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Weather: Partly sunny with a 40 percent chance of showers. Highs around 80. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers in the evening, then partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers after midnight. Lows in the upper 60s. North winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40 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:
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village: The city’s only farmers’ market is open every Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. at European Village, 101 Palm Harbor Pkwy, Palm Coast. With fruit, veggies, other goodies and live music. For Vendor Information email [email protected]
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students: 9:30 to 10:25 a.m. at Grace Presbyterian Church, 1225 Royal Palms Parkway, Palm Coast. Improve your English skills while studying the Bible. This study is geared toward intermediate and advanced level English Language Learners.
Bunnell’s Italian Festival, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at Flagler County Fairgrounds, 150 Sawgrass Road, Bunnell. The Italian Festival will be a weekend long event with both indoor & outdoor booths/activities. The City is planning a family festival for people to enjoy affordable, healthy, and wholesome fun. Admission to the Festival is FREE with parking being a $1.00 per car donation to the non-profit organization working the parking area. From classic comfort foods to exotic flavors, Bunnell Italian Festival offers a wide range of street food options. We also have a variety of craft beers, wines and cocktails available for purchase. Come hungry and ready to explore. In addition to amazing food, Bunnell Italian Festival also features live music, games and activities for all ages. You can enjoy everything from local bands to international performers.
Maze Days at Cowart Ranch, Fridays from 5 to 10 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sundays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Cowart Ranch and Farms, 8185 West Highway 100, Bunnell. $15 per person, children 2 and under free. Get lost on a 5 acre walk through maze (approximately 30-60 minute adventure). Pick the perfect carver or edible pumpkin at our Pumpkin Patch with lots of sunflowers and of picture opportunities! Some pumpkins grown right here on the farm. Try to spot the cattle herd on the Tractor driven Hayrides (approximately 15 minutes). Get up close and friendly with farm animals. (Chickens, goats, calves, pigs and more!) Pony Rides! (Not included with entry- $8 or 2 for $15 & legal guardian must sign waiver). Challenge your friends and family at our hand pumped water driven Ducky Dash game. Roll and Race down our NEW Rat Race game that’s a Ratatoullie blast. And plenty more.
Grace Community Food Pantry, 245 Education Way, Bunnell, drive-thru open today from noon to 3 p.m. The food pantry is organized by Pastor Charles Silano and Grace Community Food Pantry, a Disaster Relief Agency in Flagler County. Feeding Northeast Florida helps local children and families, seniors and active and retired military members who struggle to put food on the table. Working with local grocery stores, manufacturers, and farms we rescue high-quality food that would normally be wasted and transform it into meals for those in need. The Flagler County School District provides space for much of the food pantry storage and operations. Call 386-586-2653 to help, volunteer or donate.
Al-Anon Family Groups: Help and hope for families and friends of alcoholics. Meetings are every Sunday at Silver Dollar II Club, Suite 707, 2729 E Moody Blvd., Bunnell, and on zoom. More local meetings available and online too. Call 904-315-0233 or see the list of Flagler, Volusia, Putnam and St. Johns County meetings here.
