l'infame

Trump Against the First Amendment

FlaglerLive | May 30, 2019

Julian Assange and Wikileaks are giving Trump a chance to challenge First Amendment freedoms of the press and get a radical ruling from his new buddies on the Supreme Court.

Laws Restricting Abortion Betray a Judgment: Women’s Sexuality Is Not Equal to Men’s

FlaglerLive | May 29, 2019

Men regulating women’s bodies through restrictive abortion laws is the tip of an iceberg in which women’s sexuality is stigmatized, de-legitimized, silenced, controlled, and misunderstood, even by women themselves.

The Most Dangerous Time For Women’s Rights in Decades

FlaglerLive | May 21, 2019

More than 250 bills restricting abortions have been filed in 41 states this year. At least a third have successfully passed 20-week abortion bans, based on the unfounded assertion that a fetus can feel pain 20 weeks after fertilization.

16-Year-Old Girl Who Made Bigoted Threats About FPC Teacher Is Arrested

FlaglerLive | May 14, 2019

The State Attorney is charging the girl with a count of written threats to kill, a felony, following a December incident in which the girl exchanged hateful and allegedly threatening messages about her teacher with another student.

A Middle School PAL Coach Is Ordered Off Matanzas High Property for Wearing an FPC Shirt. Disbelief Follows.

FlaglerLive | May 2, 2019

Derrick Griffin, a 35-year-old Navy veteran and beloved and respected coach of 50 Indian Trails Middle School PAL track students, was ordered to wear a Matanzas shirt or get off Matanzas’ track the last week of the season.

Felons’ Right To Vote and Paul Renner’s Cynical End Run Around Amendment 4

FlaglerLive | April 6, 2019

Paul Renner, Flagler’s GOP representative and future Speaker of the House, is being dishonest and disingenuous in his defense of a bill that would make felons’ right to vote dependent on paying back all financial obligations.

The Familiar Face of White Supremacy

Pierre Tristam | March 24, 2019

The fad of not naming mass killers is deceptive and self-defeating, an act of cowardice that hides more than it wants to acknowledge. Brenton Tarrant, the killer of Christchurch, is an all–too familiar face.

Stetson Issues Explicit Defense of Free and Controversial Expression on Campus, Whatever the ‘Discomforts’

FlaglerLive | March 23, 2019

In the culmination of a year-and-a-half process, Stetson University this week issued a statement firmly in defense of academic freedom and free, diverse and controversial expression on campus.

Claiming Indoctrination, Florida Lawmakers Want To Survey University Students and Faculty’s Political Views

FlaglerLive | March 13, 2019

The Board of Governors would compile and publish the results each year. It remains unclear, however, what the Legislature would do once the data comes in.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel Calls Suspension ‘a Political Power Play’ By DeSantis

FlaglerLive | March 8, 2019

In a court filing, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel’s lawyer argued the suspension “is an affront to the Florida Constitution and the fundamental right of voters to choose their elected officials.”

What National Emergency?

FlaglerLive | March 1, 2019

American leader not only genuflecting to autocrats from Turkey to Russia to Saudi Arabia, but behaving like them is a more serious national emergency than what few migrants are still crossing the border illegally.

DeSantis Blames Broward Sheriff For Murder of 22; Attorney Charges ‘Scandalously False Allegations’

FlaglerLive | March 1, 2019

A bill of particulars Suspended Sheriff Scott Israel’s case includes allegations related to the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and an attack at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Senate Panel Weigh Watered Down ‘Sanctuary Cities’ Ban, Eliminating Sanctions on Local Governments

FlaglerLive | February 11, 2019

The anti-sanctuary cities bill may be now more appealing to the Florida Senate, which is viewed as the more moderate chamber and has blocked similar proposals in the past.

State GOP Targets ‘Sanctuary Cities’ Even Though There Are None in Florida

FlaglerLive | February 10, 2019

Critics of the bill argue efforts to outlaw “sanctuary cities” have more to do with partisanship than with thwarting an existing problem as there are no counties or cities in Florida that act as “sanctuaries” for undocumented immigrants.

