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Weather: A 20 percent chance of showers after 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 66. Sunday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 47.
- 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.
The Annual Native American Festival is at Princess Place Preserve, 2500 Princess Place Road, Palm Coast, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, $10 per person, Kids 12 and under FREE!
‘The Niceties,’ at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, 160 Cypress Point Parkway (City Marketplace, Suite B207), Palm Coast. $25 for Adults, $15 for Students. Book here. An urgent debate about race, history and power by Eleanor Burgess. Zoe, a Black student, meets her white professor to discuss a paper on slavery’s impact on the American Revolution. What starts as a polite clash of perspectives erupts into a riveting debate. Praised for its gut instinct and talent, The Niceties by Eleanor Burgess offers a wholly satisfying evening of theater. The Saturday performance will be followed by discussion panel.
See:
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.
‘One Slight Hitch,’ at Daytona Playhouse, 100 Jessamine Blvd., Daytona Beach, Adults $25, Seniors $24, Youth $15, 7:30 p.m. except Sunday matinees and special March 1 matinee. It’s Courtney’s wedding day, and mom is making sure everything is perfect. Then, like in any good farce, the doorbell rings, and all hell breaks loose. So much for perfect.
‘The Drowsy Chaperone,’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre, 11 Old Mission Avenue, St. Augustine, 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, $35. When wealthy widow, Mrs. Tottenham, hosts the wedding of the year, she gets a lot more than a write-up in the society pages. This magical piece of meta-theatre and playful, heartfelt parody of the 1920s musical comedy features a chirpy jazz age score by Tony-winning collaborators. Book here.
F.R.E.S.H. Book Festival in Daytona Beach, FRESH as in Fiction, Romance, Erotica, Spirituality and Health, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, starting Thursday at 6 p.m. with the FRESH Book Film Festival at the Museum of Arts and Sciences, 325 South Nova Road, Daytona Beach, then Friday and Saturday with the book festival at the Julia and Charles Cherry Cultural Center, 925 George Engram Boulevard, Daytona Beach. See the full schedule and costs here.
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.
Notebook: How can we have 50 years of SNL and have become such a fucking humorless, fearful, vengeful, petty country?
—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.
March 2025
River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) Meeting
Separation Chat: Open Discussion
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
Tyrese Patterson Sentencing
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library
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
Town of Marineland Commission Meeting
For the full calendar, go here.
I went from being an outsider–a fanboy on the left coast–to an insider: a professional journalist, historian, and foreign policy pundit in the Acela Corridor. I would become personally acquainted with many of the conservative sages whose writings I had grown up reading. In some cases, familiarity would breed contempt. But in many other instances, my respect would only grow as I got to know my boyhood heroes personally. At one point, I would declare that the smartest people I knew were conservatives: a statement I now regard as the height of folly. That I would say such a thing is indicative of the mindset that I developed as a “movement” conservative. I was not just drinking the Kool-Aid; I was bathing in it. I understand what Fox News viewers experience because I experienced a version of the same brainwashing myself. This was a process of indoctrination–largely self-indoctrination, I should add–that took decades and that I am only now escaping. That’s not to say that I am leaving behind all, or even most of, what I believed then. Rather, as I approach my fifties, I am sorting out for myself what makes sense and what doesn’t in the conservative Weltanschauung. That is not something I was capable of doing in my twenties, when I was just being initiated into the world of the right. Back then, my enthusiasm for conservatism was excessive and indiscriminate, as is so often the case with a proselyte.
–From Max Boot’s The Corrosion of Conservatism (2018).
Endless dark money says
Zelensky is a good leader. I wish amerikkka had someone with some leadership qualities. Instead we chose Nazis. And we will pay the price for it.
