ArcaMax

Years ago, Woody Guthrie wrote "Mean Talking Blues," a stinging satire of malicious right-wing officials who take perverse pleasure in demonizing, holding down, and punishing poor people:

"I'm a big disaster / Just goin' some place to happen / I'm an organized famine / Studying how I can be a little bit meaner / I laugh my loudest / When ...Read more

It's a pretty reliable rule of thumb that when President Donald Trump calls something a "hoax," it's true. He insists that the strong indication, which seems likelier by the week, that he participated in Jeffrey Epstein's exploitative exploits is another hoax.

Assume that on this one, he's telling the truth. If so, he sure isn't acting like it....Read more

The election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City mayor set off -- for his fan base, anyway -- great expectations of a more "affordable" city. But the Democratic Socialist hasn't even been sworn in, and some of his marquee promises are already history.

Start with free buses. For a city dependent on public transportation, free buses are a nice ...Read more

The First Amendment is a cornerstone of American democracy. It allows us to express our views, challenge authority and engage in public debate. In recent years, however, these freedoms have come under intense scrutiny, from debates over protests on college campuses to concerns about government retaliation against journalists and activists. ...Read more

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where Maurene Comey used to work, wouldn't touch the case. The whole office took itself out.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, whose lawyers have worked with her on joint investigations and prosecutions, wouldn't touch it. Neither would the ...Read more

Democrats think they run against Republicans. Republicans think they run against Democrats. When swing voters existed as a significant segment of the electorate, that was at least partly true. In our age of polarization, there are too few swing voters to determine the outcome of most races. Elections are won by the party that most motivates ...Read more

The new cognitive test for sitting presidents is not "Can you put the square peg in the square hole?" but "Can you put your tongue in a seventh grader's mouth?"

If newly released emails from famous dead child molester Jeffrey Epstein can be believed, President Donald Trump spent several hours alone with a girl who was abused by Epstein's ...Read more

*Names have been changed to protect identities

Shackled and chained while miscarrying, denied prenatal care, given inadequate food and water -- these are the conditions that pregnant women in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention must endure.

Despite its own directive advising against detaining pregnant individuals, ICE has ...Read more

On April 23, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at narrowing civil rights protections and directing federal agencies to roll back the use of the disparate impact standard in "all contexts to the maximum degree," including across housing, lending, employment, education and health care. The order represents a major reversal ...Read more

When Louisiana finally won a second majority-Black district in 2024, I felt a weight lift from my shoulders. For decades, Black voters like me knew that having only one voting district where we could be heard was not enough to reflect a third of the state's population. So when the state gained a second seat, I thought of those who fought ...Read more

Ladies and gentleman, here is your United States Senate, then and now:

Sen. Daniel Webster on March 7, 1850: “It is fortunate that there is a Senate of the United States (with) a just sense of its own dignity, and its own high responsibilities, and a body to which the country looks with confidence for wise, moderate, patriotic, and healing ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- "The king can do no wrong." That is the ancient legal maxim used to explain why a sovereign should not be held to account for misdeeds. President Trump and his lawyers are now making arguments that make this legal doctrine look wimpy. Their vision boils down to: The king can do whatever wrong he damn pleases, and there's nothing ...Read more