Trump’s Fabulous Wall Fables

Pierre Tristam | January 25, 2019

We’re in a post-factual presidency where alternative facts are the equivalent of papal bulls. It’s about belief, not reality. For the sake of appearances though, let’s argue the facts about the wall for a moment.

Secretary of State Ertel Resigns on Revelation of Picture in Blackface Mocking Victim of Hurricane Katrina

FlaglerLive | January 25, 2019

Mike Ertel was the elections supervisor in Seminole County for eight months when he wore the bigoted Halloween costume to a party in 2005.

Transgender Ban in Military Is About Bigotry and Distraction, Not Readiness or Cost

FlaglerLive | January 24, 2019

Trump is using the ban purely to provoke the left, throw red meat to his base, and distract us all from the real issues in our nation, like the government shutdown.

FPC Teacher Pursues Hate Crime Charges On 2 Racist Students Who Threatened Her

FlaglerLive | December 12, 2018

Two 16-year-old students who exchanged a string of online, racist threats about their language arts teacher during class on Monday face misdemeanor assault charges with a possible enhancement under Florida’s hate-crime law.

The Migrant Caravan’s Lessons from South of the Border

FlaglerLive | December 6, 2018

In Tijuana, some Mexicans have embraced the Trump line on Central American migrants. But others have welcomed them with open arms.

Trump’s Responsibility

Pierre Tristam | October 27, 2018

Trump can’t have it both ways. He can’t revel in his powers of denigration and incitement then take cover behind a bogus sense of outrage and his usual deflections when the incitement and denigration arm fuses and kill people.

Trump’s Bone Saw Problem

FlaglerLive | October 24, 2018

Trump can’t be lavishing praise on tyrants and think it’s not another way of saying, as he did of white supremacists last year, that “some of them are fine people.” He can’t be equating journalists with scum and not have blood on his hands.

Saint Kavanaugh

Pierre Tristam | October 4, 2018

Whether Kavanaugh was confirmed or not is irrelevant: whoever’s next might be less personally sleazy, more temperamentally amoebic, but judicially? Same shill, different name.

Calling Florida Prison Officials Ignorant and Bigoted, Judge Orders Accommodations For Transgender Inmate

FlaglerLive | August 23, 2018

A federal judge ordered Florida prisons to continue providing hormone treatments to Reiyn Keohane, who identifies as female since age 8. She started serving a 15-year sentence for attempted murder in 2014.

Party Split or Not, Republicans Using George Soros to Smear Other Republicans Is Offensive

FlaglerLive | August 22, 2018

The GOP primary that has degraded into absurd name-calling pits tea-party-backed Scott Sturgill against conservative Mike Miller in the Edgewood, Orlando, and Winter Park area.

22 of Florida’s 67 School Districts Are Using Armed Personnel as “Guardians” to Comply With Law

FlaglerLive | August 15, 2018

The guardian program approved by lawmakers has been controversial, with most districts, including Flagler County, rejecting the idea of training school personnel to be armed.

Schools Are Safer Than Your Home

Pierre Tristam | August 13, 2018

We’re making fortresses of the safest places in America, out of fear that one of those 120,000 schools might at some point be the target of a shooting.

Truth Derangement Syndrome

Pierre Tristam | July 20, 2018

Donald Trump once said he could shoot someone and not lose any votes. He’s right in the sense that he changed the rules of right and wrong, truth and lies, morality and immorality.

Being Separated From My Child Nearly Destroyed Me

FlaglerLive | June 26, 2018

The administration’s policy of separating families is torture, and Trump’s executive order to incarcerate families together doesn’t solve the crisis.

Cruel and Usual Trump

FlaglerLive | June 17, 2018

The Trump-Sessions zero-tolerance policy of separating children from their parents at the border has no precedent except in America’s slavery times.

Good News: Straight People Don’t Need a Pride Parade