ArcaMax

ROME, Italy -- I traveled to an ancient world to see a future version of America.

The "No Kings" chant is a bit off. Donald Trump's true calling and character is akin to a cruel Roman emperor.

Under the sun's glare, the Colosseum stood as huge and imposing as ever, even more so in real life.

Trump would love to enter the emperor's gate to ...Read more

It's been my honor to know a few real heroes -- people who've selflessly dared to fight greed and oppression to advance the common good. Diane Wilson, for example.

For 40 years, this fiery, fourth-generation fisherwoman from the Texas Gulf Coast has battled tenaciously for the rights and very survival of the area's hardscrabble fishing ...Read more

"What I've tried to do," Boston mega-philanthropist Jack Connors told an obituary writer interviewing him as he lay dying of pancreatic cancer, "is to make sure that the folks whose net worth is $10 get a break, too."

For decades, the son of a working-class Irish-American family who worked his way through college before starting a big-time ...Read more

The time has come to praise Donald Trump. Let's savor the moment.

The president is right to challenge the tech worker visa known as H-1B. This is a temporary visa that lets American companies hire skilled foreign workers in "specialty occupations."

The visa's fans offer a mirror image, with a twist, of the popular argument that low-skilled ...Read more

Over the last five years, politicians across the country have targeted transgender people and our families. They've banned our health care, censored our speech and made schools less safe for transgender students. One of the most consistent focus areas for many of these politicians has been the rights of transgender student athletes, ...Read more

President Donald Trump wants revenge. He has made getting even the centerpiece of his administration, as if vengeance is a popular or attractive response. It isn't.

Over the weekend, Trump asked Attorney General Pam Bondi on Truth Social why "nothing is being done" about James Comey, California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff and New York ...Read more

Everyone knows that Donald Trump is the grifter in chief. Earlier this month, the president and his family raked in approximately $5 billion from meme coins, stablecoins and tokens. His businesses skimmed about $2.5 billion in profits from politically connected real estate deals during his first term. People eager to suck up to the leader of ...Read more

For principled critics of James Comey, the fraudulent and politicized indictment of him issued by a federal grand jury in Virginia yesterday is wrapped in layers of bitter irony. It would be entirely fair to suggest that the former FBI director brought this illegitimate prosecution upon himself.

His new jeopardy is only one facet of the ...Read more

When artist and writer John Guillemette posted his "illustration outtakes" from the upcoming book "Gina School" by Gina Barreca on Instagram, I knew I had to talk to them about their collaboration. The general public rarely gets a glimpse into an artist's process. We like to romanticize craft in our society -- make it look like a stroke of ...Read more

A NOTE FROM 40 YEARS IN JOURNALISM:

If a city councilor in the city where you work as a reporter proposes a city budget that guarantees the city will go bankrupt in five years, and you write a long story explaining the math, diving into state aid, the residential/commercial property tax split, money spent per student in the school system, and...Read more

On Monday, Donald Trump issued an ignorant warning to pregnant women whose doctors prescribe Tylenol, a brand name for acetaminophen. "Don't take Tylenol. Don't take it," he said. "Fight like hell not to take it." And when in pain, "Tough it out."

The idea that Tylenol use in pregnancy may cause autism has been shot down by researchers ...Read more

"The way this country works, you've got to sit down with people you may not agree with and come to an agreement, come to a negotiation," Sen. Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, said on Tuesday after President Donald Trump canceled his meeting with Democratic leaders. "Donald Trump is not a king. He's the president, and he has his ...Read more

Summer's lease hath all too short a date, said Shakespeare, and ain't that the truth.

The cicadas are still singing, but they won't be for long. The days are getting shorter, the nights fall faster. The garden knows it too.

The last batch of bright zinnias displays its stand-up-straight colors, and the gold black-eyed Susans have only their ...Read more

Here they come again! Another far-right-wing mob, spurred on by President Donald Trump, is storming our U.S. Capitol!

Only, these are not uncouth MAGA marauders wearing buffalo horns, breaking in, and attacking Capitol police. No, this is a very couth, richly attired, well-mannered political mob laying siege on Congress. And look: Instead of ...Read more

If Donald Trump hoped to make Americans feel nostalgic about Richard Nixon, he's succeeded. Those were the days of relatively modest abuse of presidential power, comparatively speaking, which Nixon at least felt constrained to engage in discreetly. They were days when merely sporadic acts abusing democracy sufficed to generate a bipartisan ...Read more

"Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents," Donald Trump declared at his 2025 inauguration. Hold that thought.

Trump is now using the immense power of the state to distract from a scandal that could bring him down. That is, his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, a fiend who sexually ...Read more

The Trump administration is enthusiastically abusing its power to intimidate anyone who criticizes its policies, and to silence those who won't fall in line. Now, using a long-standing government tactic, the administration is leveraging a tragedy to justify its censorship campaign.

The government is villainizing and threatening to punish ...Read more