ArcaMax

I first met Elise Carter at a public meeting in spring 2021. Elise sat with her colleague and friend Trinity Walsh in the auditorium of Highlands High School in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, where I had graduated in 1993. The community assembled to talk about a social equity course Elise and Trinity were slated to teach as a high school elective. ...Read more

A guy I know, another writer, read one of my columns not long ago, and had a little advice.

"You shouldn't say how old you are," he said, giving me the worried/wisdom look.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because editors are gonna think you're writing a senior citizen column," he said. "Pretty soon, your stuff's going to be running next to the ad for the ...Read more

Thomas Paine's pamphlet "Common Sense" galvanized support for the American Revolution. It mocked the English monarchy, calling hereditary succession "a degradation and lessening of ourselves" and "an imposition on posterity."

Were he still with us, Paine might weep at the sight of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. heading the Department of Health and ...Read more

Until last week, most of us had never heard of the data company Astronomer or its then CEO, Andy Byron. That was before he attended a Coldplay concert in Massachusetts on Wednesday with a woman later identified as the head of human resources at the company. The two were caught by the "kiss cam" at the concert; he was embracing her. When they ...Read more

In 1516, a 7-acre section of Venice, Italy, was designated as the area where Jews would be required to live. As it was located where a copper foundry had been, it was called by the word for "foundry" in the Venetian dialect: "geto." The practice of forcibly concentrating Jews into such "ghettos" grew, reaching a brutal, murderous climax under ...Read more

The missing Jeffrey Epstein files triggered MAGA and me.

Hopefully, Washington correspondents will have a rude awakening too.

Lurid details about the late Palm Beach sex trafficker -- and links to Donald Trump before he ran for president -- are bubbling up.

Only now. This "news" is old.

Next to the relentless reporting on Watergate by ...Read more

From the Lowdown's "Early Political Warning System" comes this Code Red alert (BRRAAAPP) ... a fast-moving front of corporate corruption is sweeping westward from the White House ... (BRRAAAPP) ... Residents are urged to seek higher ethical ground immediately ... (BRRRAAAPP).

This is not a test, but a warning of an unnatural disaster: A ...Read more

"Fear is the tool of the tyrant," wrote suddenly former Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey to her colleagues after she was abruptly fired by Attorney General Pam Bondi last week, no basis given, no justification suggested. The surprise is that it took Donald Trump six months before garroting Comey. Since returning to office, he's been focused...Read more

Zohran Mamdani's ideas are Bernie. But his political maneuvers are Donald. The similarities between the Democratic Socialist running for New York City mayor and President Donald Trump -- as well as their respective bases -- are fascinating.

Like Trump, Mamdani's playbook is heavy on culture and grievances that have little to do with the ...Read more

Remember when candidate Donald Trump went on and on about all the rapists and murderers who were invading our country and he said he was going to deport them? It was his favorite issue, his answer to everything. It was enough to frighten anyone and helped him win the election. People believed him: According to exit polls, even many Hispanic ...Read more

Reacting with borderline hysteria to demands that the government open its files on Jeffrey Epstein -- the deceased pedophile and financier who once described himself as Donald Trump's "best friend" -- the president has aroused suspicion even among MAGA cultists. Few Americans believe the excuses Trump and his appointees in the Justice ...Read more

More than anything else, American voters worry about the economy. Specifically, they struggle to pay their bills. Those with jobs are scared they will get fired through no fault of their own, perhaps because globalization ships all or part of their sector overseas, or because artificial intelligence replaces humans. The unemployed and ...Read more

Lately, when I tell people that I am a writer, the conversation inevitably turns to artificial intelligence. People want to know if AI will replace journalists and take over everything from writing newspapers to books. I don't think it will, and here's why.

AI can be a useful tool. I use an AI-driven app to transcribe the interviews I conduct ...Read more

Sometimes, you gotta start the job from the back.

People who used to think President Donald Trump was fighting an international ring of Hollywood-run pedophiles are now twitching all over because they can't get a look at the "Epstein client list." The list may or may not include Trump's name as one of the men who enjoyed the company of girls ...Read more

Can you hear the canary in the economy's coal mine singing her heart out?

You know that we are headed for trouble when some masses start buying groceries on the installment plan. That is the business model behind the popular "Buy Now, Pay Later" (BNPL) borrowing platforms -- loans that spread out purchases into four payments.

Troubles are ...Read more

"It's going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions. And it's going to require Democrats to just toughen up," former President Barack Obama told Democratic donors at a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee last Friday night. "What I have been surprised by is the degree to ...Read more

July 16 marked the 80th anniversary of the first atomic bomb explosion, at what the bomb's creator, physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, called the Trinity Site in New Mexico. The harsh desert terrain had been known for centuries by the name given by the Spanish conquistadors, the Jornada del Muerto, the Journey of Death. The Trinity test was ...Read more