ArcaMax

Those 38 Republicans who frustrated Donald Trump's demand that he be freed from the inconvenience of a debt ceiling vote early in his term were truly impressive. These are guys with whom yours truly disagrees much of the time.

What Trump's smarter knee-jerk defenders really believe is a matter of speculation. Scott Jennings used to work for ...Read more

The older he gets, the bigger the baby. Donald Trump has turned the U.S. government into one giant pacifier to calm his fear of seeming less than all-powerful. Consider those billionaires now dropping bags of gold at his feet, concerned that he would use his presidential powers to hurt them.

Donald Winnicott, a prominent English pediatrician ...Read more

Is Daniel Penny a Republican, a Democrat or something else? As of this writing, his political leanings remain a mystery. Republicans clearly want to adopt the white Marine veteran who strangled a threatening Black passenger on a New York City subway car. They may deny it, but the racial dynamics created a desired optic for their warm support. ...Read more

The late 1970s were a sad time for America. The Vietnam War had just ended. Big cities fell in the grip of crime and neglect as the 1975 fiscal crisis pushed New York City to the brink of bankruptcy.

New York uniformed police, angry at the mayor's budget cuts, handed out "Welcome to Fear City" leaflets at the airports. Featuring a hooded ...Read more

There is no condoning the cold-blooded murder of a UnitedHealth Group executive in predawn Manhattan. Moments after Brian Thompson was shot dead, a torrent of unsympathetic posts flooded social media. I was surprised by both the brazen attack and the unveiled congratulations to a killer. The reasons for the anger, however, I understood very ...Read more

"Some may seek to deny or delay the clean energy revolution that's underway in America, but nobody -- nobody -- can reverse it. Nobody. Not when so many people, regardless of party or politics, are enjoying its benefits." Still-President Joe Biden said that on a recent visit to Brazil.

His administration's Inflation Reduction Act, for example...Read more

Working-class voters put Donald Trump over the top, thinking he would look out for their interests. How does the administration he's putting together look for them?

Not great.

Roman emperors maintained control over the populace by giving them "bread and circuses" -- free bread and lavish entertainment to distract them. Trump appears to be ...Read more

Of all the neighborhoods in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's district, one stood out on Election Day as a considerable surprise. The left-wing congresswoman represents a very diverse population ranging from struggling immigrants in Queens and a piece of The Bronx to young professionals gentrifying areas right across the river from Manhattan.

...Read more

Thanksgiving is the most American of holidays. But there is something almost un-American about it. It is a day opposed to striving, to getting more. We stop adding up the numbers on the scorecard of life. We freeze in place and give thanks for whatever is there.

The Wall Street Journal once featured sob stories about failed dot-com ...Read more

I like Martha Stewart. Always have.

Two recent documentaries, "Martha" on Netflix and the CNN series "The Many Lives of Martha Stewart," follow the Greek drama that make Stewart a cultural fascination to this day. They recount the jihad against this visionary who came under attack for being a woman with fierce ambition.

Admittedly, Stewart's...Read more

It takes a cracked mindset to name a cracked pot with no scientific training to head the agency that oversees 11 agencies tasked with protecting Americans' health. They include the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, Medicare and Medicaid.

Donald Trump's pick of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head Health and Human ...Read more

Yes, Donald Trump took all seven battleground states and the electoral votes to go with them. This time he also won the popular vote, unlike in 2016. But let's put all that in perspective.

Trump took Wisconsin by less than one point. He won Michigan by only a point and a half. He did slightly better in Pennsylvania, Nevada and Georgia with 2-...Read more

On a recent CNN panel, a Republican strategist cited a random article from last June about liberals having established a "resistance" to a Trump second term.

"Can we just have a couple of years of peace for the Republicans and President Trump to do what they promised to do because the American people are clearly asking for it?" Scott Jennings...Read more

It shouldn't have been hard for Kamala Harris. Not against the absurdly toxic politics of Donald Trump. An older Democratic Party, less beholden to the big megaphones on the fringes, would have had an easier time of it.

Kamala Harris did her best to move her politics to the center, but she was weighed down by those left-wing purity tests she ...Read more

During a visit to one of our supermarkets, a French friend looked over a long shelf of apples. Seeing several varieties piled halfway to heaven, she remarked, "This is truly the land of plenty." It truly is, but how, for so many of us, did it become the "land of discontent"?

Of course, our political battles require challengers to go on and on...Read more

I recently spent time flying to various regions of this country and was struck by how nice almost everyone was. Whether boarding to New York, Chicago or Albuquerque, I found fellow passengers to be super polite, patient with slow movers, helpful lifting bags into the overhead. The number of racial and ethnic backgrounds sharing the aircrafts ...Read more

The first chilly day of the year, I heard scary banging in the basement. It was the boiler.

I walked upstairs and woke my husband.

"Honey, there's banging in the basement," I said.

"You've got a guy," he responded, half-asleep.

My husband, you see, is a master plumber. When someone desperately needs a plumber or an electrician or another ...Read more

Donald Trump's tax and spending plans would add enormous amounts to the national debt, with some estimates as high as $15 trillion over a decade. But some of his tax cuts stand apart in threatening one of America's most revered programs, Social Security. They would essentially bankrupt it by 2031.

This is not some far-off worry. We're talking...Read more

With the election upon us, many voters are focused on Donald Trump's unravelling mental state and his radical plans to kill off the democracy. But there should be space to recall his scams victimizing ordinary people and his joy in pulling them off. That speaks to character.

Trump's latest fishy deal involves a crypto operation. But let's ...Read more

The tricks Donald Trump tried to play on the recent hurricane victims were beyond depraved. Here were people suffering major losses, their lives stopped in a hellscape of tattered roofs, ruined possessions and, in some cases, a pile of debris where their home once stood. And there was Trump making their lives more miserable as a tactic to fool...Read more