ArcaMax

I'm taking the day off, not from swimming in the swamp of sickness of a loved one, where I've been since October; not from veering between anger and terror because half the people I love are on the super-high-risk list, while I'm only plain old risk.

There is no day off from the sadness and fear that has gripped me.

And the thing is I'm not ...Read more

I have a soft spot for bars, and for the people who like to go to them.

For one thing, bars put me through law school. When I was 21, I took a step up from serving "coffee and," which had helped me get through college, to serving and making cocktails.

My first bar job was in a glitzy, Mob-run nightclub that only looked glitzy in the dark. The ...Read more

Maybe it's because he resents his predecessor's popularity, especially as his plummets to record lows.

Or maybe he is just so clueless and in such a state of denial that he has no idea what is going on in this country beyond his inner circle of yes men.

On Thursday, the Trump administration filed a brief once again asking the Supreme Court to ...Read more

If not for COVID-19 and President Donald Trump's truly disastrous handling of it, Trump -- unstable, erratic, self-centered and all -- might still win the November election on the strength of the economy.

Instead, he'll be running on record unemployment, with whole sectors of the economy just failing, and some 2 million Americans (actually, it'...Read more

Twice in a week. First, the court holds that you can't discriminate against employees on the basis of sexual orientation. And if that isn't enough, the chief justice goes and holds that President Donald Trump's administration actually needs a reason to deport 700,000 young people who came to this country as children and have grown up here.

...Read more

Finally, in a landmark decision authored by none other than Justice Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump's first Supreme Court appointee, gay, lesbian and transgender people are protected by federal law against employment discrimination.

Conservatives, who enthusiastically supported Gorsuch's nomination, are tearing their hair out while ...Read more

America is being rocked by passionate protests reflecting all the pent-up anger of those who have been the victims of racism since the day they were born: the guys who are guilty until proven innocent, suspect because of the color of their skin. I'd be angry, too. I've been researching policing since the early 1980s, when I joined a task force ...Read more

Modern conventions don't decide anything. On occasion, there are votes that matter -- not on the roll call for president but on the seating of all-white delegations, or the inclusion of reproductive freedom and gay rights in the platform.

The candidate and his staff decide everything. They decide who speaks and what they say (yes, speeches are ...Read more

Donald Trump has been trying for years to play his Willie Horton card, to divide the country along lines of race as a means of reaffirming his base.

You can hardly give him credit for creativity, strategically speaking. It's not so different from the way former President Richard Nixon played "law and order," the way former Sen. Jesse Helms ...Read more

The weather was glorious in Southern California the past week, as it was in much of the nation. The beaches and Boardwalk were so crowded, full of families who had clearly come from other parts of the city to escape the confines of crowded apartments. No, it wasn't the usual crowd of druggies and bikers and meth heads but families old and young ...Read more

He is 73 years old. At his checkup last year, he weighed 243 pounds. Obese -- that's the medical definition.

And he has been reported to be taking drugs to control his cholesterol and prevent a heart attack. Obesity and heart problems are among the "high-risk" indicators for serious COVID-19 illness.

But who cares? Those rules just apply to us...Read more

Or, to be fair, you may not die; you may just be the type who kills other people.

Sound like government playing God? Making life and death decisions? Just what conservative orthodoxy has insisted for years government must never do? Yes.

Reports agree that President Donald Trump, for some time now, has been gaming to try to reopen the economy. ...Read more

Three months ago, it was difficult to find an honest Democrat who privately believed that President Donald Trump would lose reelection. The economy seemed to be, quite simply, too strong to convince a majority of Americans in some of Trump's red states that they'd be better off with a Democratic president.

Three months ago, it was difficult to ...Read more

"When you're a mother, you'll understand."

How many times did my mother say that? And how many times did I think, "No, I won't, because I'll be a better mother"?

I tried to be a perfect mother. And I failed. For that, I have apologized with all my heart to my children. Because I am, after all, just a flawed, imperfect person struggling to do ...Read more

Announcement: Spring prom has been canceled. Instead, Cruella DeVos invites you to harass or rape your would-be date off campus. Just make sure you follow her regulations when doing so.

A new and complex set of regulations was released in the middle of a pandemic that has posed a crushing burden on colleges and universities? According to ...Read more

Who are these idiots -- excuse me, neighbors -- frolicking on the beach on a warm April day, when frolicking on the beach can cost someone (more than just one someone) their life? But what is a death compared with a life without frolicking on the beach?

You can't just blame the beach frolickers. They're not the only ones who can't wait to get ...Read more

I live in Los Angeles County, where new coronavirus cases are showing up as fast as anywhere in the country. We're on lockdown. We were the first state to be told to stay in place. Until this week, we were actually able to take some comfort in that, because we lagged so far behind New York in cases and in deaths.

California isn't competing with...Read more

What about them? They have started dying. It would be surprising if they didn't. What hasn't happened -- but will -- is the numbers becoming concentrated. We'll see television anchors not only in skid row but also on streets full of well-protected neighbors who will not react well to being told that the sidewalk actually belongs to the person ...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, much of the time in the shadow of his better-known New York counterpart, Andrew Cuomo, has shown himself to be a future president. If the primary were held today. ... But it isn't.

And thanks to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's well-meaning but ultimately dated pledge to tokenism (not a ...Read more

My first non-waitressing job was counting candy bars in the basement of a Sears/Roebuck warehouse in Boston. Within weeks, having demonstrated my great prowess, I moved on to Twinkies, Ring Dings and my absolutely favorites, Coffee Cakes.

The job was not without its challenges, the biggest of them keeping a running total of how much the stock ...Read more