It’s time now to turn anger and disappointment into resolve, into commitment, into action, argues Mike Cocchiola, whose five-point plan proposes a way forward for Flagler County Democrats.
Commentary
Sheriff Manfre: Against Tribalism
In a call against the fracturing of society into self-interested groups, Sheriff Jim Manfre argues for the importance of resisting the worst of the tribal instincts roused by the last election.
Seizing on Orlando Murder Case, Justice Breyer Asks Court to “Reconsider Constitutionality of Death Penalty”
Justice Stephen Breyer characterized the death penalty as cruel and unusual in light of the case of Henry Sireci, 68, who’s been on Florida’s Death Row for 40 years and has yet again been cleared for execution.
Cops Aren’t Under Siege.
Civilians and Liberties Are.
It’s a widely accepted but dangerous myth: that cops are under siege, handcuffed by “new restrictions.” The reality is the opposite, with more unbridled and brutal policing than we care to admit.
Beyond Tweet Storms: What Trump Could Learn from Alexander Hamilton
Hamilton wanted a strong central government. He advocated taxation. He took these positions for practical reasons, not because he was a flaming liberal, argues Jill Richardson.
In Saint Augustine, A Dead Priest Pleads for the Life of His Killer
Father Rene Robert, who was murdered, signed the Declaration of Life in 1995: it is wrong for the state to take the life of a convicted criminal, no matter how vile the crime, and no matter how innocent the victim.
Sorry, I Can’t Give Trump a Chance
Our democracy is too important to play nice with a man who campaigned on undermining it, argues Jill Richardson: “We already have evidence that Trump does absolutely everything he can get away with.”
How The Electoral College Mistrusts Voters
That flaw is the Electoral College. For the fourth time in our history, and the second in 16 years, it has given the presidency to the candidate who polled fewer votes — 2 million fewer in this case — than his principal rival.
School Board Chairman Colleen Conklin On the Trump Election: “Words Matter”
In light of the swastika incident at Palm Coast’s Imagine School and many other hurtful or vile statements during the election campaign, the school board chairman calls on local leaders to denounce messages that erode trust and respect.
It’ll Be Alt-Right
Donald Trump’s appointments and short-lists are pointing the way to an administration not much different than his campaign, suggesting there’s more wishful thinking than reality behind the hope that he’d surround himself with people saner than he is.
Bias Backlash: How The Media Propelled Donald Trump to the White House
Over the last full year of nothing else on news channels but round-the-clock Trumpbusters, the true independents viewing at home were quietly making up their minds, working up from annoyance to a slow seethe, writes Nancy Smith.
A School Superintendent’s Message Home In Light of Trump’s Victory: Diversity Is Strength
“First and foremost, we must reassure our staff and students that our school buildings are safe places where we truly value and respect every single individual and do not tolerate bullying or hate speech,” wrote Jack R. Smith in a letter to parents of children in Montgomery County public schools.
The Future of Civil Rights is Up To the Supreme Court
Based on the list of judges Donald Trump has said he would consider for nomination, our civil rights could be in real jeopardy with a Trump presidency, argues Mary Frances Berry.
The Day After
Despite a liberal’s shellshock from a Trump presidency and the dreadful clarity of times ahead, this is no time to decamp or retreat–nor to deny in any way that he is our president.
Why I’m Voting Clinton, Unreservedly
It’s not out of fear of a Trump presidency, although there is that, but in a support of a too-long list of actual policy proposals that shatter the manufactured absurdity of Trump as a viable alternative.
Amendment 2: Medical Marijuana Through the Eyes and Suffering of Those Who Need It Most
For two years Palm Coast’s Jennifer Kaczmarek, the artist-photographer, has followed 10 families struggling with debilitating illnesses that only marijuana alleviate. They plead for Amendment 2, the proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize medicinal marijuana.
Hillary Clinton May or May Not Have Raped a Child
The FBI director’s McCarthyist revelations of more Clinton emails will change the trajectory of the presidential race some even as it underscores the emptiness at the core of a manufactured scandal.
Those Double-Digit Health Insurance Rate Hikes in Florida? Blame State GOP.
