pierre tristam |

Four Funerals and a Wedding

Pierre Tristam | June 9, 2017

In the past couple of weeks we’ve had four mass funerals and a wedding. Each tells a story about what we’ve become in a world turned on its head. Honorable is the least of it.

Why Is the Palm Coast City Administration Treating 400 Employees Like Children?

FlaglerLive | June 6, 2017

Last week Palm Coast HRD Director Wendy Cullen sent a degrading email about bathrooms to 400 city employees. The email is reflective of a contemptuous, disconnected administration.

A Lifetime In One Picture
My Daughter Odysseus

FlaglerLive | June 2, 2017

FlaglerLive’s editor reflects on the painful and joyful history behind a moment unexpectedly captured by a photographer at his daughter’s graduation from Grinnell College last week.

In the assisted-living Neverland that’s become our White House, all pretense of reality is giving way to the sort of sycophant fawning previously associated with the yes-men around North Korea’s or Egypt’s dictators.

Whiplash

Pierre Tristam | May 21, 2017

Donald Trump is rewriting the rules of politics, of time and of the English language, but the resulting explosions are as false a dawn as those of nuclear blasts.

Not My President

FlaglerLive | May 12, 2017

Renouncing Donald Trump is the conservative thing to do if one’s allegiance is to the rule of law, to American democratic institutions, to unobstructed law enforcement and to transparency and accountability.

La Différence
France’s Answer To Trumpism: Non, Merci

FlaglerLive | May 6, 2017

Emmanuel Macron’s election as President of France Sunday repudiates angry, anti-democratic tribalism represented by Marine Le Pen and Donald Trump. But it’s only a qualified win.

Goons With Guns, Sheriff Edition

FlaglerLive | April 13, 2017

A Florida sheriff’s ISIS-like video warning to drug dealers and the brutalizing of Dr. David Dao on a United flight in the same week are no coincidence, but symptoms of a re-emerging authoritarianism.

Fatal Irresponsibility:
How Palm Coast Willfully Ignored Street Lights And Sidewalks For 10 Years

FlaglerLive | April 8, 2017

Palm Coast’s government’s claim that it didn’t have the money to build sidewalks and street lights is a cynical lie: as people died, the city put luxury ahead of necessity, from city hall to expensive beautification and plenty more.

The Legislature’s Mullahs Threaten
Religious Freedom in Florida Schools

FlaglerLive | March 31, 2017

The Florida Legislature is about to approve a bill that would give religion preferential treatment in public schools, destroying a balance between secular rights and already inviolate personal expression.

Flagler Tourism “Promotions” Slush Fund Jumps 76% in 3 Years, And We’re Counting Pennies For Beach Repairs?

FlaglerLive | March 20, 2017

Paying for critical repairs to Flagler County’s beaches is hostages to a tourism budget’s scandalous and unaccountable promotions spending, which the county administration wants to increase despite the emergency.

Ron DeSantis’s First Principle: Do Harm

FlaglerLive | March 10, 2017

Obamacare repealer Rep. Ron DeSantis, whose congressional district includes Flagler, has a solution for cancer patients without insurance: the emergency room. A few corrections are in order.

Jim Landon’s Fake News

FlaglerLive | March 3, 2017

Palm Coast Manager Jim Landon’s plans for a “scripted” weekly radio infomercial hosted by Mayor Milissa Holland demeans the mayor, the council and her listeners. If Holland is to do a show, it should be on her unscripted terms.

I Am An Enemy Combatant

Pierre Tristam | February 25, 2017

The media has been the enemy since the earliest days of the Republic. But to be an enemy in America is what all of us at one point or another have been or will be. It is an American responsibility. It’s proof of our beloved American citizenship.

Protesters, True Patriots

FlaglerLive | February 17, 2017

Freedom for the thought we agree with is as cheap as a Facebook click on the like button. Freedom for the thought that we hate is what separate Americans from thuggery.

Trump’s Middle Finger to Muslims, and Law

Pierre Tristam | January 29, 2017

The executive order Trump signed on Friday does the opposite of what it aims for: it belittles American law, projects a nation in cowardly fear, alienates its own Muslim communities and endangers our security.

President Fake

Pierre Tristam | January 27, 2017

We’ve been worried about fake news from all the wrong places. The most promiscuous peddler of fake news is the president himself, Donald J. Trump. That’s dangerous for media, for America and for democracy.

You’ll Miss Him

FlaglerLive | January 20, 2017

At noon today the world ended as the sound of seven trumpets was replaced by the words “I, Donald John Trump…” Until then it was a fairly good run. An excellent run, in retrospect, considering what we’re losing.

Cops Aren’t Under Siege.
Civilians and Liberties Are.

Pierre Tristam | December 9, 2016

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.

It’ll Be Alt-Right

Pierre Tristam | November 20, 2016

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.

The Day After

Pierre Tristam | November 9, 2016

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

FlaglerLive | November 8, 2016

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.

Hillary Clinton May or May Not Have Raped a Child

FlaglerLive | October 29, 2016

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.

Panic: On the Prospect of a Trump Presidency

Pierre Tristam | September 23, 2016

“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 National Anthem’s False Notes

Pierre Tristam | September 9, 2016

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.

Flagler’s Primary Results: Shocks, Coronations and Probabilities

FlaglerLive | August 31, 2016

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.

Ransom Rubbish

Pierre Tristam | August 28, 2016

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.

A Misuse of Copyrighted Material in the Sheriff’s Campaign

FlaglerLive | August 20, 2016

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.

The Suicide Candidate

FlaglerLive | August 12, 2016

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.

When a President’s Tweets Ape the Squeals of a Swine