| In Coming Days: December 14: Palm Coast's Starlight Parade in Town Center is scheduled for 6 p.m. Dec. 14 in Central Park, this year capping off the city's 25th anniversary celebrations. This festive parade will be a celebration of community traditions, featuring numerous community partners. Enjoy a delightful evening with food, entertainment, and fun for all ages. Don’t miss this opportunity to come together and honor the vibrant spirit of Palm Coast. Be part of this magical event and celebrate our community in style! Santa will arrive on a Palm Coast Fire Engine! There will be food trucks, Letters to Santa station, face painting, and kids crafts. |
Readings: The New York Times columnist David Brooks, a conservative who cannot stomach Trump, asked the question a few hundred million people here and abroad are asking themselves about Kamala Harris: “Why the Heck Isn’t She Running Away With This?” He provides some strong answers: “In days gone by, parties were political organizations designed to win elections and gain power. Party leaders would expand their coalitions toward that end. Today, on the other hand, in an increasingly secular age, political parties are better seen as religious organizations that exist to provide believers with meaning, membership and moral sanctification. If that’s your purpose, of course you have to stick to the existing gospel. You have to focus your attention on affirming the creed of the current true believers. You get so buried within the walls of your own catechism, you can’t even imagine what it would be like to think outside it. When parties were primarily political organizations, they were led by elected officials and party bosses. Now that parties are more like quasi-religions, power lies with priesthood — the dispersed array of media figures, podcast hosts and activists who run the conversation, define party orthodoxy and determine the boundaries of acceptable belief. […] Harris clearly understands the problem. She has tried to run her campaign to show she is in tune with majority opinions. In a classic 2018 More in Common report, only 45 percent of the most liberal group in the survey said they were proud to be American. But Harris festooned her convention with patriotic symbols to the rafters. She’s now explicitly running on the theme: country before party. But in just the few months she has had to campaign, Harris can’t turn around the Democratic Party’s entire identity. Plus, her gestures have all been stylistic; she hasn’t challenged Democratic orthodoxy on any substantive issue. Finally, candidates no longer have the ultimate power over what the party stands for. The priesthood — the people who dominate the national conversation — has the power.” Meanwhile: the polls tighten further.
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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.
Separation Chat: Open Discussion
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
A Christmas Carol at Athens Theatre
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Palm Coast Democratic Club Meeting
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Flagler Beach City Commission Meeting
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series
A Christmas Carol at Athens Theatre
For the full calendar, go here.
Men are and always have been myth makers, seizing upon the significant by leaving out the trivial, so as to make the world intelligible. If professional historians balk and refuse the role of global myth maker, whether from inertia or some mistaken scruple about supposed vagueness, others will surely move in to fill the void. For human minds imperiously demand historical experience to have shape and meaning–at least in retrospect–just because events as actually experienced in the present are so tumultuous, surprising, and unintelligible. They simply have to be given shape afterwards, or else are banished from human consciousness. After all, we have quite enough background noise to distract us, without worrying about the jumble that assailed our predecessors, unless, that is, their encounter with the world can be made intelligible by competent and conscientious historians.
–From William H. McNeill’s Mythistory and Other Essays (1986).
MillennialsForTrump says
lmao read the room, Flagler is voting for Trump, your cartoon only works in brainrot sites like reddit. This wont fly here, take it elsewhere.
MillennialsForTrump says
Deleting my comments because I disagreed with the comic. Wow.
Talk about suppression of freedom of speech and censorship by the left.
Your brainrot will soon be washed away by TRUMP!
Pierre Tristam says
Such champions of freedom and tolerance (and hypocritical doublebacks) to look forward to. But the Millennial is (sadly) right about the election: all hopes for Harris are lost in a nation with thinking like MFs.
SkibiRizzKing says
Yo, this whole thread is straight outta Skibidi Toilet 💀. Like, MillennialsForTrump really dropped in with that ‘freedom of speech’ energy but then turned around with no drip, no rizz—just straight cap 🧢. How you gonna cry ‘censorship’ and then act like you’re getting Skibidi sniped by the mods?
And Pierre over here throwing shade too like he’s got some giga-brain 200 IQ move, but lowkey, he’s just catching Ls while tryna roast from the sidelines 🤣. Bro’s talking like the country’s one Skibidi dance away from glitching into another timeline, but nobody asked for that NPC speech.
Honestly, both of y’all need to chill, ‘cause this election’s turning into a whole circus 🎪. Trump or Harris, whoever, we’re all just out here tryna vibe and avoid another Skibidi meltdown. Someone pass the popcorn 🍿 and let’s keep it moving fr.
Laurel says
SkibiRizzKing: No doubt you are.
Everybody dance now!
Laurel says
I don’t think any thinking is involved with people like Millennials for Trump.
Oh, Geez, where’s Dude when you want him! LOL!
Ray W, says
Thank you, Mr. Tristam, for yet another thought-provoking set of observations.
