ArcaMax

How is it that the "Saxophone Colossus" Sonny Rollins lived to 95? Aren't jazz musicians supposed to die at tragically early ages? Actually, that's a myth that Rollins and others proved flawed.

It's true that Bix Beiderbecke, king of the cornet, was gone at 28, Charlie Parker at 34, Dinah Washington at 39, John Coltrane at 40. Billie Holiday ...Read more

I don't expect very much of President Donald Trump and generally, I'm not disappointed. In so many ways that we have come to take for granted, he is a small man, the antithesis of what we mean by "Presidential." Tall in stature, small in character. That's who we heard from this year on Memorial Day.

His message was garbage, partisan and mean-...Read more

Here in Washington, D.C., we endure slights of the president's barking, his constant use of capital letters and his ever-present red ties. These are forms of shouting, weapons of psychological warfare that he wields as the master of repetition. Then there's the 250-foot Arch he plans to build, which would block the view across Arlington ...Read more

Other than the fact that they are such blood-sucking greedheads, why have today's multibillionaires, high-tech barons of artificial intelligence (AI), become so despised by so many grassroots Americans?

By "so many," I mean they've sparked a hell-raising mass revolt, originating in farm country, spreading through working-class suburbs, into ...Read more

Teyana Gibson Brown was home with her husband, 9-year-old daughter and 11-year-old cousin in January when 10 masked and heavily armed federal agents stormed into her house. The federal agents smashed through her front door with a battering ram. They pointed their rifles at Teyana and her family members as she stood in the doorway repeatedly ...Read more

Established shortly after the Civil War, Memorial Day is a solemn day of remembrance for Americans to honor those who have sacrificed their lives defending American democracy. So it was exquisitely on-brand for a president who defrauded the U.S. military by fabricating "bone spurs" to evade military service, the only convicted felon we've had ...Read more

For months now, Democrats have been arguing about whether to release the "autopsy" the National Committee commissioned on what went wrong in 2024. The report was completed but then not released; under pressure, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin released the report this week, but only with the caveat that it didn't meet the ...Read more

"Should I stay," the Clash asked, "or should I go?"

When I was a kid, during and following Watergate, the tortured politico's answer to that existential question was the latter. Occasionally. During the 1973 "Saturday Night Massacre," Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus refused to obey Richard ...Read more

My sister Erica and I returned to Montana just a few days after the Bureau of Land Management revoked grazing permits for bison. American Prairie, a nonprofit working to create one of the largest nature reserves in the United States, was the target of that decision.

Erica and I bounced along two-track roads in our Toyota RAV4 rental, hoping ...Read more

Nobody expected Barney Frank to show up at the event. He came by because it was in his district and he'd been in his district all day, and he had time to come meet some people, and he'd donated a couple hundred bucks to the event, and they'd used it to buy meat.

It was one of those halls that seem to be available for every event in any ...Read more

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani earned national attention in a not-good way when he recorded himself in front of Ken Griffin's Manhattan home revealing the billionaire's address. He tapped the lens in a threatening manner and said guys like Griffin are going to pay more taxes.

Griffin is the founder and CEO of Citadel, a giant hedge fund. ...Read more

You wouldn't believe me if I did.

The Treasury Department takes $1.8 billion ($1.776 billion, to be exact) from the Judgment Fund, a fund that is used to pay settlement claims without congressional approval, and sets it aside for partisan payoffs. What's being called the "anti-weaponization fund" will pay claims of President Donald Trump ...Read more

Are we almost at the point of no return? Let America be America again, please, in a post-Donald Trump world.

Rebuilding our institutions, arts and trust in government is not a sure thing. Given a global economic, environmental or medical crisis, the endeavor could cross country boundaries, as natural historian David Attenborough said, in "an ...Read more

In this day of AI smart tools, it's easy to forget that we humans once relied on "dumb" hand tools like saws, drills, screwdrivers and wrenches.

For decades, a major maker of these trusty instruments has been a company in New Britain, Conn., appropriately named The Stanley Works.

Today, having taken over other big brands like Craftsman and ...Read more

In the late 1940s, when clever-sounding defenses of Soviet totalitarianism had overtaken certain fashionable political circles in Britain, George Orwell publicly addressed one leftist's soft spot for totalitarianism. He noted that the fellow did adamantly deny it. "Of course he does," Orwell wrote. "What would you expect him to do? A ...Read more

Back in 1969, President Richard Nixon warned Congress against the rapid growth of the American population: "When future generations evaluate the record of our time, one of the most important factors in their judgment will be the way in which we responded to population growth."

If the American headcount continued rising at the current rate, ...Read more

Redistricting is the process of drawing the lines of districts from which public officials are elected. When redistricting is conducted fairly, it accurately reflects population changes and our diverse communities and is used by legislators to equitably allocate representation in Congress and state legislatures. When politicians use ...Read more