To include your event in the Briefing and Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
Weather: Mostly sunny. Showers likely with a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the lower 90s. Light and variable winds, becoming northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of rain 60 percent. Tuesday Night: Mostly cloudy. Showers likely with a chance of thunderstorms in the evening, then a chance of showers with a slight chance of thunderstorms after midnight. Lows in the lower 70s. Light and variable winds. Chance of rain 70 percent.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
- Check today’s tides in Daytona Beach (a few minutes off from Flagler Beach) here.
- tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
Today at a Glance:
Flagler Beach’s Planning and Architectural Review Board meets at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 105 S 2nd Street. For agendas and minutes, go here.
The Palm Coast City Council meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall. For agendas, minutes, and audio access to the meetings, go here. For meeting agendas, audio and video, go here.
The Bunnell Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board meets at 6 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. The board consists of Carl Lilavois, Chair; Manuel Madaleno, Nealon Joseph, Gary Masten and Lyn Lafferty.
The Flagler Beach Library Writers’ Club meets at 5 p.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s National Night Out is scheduled for 5 to 8 p.m. at Flagler Palm Coast High School, 5500 State Road 100, Palm Coast. It’s free. Join the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, Flagler Sheriff’s Police Athletic League, and community partners for a night of fun, food, and safety information. National Night Out enhances the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement while bringing back a true sense of community. Furthermore, it provides a great opportunity to bring police and neighbors together under positive circumstances.
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy, 8 p.m. at Cinematique Theater, 242 South Beach Street, Daytona Beach. General admission is $8.50. Every Tuesday and on the first Saturday of every month the Random Acts of Insanity Comedy Improv Troupe specializes in performing fast-paced improvised comedy.
 Keep Their Lights On Over the Holidays: Flagler Cares, the social service non-profit celebrating its 10th anniversary, is marking the occasion with a fund-raiser to "Keep the Holiday Lights On" by encouraging people to sponsor one or more struggling household's electric bill for a month over the Christmas season. Each sponsorship amounts to $100 donation, with every cent going toward payment of a local power bill. See the donation page here. Every time another household is sponsored, a light goes on on top of a house at Flagler Cares' fundraising page. The goal of the fun-raiser, which Flagler Cares would happily exceed, is to support at least 100 families (10 households for each of the 10 years that Flagler Cares has been in existence). Flagler Cares will start taking applications for the utility fund later this month. Because of its existing programs, the organization already has procedures in place to vet people for this type of assistance, ensuring that only the needy qualify. |
Notably: There’s a good deal of anxiety about violence in the aftermath of the Nov. 5 election. But it’s one-sided. There’s no anxiety if Trump wins. No anxiety that violence would result, that is. Talk of violence is associated exclusively with a Harris win. It’s a strange paradox: I am not worried for my safety if Trump wins, though I’ll loathe the result. There’ll be a pall over the country if he does. But it’ll be calm, as in the aftermath of a nuclear bombing, when all the firestorms have gone out and mere radiated ash is still falling like snow. But I am worried for my safety if Harris wins. We live in a scarlet county. It’s under control. But you never know. Who had imagined Jan. 6 before Jan. 6? (Who had imagined that there could be such an incongruity as “Moms for Liberty,” the very moms banning books and genitally mutilating their children’s gender journeys?) That tells you all there is to know about this election. Harris and her supporters, who will unquestionably be in a majority of millions regardless of the outcome on Nov. 5, will concede and accept the results if she loses. Most of them will, anyway. Some of those who won;t will talk about going to Canada or Mexico or Tenerife, some will wail louder than muezzins in mourning, and some might even contemplate a warm Roman bath. But none, safe to say, will take to the streets, break glass, break down doors, or invade capitols. We know this. We know this because for all the fury and occasional, riotous violence the left is capable of, the left accepts the validity of elections, win or lose. We know that right wingers do not. To this day, 63 percent of Republicans—63 percent!–still believe that the 2020 election was “stolen.” 31 percent of independents do. Four points more than in 2021. Only 6 percent of democrats do, though two points more than in 2020. And 60 percent of white, evangelical protestants do. We also know that political violence, while relatively rare in the last couple of generations, is still one of the great simmering calderas in this country, like the caldera beneath Yellowstone. It lays dormant for an eternity. Then it blows. But when it blows… Put another way, and to borrow from Faulkner, “fascism is never dead. It’s not even past.”
