ArcaMax

SAN DIEGO -- I'm the product of a mixed marriage. My parents are both Mexican American, but they were born on what sometimes seem like different planets.

I'm a lifelong Californian, who has spent all but a dozen of my 58 years living in the Golden State. I share those roots with my father, who was born in Central California in 1941.

But I'm ...Read more

The Transportation Security Administration did not officially start requiring travelers to take off their shoes at the airport until August 2006. That was nearly five years after Richard Reid unsuccessfully tried to ignite explosives in his sneakers on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami.

The fear of Reid copycats was the ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Good mentors can teach us a lot, except how to say goodbye.

One of mine -- who entered my life a quarter century ago as one of my graduate school professors and who I was later fortunate to call "friend" -- schooled me both in and out of the classroom.

Even now, I hear his gravelly voice in my head offering a gentle scolding: "...Read more

ATTENTION RUBEN NAVARRETTE EDITORS: THE 8TH GRAF REFERENCES LANGUAGE THAT SOME READERS MAY FIND OFFENSIVE. THANK YOU. -- CREATORS

Trump's Immigration Crackdown Creates Mayhem and Madness. Here's What We Can Do.

SAN DIEGO -- It feels as if California has a new state motto that boils down to just four words: "What can we do?"

As a Mexican ...Read more

In a case that went to trial in Boston this week, the Trump administration argues that its policy of arresting, detaining and deporting international students for expressing anti-Israel opinions "does not exist." The government's lawyers also maintain that the supposedly nonexistent policy is perfectly consistent with the First Amendment -- a ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- What does political analysis sound like when it comes from Generation X? For one thing, it can be set to 80s music.

Talking Heads probably hoped that a Trump presidency was a trauma that Americans would only have to experience Once in a Lifetime.

No such luck. The sequel isn't even six months old, and already, many critics agree...Read more

The findings of a Gallup poll released at the end of June showed a higher percentage of people feeling less proud to be American. There was a stark division along partisan lines, which, given the Free America protests against President Donald Trump's policies on immigration, Medicaid and his spending cuts, is not surprising. Using a random ...Read more

On the eve of our nation's 249th birthday, a Gallup poll finds that only 58% of Americans feel "extremely" or "very" proud of their country. This is a new low in the 25 years Gallup has been asking this question, and the reasons are not hard to divine. We are led by a monomaniacal vulgarian who endangers all we hold dear -- all while enjoying ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Well, this Fourth of July weekend will be awkward.

As we mark the end of the first month of the Trump administration's occupation of Los Angeles -- which is centered around an un-American crackdown on Latino immigrants, and anyone who looks like them, by masked men who won't identify themselves, don't act like police and get ...Read more

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against "universal injunctions" last week, President Donald Trump hailed the decision as a "GIANT WIN" for his administration. Trump added that "the Birthright Citizenship Hoax" -- by which he meant the conventional understanding of the 14th Amendment -- also had been "hit hard," albeit "indirectly."

That ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- It's been nearly eight months since the 2024 presidential election, and Americans are still debating what happened, why it happened and what it means that it happened.

The Pew Research Center recently provided more grist for the mill when it released an extensive study of nearly 9,000 voters conducted in the weeks following the ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- As they try to tell the complicated story of what has been happening for the last three weeks on the streets of Los Angeles, the media have been making a big mistake.

Reporters, anchors and columnists need to stop accepting at face value the increasingly dubious claim that these are, in fact, "ICE agents" who are snatching from ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- The modern-day classic Western "Tombstone" has plenty of memorable scenes. One of the best is set in a saloon when Doc Holiday (played masterfully by the late Val Kilmer) meets fellow gunslinger Johnny Ringo (played exceptionally well by Michael Biehn).

Referencing Ringo, Holiday turns to his female companion and asks: "What do you...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Some say politics is poetry. But much of it is metaphor.

As a disturbing symbol of the extreme disrespect being shown Latinos in California, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif. -- a mild-mannered Mexican American MIT-trained engineer -- was recently manhandled, thrown to the ground and handcuffed by members of Secretary of Homeland ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Americans are really good at pointing out the contradictions of others, but really bad at acknowledging their own.

The immigration debate proves it. That's where consistency goes to die.

Trust me. Having written and spoken about that issue for more than 35 years, I've become an expert.

I'm not saying I'm an expert on ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- The Trump administration's invasion of the City of Angels is really quite devilish.

A Mexican American friend says that what surprises him most is that this is occurring in a city that is overwhelmingly Latino.

My friend is half right. Occupy L.A. is happening not despite the fact that Los Angeles is a Latino city but because it...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- If presidencies were akin to attractions at Disneyland, President Donald Trump's second term would be Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

When it comes to spreading demagoguery, creating mayhem, generating chaos and turning people against one another, Trump really is in a league of his own. He has a knack for doing the wrong thing.

Trump's ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- I've given commencement speeches. Many graduates want a warm bath. But what they really need is a cold shower.

This is what the class of 2025 needs to hear. And it wouldn't hurt the rest of America to listen in as well.

Dear graduates:

There is an expression that is usually identified -- some claim, misidentified -- as a ...Read more

Tyrades! by Danny Tyree

I’m glad most people have abandoned chirping, “See ya in the funny papers.”

Because that quaint farewell would reopen old wounds, since folks will definitely NOT be seeing me in the funny papers.

You see, 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of my ill-fated attempt to become a professional cartoonist.

...Read more

What do the Peace Corps, desegregation of the military, and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II have in common?

They were all established by presidential executive orders, or EOs.

Executive orders are all over the news of late, as President Trump uses his presidential authority to undo many of President Biden’s ...Read more