Who knew that the finest sportswriter of his generation—seriously, his books on the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers and the 1990s Dallas Cowboys are two of the finest sports-related works of the past fifty years—would emerge as one of America’s most thoughtful, incisive, and impassioned political columnists? From his home base in Orange County, Pearlman combines the righteous indignation of prime-era Hunter S. Thompson with the scathing observational humor of Mark Twain, both of which are in otherwise depressingly short supply in an America seemingly hell-bent on destroying itself. 

Here are a handful of exerpts from earlman’s finest essays (all of which originally appeared in the author’s Substack newsletter and linked to the full articles).

—Kareem Tayyar

Musings From a Huntington Beach Meeting

So yesterday afternoon I was invited to speak to the good peeps of Protect HB, a left-leaning Huntington Beach-based organization of grassroots volunteers. There were three guests—myself, Chris Kluwe and Buffie Chanl.

And it was fun. Really fun. The folks in attendance were engaged, inspired, fired up, anxious to do all within their power to defend their city from the MAGA buffoons on the city council and defend their nation from Donald Trump’s lawless band of election-denying douchebags. They handed out free chocolates, which is always a good thing.

And yet …

As I sit here, writing this, I find myself burdened by something. One of the big themes of the meeting was outreach via social media. Chris, in particular, delved into the highs and lows of a life lived online; of using Twitter and BlueSky and Instagram and such to try and inspire local voters to pursue righteousness.

Chris is right. Social media—for good and for bad—is key. We can send 100,000 letters via mail in 2025, and a single TikTok video oftentimes carries more oomph. The problem, however, is so few people know how to use it. The related problem also, is that the people being asked to use it (as was the case at the meeting) are oftentimes, well, senior citizens with no experience outside of posting a grandkid’s school photos on Facebook. This, for example, is a brochure from the event …

Were the folks in attendance capable of many of the tasks? Probably not.

And, in writing this, I’m not criticizing anyone. Certainly not the awesome people of Protect HB. What I am suggesting, however, is that instead of looking inward toward longtime participants with minimal knowledge to suddenly emerged as “content creators” and Reddit experts, we (collectively) try and expand. Put differently: As we speak, there are plenty of high schools and colleges within a stone’s throw of Huntington Beach. If you’re Protect HB, reach out to them. Find out about campus Democratic clubs, campus media groups. Ask if any students might be interested in running a social media campaign. Collect some dough from your members (to offer as a stipend), and find out if, perhaps, a college/university would mark work as credit. Hell, if nothing else it’s amazing resume fodder in an age when students are desperate for the stuff.

We keep looking within for answers, when—quite often—there are young people itching for opportunities, while unaware they even exist.

Let’s step up.

*Check out the original article for more.

The Fair

So last night I attended the Sea Country Festival, the annual weekend-long carnival held in Laguna Niguel. And, as always, it was fantastic. Tons of rides, games, food, vendors. As a guy who was born and raised in a small town with a centerpiece summer fair, I’d argue Sea County is one of the best such events in all of America.

And, truly, one of the things I dig about these things is the unity. The festival never feels left or right, combative or intrusive. It’s a celebration of locals. Of us.

That being said …

Because I am a man of the people, I made sure to stop at the booth for the South Orange County Republicans, where a fleet of (friendly, warm) people handed out literature and fielded questions. In the moment, the organization’s big issue is Proposition 50, aka the Election Rigging Response Act brought forth by Gavin Newsom. Lord, does the local GOP loathe Prop 50. They talked about it, slammed it, bemoaned it, offered a petition to be signed and handed out this brochure …

And, honestly, I can understand their stance. Prop 50, without context, sucks. It’s an action no sane human would (again, without context) back or support or touch. It sucks, it sucks, it sucks.