Jason says
And yet only one of these leaders has suspended elections and remained in power. Yeah, it’s technically legal under Ukrainian Law but the same people howling that Trump is a dictator seem to not understand Article 2 Section 1 of our Constitution that makes POTUS the sole “executive” and as such all of the executive offices that Congress has created also seem to fall under the executive branch. If you are mad that Trump or any other POTUS has too much power then you should really be pointing your anger at Congress because the legislative branch has been expanding the executive branch for decades.
But any introspection by a party that cannot even define what a Woman is should not be expected to occur. Instead we get the 4th estate doing the saber rattling for the Democrat party while simultaneously claiming democracy is dead in a complete abdication of their own claimed responsibility.
But please continue on because what I and millions of others voted for is being done and at a blistering pace. Cry harder! Scream louder! It’s music to our ears!
Ray W, says
I have reread nearly all of Winston Churchill’s six volume, 12 book, exposition of his efforts on behalf of the British government before and during WWII.
Each volume has a title, a preface, a Moral of the Work, and a Theme of the Volume.
Volume I’s title?
“The Gathering Storm”
Its preface?
“I MUST REGARD THESE VOLUMES of The Second World War as a continuation of the story of the First World War which I set out in The World Crisis, The Eastern Front, and The Aftermath. Together, if the present work is completed, they will cover an account of another Thirty Year’s War.
“I have followed, as in previous volumes, as far as I am able, the method of Defoe’s Memoirs of a Cavalier, in which the author hangs the chronicle and discussion of great military and political events upon the thread of the personal experiences of an individual. I am perhaps the only man who has passed through both the two supreme cataclysms of recorded history in high Cabinet office. Whereas, however, in the First World War I filled responsible but subordinate posts, I was for more than five years in this second struggle with Germany the Head of His Majesty’s Government. I write, therefore, from a different standpoint and with more authority than was possible in my earlier books.
“Nearly all my official work was transacted by dictation to secretaries. During the time I was Prime Minister, I issued the memoranda, directives, personal telegrams, and minutes which amount to nearly a million words. These documents, composed
from day to day under the stress of events and with the knowledge available at the moment, will no doubt show many shortcomings. Taken together, they nevertheless give a current account of these tremendous events as they were viewed at the time by one who bore the chief responsibility for the war and policy of the British Commonwealth and Empire. I doubt whether any similar record exists or has ever existed of the day-to-day conduct of war and administration. I do not describe it as history, for that belongs to another generation. But I claim with confidence that it is a contribution to history which will be of service to the future.
“These thirty years of action and advocacy comprise and express my life effort, and I am content to be judged upon them. I have adhered to my rule of never criticizing any measure of war or policy after the event unless I had before expressed publicly or formally my opinion or warning about it. Indeed in the afterlight, I have softened many of the severities of contemporary controversy. It has given me pain to record these disagreements with so many men whom I liked or respected; but it would be wrong not to lay the lessons of the past before the future. Let no one look down on those honorouble well-meaning men whose actions are chronicled in these pages, without searching his own heart, reviewing his own discharges of public duty, and applying the lessons of the past to his future conduct.
“It must not be supposed that I expect everybody to agree with what I say, much less that I only write what will be popular. I give my testimony according to the lights I follow. Every possible care has been taken to verify the facts; but much is constantly coming to light from the disclosure of captured documents or other revelations which may present a new aspect to the conclusions which I have drawn. This is why it is important to rely upon authentic contemporary records and the expressions of opinion set down when all was obscure.
“One day President Roosevelt told me he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once “The Unnecessary War.” There never was a war more easy to stop than that which has just wrecked what was left of the world from the previous struggle. That human tragedy reaches its climax in the fact that after all the exertions and sacrifices of hundreds of millions of people and of the victories of the Righteous Cause, we have still not found Peace or Security, and that we lie in the grip of even worse perils than those we have surmounted. It is my earnest hope that pondering upon the past may give guidance in days to come, enabling a new generation to repair some of the errors of former years and thus govern, in accordance with the needs and glory of man, the awful unfolding scene of the future.”
Its Moral of the Work?
