ArcaMax

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

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

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