ArcaMax

In California, every kid over the age of 3 knows how to duck and cover, and has an earthquake kit in their locker, emergency phone numbers and the like. Pretty terrifying the first time you pack that little kit for school.

Fires, earthquakes ... back east it was hurricanes. In my day, we also knew to head downstairs when the air raid sirens ...Read more

"The world needs to see that the United States will stand up and say this is wrong; we stand with the people of Hong Kong."

That's not me talking. It's not Madeleine Albright or Samantha Power or Nancy Pelosi.

That's Jim Risch, Republican senator from Idaho and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He's the co-sponsor and, by ...Read more

I disagree with almost everything President Donald Trump has done. I cringe at the disrespect he has shown to his own office. He has degraded the presidency, driven us apart, lied enough to make anything Joe Biden has ever said trivial by comparison, cozied up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and contradicted his own intelligence services, ...Read more

Mark Zuckerberg is certainly a genius, but not when it comes to understanding the First Amendment, much less the politics of a city like Washington, D.C.

Zuckerberg has taken the position that it is neither possible nor appropriate for Facebook to do anything to deal with political ads that are nothing but lies. He's wrong. The First Amendment,...Read more

Yesterday, Lakers superstar LeBron James and his family evacuated his Brentwood mansion, as did former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and countless rich people whose faces you might recognize. And even richer people who aren't used to packing up in front of cameras. Not everyone in Brentwood is rich, just like not everyone who lives on Fifth Avenue ...Read more

You close the windows. Turn on the air, if you have it. Check the live maps. Twitter. Figure out how to make your smart TV just a television. Text whoever you need to check on or reassure. Cancel any long drives you don't have to make.

It's a fire day in California.

As I used to reassure my mother, I live on a regular street. There is no brush...Read more

In his open letter responding to an allegation of rape contained in Ronan Farrow's new book, Matt Lauer (and, presumably, his lawyers) shows yet again that he doesn't get it. "It" being abuse of power, the meaning of consent and the offensiveness of his approach. "It" being the law -- as it has evolved, thankfully.

He claims that his "silence" ...Read more

She is almost as famous as the women she represented and the men she has held responsible.

She has been standing up for women's rights -- decades before anyone uttered the words "Me Too."

So why is she out there defending herself? If there is anyone who doesn't need to apologize, it's her.

According to Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, in their ...Read more

Who'd a thunk it?

In the post-mortem of the Democrats' Tuesday night debate, the consensus among the chattering class was that Pete Buttigieg not only had a strong night but also, in challenging Elizabeth Warren's "Medicare for All" plan, emerged as a moderate alternative (along with Joe Biden) to socialist Bernie Sanders and the like-minded ...Read more

As the House opens its impeachment inquiry, even as new polls -- from Fox News, no less -- find a majority of voters favoring impeachment, the Republican Party has moved to protect the president from any challenge to his re-nomination. Fiddling with the rules is one of the favorite games of political insiders, and the Trump team is doing its ...Read more

After the conclusion of what had to be described as a rather bad week for the president -- I think we can agree that the initiation of impeachment proceedings based on allegations that he solicited the assistance of foreign leaders for his reelection campaign qualifies as a bad week -- you would think the president's poll numbers would be in ...Read more

Is there such a thing as being too old to be president? In the fall of 1984, in his closing statement in the first presidential debate, then-President Ronald Reagan seemed to lose his way on a California highway. That's right; he was talking on and on about this trip on a California highway, and it didn't end anywhere, except with the red buzzer...Read more

Diversity means just that.

Getting into college isn't just a numbers game.

No one has a "right" to get into Harvard.

Bill Fitzsimmons, the longtime dean of admissions at Harvard, is one of the most honorable, thoughtful and smart guys I've met in 35-plus years in academia. I've been holding my breath since the lawsuit was filed and then ...Read more

In Texas on Thursday, former Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said that at least 35 Republican senators would vote to impeach the president -- if they could do so privately.

Flake's colleagues, particularly those who are up in 2020, have had precious little to say. The president has put them on a tightrope -- again.

In the first days after the ...Read more

Of course, Donald Trump is not just another president, and Cokie Roberts was not just another journalist. Cokie was, in her way, the epitome of the Washington elite; daughter of the powerful, friend of the connected, respected by everybody; a card-carrying member of the Swamp Culture, which is to say a brilliant reporter. She used her ...Read more

There you are. There I am. Complaining. Deadlines and obligations. Bills and budgets. The empty nest. My dogs, ages 12 and 14.

And in a flash, none of it matters. Not one bit.

In a flash, I am doing what I shouldn't do: Googling scary prognoses.

There are all kinds of families. Some we are born into. Some we create.

When I moved to Los ...Read more

Labor Day marks the real beginning of the nomination campaign. And for all the talk of the crowds of candidates, the race has shaken out far more at this point that many of us expected.

The winner as of Labor Day: Elizabeth Warren.

And she's winning for all the right reasons. She has the most to say. Yes, she's that smart. You may not agree ...Read more

I commuted between LA and Boston for years. I was supposed to be back on the road Friday, another book tour. I got on planes the way my mother took trolleys.

The phone rang. That was the end of BEFORE.

Everything else is AFTER.

We are a different country, those of us who can remember. We saw it. We saw these men mow down innocent men, women ...Read more

It doesn't get easier 6,000 miles away.

"Don't you like your president?" asks a man who is a strong supporter of Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu and our Donald Trump.

I try to explain it's not a matter of liking. I respect Israel's right to choose Netanyahu, a man who I do not agree with, just as we Americans have the right to elect as our ...Read more

Ed Markey, the progressive senator from Massachusetts, is -- to most people's surprise -- facing a potential primary challenge from a slightly less progressive and almost ridiculously inexperienced junior congressman named Kennedy.

That's it. Joe Kennedy, son of former Congressman Joe Kennedy, son of former attorney general. He is "thinking" ...Read more