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Weather: Mostly cloudy. A chance of showers with a slight chance of thunderstorms this afternoon. Highs in the mid 60s. Southeast winds around 5 mph, becoming northeast with gusts up to 20 mph this afternoon. Chance of rain 30 percent. Tonight: Mostly cloudy. A slight chance of showers in the evening, then a chance of showers with a slight chance of thunderstorms after midnight. Breezy with lows in the upper 40s. North winds 10 to 15 mph, increasing to 15 to 25 mph after midnight. Chance of rain 40 percent. See the daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
Today at a Glance:
The Flagler County Commission meets at 9 a.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 E. Moody Boulevard, Building 2, Bunnell. Access meeting agendas and materials here. The five county commissioners and their email addresses are listed here. Meetings stream live on the Flagler County YouTube page.
The Beverly Beach Town Commission meets at 6 p.m. at the meeting hall building behind the Town Hall, 2735 North Oceanshore Boulevard (State Road A1A) in Beverly Beach. See meeting announcements here.
Nar-Anon Family Groups offers hope and help for families and friends of addicts through a 12-step program, 6 p.m. at St. Mark by the Sea Lutheran Church, 303 Palm Coast Pkwy NE, Palm Coast, Fellowship Hall Entrance. See the website, www.nar-anon.org, or call (800) 477-6291. Find virtual meetings here.
Notably: Back in the good newspaper days in Beckley, W.Va., a nowhere town where our eight-county paper was based and all the national candidates tended to visit for some reason, Pet Buchanan was among those who dropped by to campaign, and since the Register-herald and the papers in Charleston were all there was, we were always first in line, always the only ones in line, to get the candidates’ attention, national reporters notwithstanding. So it wasn’t that unusual when Buchanan, after I asked for an interview, suggested I hop into his limmo for the one-hour ride from Beckley to Charleston soi we could talk at length. As Bennet says in the quote below: he was, in fact, all “conviction, humour and even joy,” speaking without a hint of condescension, having a lot of fun, being inquisitive about West Virginia, my paper, me. I’m pretty sure that was before the Houston convention speech where he went all Trump before the age of Trump, declaring a “culture war” and calling Democrats names (and cross-dressers) and having a lot of fun doing that. “The agenda Clinton and Clinton would impose on America — abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat — that’s change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America wants.” Actually, it kind of was: compared to today, things were a bit stifling back then, people felt it, and got the changes they wanted. So much of it that the reaction followed, with a vengeance. Buchanan was the embryo. Bush was the child. Trump is the mutant. Buchanan is still around. 85 years old. Maybe he can be a headliner at the Republican National Convention in, what, Milwaukee? He can put on his Fonzie impersonation and tell us how Trumpism is working out for him. It appears to be prolonging his life: some people only need bile for vitamins. The difference of course was that Buchanan had some joy. Trump is all carnage.
—P.T.
Now this: Pat Buchanan Speaks at the 1992 Republican National Convention:
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The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
January 2026
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Palm Coast Beautification and Environmental Advisory Committee
Flagler Beach City Commission Meeting
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Scenic A1A Pride Meeting
Friday Blue Forum
Acoustic Jam Circle At The Community Center In The Hammock
For the full calendar, go here.
I began to write about presidential politics two years later, in 1996, and as the most inexperienced member of the team was assigned to cover a long-shot Republican candidate, Pat Buchanan. I packed a bag for a four-day reporting trip and did not return home for six weeks. Buchanan campaigned on an eccentric fusion of social conservatism and statist economic policies, along with coded appeals to racism and antisemitism, that 30 years earlier had elevated George Wallace and 20 years later would be rebranded as Trumpism. He also campaigned with conviction, humour and even joy, a combination I have rarely witnessed. As a Democrat from a family of Democrats, a graduate of Yale and a blossom of the imagined meritocracy, I had my first real chance, at Buchanan’s rallies, to see the world through the eyes of stalwart opponents of abortion, immigration and the relentlessly rising tide of modernity.
–From James Bennet’s “When the New York Times lost its way,” 1843 Magazine (The Economist), Dec. 14, 2023
Pogo says
@Back to the future — Jihad
Molly Ivins joked that it sounded better in the original German. So, yes, gallows humor is a thing.