to require candidates for President to release copies of their tax returns, but it’s likely to face legal challenges if it becomes law.

Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail last night with another one of his red meat speeches. The analogies it causes one to draw are chilling to say the least.

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 House Judiciary Committee has upped the ante in the showdown between the Trump Administration and Congress.

The government in Hong Kong keeps conceding ground to the protests that have taken hold in the city, but the protesters have more fundamental objections.

Another court loss for Trump and his border wall.

Presidential v. parliamentary democracy, some basics.

Ideas, not tanks.

A convergence of OTB discussions.

The Republican Party is ruining the country. But so are the Democrats?

The Trump Administration has officially conceded to the rule of law.

Whether he knows it or not, Donald Trump is assisting the Russian leader in his goal of undermining the foundational institutions of democracy and freedom.

The ongoing protests in Hong Kong over controversial extradition legislation have taken a violent turn.

Let’s call it what it is.

The latest in the wars against liberalism.

Robert Mueller has agreed to testify before Congress in public. Testimony that is likely to be the big story of the summer.

Eight months later, the President and his Administration continue to refuse to acknowledge the truth about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

Evidence appears to clearly established that Russia used many of the same social media efforts it used in the United States in 2016 to interfere in the recent European Parliament elections.

Trump and Iran.

The Supreme Court rejected an effort by the Virginia House of Delegates to overturn a Federal Court ruling that the state’s district lines constituted gerrymandering by race. But they didn’t rule on the merits of the appeal.

President Trump’s opening rally of the 2020 campaign sounded an awful lot like a rally from 2016

If Hong Kong’s leaders thought protesters would be satisfied with relatively minor concessions, they have significantly miscalculated the situation.

This time on Venezuela

Amusing results, and a history lesson, in a new poll

With the Trump Administration continuing to stonewall investigations, the House of Representatives is seeking to ramp up the pressure.

America’s Newspaper of Record has decided the backlash isn’t worth it.

Is it really such a bad thing when a politician changes a long-help position on a political issue?

Protesters flooded the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday over proposed change to the city’s extradition laws.

Donald Trump has betrayed the legacy and the sacrifices of the soldiers who fought their way onto the beaches of Normandy.

Just a day before he is scheduled to arrive in the city for a State Visit, London’s Mayor is denouncing President Trump.

The transatlantic rejection of elite consensus that began with Brexit continues.

Does the House have an obligation to proceed with impeachment?

The cost of Trump’s trade policies are well beyond the cost of soy beans.

No, abolishing the EC would not turn farmers into serfs.

Theresa May has announced she is stepping down as leader of the Conservative Party as of June 7th, starting a process that will have her out of Downing Street withing the next two months or so.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been indicted on seventeen counts under the Espionage Act arising out of his role in the Chelsea Manning affair.

A new poll shows that roughly two-thirds of Americans, including a large number of Republicans, do not want to see Roe v. Wade overturned.

President Trump is reportedly planning to pardon several American servicemen convicted of war crimes, an action that would be an insult to everyone who has ever worn an American uniform.

Forget high language about constitutional prerogatives. This is about parties and elections.

We already know enough to impeach.

Based on the early stages of the campaign for the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination, it appears as though the party’s progressive wing has misread the signals being sent by the party’s voters.

As expected, the House Judiciary Committee voted yesterday on party lines to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt for refusing to turn over a full copy of the Mueller Report

California is the latest state to try to force all Presidential candidates, including the President, to release their tax returns as a condition for getting on the ballot. It’s not at all clear that this is permitted under the Constitution.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared “case closed” on the Mueller Report and the Russia investigation. This is far from the truth.

More Madisonian musing on the current state of our constitutional order.

Back to Fed 51 and this moment in oversight: we have to remember what ambitions drive politicians.