pierre tristam |

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.

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.

Journal of the Plague Year

FlaglerLive | May 31, 2017

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