—P.T.
View this profile on Instagram
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.
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Flagler County Canvassing Board Meeting
Story Time for Preschoolers at Flagler Beach Public Library
Flagler Tiger Bay Club Guest Speaker: Carlos M. Cruz
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Scenic A1A Pride Meeting
Blue 24 Forum
Acoustic Jam Circle At The Community Center In The Hammock
Flagler County’s Cold-Weather Shelter Opens
For the full calendar, go here.
These years also saw the birth of a nationwide group of vigilantes that, in size and power, dwarfed the militia groups in bulletproof vests that would flourish a century later. With more than a quarter-million members, that earlier organization became an official auxiliary of the Department of Justice. Men in its ranks would sport badges and military-style titles, cracking heads, roughing up protestors, and carrying out mass arrests. Tens of thousands of Americans would join smaller local groups as well; the masked vigilantes under those black hoods in Tulsa that night in November 1917 belonged to one called the Knights of Liberty.”
–From Adam Hochschild’s American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis (2022).
Laurel says
So there was some conversation about the dramatic slimming down of Trump flags recently. Well! Hubby and I were in Flagler Beach yesterday, and noticed an estimated ratio of approximately five Harris/Walz signs to approximately one Trump/Vance signs. In very red Flagler County! By the way, we did not count any signs in the right of way, or in vacant lots. Only signs in private yards. There is a clear surgence Harris support, and people are coming out and showing their support.
So, I don’t want to hear any “rigged” crap from the Trumplicans. What we need to be concerned about are the attempts at voter suppression when there is no, real evidence of fraud.
Laurel says
Some people are stealing Harris/Walz signs out of other people’s yards.
If Trump and Vance are so wonderful, why cheat? Sucky sportsmanship, but just mimicking their hero.
Jim says
Your first commentary is spot on. It is scary knowing that if Harris wins, there will be riots. Regarding the 63% who “say” they believe the election was “stolen”, consider this– we know that rural areas have skewed strongly to the right. My own brother, who is rural, has told me that he feels the elections are essentially “stolen” by the urbanites who want to tell the rural folks how to live. Nevermind one person, one vote. Most of them “know” it wasn’t “stolen, stolen”. That is the reality and mentality that we face. Nevermind that if the rural folks outnumbered the city folk, their votes would “tell” the city folks what’s what. Not that numbers matter so much in this gerrymandered election. And lastly, of course, there is no defining line between rural and city mentality, just some differences in ratio of right:left. The rural right finds comfort in labeling the city left as socialist welfare queens and freeloaders. I can’t explain why counties like ours are so scarlet. I don’t consider us “rural”. We have a lot of upper class who would support anything that would lower their taxes. And I’m sure we have a lot of lower income folks who are struggling who, for reasons I cannot understand, think that MAGA policies will make things better. IF Harris pulls it off, I hope these folks give her a chance instead of rioting. (P.S. My rural brother loves his Obamacare policy!)
Ray W says
This monthly comment in a series of similar comments is directed to those FlaglerLive commenters who claim that the Biden-Harris administration has destroyed the American economy, or is communist, or socialist, or radical leftist, or whatever negative connotation their fertile minds can conjure out of nothing, just as their ancestors predicted that the 1935 Social Security Act was a communist plot to destroy America.
Every month for years I take a quick look at “stock market performance by president.” I find it a grounding exercise, meaning it reminds me of the fragility, the impetuousness, the impermanence, the futility, of attempting to predict the economic future from assessing past economic events.
During the first 44 months of the past seven presidents, the DOW performed as follows:
Clinton: 77.7%.
Obama: 67.9%
Biden: 41.2%.
Trump: 39.9%.
GHW Bush: 39.7%.
Reagan: 27.4%.
GW Bush: -7.4%.
Make of this what you will. Me? The investor class spends millions and millions of dollars to develop algorithms that interpret all kinds of economic data; these algorithms are constantly updated in a search for a magic formula that will allow those who use the algorithms not only to beat everyone else’s algorithm to the smallest of opportunities, but also to invest their money as safely as possible. Every obscure datapoint in a weekly JOLTS report is analyzed. Every comment by the Chairman of the Federal Reserve is pondered. One month, seventy percent of economists surveyed predict recession at some point in the next 15 months. Two months later, thirty percent of the same economists predict a 50-point rate cut by the Fed as recession fears recede and the economy keeps growing.
