Outside the Beltway

A real example of American exceptionalism.

Because I really do need to close some of these tabs.

He’s using a tool he denounced as cruel to deal with a humanitarian crisis.

This is just playing crass political games with human beings.

How long can the unsustainable be sustained?

Strikes near the Polish border show the real possibility of escalation.

Expert opinion on the standoff differs sharply.

A possible murder plot in Colombia embedded into a problematic multi-decade narrative.

The Biden admin is about to take a demilitarized group off the terrorist list and some people aren’t happy about it.

A depressing magazine piece argues it is.

Some recent news items that add to concern about American democracy.

The law and justice are frequently not the same thing.

A problematically wide-open election in difficult times.

The party is unlikely to suffer consequences for its anti-democracy actions.

A shameful farce continues to unfold.

The pandemic is having serious effects in the region, and they will persist for some time.

Some explosive charges in the former National Security Advisor’s book.

In recent weeks the US has ramped-up pressure on Maduro.

Conferences, sporting events, and even school has been canceled to avoid spreading the pandemic.

President Trump has reportedly pledged to Chinese President Xi Jinping that the United States would not speak out against Chinese actions in Hong Kong.

Well that didn’t take long.

John Bolton was not a good National Security Adviser, but the real problem with Trump Administration foreign policy comes from the man at the top.

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

Republicans from around the country want Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to run for Senate in Kansas. Because they’re afraid they can’t win without him.

Under the Trump Administration, the American commitment to human rights around the world is basically dead.

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.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg isn’t very impressed by the proposals made by several liberal politicians lately to increase the size of the Supreme Court to counterbalance the conservative tilt created by the Gorsuch and Kavanaugh confirmations.

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 Pentagon has been headed by Acting Secretaries for an unprecedented period. Does it really matter?

This time on Venezuela

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

While the American media was paying attention to President travels and travails in Europe, there was another meeting taking place.

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

His colum in WaPo isn’t very good.

President Trump is in Japan, and while there is is dismissing the seriousness of new North Korean missile tests that threaten Japan.

President Trump’s foreign policy has largely been a failure, and there are specific reasons why.

With his attempt to overthrow the government clearly a failure, Juan Guaidó is back to calling for foreign military intervention in Venezuela.

While he campaigned on a message of restraint, Donald Trump has largely adopted the interventionist foreign policies of his predecessors.

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

With the apparent failure of the coup attempt in Venezuela, what happens next?

President Trump’s obsequious effort to please Russian President Vladimir Putin continues.

Its explanation for why its paywall is coming down 3 days leads us to an obvious question.

The former Kentucky coal executive, Republican fundraiser, and Ambassador to Canada would replace Nikki Haley in what used to be a position dominated by more experienced diplomats.

Lacking any real support from the military or police, the attempted coup against Nicolas Maduro has predictably failed.

While street protests continue, the efforts to get the Venezuelan military to oust President Nicolas Maduro appear to have failed.

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.

Breaking News out of Latin America

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