Sen. Bill Nelson, once Florida’s insurance commissioner, reminds residents that it was the Republican state Legislature that stripped the office of insurance regulation of the authority to approve, modify or reject rate hikes by health insurance companies, thus leading to current, unacceptable rate hikes.
Donald Trump Through the Eyes of a Survivor of Emotional Abuse
Emotional abuse can be hard to pinpoint when you’re the one being abused. So Donald Trump has just provided us all with a valuable service by demonstrating before a live TV audience what emotional abuse looks like in action, writes Jill Richardson.
Flagler’s Most Civilized Local Political Race in Years
The six candidates and incumbents for the Flagler County Commission stand out sharply from other local races for the collective civility and substance-oriented campaigns, and their impatience with partisanship. It’s a rarity worth taking note of in a year of slime.
Your Election Will Not Be “Rigged”
Flagler Elections Supervisor Kaiti Lenhart Explains
Flagler County Elections Supervisor puts to rest any fear or claim that the Nov. 8 election may be rigged, that fraudulent votes may be cast, or that dead people will be voting locally.
The Best and Worst Presidents on Taxes
Ronald Reagan was among the worst–and the best–when it came to tax fairness, Teddy Roosevelt isn’t given enough credit, but a majority of American presidents did little by way of making the tax code fairer. It’s often been the opposite, argues Sarah Anderson.
Early Voting: A Dissent
Early voting gives political parties and special interests a chance to manipulate, to lock up blocs of votes in advance of Election Day and to keep opposition parties and candidates from offering another viewpoint, argues Nancy Smith.
If Trump Ever Had My Vote, He Just Lost It
If Trump secretly conducted business in communist Cuba while Fidel Castro was its president, the Republican presidential nominee should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, not elected to the highest office in the land.
Looking past the Obvious in Trump-Clinton I: Voters May Decide a Different Outcome
We have to reconsider what we thought we saw Monday night and discover how it played where it mattered, in counties such as those in western Pennsylvania, and those clustered along Interstate 4 in Florida. These, more than elite opinion-spinners clustered along our deep-blue coasts, will decide the Nov. 8 outcome, argues Tom Jackson.
Panic: On the Prospect of a Trump Presidency
“I spent the past year making fun of Trump and taking it for granted that Hillary Clinton would demolish him. I didn’t take into account her fabulous skills for self-destruction or the country’s ripeness for mass delusion.”
The Climate Change Debate is Over: Seas and Temperatures Are Rising Dangerously
Increasing major storms and rising sea levels have long been predicted by climate models, and now they’re coming true. Time for deniers to concede defeat and become part of the solution, argues Todd Larsen.
Trump-Bashing’s Indictment as Americans’ Trust in Mainstream Media Sinks to a New Low
Covering Trump’s contradictory and rash statements is one thing. That’s the media’s job. But there isn’t a commentator or an anchor on CNN who doesn’t wear a Clinton heart on his or her sleeve. With 53 days to go before the election, they’ve even stopped trying to hide it.
Gov. Scott’s Office of Open Government Barricades Itself
Florida once had one of the toughest sunshine laws in the country, and people were proud of that. But it’s no longer the case. Transparency has given way to talk–and barricades.
Why I Stand For The National Anthem
There is outrage on the anniversary of 9/11: the outrage should be directed at those who have taken for granted the liberty and privilege of being a professional athlete by showing disrespect to our National Anthem by way of protest.
The National Anthem’s False Notes
Blasphemous as it seems, Colin Kaepernick’s freedom to sit out the Star Spangled Banner is written in the anthem’s very words, though his tormentors are more disturbed by his message, which they would rather not hear.
Who’s Afraid of Gary Johnson? Let Him Join the Debates
The Libertarian Party is on the ballot in all 50 states. For that reason, Gary Johnson should be on that debate stage because he is an alternative available to the entire nation, argues Nancy Smith.
Obama Should Tell the Truth About the American Economy
The president and everybody in his administration really must stop talking about how much better off we are today than we were eight years ago. Here is the disastrous truth.
