ArcaMax

When Samantha Siegel's best friend took her to see an old live oak tree on Johns Island in South Carolina, she had no idea it was about to change her life. Samantha was a college student going through a hard time. Her friend just wanted to get her out of the house for a while. They went to see a tree estimated to be 300-400 years old and known...Read more

A few months ago, I told a friend that maybe this whole Trump mess started with two Merle Haggard songs.

One was "The Fightin' Side of Me," and the other was "Okie from Muskogee," both anthems of a defiant, exclusive American identity that locked out "hippies" and any "squirrelly guy who claims that he just don't believe in fightin'."

"I ...Read more

Some offenses are so heinous they can never be wiped from the record-- criminal or moral. There's no normalizing first- or second-degree murder. Not by having done the time with good behavior, not by getting a college degree, not by apologizing. Other crimes don't, in themselves, warrant a life sentence, but put enough serious violations ...Read more

They couldn't even be bothered to write an opinion. The Supreme Court's six right-wing Trumpers issued a summary opinion staying a district court order, which had been upheld by the Court of Appeals, prohibiting "roving patrols" of ICE agents from stopping and seizing people based on their race and ethnicity.

That's right: The same Supreme ...Read more

The assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah on Wednesday sent shockwaves across the country and around the world, not only through its raw violence, with a single, deadly sniper shot, but as a hallmark of worsening political divisions wracking the United States. President Donald Trump could and should use his enormous ...Read more

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. does not deserve his initials, as he showed in a Senate hearing that revealed a Shakespearean streak of villainy in the health and human services secretary.

Senator after senator asked straight questions about his broken promises on vaccine policy. Two are Republican doctors who expressed deep concern about his hurting ...Read more

Nearly all Americans agree that Congress has become a sad joke -- a blight of irritating gnats.

How exciting, then, that a consultant to top Republican lawmakers has figured out how to make Congress better. Ready? Raise the members' pay!

Golly, why didn't I think of that? After all, who wants to work for only $174,000 a year (plus full ...Read more

When a president recites 30,000 documented falsehoods in one term, is indicted by federal grand juries for violating the Espionage Act and obstructing justice, is convicted of 34 felonies, is found liable for fraud and separately liable for sexual abuse and is nevertheless returned to office by American voters, you pretty much know that where ...Read more

My sister and her guy just returned from Portugal after their second big travel venture of the year. I asked, naturally, "How was it?"

She said, "Awful." They were crammed in Porto alongside a zillion other tourists. A crush of bodies and long lines under a brutal sun. The experience left them with a case of Hodophobia, fear of travel. (Hodos...Read more

On Aug. 11, President Donald Trump invoked a provision of the D.C. Home Rule Act of 1973 and temporarily placed the Metropolitan Police Department under federal control for 30 days, saying he would allow the police to "do whatever the hell they want." At the same time, he deployed nearly 1,000 D.C. National Guard troops and almost as many ...Read more

Half the country is hoping President Donald Trump is dying. The other half thinks that, if he does die, he will rise again on the third day and send troops into Cleveland.

This does not make me more comfortable as I head to the dollar store to buy the cat litter my wife told me we need. Everyday errands are almost embarrassing during times of ...Read more

During a summer when the popularity of Donald Trump fell to abysmal lows -- and strong disapproval of his presidency achieved record highs -- those dire warnings were mostly brushed aside. What received far more intense and sustained attention were the awful numbers registered by the Democratic Party, with analysts bemoaning its "historically"...Read more

In his classic 1954 treatise on his human comparison theory, the social psychologist Leon Festinger stipulated that human beings assess their social standing by comparing themselves to those around them and how those other people are evaluated and received.

The corporate liberals who, despite being underrepresented in their own party's ...Read more

The worries we have as parents are tightly tethered to childhood experiences that shook us. Growing up in the latchkey days of the 1980s and '90s, without cellphones or supervision, it was the wild-wild west of adolescence. We explored our neighborhoods and navigated our development with nothing but a bicycle and a best friend.

In some ways, ...Read more

Half the country is hoping President Donald Trump is dying. The other half thinks that, if he does die, he will rise again on the third day and send troops into Cleveland.

This does not make me more comfortable as I head to the dollar store to buy the cat litter my wife told me we need. Everyday errands are almost embarrassing during times of...Read more

It started quietly enough. MAGA Republicans put lunatic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services. He's forced top scientists to leave and slashed research in cancer, autoimmune diseases and other health threats. Thanks to him, getting the updated COVID vaccine is harder for many and confusing for everyone....Read more