In War: Resolution
In Defeat: Defiance
In Victory: Magnanimity
In Peace: Good Will
Its Theme of the Volume:
How the English-speaking peoples through their unwisdom, carelessness, and good nature allowed the wicked to rearm
Make of this what you will.
Ray W, says
Volume II’s Title?
THEIR Finest Hour
Its Preface?
“DURING THE PERIOD covered by this volume I bore a heavy burden of responsibility. I was Prime Minister, First Lord of the Admiralty, Minister of Defense, and Leader of the House of Commons. After the first forty days we were alone, with victorious Germany and Italy engaged in mortal attack up us, with Soviet Russia a hostile neutral actively aiding Hitler, and Japan an unknowable menace. However, the British War Cabinet, conducting His Majesty’s affairs with vigilance and fidelity, supported by Parliament and sustained by the Governments and peoples of the British Commonwealth and Empire, enabled all tasks to be accomplished and overcame all our foes.”
It’s Moral of the Work?
In War: Resolution
In Defeat: Defiance
In Victory: Magnanimity
In Peace: Good Will
Its Theme of the Volume?
How the British people held the fort ALONE till those who hitherto had been half-blind were half-ready.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W, says
Volume III’s Title?
THE Grand Alliance
Its Preface?
“THIS VOLUME, like the others, claims only to be a contribution to the history of the Second World War. The tale is told from the standpoint of the British Prime Minister, with special responsibility as Minister of Defence for military affairs. As these came directly to some extent into my hands, British operations are narrated in their scope and in some detail. At the same time it would be impossible to describe the struggles of our Allies except as a background. To do full justice these must be left to their own historians, or to later and more general British accounts. While recognising the impossibility of preserving proportion, I have tried to place our own story in its true setting.
“The main thread is again the series of my directives, telegrams, and minutes upon the daily conduct of the war and of British affairs. These are all original documents composed by me as events unfolded. They therefore constitute a more authentic record and give, I believe, a better impression of what happened and how it seemed at the time than any account which I could write now that the course of events is known. Although they contain expressions of opinion and forecasts which did not come true, it is by them as a whole that I wish my own share in the conflict to be judged. Only in this way can the reader understand the actual problems we had to face as defined by the knowledge in our possession.
“Space would not allow, nor indeed in many cases have I the right, to print the replies, which very often took the form of lengthy departmental memoranda. I have therefore been careful to avoid, so far as I can, throwing blame on individuals. Where possible I have endeavored to give a summary of replies to telegrams. In the main however the documents which are printed tell the tale.
“We are again dealing with war on the giant scale, and the battle on the Russian front involved as many divisions on both sides as were engaged in the Battle of France. At every point along a far longer front the great masses engaged, with slaughter incomparable to anything which occurred elsewhere during the war. I cannot attempt to do more than refer to the struggle between the German and Russian Armies as the background of the actions of Britain and the Western Allies. The Russian epic of 1941 and 1942 deserves a detailed and dispassionate study and record in the English language. Even though no facilities for foreigners to narrate the Russian agony and glory might be accorded, the effort should be made. Nor should this impulse be chilled by the fact that the Soviet Government have already claimed all the honour for themselves.
“Hitler’s invasion of Russia brought to an end the period of almost exactly a year during which Great Britain and her Empire stood alone, undismayed, and growing continually in strength. Six months later, the United States, violently assaulted by Japan, became our ally for all purposes. The ground for our united action had been prepared beforehand by my correspondence with President Roosevelt, and it was possible to forecast not only the form of our operations but also their sequence. The effective combination of the whole English-speaking world in the waging of war and the creation of the Grand Alliance form the conclusion of this part of my account.”
Its Moral of the Work?
In War: Resolution
In Defeat: Defiance
In Victory: Magnanimity
In Peace: Good Will
Its Theme of the Volume?
