ArcaMax

"But isn't there really a lot of waste, abuse and fraud in all the government spending?" my Uber driver asked.

I don't bring up these topics with strangers. Too dangerous. But my Uber driver raised it, wanting to know what I thought of Elon Musk and Donald Trump's latest doings in D.C. I thought I'd avoid the topic by just telling him I was a...Read more

As Americans struggle to grasp President Donald Trump's reversal of American foreign policy, which abruptly overturned decades of cooperation with other democracies to contain authoritarian aggression, many observers have faltered.

Describing what Trump has done strains the usual vocabulary of analysts, who are still not fully prepared to ...Read more

As Democrats continue to deconstruct the root causes of their recent defeat and attempt to regroup for next year's midterm elections, they might want to consider a new factor in American politics: the seductive power of a movement compared to a boring old party.

On the surface, the 60th American presidential election was the usual two-way ...Read more

Shortly after the election, I decided to refocus my column. Instead of contributing to the vitriol found in much of the public discourse, I want to carve out space dedicated to shining a light on the people doing good work to help make this world a better place. I'm holding space for good. It's what I'm calling my column going forward.

This ...Read more

Some people (fewer every decade) put a little sticker inside the front cover of books they own. It's called a "bookplate," and it tells people you own the book. Maybe it also makes people return the book when they borrow it from you. Sometimes the bookplate says, "From the library of," and then your name. You can have them made, and they're ...Read more

If Chinese leader Xi Jinping wanted to take down the U.S. auto industry -- and he probably does -- he couldn't have a better helper than Donald Trump. The American president's tireless efforts to slow America's shift to electricity-run transportation is a dream come true for China as it leads the world in that transition.

Electric vehicles ...Read more

"You should have never started it," President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, accusing Ukrainian leaders of having started the war with Russia. "You could have made a deal." He followed up the next day on social media, branding Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's leader, as a "dictator without elections" who had "done a terrible job" in office.

Even...Read more

A bright, clear Presidents' Day in Washington: a perfect moment in time and place to say what makes the best and worst of presidents.

For historians, the pattern is indelible. The American people show who the great presidents are, because they bring out the best in us.

The opposite is also true. Three weeks into his second round, power-mad ...Read more

Corporate powers are telling us not to worry our little heads about the humanoid robotics they're increasingly employing in America's workplaces.

Yes, they concede, AI's new generation of "thinking robots" will transform many jobs, but -- like magic -- they'll also create better career opportunities for "the human element." Really ... like ...Read more

The Trump administration has not been subtle in its desire to use federal funding for political punishment. Whether threatening to cut off grants to sanctuary cities, block financial assistance to states that push back against the president's demands or to freeze all federal grants and loans for social services across the country, Trump and ...Read more

For anyone planning a book entitled "Totalitarianism for Dummies," last Saturday was a good day. "He who saves his country does not violate any Law," proclaimed President Donald Trump, convicted of violating 34 of them. It is, of course, a fascist's credo, one that Trump believes, apparently correctly, he can embrace without consequence: I am ...Read more

Will the MAGA base ever figure out they've been played?

Farm country provided Trump with some of his most fervent support. Farmers are now being tossed aside by Trump policies, none of which he seems interested in dialing back.

A trade war would be disastrous. Farm products are a major U.S. export. Last year, the U.S. exported more than $30 ...Read more

You made it. There are any number of reasons you should not have been confirmed, but Republicans were afraid to buck Trump. They voted in lockstep (except polio survivor Mitch McConnell, who Trump then ridiculed), and now you are the most powerful man in the world when it comes to health care. There are many people -- especially sick people --...Read more

Few Americans would welcome an elected leader from Germany or France who gave a speech on our soil, urging politicians here to stop shunning the Ku Klux Klan. Yet that isn't so far from the message delivered to European officials by Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 14 -- which understandably provoked outrage ...Read more

When I was young, I knew a lot about old people. Especially about old people I knew personally: members of my family, my mother's contemporaneous older friends, teachers, clients on my paper route.

It wasn't a choice. When I was young, no one asked whether I was interested in events that significantly preceded my birth. They just talked. My mom...Read more