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Weather: Sunny. Highs in the mid 90s. West winds around 5 mph. Sunday Night: Mostly clear. Lows in the upper 60s.
- 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.
Troop 472 Summer Camp Car Show and Fundraiser, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Central Park in palm Coast’s Town Center. Food trucks, a photo booth, a kid zone, and cars galore. Pets welcome. Admission is free cars can be added to the show for a $10 donation. Come out and support your local boy scout troop and cub scout pack and try delicious food from our food trucks while enjoying amazing cars.
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.
Notably: I find it interesting that Twitter prevented me from embedding this post by Assal Rad, whose posts I have on occasion posted here. Her post shows three dead Palestinian babies. It’s not banned from Twitter. It is offered up with the content warning which, if clicked, reveals the picture behind it. You can see the post here. Rad posted the picture to note that an NYU student’s diploma was withheld for condemning the Gaza genocide while delivering his speech at his graduation. CNN reports that Logan Rozos told members of his graduating class that “as I search my heart today in addressing you all … the only thing that is appropriate to say in this time and to a group this large is a recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine.” He repeatedly referred to the Gaza genocide, and said it was supported by the United States and paid for with our tax dollars–all undeniably factual (see here, here, here and here, among 52,000 sources. I am choosing that number for a reason.) Somehow I don’t imagine NYU would’ve held out his diploma if he’d made a reference to Oct. 7 from the Israeli side of the fence and delivered a few choice words about “Palestinian terrorists,” like those three babies must be, if the Israeli “defense forces” assassinated them. At least Twitter allowed the embedding of a more recent Rad post, below. I never took out my NYU diploma from its cardboard tube (I didn’t go to my graduation: a World Cup soccer match was more important, so I got the diploma in the mail). I wouldn’t mind sending it back by return post, assuming I could find it.
—P.T.
If you’re not writing the truth about crimes against humanity, you’re culpable in them. pic.twitter.com/uJKrqObcPy
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) May 8, 2021
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Menachem Begin once said that “Palestinians are beasts walking on two legs,” while former IDF Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan referred to them as “drugged roaches in a bottle” and also said that “a good Arab is a dead Arab.” Another former chief of staff, Moshe Ya’alon, referred to the Palestinian threat as like a “cancer” on which he was performing “chemotherapy.”
–From John Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt’s The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (2007).
Dennis C Rathsam says
Once again, whats left of the democrate party.That lied too you for months, covering up Bidens demented condition! They put themselves, ahead of the American people! The books are eerywhere, everything we saw was the truth! Then the Hurr report came out more damage to the jackass party. Even the reporters like Tapper, who was lying through his teeth, dont forget Joyless Read who was since been fires, or Raquel Maddow!!!!! LIES!!!! DECETE, COVER UPS!!!! Now its up to Patel & Bondi to follow the maddness about who was really running this country. The amout of damage & mistrust the democrats did will kill any hope of 28, Americans hate liars, & thats what the demcrate party is…. a bunch of liars! Out country is celibrating a mile stone in our countrys creation next year. After all the bullshit of the past 4 years its time to turn the page on the lunatics, who keep lying to us very day STILL! Americans need a celabration. America deserves a celibration! We are the greatest country on earth, it will be one hell of a parade, one we,ve not seen since the end of WW 2 !!!!! I,ll be there, with my fellow patriots….WILL U
Pogo says
@Friends of trump
https://www.google.com/search?q=sinwar+brothers
… donald the turd says thank you, his debt to you is incalculable; like the harm created.
Laurel says
More “common sense.”
Pogo says
@NRA rage over age for guns
… seems to have gone missing. What could have happened?
I guess this and whatever else I have to say will too.
And so it …
Capt Bill Hanagan says
An excerpt from The Genius of the Crowd —
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
—
Or to quote David Byrne.. ‘same as it ever was’
Skibum says
Make no mistake… the upcoming parade that drumph is demanding is ALL about him! While it is pure coincidence that his birthday just happened to be close to the date of the anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps, that factoid soon became an easy justification to plan a N. Korea or Soviet style show of military might and a dictator-esque desire to emulate the antics of the world’s most despicable and murderous “leaders”. Drumph has praised them time and time again, and I believe he goes to bed at night fantasizing about his ongoing efforts to eventually have unconstitutional, dictatorial control over our nation’s government, reducing any opposition and minimizing the ability of Congress and the courts to stop him by making sure the majority of those in the other two “co-equal” parts of our system of government are merely talking heads that bow down and willingly do his bidding.
