It’s not like the Republicans ever threw out Marjorie Taylor Greene or Lauren Boebert for any of the times they heckled and broke House decorum during a State of the Union, like the time they booed Biden’s dead son. Even with Trump up there, MTG broke decorum last night while wearing political paraphernalia on the House floor. That’s against the rules. Has she been punished for it in the past? Nope. Will she be punished for it this time? Nope.” Read the full Jones at Substack.
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Weather: Showers likely, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 1pm. High near 76. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Sunday Night: Showers likely, with thunderstorms also possible after 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 56. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- 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 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.
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.
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.
Notably: I was not incensed when Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, came out against the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports, though calling it “deeply unfair” was not the right choice of words. It is deeply unfair when transgender athletes participate in unisex sport when it wasn’t their birth sex. It is equally unfair that they would be–that they are, if you’re in Florida and a few other neo-Confederate states–excluded. That makes the issue troubling, anguishing, puzzling, but not one-sidedly “unfair.” We have a lot to learn about how to resolve the dilemma. But the premise is the issue. Banning transgender athletes is not a premise. It’s an edict, and a deeply flawed, deeply bigoted one when it stands on its own arbitrariness, with nothing beyond it. The premise ought to be that yes, there’s something unfair about transgender participation in sports, but it is up to athletic associations and sports leagues to tackle the issue and attempt to resolve it fairly and humanely, if not logically. I cannot imagine that there aren’t a few good minds up to the task. This isn’t the first time we’ve faced unusual situations in sports. Athletes who’ve lost limbs are not barred from participation, though there are parameters that do not entail creating an entirely separate set of leagues and competitions. So the problem is mostly a matter of attitudes, of disposition: I have misgivings about transgender athletes participating in women’s sports, but how are we coming at this issue? There is revanchism, and there is problem-solving. The problem-solving approach is the sort of pragmatism the issue demands. The revanchism has nothing to do with the issue. It’s all about political and ideological posturing, making it far, far more objectionable than transgender participation, and also repulsive, which transgender participation is not. Newsom is of course positioning himself for the 2028 presidential campaign. His declaration is not without an element of ideological posturing, but it’s likely wise. Democrats turned transgender issues into their Khe Sanh. They should not have. They lost, and set back transgender rights by decades, now that Trump is erasing transgender people’s right to exist. There is a way back. That’s probably where Newsom is coming from (this is the same Newsom who signed a bill prohibiting school districts from requiring parental notification if their child identifies as transgender–the opposite of Florida’s Stalinist approach), assuming he’s not playing games: the context of his declaration (with the flame-throwing Charlie Kirk) was not auspicious.
—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.
April 2025
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Friday Blue Forum
4-H and FFA Youth Livestock Show and Sale
The Dallas String Quartet at the Fitz
‘Sense and Sensibility’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre
‘Something Rotten,’ at the Daytona Playhouse
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Second Saturday Plant Sale at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park
American Association of University Women (AAUW) Meeting
Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area
‘Something Rotten,’ at the Daytona Playhouse
‘Sense and Sensibility’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre
‘Something Rotten,’ at the Daytona Playhouse
For the full calendar, go here.
It was an impenetrable jumble, where everything was mixed up, confused, lost: the muscular arms of the men seemed to belong to the women; the loose legs of the women seemed to belong to the men; a bearded head seemed to emerge from a luxuriant throat; a hairy chest seemed to support the melancholy head of a girl of fifteen! It would have been impossible, even at Pétrus, after having reconstructed with great difficulty the torsos, and giving each one its head, to distinguish whose feet, legs, arms, hands were, so confused were all these limbs, knotted, twisted, inextricably entangled with each other.
–From Alexandre Dumas’ The Mohicans of Paris (1864).
Ray W, says
According to Metro, Canada recently proposed to G-7 diplomats that the issue of establishing a task force to monitor Russia’s “shadow fleet” of aging crude oil tankers. United States diplomats blocked the proposal, citing to “a re-evaluation of its position in multilateral organizations, rendering it unable to join any new initiatives.”
Russia built up its “shadow fleet” to avoid international sanctions on export of its crude oil.
The maritime industry standard age limit for seagoing ships is 15 years. Older vessels are more prone to mechanical failure.
There had been a collision and a number of near-misses involving older vessels in recent years.
“Shadow” ships often lack insurance and may operate outside of the international regulatory safety framework. Actual ownership can be difficult to track.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W, says
CNBC reports that China’s consumer price index (CPI) dipped into negative territory (-o.7%) in February for the first time since January 2024. Analysts expected a -0.5% dip.
Chinese authorities announced a new CPI inflation goal of “around 2%” in 2025, the lowest target in decades. “The new inflation goal would act more as a ceiling than a target to be realized.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
China’s economy has been struggling for some time. As this is only one month’s data, I don’t put too much stock in it alone. But the Chinese government just announced a new round of stimulus packages. This is far more telling than one month’s CPI data.
Deflation, long considered by economists to be a more destructive element of an economy than is inflation, persists in certain sectors of the Chinese economy. It was widely reported recently in the automobile press that, due to deflation in prices of raw materials, BYD demanded an across the board 10% cut in supplier prices, on the basis that suppliers could now afford to reduce previous contractually negotiated prices for parts and assemblies.
Ed P says
Pierre,
3 days in and not a direct comment on the cartoon?
Either no one reads Russian or was able to figure out the sarcasm.
It made me smile.