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Weather: Mostly sunny. A chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 80s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent. Monday Night: Partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the evening, then mostly clear after midnight. Lows in the upper 60s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 20 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.
Hammock Community Association Meeting with Sheriff Staly and Cmdr. Ryan Emry, 6 p.m. at Hammock Community Center, 79 Malacompra Road. Semnd your questions in advance to info@hammock.org.
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.
In medias res: The Onion a few days ago ran one of its inestimable investigations: “Pros And Cons Of Using The Passive Voice In Journalism.” “Rather than specify that a government, army, or police officer killed civilians, many news outlets prefer merely to say that those civilians “were killed.” The Onion investigates the pros and cons of using the passive voice in journalism.” Examples: “The nosy public doesn’t need to know who actually did any of the things you’re writing about….Don’t need sources for “kids became dead” (that one under an image of Gazans looking for survivors in rubble), “Have already thrown out most of journalism ethics anyway.” I’ll save you the click-through. But it was worth it.
—P.T.
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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.
May 2025
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Friday Blue Forum
A Night at the Museum
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Democratic Women’s Club
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Swing Through the Years Dinner Dance Benefit for St. Thomas Episcopal Church
Random Acts of Insanity’s Roundup of Standups from Around Central Florida
For the full calendar, go here.
John Rekenthaler, a vice-president of Morningstar, an investment research firm, has estimated that if people valued Truth Social as they did the initial offerings of such firms as Tesla, Google and Facebook, the shares would be selling for 50 cents. Investors in Truth Social, compared with those in other startups, are clearly not relying upon the same sort of analysis or even indulging the same sort of dream. They are not even playing the same game as the very online investors who drove up such meme stocks as amc and GameStop to irrational valuations that were also relative fractions of the paper value of Mr Trump’s company. Something else is happening here, a tremor in market logic, even a rupture with common sense. Maybe investors believe that Mr Trump will win in November and, as the first president with his own social platform, insist on making all his pronouncements upon it. Maybe they adore him and want to multiply his billions. Whatever their motives, the performance of Mr Trump’s stock so far represents the purest demonstration of his power not just to bend reality, but to convert illusion into reality—and also, maybe, of how Americans are coming to confuse the two.
—From James Bennet’s Lexington column, “Truth Social is a mind-bending win for Donald Trump,” The Economist, April 18, 2024. .
dave says
Yes protect the rights for people that assemble, but when those same people turn violent and break private property they gave up those rights.
Ray W. says
After the Reagan administration placed tariffs on all Japanese motorcycles over 700cc’s, Harley-Davidson introduced its “Evolution” engine design, saving the struggling employee-owned company from bankruptcy. A short while later, Harley stock went public. Many devotees purchased shares simply for pride in ownership, paying more than market value, with some reportedly framing the certificates and displaying them in their homes.
On a barely related aside, I read more about Honda’s oval piston four-stroke GP effort from 1979 (35 years ago). At 130 hp at over 20,000 rpm, the 500cc design produced over 4.3 horsepower per cubic inch. Translating that figure into a normal 2.0-liter car engine today, buyers should expect an output of 520 horsepower sans turbo or supercharging. In 1992, Honda released 300 oval-piston NR750 V-fours, a production version selling for $50,000. Instant collector’s item!
Pogo says
@Class of 2024…
…enjoy your stay in your future re-education camp:
https://www.google.com/search?q=project+2025
Peace with honor for Gaza:
https://www.google.com/search?q=peace+with+honor
ASF says
If the cartoon switched out the police in the image for protesters and the guy on the ground being restrained for a “Zionist” who wasn’t allowed to enter the encampment, you might have a more balanced picture.
Ray W. says
Reuters just reported on a Saudi government effort this morning to manipulate prices within the international crude oil marketplace.
The author wrote that:
“Last week, both futures contracts posted their steepest weekly loss in three months with Brent falling more than 7% and WTI down 6.8% …”
In a free-market economy, such a drop in futures contract prices should portend lower gasoline prices at the pump, but only in June or later. After all these are contracts to buy oil in June, not right now.