As for the morning cartoon, for years I have stated on FlaglerLive that we all should oppose the vengeful among us, regardless of party. Synonyms for vengeance include reprisal, retribution, and revenge.
Vengeance is not a solid foundation on which to build a stable society; it leads to the never-ending law of the debt of blood vengeance that so horrified ancient Greek audiences some 2500 years ago.
This stark warning to humanity was deemed so important that people of many different civilizations saw fit to save the three plays of Agamemnon in their original Greek for centuries, enough so that our founding fathers could gain sufficient insight to insist on a proposed liberal democratic Constitutional republic as the only possible means to ensure the continuity of a nation founded on reason and choice, not accident of birth or tyranny.
Ray W, says
In an article titled, “Here’s the trading playbook as data piles up in support of a ‘no landing’ for the US economy”, Markets Insider makes the case that this past week’s economic data points to a possible future economy that does not dip despite relatively high lending rates set by the Fed.
Here are a few bullet points from the article.
– “[T]his week’s robust retail data shows that consumer spending has stayed strong, as real core control retail sales climbed 0.4%, compared to 0.1% in August and above estimates of 0.3%.”
– “Real core control retail sales were likely up more than 4% annualized from Mar to Sep 2024.”
– “Recent GDP and gross domestic income revisions have also been ‘overwhelmingly positive.'”
“September’s blowout jobs print, which showed employers added a stunning 254,000 new positions and pulled the unemployment rate down to 4.1%.”
Here are a few observations from the article.
– “As Wall Street engaged in a forecasting tug-of-war over the path of the US economy, few predicted anything other than a soft landing or a recession this year — but in the past month, a streak of hot macro data has placed a third option on the table”
– “Odds of a ‘no landing’ scenario for the economy are rising amid continued strong economic data.”
– “The ‘no landing’ scenario entails a continued run of hot economic data and growth that boosts markets but also precludes a steep rate-cutting cycle from the Federal Reserve.”
– “Institutions such as Bank of America and UBS have recently noted rising odds of a ‘no landing’ outcome. In this scenario, US growth remains stronger than estimated, keeping inflation above target and interest rates elevated.”
– “According to BofA, a no landing scenario is bullish for stocks as long as inflation doesn’t flare up again.”
– “Harris Financial Group’s Jamie Cox told Business Insider than an inflation rebound is unlikely. In his view, inflation will continue to come down, allowing the Fed to lower rates gradually.”
– “[A] no landing scenario is the best outcome for the economy, Cox said, and given hot growth, the situation effectively tosses recession fears out the window.”
– “This would be just the fourth time in US history that the Fed has cut interest rates without a downturn, he added. In each case, markets were incredibly strong two or three years out, he said.”
Make of this what you will. Me? As long as I have been commenting on this site, I have argued that in just about every significant economic downturn, starting with the Great Depression, our government has relied on stimulus spending, funded or unfunded, to heat a rapidly cooling or cold economy.
In the short Pandemic Recession of 2020, the economic downturn was the greatest on record. So, too, was the recovery, once the initial $2 trillion in unfunded stimulus money began flowing into every aspect of our spending. The two trillion matched the greatest set of stimulus packages in history, signed into law by President Bush during the Great Recession. But we went further. Trump signed another $900 billion in unfunded stimulus money. Biden signed another set of unfunded stimulus bills, totaling roughly $3 trillion.
Never in history has so much money been thrown at a problem. No one had an algorithm to measure the effects of spending so much money. Many economists argued in 2009 that the stimulus money approved by Congress was too small and that had more money be approved, the economic recovery would have been quicker and more robust.
At first, based on economic theory of smaller stimulus packages, nearly every economist predicted quick recession, because the money thrown into the economy was anticipated to so heat it that the Fed would have to raise lending rates. The higher lending rates would so cool the economy that recession, i.e. a “hard landing”, was inevitable. But the money kept flowing and the economy kept growing. The job market remained healthy.
One by one, the economists had to accept the positive economic data, month after month, year after year. Fewer and fewer predicted immediate recession, but a longer-term recession remained inevitable, they said. Month after month, the economy kept defying predictions.
