ArcaMax

People worry about generative artificial intelligence.

Some are afraid it will put them out of work. Others think AI could become too autonomous, like the drones programmed to select their own targets. It will almost certainly accelerate the spread and power of government surveillance. Deepfakes are already being used in efforts to impact ...Read more

We live in uncertain times. It's a phrase we keep hearing, whether we're talking about climate change or politics. But aren't all times uncertain? We could time-travel to declare uncertainty during the Great Depression, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and the COVID-19 pandemic. Uncertain times are just called life, which is why I wanted ...Read more

I knew a guy once, clerical type guy, had a stroke, couldn't work anymore. He was a few years shy of retirement age, so he needed to get himself on disability and the health insurance the state provides for people in his situation.

He lived alone, had worked since he was old enough to work and was able to walk unsteadily and live alone after ...Read more

Let's cut to the chase. Most of Donald Trump's threats against Ivy League colleges are an attempt to divert attention away from an economy heading into crisis.

The trade war is producing economic and foreign policy nightmares. Despite the DOGE show, budget deficits are projected to rise further under Republican rule. The stock market is ...Read more

As a candidate for president, Donald Trump constantly complained about the "weaponization" of the Justice Department, arguing that its prosecution of him was politically motivated. But as president, Trump has weaponized the entire federal government, to investigate and punish those he considers the "enemy from within" -- whether it is current ...Read more

The two greatest presidents died in April, 80 years apart, one 80 years ago.

Abraham Lincoln, 56, was slain while enjoying a comedy at Ford's Theatre. After 12 years of a crisis presidency, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was 63 when he died of a stroke in Warm Springs, Georgia, where the waters helped his polio.

Political geniuses who loved to ...Read more

As Trump & Co. hurl horror after horror at us from the murky darkness of their extremely wasteful "war on government waste," I think of Lily Tomlin, who said years ago: "No matter how cynical you get, it's almost impossible to keep up."

But no need to swat frantically at their every assault. Their Blitzkrieg against everything at once is an ...Read more

There simply is no balderdash that Donald Trump hasn't elevated to an art form, a point so obvious by now that it's ceased to register. Lately, the Balderdash-O-Meter seems to crash hourly, as the president who claimed with a straight face to be running against a "weaponized" Biden administration devotes himself full throttle to weaponizing ...Read more

Donald Trump's defenders have taken great offense to suspicions by Democrats and others that the Trump family and its close circle are doing insider trading to profit from market convulsions. There's no "proof," they say.

It's true that there's been no proof so far, but there's surely enough smoke to warrant an investigation. Problem is, the ...Read more

President Barack Obama finally did last week what so many of us have been waiting for him -- and Bill Clinton and George W. Bush -- to do. He stood up and spoke out about the threat to our constitutional democracy posed by Donald Trump.

There is a very nice tradition that former presidents don't step up to criticize their successors, ...Read more

France's shocking surrender to Nazi Germany in June 1940 left citizens stunned and unsure how to resist the German occupation and Vichy's collaborationist regime. Distrust was everywhere -- few knew whom to confide in without risking betrayal. Prewar political parties, blamed for the defeat, lay discredited; the French Communist Party, later a ...Read more

April 18 is National Columnists Day. Because of this, I want to hold space for the writer in all of us. Don't believe we are all writers? Just look at social media.

Gone are the days when opinions were sequestered to dinner tables or written in letters to the editor. Public opinions are no longer reserved for professional newspaper columnists ...Read more

I have never owned an autographed baseball or a basketball jersey with some guy's name on the back. I have hundreds of books, but none of them are signed.

I'm not a fanboy. I like boxing, but when I met Muhammad Ali in a hotel lobby, I didn't ask for his autograph.

For about 50 years, I've loved the writing of Jack Kerouac.

Who is Jack ...Read more

This trade war with Canada is not the first. Forty-five years ago, Maine potato farmers piled rotten potatoes at their state's borders with New Brunswick. Blocking nine crossings, the Mainers accused Canada of unfairly subsidizing its potato growers, thus driving down the prices they could get.

The Maine potato industry had problems other ...Read more

What do you do when the economy is going to hell, 401(k)s are going down the toilet and we're bracing for higher prices on nearly everything?

If you're an average American, you worry.

If you're Donald Trump, you go golfing, as he did twice last weekend, even as people took to the streets in every major city in the country to protest his ...Read more

America's family farmers were astonished recently to get a jolly tweet from the President of the United States: "Have fun!" exclaimed The Donald.

Fun? The farm economy is in the ditch, with crop prices at depression levels and bankruptcies surging. Plus, Trump Inc. is now rigging the law to give agribusiness monopolies more power to run ...Read more

I went down to the demonstration at the Washington Monument, surrounded by a multitude with signs, chants and oh so many causes under the bleak spring sky. In this setting I had a sudden epiphany: Protests are not only to send a message to the ruler golfing in Florida.

No, the point of gathering is to know there are others with you, like you,...Read more