ArcaMax

I'm not Catholic, but the pope's death hit hard, compared to a living president.

Pope Francis, a champion for peace and the poor who crossed borders in his inclusion, showed how it's done, winning hearts all over the world.

Donald Trump showed up at the Vatican funeral wearing a bright blue suit amid a sea of black. The least of his sins.

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The federal budget is not only about money, but fundamentally about our country's morality -- our commitment to fairness, equality and unity.

Which brings me to, of all things, our nation's Farm Bill. This sprawling piece of legislation, updated every five years, is intended to combine the interests of farmers with consumers, production with ...Read more

Addressing Congress in 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt warned Americans about being lulled into unconsciousness by those who pooh-poohed the dark clouds over Europe created by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. "I hope that we shall have fewer American ostriches in our midst," said FDR. "It is not good for the ultimate health of ostriches ...Read more

I have been deep in conversation with ChatGPT, asking all kinds of questions. Are there direct flights between the U.S. and Queretaro, Mexico? Will Apple give me credit for a 2014 iMac? What color goes with teal? What was France's GDP in 1998?

My fascination with ChatGPT has become a household joke. "All right, Froma," we imagine Chat saying....Read more

Since January, the Trump administration has abducted several international students and faculty and detained them thousands of miles away from their loved ones all because these scholars have spoken about Israel and Palestine in ways the government doesn't like. But criticizing U.S. foreign policy, or voicing any other opinion, is protected by ...Read more

There is the secretary of defense sharing battle plans with his third wife, a former Fox News producer, on Signal. His top aides have all quit or been fired. The department is leaking like a sieve about its leader. Disarray, they say. He was stunningly unqualified for the job in the first instance (joke of the week: the cardinals should choose...Read more

Wars end. Bombs remain. In December 2020, the crew of an English fishing boat was pulling in a string of crab pots 22 miles northeast of Cromer, a town in Norfolk, England, when they noticed a tug on the main line. An explosion blew the Galwad-Y-Mor into the air, injuring five crew members, one of whom lost an eye. The cause was a bomb dropped...Read more

When Patty Mitchell wanted to design a product around the abilities of special needs workers, the response she got was, "These people will never make anything anybody would want to buy." That shortsighted attitude plays into the social construct that limits people with intellectual or developmental disabilities to employment workshops that pay ...Read more

When news stories about bedbugs started showing up a few years back, I wrote that bedbugs were out of my father's world, the 1920s world of immigrant tenement dwellers.

My father told hilariously about his mother's battles with bedbugs.

"After she boiled all the sheets, she'd paint the bed slats with kerosene, and she'd put all four legs of ...Read more

It feels strange talking about the world's richest man, only 53 years old, in the past tense. But that somehow seems appropriate for Elon Musk, who weeks ago was considered Donald Trump's co-president. Now he's clearly falling off that high perch, just as Tesla, his star asset, reports net income cratering by 71%.

Musk was undoubtedly a ...Read more

Gov. Gavin Newsom did it again. He is so busy running for president, so attuned to his general election campaign in 2028, that he has lost his way. It was bad enough that his podcast debuted with two MAGA-maniacs, Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk, with whom he was trying to find common ground. It was even worse when he turned on transgender ...Read more

Greetings from the eye of the storm.

Is the time right for a second American Revolution? The first broke out 250 Aprils ago in Lexington and Concord.

Let's conjure up Paul Revere's midnight ride in this dark hour.

Our ruler makes the English king, George III, look like a sweet prince. President Donald Trump's brazen revenge spree is ...Read more

President Donald Trump has never been able to comprehend the plain fact that when a person says no, that actually means "NO." His view is that his every desire should be met with surrender -- even if that requires applying force.

This explains a lot about his crude approach to Greenland, demanding that the Danish territory simply succumb to ...Read more

There's growing concern that President Donald Trump might invoke the Insurrection Act to bring National Guard troops under federal control and deploy them within the U.S.

Make no mistake: If Trump invokes the Insurrection Act to activate federalized troops for mass deportation -- whether at the border or somewhere else in the country -- it ...Read more

Late in the new Broadway show "Operation Mincemeat," the sparklingly inventive musical comedy based on British Intelligence's deception of Adolf Hitler about Allied war plans during World War II, the marvelous slapstick pauses momentarily. "If people like us just blindly follow orders," one of the characters warns, "the fascists won't need to ...Read more

Many in the Democratic base are frustrated that their party isn't pounding away at Donald Trump over his attacks on the rule of law, academic independence and decency. That's not quite the case. Democrats and others opposed to the president's toxic agenda are seeing some success in the courts.

In Congress, however, Democrats currently have ...Read more