Economists began backing away from a more distant recession hypothesis, and a few began talking of a “soft landing” of a type that had never happened before.
In time, less than half of economists were predicting future recession.
Economists began pushing the idea that a “soft landing” was more and more likely.
Now, economists are starting to embrace the idea of a “no landing” future in which the economy just keeps going for years without slowing enough to land, soft or hard.
Which hypothesis will prevail? I don’t know.
All I can say is that we have lived through the strongest economic rebound from the pandemic when compared to all the other economies in the developed world. The dollar is the strongest currency in the developed world. Our overall economy is the strongest in the developed world.
We are far better off economically than we were four years ago. We have not been destroyed. We did not turn into Socialists or communists or Marxists or Leninists. Enlightened capitalism remains the motivating force of our economy.
Ray W, says
A new Business Insider report, titled “America is entering a new ‘economic supercycle’, posits that the economic cycle following the Great Recession, in which the Fed intentionally lowered lending rates in order to stimulate spending has come to an end.
The old cycle “was characterized by weak demand and low interest rates. … The most salient feature of the old period, economists say, was the risk of deflation — the possibility that a lack of demand could cause wages and prices to spiral downward, a trap that is extremely difficult to escape. In an effort to avoid that fate, policymakers in Washington pushed interest rates down to zero and encouraged all kinds of risky behavior among investors, businesses, and everyday consumers.” …
“It was only after the massive government stimulus, spurred by the pandemic, that the economy reached escape velocity, pushing up wages and starting to grow at a healthy clip.”
“The new supercycle will also have profound consequences worldwide, upending how and where money is most likely to flow. In China, the debt bubble that formed in the property sector during the previous cycle is sucking cash away from businesses and households, undermining China’s bid to become the world’s leading economic superpower. And with Europe growing more slowly than the US, foreign investors are steering more of their money to America. In the second quarter of this year, foreign investors owned $8.2 trillion worth of US Treasury bonds, up by 7.3% from a year earlier. Foreign investment is also soaring in US corporate bonds (up by 9.8%) and US equities (up by 23%). Quinlan says he expects the US economy to continue outperforming the rest of the world, given the fiscal and demographic challenges facing the European Union, Japan, and China. In an era of increasing instability, when former sources of growth are flailing, the United States is widely viewed as the safest place to find returns.
“‘Not lost on investors is the fact that the US economy remains among the most competitive, innovative, and resilient in the world,’ Quinlan wrote in a recent note to investors. ‘Aerospace or agriculture, energy or entertainment, transportation or technology, goods or services — pick any sector or activity, and there’s a good chance the US leads the rest of the world. All this has helped fuel demand among foreign investors for US securities of all stripes.'”
Make of this what you will. Me? For years I have been commenting on FlaglerLive that something unusual has been reverberating throughout our economy. I have argued that the sheer size of the stimulus packages, unprecedented really, would have repercussions that no economist could predict.
Here is an article based on the idea that the rest of the world looks to an American version of innovation and ingenuity for a safe harbor for their money and their futures. We lead the world in this arena, yet so many FlaglerLive commenters have gullibly accepted partisan claptrap about how our economy has been destroyed. It hasn’t been destroyed. No one has been betrayed. There is no need for retribution.
As an aside, did everyone catch the language about how China, Japan, and the European Union have experienced lower economic growth rates in comparison to our own, “given the fiscal and demographic challenges (those countries face) …”? What the author points out is that these are nations and regions that resist immigration. They are all poorer for their policies. We needed every immigrant we could get to fuel our own ascent into this new and robust expansive economic era.
It’s true that Obama inherited a badly damaged economy and slowly built it back to health. Trump inherited a healthy economy and continued to grow it. He likely would not have lost the 2020 election but for the pandemic. Biden inherited a badly damaged economy and now it is the strongest in the world. That is not to say that Trump could not have achieved the same, but it is foolish to claim that we are not the envy of the world and the safe harbor for money from every corner.
Laurel says
Trump is the trickster leading the tricked.