The author also wrote:
“Oil futures climbed on Monday after Saudi Arabia hiked June crude prices for most regions …”
Have I been misleading FlaglerLive readers all these months? Can the Saudi oil ministry simply set its own futures prices for delivery in June, in a take it or leave it approach to international oil prices? Has OPEC+ gained sufficient economic power to simply announce that crude oil importers in Asia, Northwest Europe and the Mediterranean will simply pay more for Saudi oil regardless of any concept of free trade price fluctuations based on supply and demand?
I have repeatedly commented that oil industry publications have been writing for the past few years that Saudi Arabia needs oil prices at or above $80 per barrel in order for it to completely meet all Saudi fiscal needs. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures drop to $78 per barrel last week. Brent futures drop to $83 last week. The Saudi government announces this morning that if any energy company located in certain regions wants to buy Saudi oil in June, it will have to pay a set price regardless of free market pressures?
If I have been this wrong in believing that international crude oil prices were based on free market principles, I apologize to all of you. Apparently, no such thing exists right now, at least for Saudi oil. I hope I am wrong in my interpretations and welcome any corrective comments by other readers.
Of course, if I interpret the Saudi situation accurately, if any gullible FlaglerLive readers comments in the future that the current administration is responsible for today’s high gasoline prices, they should be embarrassed by the depth of their ignorance (Jimbo XYZ and Dennis C. Rathsam, and others, for example). I am embarrassed enough by my own apparent gullibility, believing that American energy companies could attempt to answer the call in accord to free market ideals.
Notwithstanding my embarrassment, the author of the article also pointed out that American drilling rig counts dropped below 500 last week. That means that overall American rig operations are significantly down from the approximately 770 rigs that were in operation at one point last year, which was about the same number as were operating during the Trump administration just before the pandemic hit. At the height of the oil boom during the Obama administration, just over 2000 American drilling rig operators were exploring for oil.
I suppose that American energy companies might engage the services of more drilling rigs if prices were to top $100 per barrel, but if Saudi Arabia is setting futures prices and will continue to set futures prices, why should American oil companies drill with abandon? After all, if crude oil importers are willing to pay the Saudi price, Saudi Arabia has the excess pumping capacity to extract whatever amounts are purchased to meet demand. If prices hover in the $80 range, American energy companies can anticipate how much they will make without necessarily having to spend money to explore for oil. Oy, vey!
Pierre Tristam says
If the cartoon switched out the guy on the ground for, say, 13,000 headless, limbless, lifeless Palestinian children and the police for Netanyahu and his Israeli Disproportion Force, we might have an even more balanced picture. But you go ahead and keep pretending like the Palestinians don;t exist: you’ve denied them the right to exist all along. Makes massacring them that much easier. Why change now.
Pierre Tristam says
No one’s property is being “broken” by having protests and camps.
Pogo says
@Ahoy, vey!
https://www.google.com/search?q=navy+use+drill+rig+as+base
So, “…why was the oil rig targeted? Credible intelligence, which can’t presently be shared, indicated it was a launch platform for weapons of mass destruction. Yes, Fox News, you have a question?…”
Oy, vey — indeed.
Laurel says
Damn Netanyahu should have, early on, told the Palestinians to turn over Hamas fighters to them, and in return, Israel would grant a two state system. What he is doing now is guaranteeing that the next several generations of Palestinians will hate, and fight, the Jews. They won’t forget. And so it goes, with us in it.
Laurel says
My crystal ball says that gas prices will go up Memorial Day Weekend.
ASF says
And you don’t think Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders–be they Left or Right leaning– have tried to negotiate peace with Palestinians? LOL!
There have been at least five viable two state solutions offered to the Palestinians since 1948. They have rejected every single one of them. The Palestinians are the reason there has been no two state solution to date. Their priority is to elminate the one sole majority Jewish nation in existence. And, in that last goal, many “innocent Palestinian civilians” have been willing to put their childrens’ lives and futures on the line.
As has been famously said, The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Rewarding the events of october 7th and the war that it kicked off and the elected Palestinian powers that keep it going (along with their continued hostage holding) is not a remotely sane way to achieve peace in the region.
Jen says
There’s a genocide happening. How about we get upset about that!