How the British fought on with Hardship their Garment until Soviet Russia and the United States were drawn into the Great Conflict
Make of this what you will.
Ray W, says
Volume IV’s Title?
THE Hinge of Fate
Its Preface?
In The Gathering Storn, Their Finest Hour and The Grand Alliance I have described as I saw them the events leading to the Second World War, the conquest of Europe by Nazi Germany, the unflinching resistance of Britain alone until the German attack on Russia and the Japanese assault brought the Soviet Union and the United States to our side.
“In Washington, at the turn of the year, President Roosevelt and I, supported by our Chief Military and Naval Advisors, proclaimed the Grand Alliance, and prescribed the main strategy for the future conduct of the war. We had now to face the onslaught of Japan.
“Such was the scene when on January 17, 1942, I landed at Plymouth; and here the tale of this volume begins.
“Again it is told from the standpoint of the British Prime Minister, with special responsibility, as Minister of Defence, for military affairs. Again I rely upon the series of my directives, telegrams, and minutes, which owe their importance and interest to the moment in which they were written, and which I could write in better words now. These original documents were dictated b me as events broke upon us. As they are my own composition, written at the time, it is by these that I prefer to be judged. It would be easier to produce a series of afterthoughts when the answers to all the riddles were known, but I must leave this to the historians who will in due course be able to pronounce their considered judgments.
“I have called this volume THE Hinge of Fate because in it we turn from almost uninterrupted disaster to almost unbroken success. For the first six months of this story all went ill; for the last six months everything went well. And this agreeable change continued to the end of the struggle.”
The Moral of the Work?
In War: Resolution
In Defeat: Defiance
In Victory: Magnanimity
In Peace: Good Will
The Theme of the Volume?
How the power of the Grand Alliance became preponderant.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W, says
Volume’s V’s Title?
Closing the Ring
Its Preface?
“In THE Hinge of Fate I described the decisive change for the better in our fortunes, which lighted the winter of 1942 and the spring of 1943. Closing the Ring sets forth the year of conflict from June 1943 to June 1944. Aided by the command of the oceans, the mastery of the U-boats, and our ever-growing superiority in the air, the Western Allies were able to conquer Sicily and invade Italy, with the result that Mussolini was overthrown and the Italian nation came over to our side. Hitler with the circle of countries he had occupied was isolated, and with the immense onslaught of Russia from the East was completely surrounded. At the same time Japan had been forced onto the defensive and was vainly trying to hold the vast territories she had overrun.
“The danger which faced the United Nations was no longer Defeat but Stalemate. Before them lay the formidable task of invading the two aggressors in their home lands and liberating from their grip the peoples they had struck down. This worldwide problem was faced at the Conferences between Great Britain and the United States at Quebec and Washington in the summer, and at the Triple Meeting of the main Allies at Teheran in November. There was between us no difference of aim or of resolve to give all to the common cause. Grave divergencies of method and of emphasis were inevitable because of the various angles from which the three partners naturally approached the decisions which were required. How agreement was reached upon all the supreme issues is the tale I now have to tell. It carries us to the liberation of Rome and to the eve of the British and American crossing of the Channel and entry into Normandy.
“I have followed the method I used in earlier volumes. I do not seek to do more than make a contribution to history from the standpoint of the British Prime Minister and Minister of Defence. In this my directives, telegrams, and minutes, written at the time and not in the afterlight, are my steppingstones. It has been suggested that the answers to many of these documents should be included. I, on the other hand, have found it necessary in this volume to practice compression and selection in an increasing degree. A final volume is already needed to record and complete the story. I can therefore only make my excuses to any who may feel that their point of view is not fully set forth.
“More than seven years have passed since the events here recorded happened. Many international relationships have changed. Deep rifts have opened between former comrades. New and perhaps darker clouds have gathered. Old foes have become friends and even allies. In this setting some of the sentiments and expressions contained in the telegrams, minutes, and reports of Conferences may jar upon the readers in other countries. I can only remind them that these documents have an historical value and that we were then engaged in a fierce and terrible war. When men are fighting for their lives, they are not often disposed to be complimentary to those who are trying to kill them. On the other hand, to soften all harsh expressions about the enemy nations of those days would prevent a true picture being presented. Time and Truth are healers.
