ArcaMax

WASHINGTON -- Nobody home. Gone fishing. The lights are out in the federal government.

The House of Representatives chamber is deserted and silent as a tomb. It's almost as if its Republican leaders don't care if the country is in crisis.

While the president carries out a bloody plot to snuff out the federal government like a brief candle, ...Read more

Sometimes, cosmic oddities come together in comic ways. For example, Google positions the biography of right-wing Texas governor Greg Abbott right under the one for yesteryear's slapstick comedians, Abbott and Costello.

It's almost cruel for Gov. Greg to be juxtaposed with that quick-witted duo, for he's a dour, slow-witted, plutocratic pol, ...Read more

"Sunrise at the festival is the greatest moment," recalls one survivor of the Nova Music Festival that drew 4,000 young people to a spot in southern Israel about three miles from Gaza's border the first weekend of October 2023. "People just came to dance," she said. "It felt like nothing could go wrong."

Something did.

After two years of ...Read more

Exactly why are the Democrats trying to save Republicans from a drubbing in the midterms? Their shutdown of the government to stop cuts in health coverage does not work to their political advantage -- or ultimately help those they purport to be protecting.

Republicans running for reelection know that their One Big Beautiful Bill will cause ...Read more

The Trump administration continues to escalate its deployment of military troops and federal law enforcement to cities across the country. We are witnessing the build-out of a national paramilitary policing force that could be used to intimidate people and consolidate President Donald Trump's power.

This week alone, the administration placed ...Read more

It's called the "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." It is anything but. It asks the schools who received Wednesday's letter to give up their academic freedom and adopt the right-wing partisan platform on education in exchange for preferred access to federal funding. Of course, the document points out (as it must) that "...Read more

Dying regimes do funny things.

Dying superpowers plan for a future that never comes. I have a 1992 Soviet ruble note, redesigned the year before. Considering that the USSR closed shop in 1991, they probably should have focused on something more pressing than their next five-year plan.

Dying dictatorships bluff and bluster. Despite the ...Read more

Fall means deer season and I'm reminded of the time an eight-point buck confronted me in the woods. It was October in Michigan and cold enough to warrant a fleece face mask. I sat on a stool under a tree just 100 yards from my husband, waiting in the early morning quiet while the forest took shape with the rising sun.

The terrain dipped low ...Read more

It's perfect coup weather.

President Donald Trump spoke before American generals, reminding them that they'll, by God, do what they're told or they'll, by God, lose the pension.

They endured a series of insults and left, not like prideful lions, but like civil servants scared of losing their jobs. Except for the medals on their chests, they ...Read more

Right before New York's Democratic mayoral primary, political seers declared with enormous confidence that Andrew Cuomo would easily beat Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani. They were wrong.

Now, about a month before the general election where Cuomo is running as an independent, the same blowhards are barking that Mamdani has it all but in ...Read more

As I write this, the government is hours away from shutting down. Countless federal employees whose jobs are to serve the public will be furloughed. Services will be disrupted. To take one example, the Environmental Protection Agency is planning to furlough nearly 90% of its workforce. Is the air too clean? The water and the beaches too safe? ...Read more

ROME, Italy -- I traveled to an ancient world to see a future version of America.

The "No Kings" chant is a bit off. Donald Trump's true calling and character is akin to a cruel Roman emperor.

Under the sun's glare, the Colosseum stood as huge and imposing as ever, even more so in real life.

Trump would love to enter the emperor's gate to ...Read more

It's been my honor to know a few real heroes -- people who've selflessly dared to fight greed and oppression to advance the common good. Diane Wilson, for example.

For 40 years, this fiery, fourth-generation fisherwoman from the Texas Gulf Coast has battled tenaciously for the rights and very survival of the area's hardscrabble fishing ...Read more

"What I've tried to do," Boston mega-philanthropist Jack Connors told an obituary writer interviewing him as he lay dying of pancreatic cancer, "is to make sure that the folks whose net worth is $10 get a break, too."

For decades, the son of a working-class Irish-American family who worked his way through college before starting a big-time ...Read more

The time has come to praise Donald Trump. Let's savor the moment.

The president is right to challenge the tech worker visa known as H-1B. This is a temporary visa that lets American companies hire skilled foreign workers in "specialty occupations."

The visa's fans offer a mirror image, with a twist, of the popular argument that low-skilled ...Read more

Over the last five years, politicians across the country have targeted transgender people and our families. They've banned our health care, censored our speech and made schools less safe for transgender students. One of the most consistent focus areas for many of these politicians has been the rights of transgender student athletes, ...Read more