ArcaMax

Ron DeSantis apparently wants to be president. His pitch rests on the "Florida blueprint," the stuff he's done as the state's governor. But the assumption that the American majority wants much of the DeSantis program is shaky. It's not even clear that Floridians do.

A Pew poll has 56% of Floridians supporting legal abortion in all or most ...Read more

They are losing the majority of Americans who support reasonable access to abortion. They are losing the vast majority who don't believe we can wait until every mentally ill American is properly medicated before restricting sales of assault weapons. And now they may lose one of their more loyal groups, investors with significant portfolios. ...Read more

Donald Trump's solution was to build a wall and insult migrants. Left off his playbook for curbing illegal immigration was any punishment for employers who hired undocumented workers. That would inconvenience farmers, he said.

As it turned out, the wall wasn't built, and those entering illegally didn't care about the insults. They wanted work...Read more

The Trump rally promoted by CNN (but paraded as a "town hall") included the inevitable references to the former president's piggish remarks about women. Kaitlan Collins dug in on the famous "Access Hollywood" videotape in which the former president claimed that a rich celebrity could grab a woman by her privates and get away with it. He ...Read more

The popular Netflix series "The Diplomat" has Keri Russell playing a woman who's really sore that she's been made American ambassador to the United Kingdom. Many Americans would pay a fortune to become America's representative to the Court of St. James's, and some do. It's a non-secret that ambassadorships in the choice capitals go for ...Read more

New Yorkers are divided on what happened on that F train when a former Marine, who was white, choked to death an unruly homeless man, who was Black. The comments sections of the New York papers reveal little division among the readers. Facts are still coming in, but based on what we know, most believe the passengers were within their rights to...Read more

From the amount of discussion, you might think that a third of all fifth graders were transgender -- that is, they don't identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. Actually, the transgender population is very small. Only 0.6% of Americans -- far fewer than one out of every 100 -- identify as transgender.

The fascination is fueled both...Read more

Online, Jack Teixeira played the hotshot. The Massachusetts Air National guardsman, now accused of leaking valuable military intelligence, regaled his chat group pals about the juicy top-secret stuff he could share. "The job I have lets me get privilege's above most intel guys," he boasted.

In real life, Teixeira was a 21-year-old living at ...Read more

It wasn't his nightly rants, his contempt for American democracy, his racism, his willingness to spread ludicrous conspiracy theories. It was the money.

When Tucker Carlson was making money for Fox, boss Rupert Murdoch was perfectly fine with his star carnival attraction. But when Carlson started costing money, the Australian gave him the ax....Read more

New Yorkers should thank Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan for helping (unwittingly) remind the country how safe their metro area is compared to his own. Did he think that no one would note that there are 15.4 murders for every 100,000 people in Columbus but only 5.2 in New York City? Or that Ohio's murder rate is almost twice that of New York State?

But ...Read more

Many very rich people are very unhappy. Though that's not new news, others have a hard time believing it. Assuming reasonably good health, who wouldn't find contentment living in a gilded mansion and flying around in private jets? Imagine being able to just plunk down a platinum card anytime some glittering luxury winks your way. Envision ...Read more

What do you want your bank to be? I want mine to be nearby. I want it to have nice tellers. I want my deposits to be government insured in the event of a failure. Check, check, check.

Should I worry that my bank is too woke, whatever anyone means by "woke" these days? Right-wingers are peddling the argument, tailored for the rubes, that when ...Read more

Officials at Stanford University could learn something from the New York City Police Department about defending free speech while maintaining order. When hecklers prevented an invited speaker from addressing an audience at Stanford's law school, what could have been a peaceful protest turned into an act of verbal violence. It's easier to stop ...Read more

Ron DeSantis seems to be fading under the technicolor lunacy of Donald Trump. That's a hard act to compete with, especially when the Florida governor's act is a watercolor version. The assault on his state's biggest private taxpayer and employer, meanwhile, is incomprehensive. The Walt Disney Co. isn't a school librarian you can bully.

This ...Read more

If Ron DeSantis had a Stormy Daniels problem, Donald Trump would probably have invited her to dinner. He'd have massaged the facts surrounding any possible indictment related to the hush-money payments. The cameras love a porn star, and Trump loves cameras. Trump would mock Ron DeSanctimonious with Stormy at his side.

But the Florida governor...Read more

Right after a 28-year-old shot six people to death at a small Christian school, Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, emoted on camera. "Three precious little kids lost their lives," he said with sad resignation, "and I believe three adults."

Burchett then defended the killer's right to own the three weapons she carried onto the grounds of...Read more

Generation Z is not the first cohort to face recessions, burdensome debt and a tough time finding a good job. Every generation has gone through this and some much more. The Greatest Generation entered the workforce still bearing the anguish of World War II.

The 1956 movie "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" featured Gregory Peck as a soldier ...Read more

House conservatives have devised a "new and improved" threat to the world economy if their demands are not met. Once again, they vow to vote against raising the cap on U.S. debt if desired cuts in government spending are not made.

Once again, they insist their plan would not crash the world financial markets, because it would guarantee payments...Read more

The California governor has no business "canceling" Walgreens. But I could. The Florida governor has no business punishing Disney for disagreeing with him over his state's "Don't Say Gay" bill. But people who agree with Ron DeSantis here can boycott Disney World.

There is a difference between government interference with a private company's ...Read more

Let's be grateful that Ron DeSantis devotes so much of his time raging over drag queens and bragging how he punished Disney for disagreeing with him. An obsessive pursuit of "woke" has kept the Florida governor and apparent presidential candidate from mucking around serious matters. But, sadly, not always.

DeSantis shocked many foreign policy ...Read more