ArcaMax

People worry about generative artificial intelligence.

Some are afraid it will put them out of work. Others think AI could become too autonomous, like the drones programmed to select their own targets. It will almost certainly accelerate the spread and power of government surveillance. Deepfakes are already being used in efforts to impact ...Read more

France's shocking surrender to Nazi Germany in June 1940 left citizens stunned and unsure how to resist the German occupation and Vichy's collaborationist regime. Distrust was everywhere -- few knew whom to confide in without risking betrayal. Prewar political parties, blamed for the defeat, lay discredited; the French Communist Party, later a ...Read more

Is anti-Zionism antisemitism? Before Hamas attacked Israel, American voters had not arrived at a consensus. They hadn't thought much about it. Asked whether the two terms were synonymous, 62% of respondents to a Brookings Institution poll taken seven months earlier said they didn't know. Fifteen percent replied yes, and 21% said no.

For the ...Read more

American popular culture, ever promoting the myth that we live in the land of the free and the brave, wants us to believe that we stand up to bullying. Even if bravery is in short supply at times, like during McCarthyism, someone like attorney Joseph Welch ultimately comes to the rescue. Breaking the spell, the First Amendment hero stands strong...Read more

In high school, when we studied the separation of powers, I asked my civics teacher: "What happens if the executive branch ignores the judiciary?" He didn't have much of an answer.

It has happened before. One famous case was Andrew Jackson's refusal to enforce a Supreme Court ruling overturning Georgia's seizure of Cherokee lands. "(Chief ...Read more

Echoing other analysts, New York Times opinion columnist Thomas L. Friedman wrote: "What happened in the Oval Office on (Feb. 28) ... was something that had never happened in the nearly 250-year history of this country: In a major war in Europe, our president clearly sided with the aggressor, the dictator and the invader against the democrat, ...Read more

Donald Trump's interest in rapprochement with Russia and his annoyance with Ukraine, embodied by last week's Oval Office shouting match, has corporate pundits and politicians freaking out. Trump's former national security adviser H.R. McMaster said Trump's dressing down of Volodymyr Zelenskyy made him "ashamed for my nation" -- something he's ...Read more

For this essay, let's not debate the pros and cons of our new old president. Detailing specific reasons that many Americans are upset with/scared of/annoyed by President Donald Trump and the Republican Party would be a distraction from a point that desperately needs to be made. Suffice it to say, millions of people are angry, disappointed and ...Read more

As Democrats continue to deconstruct the root causes of their recent defeat and attempt to regroup for next year's midterm elections, they might want to consider a new factor in American politics: the seductive power of a movement compared to a boring old party.

On the surface, the 60th American presidential election was the usual two-way ...Read more

When I was young, I knew a lot about old people. Especially about old people I knew personally: members of my family, my mother's contemporaneous older friends, teachers, clients on my paper route.

It wasn't a choice. When I was young, no one asked whether I was interested in events that significantly preceded my birth. They just talked. My mom...Read more

I've been unpersoned. Here, in the United States of America.

The censor? OpenAI, the huge tech company run by Sam Altman, famous for creating ChatGPT.

Open ChatGPT and ask it: "Who is Ted Rall?"

ChatGPT will answer: "I'm unable to produce a response."

Unable? Unwilling is more like it.

ChatGPT had all sorts of things to say about me a few ...Read more

When a marriage is in crisis, a point often occurs when constant bickering, arguing and fighting yields to detachment and hopelessness. The yelling stops. It's quiet.

But it's not peace. Exhausted, dispirited and contemptuous, one or both partners give up trying to convince the other that they're wrong or ought to change. They accept that ...Read more

There are two kinds of leaders: managers and revolutionists.

Most American presidents are managers. Managers have small ambitions, often so small as to be immeasurable. They may or not think the organization that they're taking over requires a few nips or tucks, but they believe the fundamentals are sound. The main ambition of these ...Read more