There is a powerful force that affects politics as much as it affects individual lives. It is fatigue.

We just get darn tired of something, be it a job, a relationship, a hobby or a routine. We have been devoted to it for years, and suddenly we want out; we want to do something else. What we loved doing has become boring and tedious. More work ...Read more

Social Security is the bedrock of nearly every American’s retirement plan — the steady, dependable stream of income they can count on to guarantee them a basic standard of living in old age.

That foundation is now in jeopardy. According to the Social Security trustees, the program’s primary trust fund is on track to be depleted before ...Read more

President Donald Trump has given his “Complete and Total Endorsement” to the hard right-wing candidate for president in Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella, for the second round of the presidential election coming Sunday. More than expressing his personal preference, the U.S. president also noted that the “results of this Election are very ...Read more

New York Attorney General Tish James, along with AG counterparts in 17 other states, have prevailed over Donald Trump’s capricious attempts to derail offshore wind energy projects all around the country by imposing a moratorium on approvals and even the issuance permits or leases for already-approved projects.

Having lost before a federal ...Read more

The latest Social Security trustees report underscores the urgency of reform. The Social Security retirement trust fund is now projected to be depleted in late 2032, one year sooner than previously forecast. At that point, the system would be able to pay only 78% of scheduled benefits, resulting in an automatic 22% reduction in benefits for ...Read more

Up to now, images of government-sponsored cruelty involving men in cages were the stuff of “Alligator Alcatraz,” Florida’s billion-dollar boondoggle of an immigrant detention center.

The new venue is the White House lawn.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship “America 250” on Sunday showcased men beating each other bloody for the ...Read more

Today, we discuss political jockeying, litigation and Hail Mary passes.

There's so much going on these days ...

Indeed.

Between the war with Iran , the World Cup and President Donald Trump slapping his filigreed ( emphasis greed ) name on everything in sight, I've completely lost track of the fight for control of Congress.

Well, now that ...Read more

Ebola, a deadly virus, is spreading rapidly through parts of central Africa. By the time the outbreak was confirmed in mid-May, hundreds of potential cases had been identified, suggesting the strain had been circulating for months undetected. Although the U.S.’s retreat from global health initiatives isn’t directly to blame for this crisis, ...Read more

There have been so many statements about an impending peace deal with Iran, without any agreement actually materializing, that it’s hard to take seriously President Donald Trump’s claims of imminent success. But for the first time in four months, it appears we finally have a settlement — or, more accurately, a short-term placeholder to ...Read more

In today’s America, one of the rites of passage that marks the transition to full adulthood is paying your own phone bill. By this standard, many people — even those well into middle age — are stuck in an extended adolescence.

A survey released this month by the insurance firm Northwestern Mutual says that many Americans, including some ...Read more

The air is thick with schadenfreude in the wake of Graham Platner’s impressive victory in the Democratic primary for U.S. senator from Maine.

Columnist Bret Stephens, writing in The New York Times just before the election, said that Maine Democrats who choose Platner while continuing to object to President Donald Trump’s putative moral ...Read more

SpaceX’s initial public offering made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. You might think there’s not much you can buy with a hundred (or a thousand) billion dollars that you can’t buy with one billion dollars. But there is: Absolute power.

The world’s top 10 wealthiest individuals all have fortunes of around $150 billion or ...Read more

Recently, I attended a meeting of an advisory task force in Austin, Texas, where I live, to urge more funding for housing and shelter. As I sat in the parking lot before going inside, I realized it was the same parking lot where, not all that long ago, I slept in a tent.

I am no longer homeless, in large part due to the American Rescue Plan Act...Read more

On my first attempt to find Bernardo de Gálvez in 2015 in Pensacola, Florida, he was difficult to spot. I eventually found him at Fort George, in the form of a small stone bust with the words “Yo Solo” (“I Alone”) carved underneath.

The memorial — dedicated in 1981, on the 200th anniversary of the Siege of Pensacola — was an ...Read more

In January, the United States sent military forces into Venezuela, killing more than 50 people, to capture Nicolás Maduro to face federal charges. By even the most generous reading, that raid was legally questionable. A more honest reading sees it as an illegal use of military force to accomplish what the government itself treated as a criminal...Read more

Chicago recorded its fewest violent crimes in 60 years last year. That’s the good news. The bad news is what’s happening so far this year. While other cities continue reducing crime, in Chicago, homicides are actually up 7%. And summer is here, a time when violence spikes.

Chicago just can’t spend its way out of the problem. Federal ...Read more

Earlier this year at San Francisco International Airport, a nine-year-old girl watched in terror as federal agents in plainclothes forcibly handcuffed her mother, pried her fingers from an airport bench, and wheeled her away. The child stood alone in the terminal, crying – as so many other children watched. Within 48 hours, both mother and ...Read more

The Trump Department of Justice going after people who make the president mad or even sad is nothing new, in this dangerous age when the presidency is increasingly about placating the desires of the old man in the Oval Office.

Leticia James, James Comey, Adam Schiff. Most recently, E. Jean Carroll, who sued President Trump personally and won a ...Read more

The on-again, off-again peace deal with Iran is on again. President Donald Trump is taking a leap of faith that the pact will normalize relations between the United States and Tehran.

The details remain murky, but reports indicated that American and Iranian leaders on Monday signed an agreement intended to end hostilities between the countries....Read more

When it comes to preparing young children for successful lives, few factors weigh more heavily than early reading.

A Harvard Graduate School of Education study found that reading to children starting very early — even as babies — gives them measurable advantages later over those who don’t have that exposure. The American Academy of ...Read more