ArcaMax

As you know if you are one of my regular readers, I'm skeptical of hysterical claims that Donald Trump and his supporters represent a uniquely existential threat to democracy and the American way of life. Right-wing populist demagogues are a recurring feature of American history; there is nothing new here. Many "mainstream" politicians have ...Read more

The world needs more continuity editors.

Filmmakers hire them to check for plot holes. Like, in "Forrest Gump" the lead character's friend Lieutenant Dan couldn't have invested their money in Apple Computer in 1976 because the company didn't go public until four years later. Or, in "Pulp Fiction" when hitmen played by Samuel L. Jackson and John...Read more

As a businessman, Donald Trump did a lot of terrible things. He stiffed vendors. He hired illegal immigrants as construction workers and abused them. People went into debt paying for his fake university education.

As a president, Trump was awful. He kept children in cages. During the pandemic, he promoted quackery and denied science. He stacked...Read more

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union who died this week, was a member of that tribe of politicians who can diagnose a problem but don't know how to treat it. As he grew up, he couldn't understand why a nation blessed with extraordinary natural resources and an enviable geographically strategic position had so much trouble ...Read more

Edward Luce of the Financial Times recently tweeted one of the most overheated sentences ever uttered in the world of politics: "I've covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today's Republicans. Nothing close." Gen. Michael ...Read more

It's time to get real. It's been time to get real. Russia has won its war against Ukraine.

This outcome comes as no surprise. Anyone with access to a map could see that the chances of Ukraine prevailing against Russia were slim to none.

The only way Ukraine could have emerged victorious -- which would, according to the Ukrainians ...Read more

I'm interested in stories that go uncovered and undercovered. Fewer stories are less obscured today than life in Russia under Western sanctions. I'm especially interested in stories that are so imbued with spin and propaganda that the news media has abandoned all pretense of objectivity. That's certainly true about the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

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What are awards for? More precisely, what should they be for?

John McWhorter recently argued in The New York Times in favor of a retroactive Pulitzer Prize for Duke Ellington, who was snubbed for the journalism and arts award in 1965. My encyclopedic ignorance about jazz entitles me to have no opinion whatsoever about this attempt at ...Read more

Inflation is a cancer. It eats away at savings and consumer confidence. But the tools the United States government uses to fight inflation are often worse; they're a form of chemotherapy that's even more likely to kill the economy than the underlying disease. When your car is careening down a hill, slamming on the brakes is an inexperienced ...Read more

The Washington Post recently published an op-ed purportedly written by President Joe Biden that tried to justify his visit with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the psychopath who ordered the murder, dismemberment and dissolution in acid of Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for -- wait for it -- The Washington Post. Let's hope MbS ...Read more

The Supreme Court has sent a message: We're no longer in the business of ratifying social change. No more legislating from the bench. If Americans want abortion, same-sex marriage and contraception legalized as opposed to merely tolerated, they should look to Congress.

Distraught over the overturning of Roe v. Wade, many women are searching for...Read more

The Supreme Court just sent us a wake-up call. Pro-reality Americans, i.e., the 40% of voters to the left of the Democratic Party, should be grateful.

A freedom essential to half the population never should have hinged upon a flimsy and poorly reasoned legal opinion. Congress should have followed the example of other countries where abortion is...Read more