If the current occupier of our nation’s top elected office was genuinely interested in the welfare of our military service members, would he have ridiculed them by calling them “suckers and losers”? Would he have refused to sit next to a disabled American solder at a WWII memorial ceremony in Europe during his first presidency? Would he have lambasted one of America’s true military heroes, Sen. John McCain, saying publicly that the only reason Sen. McCain was a military hero is because he was captured and held prisoner as a POW by the Viet Cong, and that drumph liked those who weren’t captured? Would someone who truly honored and respected our nation’s military have weaseled their way out of serving in the military by having his daddy pay a quack doctor to certify that the coward had “bone spurs” in his feet and was therefore medically exempt from service? Would a president who REALLY honors the service and sacrifice of American veterans be complicit as this idiot is in actively taking VA healthcare benefits away from our military veterans? Of course, the answer to all of these important questions is not just no, but HELL NO!!!
Be not distracted or dissuaded from reality, no matter how many of his sycophant mush brains try to convince us otherwise. No American president has ever had to have a Soviet or N. Korea style military parade because we don’t need it and any American patriot already knows that our “Peace through Strength” is real, our military is mighty, and it is not necessary or appropriate to have celebrations where military tanks are parading through the streets of ANY American city! Well, except for the orange-faced baby, dirty diaper donnie, who is so enamored with the thought of himself being on the level of horrendous, murderous dictators and cannot fathom not being less dangerous and aggressive as any one of them.
Jim says
This isn’t the subject of the cartoon but I have to comment: I thought Trump said that tariffs are paid by the country he puts the tariff on and NOT by American consumers? Did I get that right? But I see Trump has told Walmart to “eat the tariffs” because Walmart announced they were raising their prices as a result of Trump’s tariffs…. I’m just so confused since if Americans don’t end up paying for Trump’s tariffs, then Walmart must be lying about having to raise prices as a result of Trump’s tariffs. Right??? Actually, Walmart isn’t lying and I’m not confused at all. I was just trying to use MAGA reasoning to see the benefits of Trump’s tariffs. But it’s just too hard for me to do. So let’s all enjoy rising prices as the tariffs take effect. Make America Great Again!!!!
Regarding Gaza, I just don’t understand how it became acceptable for Americans to ignore the destruction of Gaza and murder of 50+ thousand people since October 7. Israel is essentially doing to Palestinians the same thing Hitler did to them. They are using starvation, denial of all services and massive attacks by their military to accomplish this. And our government stands by silently. And this goes back to Biden’s administration as well. I don’t know why it’s now not allowed to criticize Israel for their behavior. This is wrong and we should not just stand by and watch. I know our government will not do anything and this is a sad statement about where our morals have fallen to in 2025.
As to the cartoon, $45M for a Trump military parade seems appropriate in this day. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to the cuts to Medicaid, National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Education as well as the degrading of the VA’s ability to treat our vets as well as all the other great demolition of programs that help the less fortunate among us. And why? Well, the rich need a tax cut! We need to spend more on the military! We need a military parade! After all, China, North Korea and Russia all have their military parades. We have to be part of that!!!
Sherry says
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Trump vs. the Supremes
The largest stress test yet of the U.S. Constitution
Robert Reich
May 17
Robert Reich on Supreme Court Ruling Regarding “Due Process” and “Deportations”
Friends,
The showdown is nearly upon us.
Yesterday the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump regime cannot deport a group of Venezuelans while the matter is being litigated in the courts. The regime can’t merely allege that they’re members of a violent gang; it must give them sufficient time to challenge their deportations. And it can’t merely assume that the eighteenth-century Alien Enemies Act gives it authority. Both the facts of these cases and the law have to be hashed out in lower courts.
The justices called the detainees’ interests “particularly weighty” because of the risk of removal to a notorious prison in El Salvador where the migrants could face indefinite detention.
Score a big one for the rule of law.
Of course, Justice Samuel Alito dissented, joined by Clarence Thomas. The two have moved so far into the dense fog of irrational rightwing legal blather that they have lost all credibility.
The big news is that the three Trump appointees — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — joined the Chief Justice and the three Democratic appointees to set a limit onTrump.
I call this a showdown because Trump cannot abide limits.