And what is the result of all this effort? It is relatively safe right now to place significant sums of money at risk in the DOW, because the Biden-Harris administration is not destroying the economy, is not communistic, is not socialistic, is not radical leftist, is not anything other than quirkily mainstream.
Jim says
In regards to the “Trump-Russia/Harris-Ukraine” cartoon… It is very sad to me that we are so removed from the events that lead to WWII in Europe that the Trump position isn’t an automatic disqualifier for the Presidency. Putin, like Hitler in 1939, invaded his neighbor(s) on trumped up (pardon the pun) excuses to cover the fact that he was making a pure land grab for the “fatherland”. When Hitler did it, all the western European countries were restless and “not happy” but no one lifted a finger to stop Hitler’s takeover of Austria and only reacted when Hitler then turned on Poland. Putin invaded Crimea and everyone just stood around and objected but did nothing. Then he invaded Ukraine. (Does anyone see any similarities in these actions?). Like Hitler, Putin claims he’s ridding Ukraine of Nazi’s although there has been precious little support for that BS. Unlike Poland, Ukraine has fought back and has even pushed Putin out of part of the country he invaded.
All Ukraine has asked of the West is to provide them the armaments and ammunition to fight Russia. Frankly, if we hadn’t been so slow to provide them what they need, they might very well have defeated Russia by now. We’ve agonized about upsetting Putin so much that we allowed Russia to fortify large segments of Ukraine so that they’ve been able to blunt Ukraine’s offensives. Had we moved quicker, I think Ukraine would have pushed Russia out of Ukraine and Crimea.
Trump says he wants a “good deal” for Ukraine and Putin. WHY? Why does Putin deserve a “good deal”? The Russian army has been proven to be incompetent both in leadership and equipment. They can be beaten. They must be beaten. They must be pushed back to the borders of 2014.
You don’t “reward” despots and dictators who invade their neighboring country for false reasons. That is why Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia all are considering putting their militaries into the Ukraine conflict – to stop Putin. They went through this before (WWII) and they have not forgotten. 141,000 Americans died in Europe in WWII but, apparently, we have a short attention span and can’t see another European war brewing. Although Trump might now honor our commitments to NATO, the fact remains that if Putin gets any kind of “victory” in Ukraine, it’s going to embolden him to move on to other countries. And that puts Russia in conflict with NATO and, thus, US military personnel would be engulfed in the conflict. This time we might lose even more lives. (And I’m not even mentioning loss of life to Europeans).
So if you are okay with voting for Trump, you’re okay with raising the odds that we’ll end up in a major European war within 5-10 years and we’ll sacrifice who knows how many lives because Trump is just too ignorant to understand the ramifications of his action (or inaction).
If you’re an “America First” disciple, you need to define what that means. I see it as doing what’s best for America. Placating a dictator is not in the USA’s best interests.
Trump is the greatest problem solver that the world has ever seen yet he hasn’t done a thing about replacing Obamacare (he does have the concept of a plan after 13 years of talk), he lies pretty much every time he opens his mouth (Ref: Haitian immigrants eating pets; Biden and Georgia governor Kemp didn’t talk about aid Post Helen; he will be the “protector and savior” of women and the countless other lies he spouts multiple times a day.
I hope you Trumpers would just take some time and look at the facts and not get sucked up by his rhetoric. The truth of the matter is that most of you would have nothing to do with a person with Trump’s antics, yet you follow him like he’s the Chosen One. He’s a con from start to finish. Please look at the facts and rethink your position. Maybe Harris isn’t the perfect candidate but she is so much better than Trump in the ways that count that we need to give her a chance. Trump had his and his four years was a disgrace. We don’t need four more.
DaleL says
In addition, Russia signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. Three substantially identical political agreements signed at the OSCE conference in Budapest, Hungary, on December 5, 1994. They provided security assurances by its signatories relating to the accession of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The memoranda prohibited Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom from threatening or using military force or economic coercion against Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.
Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine is a direct violation of the Memorandum. Putin and Russia are dishonest and dangerous.
