ArcaMax

On Election Day on Nov. 5, I can say with some certainty: The House of Representatives will go from a Republican to a Democratic majority.

A blue House matters, because the speaker's gavel will belong to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York on the early January day the electoral count is certified by the House and Senate.

Last time, as you ...Read more

Perhaps you've noticed from the shrinkage (or total elimination) of your local newspaper that this source of hometown journalism has become monopolized, nationalized and trivialized by conglomerate owners.

How uplifting, then, to see a national consortium of saviors rallying to reestablish a "thriving news media" for our democracy. How? Well,...Read more

On Jan. 19, 1989, Ronald Reagan devoted his last speech as president of the United States to reminding Americans that our country owes its success to immigrants. "It's the great life force of each generation of new Americans that guarantees that America's triumph shall continue unsurpassed into the next century and beyond," Reagan said. "This, I...Read more

There were fewer arrests at the Southern border in July than in the last month of the Trump presidency. Shelters have seen a massive drop in migrants. And Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is having a hard time finding enough recent arrivals to fill buses headed north.

The reason for this development is President Joe Biden's new border policy, which ...Read more

Since 2021, 24 states have banned hormone therapy for transgender youth with gender dysphoria. Leading medical experts and organizations -- such as the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics -- oppose these restrictions, which have already forced thousands of families across ...Read more

At a donor event last week with Miriam Adelson, the widow of Las Vegas casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, Donald Trump promised to be the best friend Jews have ever had in the White House. The event was entitled "Fighting Antisemitism in America." This is what Trump said:

"My promise to Jewish Americans is this: With your vote, I will be ...Read more

Mainstream American political leaders regularly argue that the United States adheres to, defends and promotes a "rules-based international order." What's that? It's rarely defined.

The best summary I've been able to find was articulated by John Ikenberry of Princeton University, introduced by the Financial Times in 2023 as "an influential ...Read more

Someone recently told me, "The minute I took this job, I became part of the problem." I'd never thought of it that way before but instantly understood what they meant. They work within a government system, a completely different profession than me, but I couldn't help but come back to that phrase again and again. It also applied to me and ...Read more

In America's ongoing effort to separate the properly gendered from you freak jobs who are just making it up as you go along, we've finally struck on felines and fertility as the true measure of properly gendered patriotism.

You got cats? You got cats, there's some chance that you're not as male as the guy with a dog, particularly when ...Read more

Donald Trump's "drill, baby, drill" mantra portrays fossil fuels as the magic road to lower energy prices. He's exactly wrong. Solar, wind and other renewable sources are.

Renewables already provide electricity to consumers in Europe that's so cheap, it's at times free -- this according to The Wall Street Journal, a decidedly non-socialist ...Read more

"I am your protector. I want to be your protector ... you will no longer be abandoned, lonely or scared. You will no longer be in danger. You're not going to be in danger any longer."

That's Donald Trump talking, the man who was found liable for sexual assault by a jury of his peers and ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages -- now ...Read more

An iconic Texas band, the Austin Lounge Lizards, has a song that nails the absurd self-righteousness of Christian supremacists: "Jesus Loves Me (But He Can't Stand You)."

I think of this refrain when I behold today's right-wing proselytizers wailing that the blessed rich should not be taxed to assure that everyone has the most basic human ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- When you sit down at Ben's Chili Bowl, cofounder Virginia R. Ali is apt to greet you and tell you she is glad you're here.

If you're lucky, she'll tell stories of her life that intersect with every chapter of the city since 1958, the year she and her late husband opened the restaurant's doors in a segregated section in the old ...Read more

In June 2006, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., was asked in Boston what the Democrats' plan was for dealing with Iran, designated even then by our State Department as the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism and well on its way to acquiring nuclear weapons. "I don't know," Durbin replied. "With any luck Israel will do something about it, ...Read more

Back in the days when I was a moderate Republican, I still found Liz Cheney too far right-leaning for my tastes. And that went for her dad, former Vice President Dick Cheney, as well.

Even today, I may not agree with her on this issue or that, but we're on the same page on the primal importance of preserving our democracy. And this year, the ...Read more

For many of Texas' 3 million border residents, going through federal interior checkpoints -- where Border Patrol agents are permitted to screen vehicles for suspected noncitizens and can ask passengers about their citizenship and travel plans -- can be an intimidating but predictable part of daily life. But for undocumented or mixed-status ...Read more