He reacted in fury to the ruling: “THE SUPREME COURT WON’T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!” he wrote on social media, and in a subsequent post said, “The Supreme Court of the United States is not allowing me to do what I was elected to do.” And he called it “a bad and dangerous day for America.”
Trump’s outrage has three unfortunate consequences.
It establishes that Trump and the nation’s highest court are on a collision course on what Trump considers a central goal of his regime — what he “was elected to do.”
It also increases the possibility that Trump will do what JD Vance and others in the White House have urged him to do all along — announce that he will not be bound by the Court’s rulings.
This would be momentous. If enough Americans (and their constituents) are horrified by this — as we should be — it could spell the end of Trump. Openly defying a Supreme Court decision is surely enough to warrant an impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate.
The third consequence of Trump’s rage is to expose the nine justices — and the judiciary in general — to even more harassment, including death threats. Online threats toward judge and justices are growing.
Last Sunday, Trump criticized what he called “a radicalized and incompetent Court System,” which he said was standing in the way of his mass deportation agenda.
Paul Redmond Michel, a former federal appeals court judge appointed by Ronald Reagan, said the increasing threats to judges highlighted an urgent need for Trump, Attorney General Bondi and other administration officials, to make clear that they will follow court orders, regardless of the outcome, and prioritize judges’ safety.
“We know from the January 6, 2021, rioters that there are people out there who are perfectly prepared to be extremely violent and damaging and threatening,” said Michel. “Judges have to feel confident enough in being protected that they can make decisions without looking over their shoulders and worrying about whether the decision, if it’s unpleasing to the administration, might cause them some kind of harm.”
This week, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, asked Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate the increasing number of threats to federal judges, which “threaten not only judges and their families, but also judicial independence and the rule of law,” Durbin wrote.
But there’s no question what’s fueling the threats — as Trump’s outburst against the Supreme Court’s ruling yesterday shows.
The Trump regime is not content to merely castigate judges and justices. It is now arresting judges.
On Tuesday, it indicted Judge Hannah C. Dugan of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court on charges of obstructing federal agents from arresting a suspected undocumented immigrant who was appearing in her courtroom.
In fact, Dugan was simply trying to maintain the legal sanctity of that courtroom.
Attorney General Pam Bondi says the regime will target judges who oppose the president’s growing immigration crackdown:
“What has happened to our judiciary is beyond me. The [judges] are deranged is all I can think of. I think some of these judges think that they are beyond and above the law. They are not, and we are sending a very strong message today … if you are harboring a fugitive… we will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you.”
Judges and justices cannot be “beyond and above the law” because they are the final arbiters of the law. They have also become the last firewall against a Trump dictatorship — which presumably is why the regime is now taking them on.
Yesterday’s decision by the Supreme Court needs to be understood in this larger context. The coming showdown between Trump and the Supreme Court will be the largest stress test yet of our constitutional system.
Sherry says
Joyce Vance on Our Need For NOAA and FEMA:
When the Cuts Hit Home
Joyce Vance
May 17
I am not an alarmist. But we live in alarming times. The rampant racism and misogyny. The anti-immigrant fervor. A thousand cuts into the fabric of democracy since Donald Trump became president in 2016. And strangest, most frustratingly of all, nothing seems to break through to the American people writ large. Decent people, church going people, people who love their dogs and kids and would give a neighbor the shirt off their back, have fallen in line behind a deceitful, hateful vision of American white nationalism.
DOGE and Project 2025. Trump’s American nightmare took hold with a vise-like grip, a force that could be constrained around the edges by the courts but not controlled. Cuts in government services and employees, all in the name of efficiency, but not its substance. And as those of us paying attention have known all along, it was never about finding waste and fraud, because there wasn’t much, if any, of that. It has been, of course, about the grift, about corruption, about self-enrichment. The full contours of the long-term plans aren’t clear yet, but there are suggestions it is about accessing personal data so people can be pinpoint targeted by disinformation campaigns in future elections and plenty of grounds to suspect that this is about expanding Trump and Elon Musk’s personal portfolios.
The implications of Trump’s cuts to government services came into focus Friday, as a line of storms moved across the East Coast. Americans rely without bothering to think much about it on the accuracy of weather prediction services that warn us about when we need to take care. In California, where I grew up, that’s not as much of an issue—no one is accurately predicting earthquakes. But in Alabama, where I have spent the last 35 years, and other parts of, well, Trump Country, deadly tornadoes and hurricanes make it a necessity. Without forecasting, there would be too few visual cues before it was too late.
