America’s Pre-Existing Condition

Pierre Tristam | August 3, 2018

Florida is among the states suing to end the requirement that people with pre-existing conditions be covered by insurers. It’s the latest cynical attempt to end Obamacare.

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.

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.

Pious Homophobes Win One

FlaglerLive | June 10, 2018

The Supreme Court in its wedding-cake ruling declared gays once again second-class citizens, at least when their sexuality has to compete with someone else’s more stone-throwing version of Christianity.

“AATITLE” (19XX)

FlaglerLive | May 25, 2018

“TITLE” (19XX) Reading John Updike’s Complete Stories

(Click to order)
This series is a re-reading of John Updike’s short stories in the wake of the publication of “The Collected Early Stories” and “The Collected Later Stories,” the twin-volume set by the Library of America (2013), edited by Christopher Carduff. Updike wrote some 230 stories in five and […]

Israel’s Mass Shootings

FlaglerLive | May 20, 2018

You can always depend on Israel periodically to mass-murder bunches of Arabs in proportions as lopsided and unforgiving as our own mass shootings in the U.S., then scapegoat the bloodletting.

Compromise Over School Deputies in Flagler, But Look Beyond False Security of “Hardening”

FlaglerLive | May 3, 2018

There’s an effective way to end the stalemate between the Flagler Sheriff and the school board over deputies in schools without breaking the bank or compromising security.

Flagler School Board Wants To Snoop on Students’ Social Media, And Maybe Yours. Wrong Move.

FlaglerLive | April 16, 2018

The School Board is set to contract with Social Sentinel, a company that will troll social media accounts across Flagler for $18,500 and issue “alerts” to select officials. It’s an inappropriate move down a slippery slope.

Trump’s Census Whitewash

FlaglerLive | April 1, 2018

The Trump administration’s decision to include a question on the census about citizenship is intended to under-count immigrants and skew numbers to favor whiter voting districts.

Are Drug Addicts Less Valuable Than Students? Florida Says Yes, Wrongly.

FlaglerLive | March 18, 2018

Politically there may be a big difference between students’ safety and drug addicts. Ethically, there is none, and financially, addicts are being lethally short-changed.

Thoughts and Prayers, As Pointless as Outrage

Pierre Tristam | February 16, 2018

The ultimate, most pointless outrage is at lawmakers and gun freaks, one and the same, who stand in pools of blood as they tell us our gun epidemic has nothing to do with it.

Military Inferiority Complex:
Dear Leader Wants A Parade

Pierre Tristam | February 9, 2018

The military doesn’t need parades. It needs to come home. Worshipping it in time of endlessly losing wars only locks and loads more cannon fodder.

To Keep America Great, Legalize All Undocumented Immigrants

FlaglerLive | January 28, 2018

We have a choice: Keep our economy vibrant and enviable or demolish it by expelling and demonizing undocumented immigrants, as short-sighted nations have done in the false name of “purity” over the years.

Reporting on Public Figures’ Extra-Curricular Sex

Pierre Tristam | January 13, 2018

Married or not, public figures’ affairs are nobody’s business as long as the acts are legal, consensual, off the clock and virally contained. But there are exceptions.

Thank You for Record 7.6 Million Visits to FlaglerLive in 2017: A Review of a Disordered Year

FlaglerLive | January 1, 2018

FlaglerLive Editor Pierre Tristam reviews a year of record murders, record fatalities, disappointments in Palm Coast, but a sheriff’s great year, and new readership records for the site.

Alabama Saves The Day. But Not Much Else.

FlaglerLive | December 13, 2017

If what it takes for Democrats to win is a Republican pedophiliac predator and compulsive lawbreaker, their victory in Alabama Tuesday helps the GOP more than it does Democrats.

“We Don’t Serve Gays”

FlaglerLive | December 9, 2017

Invoking Christian belief to deny service to a gay couple is not a First Amendment right, nor is it a matter of artistic expression. It’s good old discrimination under a new mask.

Notes From Underground

FlaglerLive | December 4, 2017

In Afghanistan, there may be up to 1,000 children in prison with a parent–not because they committed a crime, but because Afghan law permits their imprisonment with a criminal parent until the children turn 18.

Scott’s Arab-Baiting Over Jerusalem

FlaglerLive | December 3, 2017

Continuing to prepare for his Senate run, Gov. Rick Scott’s Jerusalem ploy is demeaning Palestinians in the occupied lands to appeal to Jews in South Florida. He learned the trick at Trump’s knee.

Fantasyland and the Liberal Delusion

FlaglerLive | October 29, 2017

Liberals’s hopes that the likes of Jeff Flake or Bob Corker in any way speak for today’s vanilla-white GOP is a refusal to concede that the Age of Trump is here to stay.

In Kristen Hadeed’s “Permission To Screw Up,” A Cheerful, Nimble Corrective To Millennial Stereotypes

FlaglerLive | October 22, 2017

FPC Graduate Kristen Hadeed’s first book traces the stumbles of her 10-year journey as CEO of Student Maid, a cleaning company in Gainesville, with wit and counter-intuitive insights: a review.

An Aryan Ass Vomits At UF

FlaglerLive | October 19, 2017

Protesting honors the flag, so does taking a knee during the anthem, but so does letting an idiotic white bigot have his 90 minutes on a stage at UF. Freedom of thought can take it.

Pride In “Our Country”? Count Me Out.

FlaglerLive | October 8, 2017

There’s no contending with a president who speaks of his pride in this country in serial tweets even as his every other pronouncement is a cleave, a slur, a boast, a lie or a disgrace.

Kim Jong-Trump

FlaglerLive | August 11, 2017

There is no pre-emptive military option against North Korea. None. No matter how much Korea “provokes.” There is only containment, and shutting up Donald Trump.

Trump Will Win In 2020

FlaglerLive | August 4, 2017

There’s nothing original in Donald Trump’s presidency when seen through Nixon-colored glasses, considering the similarities–and the invaluable help both got from Democrats to get elected.

Gov. Scott’s Emily Hysterics

FlaglerLive | August 1, 2017

Even Tropical Storm/Depression Emily cried foul at Gov. Scott’s, sleazy, opportunistic hyping of what was no more than an overheated summer storm: look at how fast she high-tailed it out of the state.

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

FlaglerLive | June 29, 2017

Trump’s tweets, like his latest about Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, are now like our so-beloved mass shootings. They happen. They’re decried. They’re forgotten. Until the next hurl.

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.