We can’t afford permanent enmity or exile from each other. Secession and civil war might be a nice distraction but consumer splurging suggests that’s not in the cards. So for all of us grass-leaved Americans, “Moby-Dick” is the book for us, in this moment, in this whale of whiteness delirium. “Moby-Dick” is our book of revelation.
Pierre Tristam
Flagler and Gomorrah
The outcome of local elections will affect us at least as much as anything that happens nationally. With that in mind it’s worth taking stock of our local political landscape post-apocalypse, because it’s a whole lot better than Gomorrah and, ironically, almost entirely Republican.
Why Trump Beat Harris By 312 Electoral Votes
Monday-morning-quarterbacking Democrats’ mistakes is a dead end. It wouldn’t have mattered what Harris did or who the Democrats ran. The result would have been the same. Trump didn’t make this moment. It was made for him, in no small part by liberalism’s abdication. The more liberalism projected self-loathing without a hint of pride in country or redemptive hope for it, the more it ceded the ground to “a bottom-up populist revolt” let by a strongman who reflects their belief: America’s democratic moment is over.
Speech Codes at Flagler School Board and Palm Coast Council Are Now Illegal, Thanks to Moms for Liberty
A decision by the federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, controlling law in Flagler County, invalidates local governments’ speech codes that prohibit public speakers from addressing individual members of elected boards, or citing employees by name, or quoting from school library books, no matter how racy, or speaking offensively, which is considered a point of view. But rules against disruption and obscenity remain. The question is: will local governments correct their rules accordingly?
The Big Read:
Deconstructing J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Fictions
When J.D. Vance went from calling Trump “America’s Hitler” and calling himself a Nevertrumper to calling him a man of “extraordinary vision” as he accepted the nomination for vice-president, the apparent change was mistaken for the apotheosis of an opportunistic pivot and a betrayal of his memoir’s affective nuances. But it was in fact the reflection and perfection of a skill Vance displayed throughout “Hillbilly Elegy,” where he constructed a persona scaled to a chameleon’s tongue. The book is the Rosetta Stone of the Vance we see today.
Mandatory ECGs for Flagler County’s Student-Athletes: It’s About Life, Not ‘Parental Rights’
For the past few years AdventHealth has made free ECGs a voluntary part of student athletes’ physical. Wednesday evening the Flagler County School Board is voting on whether to make ECGs mandatory. Three board members–Will Furry, Sally Hunt, Christy Chong–are opposed. They say an ECG should be a parent’s choice. They’ve wrapped the issue under the banner of “parental rights,” as if ECGs were the same as masking during Covid, or whether to teach kids sex-ed. Their reasoning is flawed, and may cost lives.
Kamala Harris? Don’t Bet on the Hype.
Kamala Harris followed a script Tuesday. It was a solid, made-for-TV script. It wasn’t a knock-out. Trump lost from own goals, which his flagellant faithful always forgive him. If you’re a Harris fan you probably shouldn’t raise your hopes even with that Swift endorsement. It’s not just the electoral college. It’s an electorate inebriated on phony nostalgia, desperate for a nonexistent fantasy that Trump can nevertheless sell like bibles and steaks.
The “School Choice” Swindle Is Demolishing Public Schools
“School choice” is an orchestrated demolition of public schools and the social contract. The focus-group euphemism masks the thieving of tax dollars to subsidize private schools, transforming what was once an aspiration of fringe Christian and anti-government militants into state doctrine. Flagler County schools are losing close to $11 million this year to “choice.”
Latest Flagler School Board Follies: Hunt Celebrates Mediocrity, Furry Abuses His Seat to Push ‘Endorsements’
“Board member comments” at the Flagler school board have devolved almost always into a disaster, an embarrassment, a circus of ignorance, hypocrisy, stupidity or bigotry, compliments of the board’s trilobites: Sally Hunt, Will Furry and Christy Chong. No wonder they prefer illegal secret meetings. No wonder Colleen Conklin and Cheryl Massaro can’t wait to escape the asylum. The sane ones weren’t there Tuesday to witness the latest drivel from Furry and Hunt, the first illegal, the second just creepy.
Why Is Palm Coast’s Mayor Extending the Red Carpet to ‘Constitutional Sheriff’ Extremists?
A local representative of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association known as CSPOA is asking the Palm Coast City Council and the County Commission to enact ordinances making Flagler a “Constitutional County.” That would be illegal and unconscionable: CSPOA is an anti-government extremist group that seeks to undermine federal, state and court authorities while placing the local sheriff above them all.