However, at the same time the South Orange Republicans were crying into their soup about Gavin Newsom and Prop 50, they were urging people to come pose for a photo with the cardboard cutout of their Dear Leader and King—Donald Trump. Literally, the man who demanded Texas “give me” five extra congressional seats; the man who has shown zero interest in fairness or decency; the man who led a revolt on the Capitol after losing an election; the man who is sticking his nose in universities and museums; the man who is about the send military into Chicago, as he has Washington, D.C. And I don’t think Elaine Gennawey, the club president and a woman I met (and chatted with—warmly—for several minutes), gets the irony and hypocrisy of it all. I don’t think she sees how preposterous her organization’s objections are. It’d be one thing were Gennawey and the crew ripping Trump’s Texas moves. But they’re not.

Hell, they’re cheering them on.

So, sadly, here we sit. A divided nation, a divided state, a local Republican group slinging nonsense …

And a fair that remains resiliently lovely.

*Check out the full article for more.

Well, So Much for the 40th...

So Friday was even crazier than Thursday—and Thursday was crazy enough in this dysfunctional herpes-soaked cesspool we refer to as Donald Trump’s America.

In case you fell off a cliff or found yourself locked in a room listening to Oingo Boingo albums and eating fried Oreos, yesterday afternoon marked the moment when we would learn about California’s preposed redistricting—a direct result of the woefully unpopular Trump and a bunch of Texas yahoo asswipes teaming up to fix the 2026 midterms.

So … hey!

I guess the biggest takeaway (for this site, at least) is that Young Kim’s newly defined CA-40 seat is out of play, and all the debate over Perry Meade or Esther Kim Varet or Christina Gagnier is, to be blunt, deader than a squirrel eating peanut butter off the third rail. I don’t mean to sound all Debbie Downer, but reality is reality, and when the new 40 is official (which will almost certainly happen in November) it’ll look like this (props to the OC Register for the graphic and explanation) …

With Trump’s sagging poll numbers and Young Kim’s backbone-less corpse, we had an OKish shot when the Republican-Democrat divide was a couple of points. But the new district will be waaaaaaaaay more conservative, and it’s fairly inevitable that—sooner or later—Kim Varet, Meade and Gagnier (the three front runners) step away to devote their energies toward something more attainable. Like, say, managing the Angels toward back-to-back World Series crowns. Or inventing levitational chewing gum. Or piecing together a Juice WRLD hologram.

I reached out to Joe Kerr yesterday, and the former fire chief and 2024 CA-40 Democratic nominee (he lost to Kim) told me—hell or high water—he’s sticking. “Redistricting doesn’t change my commitment,” he said. “I’m in this race to fight for working families in CA-40, and no set of lines on a map will alter that. I’m committed to making sure our community finally gets the fair representation it deserves.”

In this moment, if you put a gun to my head (something that sounds increasingly entertaining with every cruel act emerging from Washington), I’d say we’re probably headed toward Kerr II: Electric Boogaloo in the 2026 election. Which means a rematch slightly less anticipated than “Independence Day: Resurgence.” Although I believe Joe deserves props for his convictions and devotion toward the race, he would be squaring off against a well-funded, well-liked incumbent in a conservative district while receiving little-to-no (emphasis on the no) money from the national or state Democrats. This is how it all works in the grotesque world of American democracy: The party decides which races are winnable and which are not, and determines where to funnel dough. CA-40 would no longer be deemed in play and Kerr (again—huge props for giving it his all) would be left for roadkill.

With the new district lines, his odds of winning are about the same as Ozzy Osborne opening up for Boyz II Men when they come to Los Angeles next week.

Ozzy Osborne died on July 22.

•••

Ultimately, this is all a good thing. Or, really, a necessary thing. Donald Trump has corrupted America. He cares not for rules or fairness, and will do all within his power to transform our democracy into a dictatorship. When there is a decision to make, he always chooses cruelty and gluttony. Without fail. Texas went along with his wishes, and Gavin Newsom had no choice but to pretzel twist our state to match the awfulness and give the Democrats a leg to stand on. It blows that we’ve hit this low.

Truly, it blows.

