ArcaMax

If you've been a reporter long enough, you learn that when people say you're a "member of the Fourth Estate," they mean to insult you and to let you know they read a book once.

The only exception is lawyers, who use the term the same way they use Latin, as a way to remind you that they've read a lot of books.

And in America, we can afford a ...Read more

We have gotten to the point where lawmakers openly complain about it being "scary as sh--," according to NBC News, with security briefings having "done little to calm nervous lawmakers."

They're right to be worried, as are political leaders at the state and local level, most of whom receive no special police protection. Risking your life should...Read more

With a last name like Feldkamp, I fully expected my DNA results from 23andMe to confirm what I thought I already knew. My ancestry is predominantly German. But it turns out that no, it isn't. I'm mostly British and Irish with less than 2% of my DNA coming from French and German ancestry.

That's not all. According to my DNA, I'm actually more ...Read more

Where is Barack Obama? Democrats had been frustrated that their charismatic former president had gone silent on MAGA's march of mayhem. Where is that smooth, persuasive voice?

It has risen. Obama has spoken, and Democrats would do well to take in the message.

"You could be as progressive and socially conscious as you wanted," Obama sternly ...Read more

A terror campaign is sweeping the United States, orchestrated from inside the White House and waged by masked, militarized federal agents. Its primary targets are immigrants. Also included are those in solidarity with immigrants, and, increasingly, elected officials, all from the Democratic Party. This state repression has a dark and ...Read more

Scene 1: There I sat in the Senate chamber, waiting for a Republican to decry the use of force against one of their own.

Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, was knocked to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents in a conference room where Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem promised to "liberate" Los Angeles from "socialists."

...Read more

If the barrage of MAGA nuttiness and raw meanness is getting you down, ponder this passage from the classic novel, "Don Quixote": "It is not possible for the bad or the good to last forever ... and since the bad has lasted so long, the good is close at hand."

Of course, the good only comes when fed-up people openly rebel against the bad. And,...Read more

In the first months of his administration, President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened due process, a fundamental principle enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. His attacks have spanned from the arbitrary use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport legal residents to the unlawful detention of students.

For years, due process has protected us from ...Read more

While our avowed admirer of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un spent American taxpayers' dollars parading military hardware through Washington, D.C., in order to celebrate his 79th birthday and sent troops to quell protests about the forcible detention of immigrants, Democrats scratched their heads wondering why they're so unpopular among ...Read more

Donald Trump recently wrote on Truth Social: "Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long-time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace."

Let's get the obvious out of the way. Trump is heavily ...Read more

What does it say when Alex Padilla, a sitting member of the United States Senate, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration, is wrestled to the ground and handcuffed like a common criminal?

Not a rapist, not a murderer, but a member of the United States Senate.

It says no one with brown skin is safe from Kristi ...Read more

For a president who has long described himself as a peacemaker (and openly yearns for a Nobel Peace Prize), Donald Trump has proved to be a reliable harbinger of war. His delusional pronouncements and dithering incompetence have failed to resolve the conflagrations in Gaza and Ukraine, despite many promises -- and now he bears substantial ...Read more

People who support Israel, no matter what it does, tend to hang their hats on a series of familiar arguments. Israel, they say, is the only place Jews can live in security. Critics of Israel want to eliminate Israel. The abolition of Israel would render Israeli Jews homeless (ethnic cleansing), or they would be killed (genocide). Therefore, ...Read more

When an infection attacked his heart, James M. Lang was admitted to the hospital where he stayed for three months, ultimately receiving a heart transplant. "We live in the age of wonders," he wrote in the introduction of his new book, "Write Like You Teach: Taking Your Classroom Skills to a Bigger Audience." It's why I wanted to talk to him.

...Read more

Send in the Marines! Damn! That sounds tough.

Say it. Just say it. Yell it into the silence of your living room.

"Send in the Marines!"

When you yell that, you automatically make a fist.

From the halls of Orange County. To the shores of Redondo Beach.

America hasn't really won a war overseas since 1945, so I guess we figured we could win ...Read more

The president is doing his best to inflame passions within and at California. Calling in the National Guard against the governor's wishes is a provocation. Sending in Marines to add drama to his show is an insult as well as incitement. The Marines are not a fashion accessory. They are trained to confront foreign threats, not in policing the ...Read more