ArcaMax

Is a system working as well as possible? Inertia lulls people into believing that legacy products are great -- even that they're perfect -- without objectively considering whether it's really true. The QWERTY computer keyboard works, but the 1936 Dvorak version is superior. Skim milk makes you fatter. The U.S. may still be a shining city on a ...Read more

"When you surround an army," Sun Tzu counseled in "The Art of War," "leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard." Partisans on both sides of America's everything-looks-like-a-hammer politics have forgotten this basic tenet of strategy -- and are likely to pay for it.

Donald Trump announced that he expects to be arrested in New ...Read more

America and the West have begun promoting the idea of a war against China over Taiwan. If China invades Taiwan, President Joe Biden has said, the U.S. would go further than it has in Ukraine, sending American ground troops as well as weapons. Thirty-seven percent of American voters agree with Biden. But how do you go to war to defend a country ...Read more

Donald Trump remains the favorite for the GOP nomination. In theoretical 2024 matchups against President Joe Biden, however, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has begun to outperform the president where former President Donald Trump would be projected to lose. But DeSantis might falter once Democratic voters start to pay serious attention to him.

...Read more

Jimmy Carter will almost certainly be remembered as a liberal lion. That reputation, however, stems from his post-presidential work with Habitat for Humanity and his role attempting to mediate peace in the Middle East and elsewhere. His affable manner and trademark smile contributed to that impression.

But Carter's leading role was as president...Read more

Corporate ownership of media outlets and consolidation have deteriorated the quality of reporting in numerous ways: accelerating access journalism, gutting local news and investigative reporting, a decreasing willingness to take chances or to invest in projects without a quick return on investment.

Now there's a new problem, one so baked into ...Read more

Though their number is steadily dropping, especially among Republicans, most Americans support Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. I have a question for you pro-Ukraine peeps: Imagine you were Russian President Vladimir Putin just shy of a year ago. What would you have done in his place?

Putin faced an impossible situation. He knew ...Read more

Each high-profile killing by police of an unarmed Black citizen -- this week he's Tyre Nichols, 29, of Memphis -- prompts calls to reform the police. But how?

We should begin with two questions:

What is the police for, currently?

What should they be for?

Police currently fulfill two primary roles: generating revenue for local ...Read more

The strange story at the top of the headlines -- the current president and the most recent former president are both the subject of special-counsel investigations for taking home classified documents when they left the White House -- rests upon two premises. One is patently false. The other is brazenly silly.

Americans believe their nation ...Read more

Only God and Kevin McCarthy know how long George Santos, the disgraced Republican freshman congressman from Long Island whose antipathy for the truth stands out even by politician standards, will be able to remain in office. If and when he is forced to step down, say, after an explanation for his mysteriously improving financial status finally ...Read more

Well, Mr. and Mrs. Biden, the holidays are over. You know, the holidays during which you were going to decide whether or not to run for reelection. So, what did you decide?

This being a democracy, we hope that you came down on the side of the 70% of voters who don't want you to run in 2024. Even if that figure reflects the feelings of every ...Read more