ArcaMax

Watching the year-end budget fights in Congress as we await the second term of President-elect Donald Trump, I find myself wondering: Will this era be remembered as the time when Trump was president and Elon Musk ran the country?

Trump earned such nicknames as “Captain Chaos” and worse for his unpredictable, constantly changing and easily ...Read more

When Merriam-Webster chose “polarization” as the word of the year for 2024, the timing was dramatic for many of us who make our living through words.

Defining the word as “division into two sharply distinct opposites; especially, a state in which the opinions, beliefs, or interests of a group or society no longer range along a continuum ...Read more

Just once.

Just once amid all the times that reporters asked President Joe Biden whether he would give a pardon to his son Hunter, who was facing a possible federal prison sentence, I wish I could have heard jolly Joe give the sort of response that the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley offered to such unwelcome questions.

I’m thinking of ...Read more

“Democrats are like the Yankees,” said one of the most memorable tweets to come across on X after Election Day. “Spent hundreds of millions of dollars to lose the big series and no one got fired or was held accountable.”

Too sad. But that’s politics.The disappointment behind that tweet was widely shared, but no one with...Read more

“Kakistocracy” is trending again.

The obscure term, coined as early as the seventeenth century and defined by Merriam-Webster as “government by the worst people,” has surged on Google Trends since the election.

What does government by the worst look like? To ...Read more

Far-right streamer Nick Fuentes, who usually welcomes publicity, received the type he probably didn’t want after Donald Trump’s election victory.

The 26-year old white supremacist and antisemite, who has been banned from multiple social media sites for violating hate speech policies, posted on X: “Your body, my choice. Forever.”

...Read more

In the aftermath of Vice President Kamala Harris' decisive electoral loss to former President Donald Trump, my mind has kept going back to a memorable and widely repeated gaffe by a man who was not on the ballot.

That man was Joe Biden, and the unfortunate utterance in question happened more than four years ago when he was a former vice ...Read more

It seems to me that Tony Hinchcliffe, the podcast host and alleged "roast comedian" who warmed up the crowd at Donald Trump's recent campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, could have found a less gratuitously cruel way to get laughs than to call Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.“

Call me old-fashioned, but I long for ...Read more

Donald Trump and MAGA loyalists may scoff at the charge that he’s a fascist, but let’s face it, he at least offers a remarkably good imitation.

The F-word came up prominently as radio host Charlamagne Tha God interviewed Vice President Kamala Harris in mid-October about her vision compared to that of her Republican rival.

“The other is ...Read more

I was delighted but, alas, not all that excited by the platform of policies that Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled to court Black male voters this week.

Her “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men” offers a big package...Read more

While following news coverage of the horrific and deadly path of Hurricane Helene across North Carolina, I was given pause by the ironic name of a large county which received some of the worst destruction: Buncombe.

American political history buffs will recognize this as a catchword for meaningless speech. “The usual story” of the origin of...Read more

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it is said. And in Washington, so is stealing credit.

Is there a better example than Republican lawmakers praising themselves for “saving” the federal health-care law that they fought long and hard to defeat, repeal and otherwise sabotage?

Now we can count both former President Donald Trump and ...Read more

For years, a barely worn blazer has hung in my closet. It features a graceful cut and fabric woven with the colors of the sea, offset by a white silken lining. The garment exemplifies a certain freshness, a vibrancy, a bit of luxury. The designer’s label: SEAN by Sean Combs.

Yes, that brand was the one that went up in flames recently with the...Read more

Sometimes amid the hoopla and hogwash of political events, I find myself jerked alert by an accidental truth that manages to break through.

Such appeared to be the case when Sen. JD Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president, urged Democrats to “tone down their rhetoric,” while not doing much to tone down his own.

In a live interview...Read more

Many, many moons ago, my family elders advised me: “Son, prepare yourself, because you never know when the doors of opportunity are going to open up. And when they do, you need to be ready to step inside.”

That was good advice, although I didn't immediately take it to heart. I had to learn the hard way that walking through those doors meant...Read more

If you don’t tell a lie, my father used to say, you won’t have to worry about which version of your story you told last.

Right, I agreed, but, with an attitude like that, ol’ Dad was well advised to avoid going into politics.

That advice came to mind amid the unfolding saga of an unfortunate altercation at Arlington National Cemetery on ...Read more

If you don’t tell a lie, my father used to say, you won’t have to worry about which version of your story you told last.

Right, I agreed, but, with an attitude like that, ol’ Dad was well advised to avoid going into politics.

That advice came to mind amid the unfolding saga of an unfortunate altercation at Arlington National Cemetery on ...Read more

In case you somehow haven’t noticed, manhood is on the ballot.

Even before President Joe Biden stepped aside to let Vice President Kamala Harris step up to be the Democrats’ presidential nominee, insiders from both parties were calling this the “boys vs. girls election.”

And even before the Republican National Convention opened in ...Read more

Perhaps the most memorable moment of this year’s Democratic convention came the night before Kamala Harris officially accepted the party’s nomination for president.

It was no simple matter for anyone to follow a lineup of such stars as Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder and Barack and Michelle Obama, just to name a few.

But countless eyes and TV...Read more