The Trump White House is a bit like Shakespeare summer camp: not enough substantial parts for the girls. The female roles at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. are for craven ladies-in-waiting who are allotted very little moral agency, let alone opportunities for heroics. They subvert their ambitions to their overlord's; they lie, in short.

Yes, there's a ...Read more

It was known as the "tanker war." In 1987, Iran wreaked havoc on global energy supplies moving through the Strait of Hormuz, using mines to attack Kuwaiti oil tankers and eventually triggering direct conflict between U.S. naval forces and Iranian vessels. The U.S. estimated that Iran had attacked more than 160 ships in its campaign to disrupt ...Read more

What do Queen Elizabeth II and Vladimir Putin have in common?

Well, according to President Donald Trump, there is no difference between having a chat with Britain's queen and accepting dirt about a political opponent from the Kremlin.

When asked, in an astonishing interview with ABC News, whether he would welcome campaign help from an ...Read more

A 47-page indictment released last August by the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego laid out how Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, and wife Margaret had spent more than $250,000 in campaign donations from 2010 to 2017 for their personal benefit and the benefit of their family. The 60-count indictment quoted messages in which the couple discussed ...Read more

What do Queen Elizabeth II and Vladimir Putin have in common?

Well, according to President Donald Trump, there is no difference between having a chat with Britain's queen and accepting dirt about a political opponent from the Kremlin.

When asked, in an astonishing interview with ABC News, whether he would welcome campaign help from an ...Read more

With young men and women marching across stages last week, I thought it would be funny to put together a graduation speech for them consisting solely of tweets from Donald Trump.

It wasn't funny. It was sobering. I quit halfway through.

I've wondered since, though, about the lessons this president is giving to this generation -- including one ...Read more

The U.S. budget deficit is now almost $740 billion, the Treasury Department reported last week, prompting a new round of familiar criticism of 2017's Tax Cut and Jobs Act: The law's huge tax cuts were irresponsible, as were Republicans' sloppy and at times deliberately misleading assertions that the law would pay for itself.

That criticism is ...Read more

We did it, America. After letting our social media panic rise for years, we finally helped convince Twitter to ban God.

OK, it wasn't God, per se, but rather TheTweetOfGod, a satirical account run by a former "Daily Show" writer who posts quips such as, "What happens after you die is pretty funny actually."

Twitter, which like all social media...Read more

This year, a landmark case challenging the constitutionality of money bail is expected to come before the California Supreme Court. This is the culmination of an effort to reform California's troubled money bail system, pitting justice reform advocates against the for-profit bail industry.

For a court that tries hard to achieve consensus, this ...Read more

In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt said that America should protect "four freedoms": freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. As he runs for president, Senator Bernie Sanders is presenting his "democratic socialism" as a way to finish FDR's work. Judging from Sanders's speech defining the concept, he has...Read more

The Schlitterbahn era in the Kansas City region appears to be nearing an end.

It's welcome and overdue news. The company's operation of its water park in western Wyandotte County was disastrous -- a case study in how not to serve the public's interest and protect customers' safety.

The park opened in 2009. Five years later, prompted in part by...Read more

As bad as the pace and scope of the nation's mass shootings have become, with death tallies sometimes counted in the dozens, chances are good that they are only going to get worse.

And you can blame gun manufacturers and firearms enthusiasts who are driving a market for ever-larger high-capacity gun magazines.

The Trace reports that firearms ...Read more

In early 2017, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick opened the legislative session by prioritizing a measure that would have required people in Texas to use the bathroom of their biological sex in public schools and state and local government facilities.

The bill was controversial. It enjoyed a surprising amount of public support. And it failed, as I ...Read more

Climate change and other consequences of carbon pollution will shape lives around the world for generations, sweeping across class lines and international borders. Lamentably, America's deep partisan divide has become impassable ground for most attempts to confront this worsening crisis. A strong consensus on environmental issues and pragmatic ...Read more

If we are living through historic events, would we know?

In 1965, Arthur Danto, a philosopher at Columbia University, argued that it is impossible to tell, when you're in the midst of things, whether an event is going to be deemed "historic" by future historians. If something happens – Russia successfully reclaims Crimea, for example, or Pete...Read more

Elizabeth Warren fans rejoice: The Massachusetts senator and surging presidential candidate just nabbed the top seed in the easiest, breeziest debate bracket possible.

Her stiffest competition will come from Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas), the presidential-campaign equivalent of ...Read more

On first blush, the proposed legislation that sent more than a million Hong Kong residents into the streets on Sunday and resulted in violent clashes with police in the following days may not seem like such a big deal. Its purpose is purportedly to allow the accused murderer of a Hong Kong girl to be extradited to Taiwan, where the killing is ...Read more

A cabana on the sands of Aruba just doesn't do it for you anymore? Seen all there is to see up and down the Champs-Elysees? Tired of waiting in line to summit Everest? NASA's got a trip for you that's off the beaten path. Way off.

America's space agency has announced that, as early as next year, it will allow Joe and Jane Q. Public to fly to ...Read more

On Thursday, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel -- a watchdog agency with no connection to Robert S. Mueller III -- recommended that Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway be fired for multiple violations of the Hatch Act. That's the federal law that limits political activities by government employees.

The White House rejected the report's...Read more