Outside the Beltway

If Trump is able to insist upon a package deal or no deal at all, he may muck up his chance of policy success, but it may be the Democrats who lose politically.

The rise of ‘car sharing’ services has greatly benefitted consumers but had a devastating effect on taxi drivers.

In a healthy democracy we need not agree, nor must we finally even respect one another’s objects of devotion.  But we should exercise a salutary measure of mutual forbearance and be willing to acknowledge that no side has a monopoly on either truth or justice.

A Federal Appeals Court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Gary Johnson and Jill Stein regarding their exclusion from Presidential debates.

Foolishly, President Trump is rolling back part of President Obama’s opening to Cuba.

Part One in a series of observations about health care and health insurance in light of the introduction of the House GOP’s health care plan.

There are two sides in this war between Trump and the media, but only one of them is the right side.

Democracy produces good rulers, right?  Sometimes.  What good democracies actually produce best is good losers. Let us then be grateful for gracious losers, for our losers no less than our winners carry forward the American experiment in self-rule.  

If polls are any indication, voters are set to legalize marijuana in five more states on Tuesday.

Once again, the debate commission controlled by the two major parties is excluding third-party candidates from the Presidential debates.

The minimum wage has been a big part of this year’s election cycle, mainly due to Bernie Sander’s campaign and his idea of a national minimum wage. There has been lots of discussion of this, but most of it is just, well, bad. There are really two things that one can point to as to why wages above the market wage can be good.

The rise of Trump and Sanders has resurrected a debate as old as Western civilization.

Jim Webb’s recent criticism of Hillary Clinton is renewing speculation about an independent bid for the White House, but he hardly seems like a viable candidate for such a run.

Delaware has become the latest state to liberalize its laws regarding marijuana.

Paradoxically, the children of affluent parents are less happy than those of the poor.

A controversial marijuana legalization initiative that even many pro-legalization advocates opposed, lost in Ohio last night. But the nationwide momentum in favor of legalization will likely not be abated.

Republicans seem to be thinking that Hillary Clinton will be an easier General Election candidate than the evidence suggests she is likely to be.

Once again, Donald Trump is succeeding because he is saying things many Republicans agree with.

Taxes on wine, beer, and spirits vary wildly from state-to-state and even within each state.

The debate is ultimately academic.

JetBlu is joining the competition in charging bag fees and cramming in more seats.

Thinking about that the state, law, violence, and the Garner incident (and contributing to the tl;dr phenomenon).

Obama proposes four ‘net neutrality’ rules.

We are obviously moving toward an era of streaming and other services that don’t rely on Cable/Satellite providers, but it will still take some time to get there and for it to be cost effective.

Have digital books rendered the publishing houses obsolete?

All of the major sports leagues are trying to stop New Jersey’s efforts to legalize sports gambling. They should not be allowed to succeed.

One day after HBO, CBS announces its own streaming service. And the future approaches just a little bit faster.

Frank Foer proclaims, “Amazon Must Be Stopped. It’s too big. It’s cannibalizing the economy.”

Once again, there’s speculation that something is up in the world’s most closed society.

The nation’s newspaper of record is slashing its reporting team.

In 1995, the Speaker predicted Medicare is “going to wither on the vine because we think people are voluntarily going to leave it.”

http://nypost.com/2014/02/26/taxi-medallion-auctioned-for-record-setting-965000/

The Virginia DMV is threatening to crackdown on companies providing innovative car services to consumers.

After two and a half decades, the images of June 4, 1989 resonate with many, unless you happen to live in China.

It’s simple: We just have to define the problem and then solve it.

A rich guy wants to break up California.

Thanks to archaic state laws, you can look at cars in a Tesla showroom, but in my states you can’t but anything there.

The Supreme Court today struck down the most controversial part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

A song written when Grover Cleveland was President is still protected by Copyright Law. That makes no sense at all.

Have we all been fooled by a 75 year old marketing campaign?

Shouldn’t medical advances available in Germany be available in the United States and vice-versa?

The Virginia GOP’s nominee for Lt. Governor could pose a problem for the party.

It may have made sense to subsidize rural mail delivery once, that may not longer be the case?

The battle over Wisconsin’s public sector union reform continues.

Washington has become the first state in decades to privatize its state-run liquor stores. They’ve coupled this with onerous fees on private distributors.