ArcaMax

After a fierce rainstorm, the light shone on the Capitol dome like a city on a hill.

The House of Representatives was returning at that moment Monday to an utterly changed reality. The day before, an ailing President Joe Biden withdrew from his race for reelection. The old chieftain, 81, was last to know it was time to go after his alarming ...Read more

Playing the billionaires' news game, mega-investor Warren Buffett once held a portfolio of 31 dailies and 49 weeklies, including such major city papers as the Buffalo News and the Omaha World Herald. He specialized in squeezing out competitors. His scheme was to create monopoly papers and then chop staff and news content, letting him glean ...Read more

Since the stomach-turning assassination attempt against Donald Trump, some have wondered whether it is required to shade the truth about him in light of that awful event.

It isn't.

The obvious truth about the former president remains what it was before. And the phrase that best describes telling the truth about him isn't "Trump Derangement ...Read more

What follows here assumes that Kamala Harris carries out her stated intention to "earn the nomination" and not pretend that the crown is only in the shop. This gives her an opportunity to craft her image as a centrist with a spine, the sort of Democrat who can win national elections.

The Democratic nominee has two automatic advantages. One is...Read more

In a win for the separation of church and state, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that Oklahoma's approval of the nation's first religious public charter school violates the state constitution and charter school statute, as well as the U.S. Constitution. The decision affirms what we already knew: A religious school can't be a public school, ...Read more

How do you convince a stubborn old man that he needs to step aside? The answer is not simply to tell him -- because he is not listening to what he doesn't want to hear -- but to force him to read about it. Leaking.

The leaks are escalating. Biden supporters -- a dwindling group -- managed to sell the story, for a very few days, that the ...Read more

With the exception of those who explain themselves, like John Wilkes Booth and Leon Czolgosz, political assassins tend to take their motives to the grave. Though the real reasons for their acts tend to be personal to the point of quirky -- like John Hinckley hoping to impress Jodie Foster -- Americans often point the finger at inflammatory ...Read more

After the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, this is what I know for sure. Gun violence can happen to anyone, anywhere and at any time. It is truly America's great equalizer. It touches the rich and the poor. It happens at nightclubs, movie theaters, the mall, while grocery shopping or even if you are asleep in your bed like Breonna Taylor. ...Read more

I'm 67 years old, and when I was a kid, we used to shoot politicians like they were ducks sitting on a pond. We didn't always kill them, but we always hit them squarely.

Not many American boys hunt anymore, and not that many of our citizens serve in the military, so the standard of civilian marksmanship under pressure has declined. A kid who ...Read more

The hard-line pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime has been protesting against, of all people, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Where did the New York congresswoman and Vermont senator go astray? Didn't they denounce Israel's actions in Gaza as "genocide"? Didn't they call for halting military aid to Israel?

They ...Read more

"I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose," soon to be Sen. Adam Schiff said during a fundraiser last Saturday, according to a person with access to a transcription of a recording of the event. "And we may very, very well lose the Senate and lose our chance to take back the House."

This was last Saturday, according to The New York Times,...Read more

Washington is burning. This is America.

The mercury soars to 100 F, and people are sheltering in place. Death by heat wave or dehydration? No, that couldn't happen here.

And yet, consider the wild things that have happened here lately, turning the presidential race upside down since the end of June.

The shocking attempt on former President ...Read more

"Summertime, and the living is easy, fish are jumping, and ..." Wait a minute, what the hell is this?

A summer camp for kids -- but with a disturbing corporate twist. Some outlets of Chick-fil-A, the fast-food chicken chain, are promoting a summer camp where children as young as 5 can learn "how to be a Chick-fil-A worker."

Isn't this fun? ...Read more

The eruption and metastasis of antisemitism emanating from both far left and far right has prompted some to point to the poor and worsening state of Americans' knowledge about the 20th century's genocide against the Jews. The ignorance, particularly woeful among younger Americans, is widespread.

A Pew survey found that fewer than one-half of ...Read more

In overseeing the American economy, President Joe Biden has shown himself to be an amazing manager. It's all there in the numbers, especially when placed next to those of his predecessor. And should Biden win a second term and show himself to be not as sharp as he was four years ago, small matter economy-wise. He has a high-caliber ...Read more

When it comes to immigration and public safety, Republican and Democratic platforms have become virtually indistinguishable. Both sides are espousing a narrative that calls for harsher policies, more enforcement and increased incarceration. Candidates have bought into the idea that to win votes, they must lean into "toughness."

So how did we ...Read more

It's painful for Democrats to see our party so divided at a time when Republicans are marching in lockstep to coronate Donald Trump. Their convention will be a model of single-minded control, scripted from beginning to end by Trump. They have managed to excommunicate, intimidate and enforce discipline on anyone and any group that might offer a...Read more