Outside the Beltway

A disturbing story that’s almost certainly not what it first appears.

As many as twelve candidates for the Democratic nomination may not qualify for the next debate. They should use that as an opportunity to get out of a race they clearly aren’t going to win.

Continuing the conversation from James Joyner’s post.

Confirming the original diagnosis, Jeffrey Epstein’s death last weekend has been ruled a suicide.

Protests in Hong Kong have been going on for nine weeks now, but they are reaching a point where the patience of the leaders in Beijing is being tested.

Jeffrey Epstein’s death by suicide has led to many legitimate questions that should be investigated. It has also led to the rise of a number of baseless conspiracy theories.

Donald Trump is a complete package, you can’t support part of it without at least implicitly endorsing all of it.

A Republican State Legislator in Nebraska says things that other Republicans don’t have the courage to say.

A new poll has a majority of respondents saying the President is a racist. He won’t care.

July’s Jobs Report was in line with expectations, but hardly indicative of a booming economy.

Future debates among the 2020 Democratic candidates are likely to have fewer participants. That’s a good thing.

As was the case a month ago, Vice-President Biden and Senator Kamala Harris were the focus of last night’s debate. Things turned out very differently, though.

Trump’s attacks on racial minorities are going to continue, and get worse, the closer we get to 2020. Because stirring up fear and racial resentment among white working-class voters is the only way he can win.

The economy slowed somewhat during the second three months of 2019, but the economic recovery still looks strong as we head into the 122nd month of positive growth.

The lineups for the second Democratic debate are set, and they include some interesting pairings.

Once again, twenty candidates will participate in the second debate scheduled to take place over two nights at the end of the month.

The numbers are in and there’s good news for some candidates and bad news for a lot of the others.

The failure of Republicans and conservatives to denounce the President’s racism reveals everything that has gone wrong with the “right” in the Trump Era.

The Trump Administration is expected to begin mass deportation raids as early as this weekend.

A law professor reads too much into a cryptic concurrence.

The post-debate polling of the Democratic race continues to be somewhat chaotic, but it’s clear that Harris and Warren have made this a very different race than it was before the debates.

Three new polls show significant changes in the Democratic race in the wake of last week’s debates.

News outlets are hyping small swings in their surveys but the race is pretty much where it was when it began.

Democrats clashed, to some degree, in last night’s inaugural debate of the 2020 season but they clearly agreed far more than they disagreed.

There are children being held in what amount to internment camps on the southern border under appallingly bad conditions and the President is more concerned with falsely blaming his predecessor for the problem.

The Democratic Socialist wants to absorb $1.6 trillion of student debt.

Pete Butttigieg has spent the past week dealing with a crisis back in South Bend. How he handles it could have a significant impact on his campaign.

Following through on a threat made by the President earlier this week, immigration authorities are reportedly planning mass raids aimed primarily at immigrant families starting tomorrow.

Despite his claims, President Trump is actually deporting fewer people than were deported under former President Obama.

The participants for the two-night opening debate of the 2020 campaign season have been announced, and the candidates who were excluded aren’t happy.

How much sacrifice in our consumer culture is it worth to save the planet?

There isn’t a lot of legislating going on.

Despite opposition from the Catholic Church, or perhaps in rebellion against it, Irish voters overwhelmingly approved a new law liberalizing that nation’s divorce laws.

The House has passed legislation that would extend the protections of the Civil Rights Act to LGBT Americans, but it is probably doomed in the Senate.

A new GAO report finds that HUD Secretary Ben Carson broke the law when he ordered a $31,000 table for his office.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has entered the race for the Democratic nomination for President, making him the 23rd candidate in an already crowded field.

Passing up an opportunity that other Democrats are taking, Elizabeth Warren is declining to appear on Fox News Channel. This seems like an unwise decision.

It’s an interesting idea, although one fraught with moral hazard.

The New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago metro areas are all losing people.

The Vermont socialist likes to invent rights that don’t exist.

So far, Beto O’Rourke’s campaign has been far more about image than substance.

Stephen Miller and others wanted to punish Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats by dumping detained migrants in their districts.

There are even higher obligations than taking care of Marines.

It’s a lot harder than it looks.

A Washington Post columnists tries to make the case.

The HUD Secretary’s practice of treating Friday as a light-duty day is just fine by me.

Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper is the latest entrant into an already crowded Democratic field.

Economic growth slowed significantly in the fourth quarter of 2018 from where it had been earlier in the year. And it’s likely to slow down even more.

If all goes well, the bill to avert another shutdown should become law today.

Starbucks Founder Howard Schultz is considering an independent run for the Presidency. This would likely be good news for President Trump.