ArcaMax

Scientists say blue whales are singing less.

It's not really singing. It's more like squeaking, but they used to do it all the time, and now they only do it sometimes. The singing helps them find mates, and it's how they talk to each other.

The same scientists say the whales might be singing less because climate change is making it harder ...Read more

It's with some discomfort that I consider the possibility that Trump's radical immigration agenda will lead to better immigration policies. The discomfort comes from the cruelty involved: the roughing up of good people who've been quietly working, the celebrations of brutal incarceration, the racially tinged rhetoric.

Hope comes in the form ...Read more

The latest from the streets of LA -- ICE Seeks Supreme Court Approval for Racial Profiling. That's what they're doing. As I wrote in my last column, in June, the federal district court found, discriminatory "roving patrols" of ICE agents terrorized Los Angeles and its residents, targeting not those who had committed crimes (remember those ...Read more

"If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice."

Those were the words circulated on X and voiced on-air by Al Jazeera, of Anas al-Sharif, a 28-year-old journalist in Gaza, after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Aug. 10. Anticipating his death, he wrote his statement last April.

"I have ...Read more

They have declared war on us.

Washington, D.C., is now a police state. Sending in the National Guard, President Donald Trump seized control of nation's capital, even the police force. Crime is way down, giving away the lie of his "emergency." Washington's capable mayor, Muriel Bowser, is a Black woman, totally trampled on with brazen ...Read more

Frenetic crowds are storming the White House like a Black Friday mob at Walmart!

Only these are not shoppers scrambling for family needs -- these are CEOs, lobbyists and billionaires out to "get theirs" in the huge Trump-a-Thon sell-off of Presidential favors. Common folks need not apply, since MAGA, Inc. (Trump's political fundraising sack) ...Read more

On CNN last week, analyst Scott Jennings asked Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin, like many a critic of Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip, if Rogin had an alternative to militarily removing Hamas from power in Gaza. Rogin's recommendation: "You can steer (Hamas) toward better governance, but that will require working ...Read more

In 2008, Madeline "Kara" Neumann, age 11, died of diabetic ketoacidosis in Wisconsin. Her parents treated her symptoms with prayer instead of medical care. The day before she died, Kara could no longer talk while suffering terrible stomach pains. Yet her adults still wouldn't take her to a doctor. A Wisconsin jury convicted the mother of ...Read more

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order seeking to end the constitutionally guaranteed right to birthright citizenship. The American Civil Liberties Union and our partners swiftly sued to block that cruel and lawless action, as did other groups of plaintiffs around the country.

The Trump administration ...Read more

In June, the court found, discriminatory "roving patrols" of ICE agents terrorized Los Angeles and its residents, targeting not those who had committed crimes (remember those promises), but anyone who looked Hispanic or spoke Spanish or was hanging out in Hispanic neighborhoods where men find jobs, at car washes and at Home Depot parking lots....Read more

Political opinions are like posteriors; with a few exceptions, everyone has one. And those opinions, like what comes out of rear ends, frequently look and smell terrible, the more so after the passage of time.

Political opinions are the most dangerous kind of opinions, more so than almost any other kind of subjective thought. Political opinions...Read more

"To the moon, Alice!"

That was how fictional television character Ralph Kramden used to threaten his wife, Alice, on the old "Honeymooners" TV show.

He never actually hit her. That wouldn't have been funny, not if he hit her really hard, anyway. Threatening to hit her was hilarious, however.

You know what they say, different times, ...Read more

The Democratic Party's low approval ratings have sent a stern message to its members. But what is it? Is it a failure to loudly fight an unpopular president on every matter? Is it anger over the party's previous obsession with boutique causes -- transgender rights, for instance -- while downplaying broad economic concerns? Or is it the lack of...Read more

The pictures are almost too painful to look at: the starving children and their desperate mothers, the frail and emaciated hostages, the memories of the bodies on Oct. 7.

And for those who have loved Israel, have planted our trees as children and celebrated Israel's victories as adults, there is the pain of seeing the world, including its ...Read more

Donald Trump's conquering of the country is complete. The blows he's inflicted on American democracy will take a lifetime to heal.

The president fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics chief, a woman, for a poor jobs and growth report. That is a death knell -- or a deep chill -- for honest government officials.

He shut the Corporation for ...Read more

In 2018 my newspaper died. Well, actually, the emaciated carcass of the Austin American Statesman still had a feeble pulse. But its journalistic voice and soul were gone, stripped out by the notorious financial predators of Gannett, the huge media conglomerate that had recently bought the paper.

Happily, though, the Statesman has made a near-...Read more

That Gazans subsist in misery is indisputable, and Benjamin Netanyahu's apparent decision to dispute it is incomprehensible. It's dishonest, and it undermines Israel's government's credibility. Those who maintain that Israel, despite the impossible position in which Hamas' genocidal invasion has put it, must nevertheless do all it reasonably can...Read more