ArcaMax

The flooding in Texas is cataclysmic. It was a hellscape as dozens, many of them girls from a summer camp, were swept to their deaths. Such tragedies spawn questions over whether the National Weather Service could have better warned the public. But this one is different in that the Trump administration is shrinking the weather service and vows...Read more

What's wrong with the Democrats and how can the party be fixed? When an insurgent outsider candidate from the party's progressive Left defeats a moderate endorsed by the establishment, Democratic leaders reject the results and deny the will of their voters. They refuse the infusion of new ideas and tactics every organization needs to evolve. ...Read more

Literature fuels empathy and conversation. It can foster belonging and it can also fuel productive discourse. But only if you actually read. If you choose to opt out altogether, you only fuel ignorance, which is what the Supreme Court ruling on Mahmoud v. Taylor accomplished. Parents can now opt their children out of instruction that includes ...Read more

I remember being impressed when the Jehovah's Witnesses in the city where I lived needed a new Kingdom Hall, which is what they call their churches.

That thing got built fast, I mean in just a few days. Religiously motivated volunteer labor doesn't dog it on the job. You go to hell for that.

Down in Florida, where hurricanes are the will of ...Read more

Elon Musk warned that if Republicans passed their big domestic policy bill, he would form a new "America Party" to primary those who voted for it. He doesn't need a new party. He has his old one, the Democrats.

Many Democrats have grown to intensely dislike Musk, and they have their reasons. His prancing around with a chainsaw as he gleefully...Read more

There are so many losers and so few winners in Donald Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" that it's a minor miracle that, as of this writing, Republicans appear poised to pass it. I'm old enough to remember when Republicans were deficit hawks who would chafe at adding trillions of dollars to what future generations will have to spend just paying off...Read more

America's 249th birthday Friday will be no party. Call it bittersweet at best.

The guns of Gettysburg were stilled on July 4, 1863, after the Union Army whipped Robert E. Lee and Confederates brigades in a raging three-day theater of civil war.

Now somehow, without ever reading it, President Donald Trump tore up the Constitution's clear ...Read more

Don't let it be said that the superrich care only about themselves, always taking from society and giving nothing back.

Consider the generous billionaires who live on an island in Florida's Biscayne Bay. Amazon kingpin Jeff Bezos lives there, as do Ivanka Trump and her hubby, Jared Kushner. Actually, their so-called island is fake, built in ...Read more

In Woody Allen's iconic film "Annie Hall," protagonist Alvy Singer instructs his new girlfriend that our existence is divided into two categories: the horrible and, if you're really lucky, the miserable. For many Democrats who find Donald Trump and his presidency an abomination, their alternative seems a Democratic Party dominated by a base ...Read more

Zohran Mamdani seemed to hit the political jackpot in besting former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. Hyper commentary now portrays this once obscure state assemblyman from Queens as a political meteor.

The thing about meteors is that they burn bright for a while and then fall. Mamdani is unlikely to...Read more

The Trump administration floated an idea in recent weeks: suspending habeas corpus.

Why? Because over and over again -- including in the American Civil Liberties Union's challenge against President Donald Trump's illegal use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport people without due process -- courts hearing habeas corpus cases have stopped the ...Read more

The Trump administration has followed through on its promise to gut the Head Start program. Since April, it has slashed 60% of the Office of Head Start staff, closed half of the regional offices where staff with local knowledge worked, delayed funding necessary for payroll and rent and undermined the program's mission through its ban on ...Read more

In the first months of his administration, President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened due process, a fundamental principle enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. His attacks have spanned from the arbitrary use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport legal residents to the unlawful detention of students.

For years, due process has protected us from ...Read more

Four months into President Donald Trump's second term, he has aggressively pursued efforts to strip entire communities of their rights and circumvent the rule of law.

While many voters expected Trump to ramp up deportations, they did not foresee the hurricane of horrors he has unleashed. The president has attempted to assert wartime ...Read more