Ray W says
The Odessa American recently reported on the opening of the 580-mile-long Matterhorn Express natural gas pipeline that links the Permian Basin to the Houston energy hub. The pipeline links into the Transco Pipeline that sends natural gas from Houston to New York City. Right now, the pipeline is ramping up transport to 300 million cubic feet per day. By next March, it will reach its 2.5 billion cubic feet per day capacity.
According to the article, the rapid growth of natural gas extraction in the Permian Basin had created such a glut of gas that already existing pipelines could not handle the load.
“The glut has been so severe that the price of gas at the Waha hub at Coyanosa 64 miles southwest of Odessa has been less than zero, but now the 2.5 billion cubic feet per day that the 42-inch Matterhorn will soon be pumping represents a great relief.”
An industry spokesman told the paper that the pipeline likely was only a temporary fix, because, over the previous 12 months, natural gas production in the Permian Basin had grown by 2.4 billion cubic feet per day. More pipeline transport capacity was already needed.
The entire pipeline project “includes the 81-mile Waha to Rankin Lateral, the 79-mile Stanton Lateral, the 400-mile mainline, nine smaller laterals, eight compressor stations and a variety of ancillary facilities and sites, including 27 meter stations, 8 temporary launcher-receiver sites, 39 mainline valve sites and 4 temporary contractor yards.”
Make of this what you will. Me? A former president can promise to Drill! Baby! Drill! all he wants. But if the infrastructure needed to transport the energy to the marketplace does not exist, all that will happen is the development of a glut at the point of extraction and economic losses for the companies that are doing the drilling.
This is why I commented about the new offshore deepwater pumping station that will be built in the Gulf to fill supertankers with new crude oil coming out of the Permian Basin. And a new crude oil pipeline from the Permian Basin to a site south of Houston just opened. And a new West Virginia/Pennsylvania natural gas pipeline just connected to the Transco Pipeline in southwest Virginia. And a new LNG plant that is about to open, bringing the nation’s total to nine, with three more sites nearing completion. U.S. LNG export capacity has gone from zero in early 2016 to around 12 billion cubic feet per day today, with the new capacity from the four anticipate sites expected to allow for growth in export capacity to over 20 billion cubic feet per day.
We are the world’s largest exporter of LNG, and we lead the world in extraction of natural gas and crude oil.
Those who claim the Biden-Harris administration of destroying America’s economy are gullible fools.
Yes, we should have jumped on the opportunity to develop our solar panel and windmill industries 20 years ago. We held the lead in solar panel research at that time, yet we ceded the entire field to China. Now, we are scrambling to catch up.
The gullible among us thought that coal was king. It wasn’t. 20 years ago, coal energy powered just over 50% of the nation’s electricity grid. Today? 16% and rapidly dropping. Hillary was right and the gullible laughed at her.
The naysayers among us said that electric vehicles could never work. They do. New battery designs offer greater and greater range at less and less weight with quicker and quicker recharging times. Next year, Dodge plans to begin selling a 630 HP full-sized extended range EV truck called the Ramcharger, which will travel on battery power alone for some 90% of ordinary trips. But if the trip goes past the battery range, a detuned V-6 engine will start up and generate electricity to keep the electric motors powered. Its range is announced as 690 miles.
Ingenuity is all around us, should we muster the political will to support the burgeoning renewable industries. The ER-EV concept solves the range anxiety problem many potential buyers feel while letting people enjoy a full EV concept for the vast majority of ordinary driving.
Over and over again, the angriest of the blind have by deception and artifice led us to the entry to the path of economic oblivion, one that would have us hobble our own industries out of sheer stupidity.
We just have to be more careful of who we choose to listen to.
Laurel says
Unfortunately, many believe a 10% or 20% tariff on China’s goods will hurt China. No, China will be happy to sell goods elsewhere, including Ivanka’s products, and our goods that come from China, will be more expensive. These tariffs will be passed on to us. There is no logic in Trump’s tariff claims, as we are no longer the major manufacturers, and we have benefited from China’s cheap goods, as China has benefited from our purchases. Trying to convince us that we can manufacture as cheaply as China is not realistic. And yes, China is ahead of us in green innovation. They want to capture the world market. Trump wants to drill for oil in our national parks.
Trump doesn’t know what the hell he is doing, and Vance is nothing but a yes man who would turn on Trump just as fast as he turned towards him. Neither one of them has impressive credentials. Just fear tactics.