Flagler’s Primary Results: Shocks, Coronations and Probabilities
There were one or two shocks in the Flagler primary election results, not least of them another dismal turnout, but for the most part the numebrs produced expected winners and losers. Here’s a full analysis.
The Reek of Hypocrisy Behind Federal Marijuana Laws
In most cases, our laws treat chemicals as safe until proven dangerous. Marijuana, on the other hand, is being held to a higher standard. It’s not even that it’s considered dangerous until proven safe. The government says that they won’t lift regulations on it until it’s proven beneficial.
Ransom Rubbish
Oliver North would have you believe that the Obama Administration paid a $400 million ransom to Iran in exchange for three Americans. His history and compass are off. Here’s a little reminder.
Devil’s Gambit: Sacrificing All Else to Ensure Trump Picks for the Supreme Court
To some Republicans, keeping Hillary Clinton from appointing new justices is worth letting everything else go to hell. The government, the country, maybe the world and certainly the court.
Un-American Activities
Before Donald Trump’s “extreme vetting” there was Extreme Vetter Pat McCarran, the Nevada Senator whose name graces some of America’s most xeonopbic, repressive and largely unconstitutional laws. Trump is channeling him.
A Misuse of Copyrighted Material in the Sheriff’s Campaign
A mailer from the Rick Staly campaign used a portrait of John Lamb from Lamb’s Live Interview, without permission. Staly and Lamb are among the six Republican candidates running for sheriff.
Hikers, Campers, and the Limits of Leave No Trace
Leave No Trace seems to extend only to the easily visible: trash, toilet paper, bodily functions, and so forth. Anything you can’t see with the naked eye — like sweat, detergent, sunblock, mosquito repellent, pesticides, and other chemicals — seems to get a pass.
Donald Trump’s War on Media: The Case For Fighting Back
It’s not a stretch to say that last week in Daytona and Thursday night in Kissimmee, Trump and his surrogates were literally inciting mobs against the media. Not casually or with humor, but with calculated and malicious anger.
Hawkish Hillary: Clinton May Sound Friendly to Muslims. But Her Record Is Bloodier.
Even while Hillary Clinton condemns Donald Trump’s erratic statements on foreign policy, there’s no evidence she sees any need to redraw her own hawkish playbook that goes back to her enthusiastic support for the Iraq war.
The Suicide Candidate
Donald Trump will never win the presidency. He knows it and doesn’t want it. But that makes him more dangerous, not less. He’s a fanatic. He’s a suicide candidate. And we still have three months of rampage.
‘Iransom’: Sorry, Mr. President, It’s a Hard Story to Let Go
Nancy Smith says she’s thought about what she calls “the ransom scandal” every day since a report on how President Obama secured the release of four Americans held hostage by the Iranians by flying in $400 million in cash “to buy them back.”
My Mother, Stopped for Driving While Black
The mistreatment of black people by police officers isn’t new, nor is it surprising, argues Milen Mehari. According to the Justice Department, black people are almost four times more likely than whites to experience the use of force during police encounters.
Missing Frank Meeker
Some elected officials leave a much bigger void than others when they die in office. Flagler County Commissioner Frank Meeker’s loss an interrupted legacy that was just hitting its stride.
Republicans’ Women Problem
Long before Donald Trump the Republican Party has been relentlessly pushing policies aimed at curtailing women’s reproductive rights, economic freedom, access to health care, and autonomy.
Goodbye News-Journal
Rick de Yampert, the former arts writer for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, explains why he cancelled his newspaper subscription for the first time in 43 years.
Black Lives Matter. Period.
Cops are owed all the appreciation and respect their profession commands. Blacks are owed their right to life. The two are not mutually exclusive, but certain differences matter, especially when they falsely paint cops as the victims and blacks as the aggressors.
Latest Florida Newspaper Layoffs Claim Lloyd Dunkelberger of Tallahassee and Recount Fame
Following the latest round of reporter layoffs, they will be replaced, if at all, by younger, cheaper bodies who have not necessarily been taught the difference between putting bylines on news releases and honest reporting, writes Florence Snyder.