Politics, Moderate
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Our Homegrown Extremists
The suspect in the Minnesota murders, Vance Luther Boelter, has been charged, for now, with second-degree murder. He allegedly killed two people, Melissa and Mark Hortman, in cold blood, and shot and wounded two others. According to Minnesota police, he showed up at the homes of at least two other people who were on his 45-person hit list (...Read more
Attention Ruben Navarrette Editors: The Following Column For Release Thursday, June 19, Is Being Transmitted Early Due To The Holiday. Thank You. -- Creators
ATTENTION RUBEN NAVARRETTE EDITORS: THE FOLLOWING COLUMN FOR RELEASE THURSDAY, JUNE 19, IS BEING TRANSMITTED EARLY DUE TO THE HOLIDAY. THANK YOU. -- CREATORS
Newsom and Trump Find Their Match -- and Their Soulmate
SAN DIEGO -- The modern-day classic Western "Tombstone" has plenty of memorable scenes. One of the best is set in a saloon when Doc...Read more
Federal Courts Shrug at Potentially Lethal Wrong-Door Raids: Cops Should Not Be Free to Forgo the Modicum of Care Required to Make Sure They're in the Right Place
Early on a Wednesday morning in October 2017, FBI agents terrorized three innocent people, including a 7-year-old boy, by breaking into their home in Atlanta. The agents tossed a flashbang grenade, rousted the two adults from the closet where they were hiding, manhandled and handcuffed one of them, and threatened them with guns before ...Read more
In Los Angeles, Trump's Latino Purge Ensnares a Latino Senator
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
Avoid Senseless Arguing. Bless Those Who Curse You!
About a week after my column on the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's death was published, I received a vile email from a reader who called me a "leftish, DEI b--h." At the beginning of his despicable message, he used a nasty expletive to describe Floyd and ruthlessly suggested that we should dig up the body to make sure Floyd is dead. Like ...Read more
Neither Republicans nor Democrats Are Consistent on Immigration
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
Trump's Threats Against Musk and Newsom Reflect an Authoritarian Intolerance of Dissent: Even If the President Was Joking in Both Cases, He Already Has Used His Powers to Punish People Whose Views Offend Him
On Monday, President Donald Trump endorsed the arrest of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who irked him by criticizing his militarized response to Los Angeles protests against his administration's immigration raids. Just four days earlier, Trump had suggested that billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, his former ally, could lose his government ...Read more
Trump's War on LA Is Really an Assault on America
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
Top 10 Worst Things Trump Has Done in His Second Term
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
Trump's Haste Begets Lawlessness: The President Treats Legal Constraints as Inconveniences That Can Be Overridden by Executive Fiat
Last week, a federal court ruled that President Donald Trump had exceeded his statutory authority by imposing a raft of tariffs based on the "national emergency" supposedly caused by the longstanding U.S. trade deficit. Those tariffs are part of an alarming pattern: In his rush to enact his agenda, Trump frequently treats legal constraints as ...Read more
A Final Lesson for the Class of 2025: Whether or Not You Succeed Is Largely Up to You
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
The Murder of George Floyd: Five Years Later
May 25 marked five years after the gruesome murder of George Floyd that shook the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before we saw the shocking news videos of Floyd begging for his life with the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on his neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds, the fear of death and infection from COVID-19 was ...Read more
Antisemitism Is a Cancer That Afflicts Both Political Parties
SAN DIEGO -- As a newsman who has been on the job for nearly four decades, I'm embarrassed to admit that the happiest people I know make a point of not following the news.
I don't blame them. These days, the process of following current events is often dark, depressing and disempowering.
Still, totally checking out of news coverage isn't the...Read more
How Charlie Rangel Changed His Mind About the War on Drugs: The Former Congressman, Who Died This Week, Transformed From a Zealous Prohibitionist Into a Drug Policy Reformer
It "seemed like a good idea at the time," Charlie Rangel remarked in 2021, referring to the draconian drug penalties he supported as a New York congressman in the 1980s. "Clearly, it was overkill."
Rangel, who died on Monday at the age of 94, came to that conclusion after enthusiastically supporting the war on drugs for decades, going so far ...Read more
With Harvard, Trump Has Met His Match
SAN DIEGO -- I always wondered why Harvard turned out so many lawyers. Now, due to overreach by the Trump administration, I know the answer. It's all the better to sue you with.
My MAGA friends think that President Donald Trump can perform miracles. Yet, as a "Never Trumper" who thinks the con man is desecrating the country, I was skeptical. ...Read more
Some Final Thoughts on 'Sinners' and the Depiction of the Black Church
Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" continues to be highly praised over a month after its April 18 release date. People are still flocking to theaters to see this horror thriller set in the early 1930s in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Many have seen it multiple times for its deep analysis of the cultural and historical impact of Black music -- primarily the ...Read more
Anti-Jewish Double Murder in D.C. Is Attack on All Americans -- Including Latinos
SAN DIEGO -- I feel sick. But that is par for the course. America is also not well. Too many Americans are afflicted with what Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter this week correctly diagnosed as "moral depravity."
Leiter was responding to the killing of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, a young couple who worked for...Read more
Ever dream of becoming a cartoonist?
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
By Trump's Logic, Biden Deserves Credit for a Dramatic Drop in Overdose Deaths: That Logic Implausibly Assumes Presidents Have the Power to Curtail Substance Abuse by Attacking the Drug Supply
During the last year of Donald Trump's first term as president, drug-related deaths in the United States rose by 30% -- the largest annual increase ever recorded. During Joe Biden's final year as president, according to preliminary estimates reported last week, that death toll fell by 27% -- another record.
On the face of it, Biden did a far ...Read more
Biden's Cancer Diagnosis Raises Another Round Of Legitimate Questions
SAN DIEGO -- The God of politics has a wicked sense of humor as well as a taste for irony. She delights in making members of both parties confront thorny subjects they've been trying to avoid.
It makes for an agonizing moment for Democrats, and a complicated one. It's a moment filled with sadness for a former president but also anger from ...Read more