I feel bad for Perry, for Esther, for Christina, for Joe … for all the CA-40 Democrats who devoted time, money, energy to try and force Young Kim out. I also hope Young Kim looks around and sees that everything her lord and savior (Trump) touches ultimately dies. Yeah, she’ll win again. But at what cost to the GOP? To conservative Californians wanting a voice? To America?

Alas, politics is a grotesque carnival of the absurd, and the Republican Party has chosen to kneel before a conman.

I love this state, I love our governor.

I hate that it came to this.

*Check out the full article for more.

On Kamala Not Running

Kamala Harris announced today she is not going to run for the governorship of California.

I didn’t expect it.

I naively assumed Harris would run and—in all probability—win. She would have entered the race with money, name recognition, an ability to fundraise her ass off and clear frontrunner status. Put different: I am quite confident she would have won.

In staying out of the race, Harris is either …

A. Leaving politics.

Or …

B. Plotting a 2028 run.

Clears throat: She is plotting a 2028 run.

There is no way—with the egos of politics and the closeness of the last race and the ruination that is Donald J. Trump—Kamala Harris (only in her early 60s) decides to pass on a job she rightly believed she deserves. There’s no way she sets her war chest aside, no way she watches others steal the spotlight.

No. Way.

So I take today’s NO GOVERNOR announcement as the equivalent of I’M RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT. And while I can appreciate it, and even understand it … well, I think it’s a brutal mistake.

In short, Kamala Harris won’t be the Democratic nominee in 2028. There is simply far too much PTSD for that to happen, as well as the lingering (and, admittedly, uncomfortable) question: Why didn’t you speak up when your boss was eating strained peas from a straw?

This past election was her shot.

Her only shot.

It’s over.

*Check out the full article for more.

Los Angeles is Under Attack

If you’re paying attention—and you should be paying attention—hell is breaking out in Los Angeles, and the authoritarianism we all anticipated is charging forward in full force.

Yesterday, masked, anonymous ICE agents came to our beloved city to crack down on undocumented immigrants. Not undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes(as we were initially promised by the White House). Nope—all undocumented immigrants. Those sitting on a curb waiting for work. Those picking crops. Those busing tables. Those walking down the street. Those with young children back home. Anyone. Everyone. Why? Because Donald Trump promised to get rid of as many brown folks as possible. And now he’s doing so.

Tonight, shit got worse. Parts of LA are on fire. Mobs are going after ICE agents. Trump bypassed Gavin Newsom and is federalizing California’s National Guard. Pete Hegseth (probably drunk off his ass) is threatening to bring in the U.S. military to go after United States citizens. This is anything but normal. Or acceptable.

And where is Donald Trump—the man singularly responsible for the death and destruction? Where is Donald Trump—the dude who’s so opposed to violence against the government that he led an insurrection after lying about his 2000 defeat? Where is Donald Trump—the American patriot who mocked POWs and lied about his 9.11 heroism and created a phony “university” that bilked thousands of people of their money? Where is our great patriot president? Our defender of liberty? Our Captain Bone Spur? Our Grab ‘Em By The Pussy Patrolman?

He’s at a UFC fight in Newark, sitting ringside.

Seriously, he is …

And it’s just … remarkable seems like an inexact word. But it’s remarkable.

You—the folks who voted for this conman. Is that what you wanted? Do you want the Mexican day laborer dragged off to a prison in Louisiana? Do you want the Fresno peach picker to be locked up and sent to El Salvador? Is that America to you? Is this what our country now does? Is this who we are? The bad guys? Russia? Syria? North Korea?

As we sit here, a month out from Independence Day, We The People have some serious decisions to make. What is America? Where do we go from here? Have we given up on democracy in favor of authoritarianism? In favor of corruption? In favor of a government by the rich and for the rich?

Are we now OK with our own military fighting our own people in our own streets? Is this the new us?

Or, like some dude at an MMA event, are we willing to throw punches back?

Are we willing to fight for our nation?

 *Check out the full article for more.

Jeff Pearlman (born 1972) is an American sportswriter. He has written nine books which are New York Times Best Sellers: four about football, three on baseball, and two about basketball.  Lately he authors The Truth OC.