Its Moral of the Work?
In War: Resolution
In Defeat: Defiance
In Victory: Magnanimity
In Peace: Good Will
Its Theme of the Volume?
How Nazi Germany was Isolated and Assailed on All Sides
Make of this what you will
Ray W, says
Volume VI’s Title?
Triumph and Tragedy
Its Preface?
“THIS VOLUME concludes my personal narrative of the Second World War. Between the Anglo-American landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944, and the surrender of all our enemies fourteen months later, tremendous events struck the civilised world. Nazi Germany was crushed, partitioned, and occupied; Soviet Russia established herself in the heart of Western Europe; Japan defeated; the first atomic bombs were cast.
“In this, as in earlier volumes, I have told the story as I knew and experienced it as Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of Great Britain. I have relied, as before, on the documents and speeches composed under the daily ordeal, in the belief that these give a truer picture of what happened at the time than could any afterthoughts. The original text was completed nearly two years ago. Other duties have since confined me to general supervision of the processes of checking the statements of fact contained in these pages and obtaining the necessary consents to the publication of the original documents.
“I have called this Volume Triumph and Tragedy because the overwhelming victory of the Grand Alliance has failed so far to bring general peace to our anxious world.”
Its Moral of the Work?
In War: Resolution
In Defeat: Defiance
In Victory: Magnanimity
In Peace: Good Will
Its Theme of the Volume?
How the Great Democracies Triumphed, and so Were able to Resume the Follies Which Had so Nearly Cost Them Their Life
Make of this what you will.
Laurel says
Jason: I am a lifelong Independent, and I find what you write to be very sad. “Cry harder! Scream louder! It’s music to our ears!”
How unbelievably sad you should feel that way, and even worse you would speak it with glee. You are talking about your friends, neighbors, family members and fellow U.S. citizens.
I am mad at Congress. I find them spineless and shameful that they would back such a man. A man who lies profusely, and you know it. His lies are not music to my ears, nor is your unfortunate glee.
Kennan says
Soul executive Jason? Really Jason? Really? Try sole beneficiary. Beneficiary. This emotionally brittle man that you elected King will hammer this country into submission if he has his way.
Those who have become drunk to a man who has told the country what he would do to it. How he would do it, and to whom he would do it too. Wanna know who that is? It’s you. It’s me. It’s America. there are so many in this country that will never get it until the devil‘s at their door. It’s coming. This isn’t Democrats. This isn’t Republicans. This is him going after everyone that isn’t him.
This is a Ponzi scheme you know. You know that right? I feel I am spitting in the wind. Good luck America. Ultimately, we did it to ourselves.
I hope we reimagined ourselves. I hope we reinvent ourselves without a two party system that has failed this country for over 40 years. If we survive this. Which we can. However; we will suffer, but maybe to be a country that is actually run by its people. With elected officials that work for our people.
We have lost our way. We’ve started wars all over the world. The last war we ever should’ve been in was World War II. The man, we elected desperately wants to be a KING. He at present is trying to extort the president of Ukraine, while saying that he started the war. A few weeks ago, he tried to extort South Africa for their minerals. Europe wants nothing to do with us. He is trying to broker the biggest land grab and real estate deal in the Middle East’s history after he ethnically cleanses the Gaza Strip, which by the way the former president initiated a murder campaign in for 16 months. The world‘s richest man now has the keys to the kingdom, because Trump is just giddy about being associated with someone that Rich.
You run out of words. You just run out of words. It’s like trying to teach humanity to zombies.
GO LUCK AMERICA. You’re gonna need it.
PS. I’m glad I’ve got a passport.