Here in the Southeast, we are prone to increasingly frequent and deadly tornadoes, and hurricanes as you get down to the coast. There are no innate warning systems. We rely on the government, the federal government, so people can be prepared and seek shelter. Trusted local weathermen get their data from NOAA and other federal sources, and when disaster strikes, states and localities—and people, taxpayers—rely on FEMA for first response and to help them get back on their feet.
The New York Times reported yesterday that a weather service office in Kentucky scrambled to cover overnight forecasting as storms bore down on the region. They no longer have 24-hour staffing. Among the concerns they included in their story:
The National Weather Service has lost close to 600 employees since the start of the Trump administration, as a result of layoffs and early retirements because the administration demanded “significant cuts”.
Because of the staffing cuts, some of the 122 weather forecasting offices that operate 24 hours a day, nationwide, each with responsibility for their area, have cut back on the twice-daily launches of weather balloons that collect data and make daily forecasts and forecast models possible.
An agreement last month between the National Weather Service and its employees’ union warned of “degraded” services.
Five former directors recently wrote an open letter saying they “feared the cuts had been so deep that lives would soon be endangered.”
The Washington Post put up a map of parts of the country that no longer have 24-hour weather prediction services. In addition to the Kentucky office, there is one in Kansas. None of this makes any sense. I worked in government long enough to be a big fan of cutting waste. But providing lifesaving weather prediction services is about as far from waste as I can imagine. Why derail them? (Unless, of course, you’re planning on creating a private company to provide those services for a fee, but I try not to deal in speculation here.)
Friday night into Saturday, as severe weather, possibly including tornadoes, crossed through Missouri and Kentucky, 21 people were killed.
Too many people only seem to pay attention to the way Trump is “transforming” government when they are personally impacted. Too many people don’t miss much-maligned government services until they are absent in a time of need.
The wall cloud of a devastating tornado approaching Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 2011, seen from a college dorm room.
As students prepared for final exams in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on April 27, 2011, a violent EF4 multi-vortex tornado descended on the area. Other storms continued into the evening and beyond Tuscaloosa, devastating other parts of the region. Sixty-four people were killed and another 1,500 people suffered injuries. The first time I drove into Tuscaloosa after the storms, I had to pull over on the side of the road to take in the decimation and collect myself.
Without the National Weather Service, it would have been so much worse. Without FEMA and other resources—the U.S. Marshals service, for instance, stepped in to help one small town—recovery and first response would have been still more traumatic.
As the storms formed in Alabama that day, the National Weather Service sent out severe weather warnings, and people in the area were able to prepare and take cover. That happened because of the scientific network that takes in data, analyzes it, and provides a product to the public. That’s the federal government at work. That’s the fat Trump and Musk decided should be cut. And hurricane season is just about to start.
We need and rely on the federal government in moments like this. It’s one thing for billionaires to make light of it. To the rest of us, it is something else entirely. And it is our taxpayer dollars, which the Constitution says are to be allocated by Congress, but the president now believes are his to dictate.
Wake up, folks. The tornado is on your doorstep, and this time you’re not going to get a warning.
We’re in this together,
Joyce
Pogo says
@The missing link
https://flaglerlive.com/nra-raging-that-18-year-olds-cant-buy-rifles-in-florida-appeals-to-us-supreme-court/
Ed P says
Jim,
Yes Walmart will absorb a portion of any tariff costs going forward. Yes their suppliers will reduce costs ameliorating some of the tariff coasts. Yes the shippers will receive a hair cut, reducing their fees, thus absorbing some tariff costs. And finally, yes the consumer will pay some of the tariff costs. All true. But….
Trump was just going Liberal on the Walmart CEO. The libs complain CEOs (oligarchs) make too much money, the businesses make millions, so why shouldn’t they reduce their profit expectations? There is no love lost between McMillon and Trump.
With all the above, what you glossed over was the fact that our gasoline pump price is down and that extra $20 per week in consumers pockets will also assist in covering some of the addition costs imposed by tariffs. Consumer spending can not be controlled by anyone but the individual consumer.
If consumers were wise, no one would pay 33-36% interest rates ($3.50 on every $10).
Yet 48% of consumers carry balances.
Yes, tariffs will cost everyone something, however the underlying question of will it be worth it will take time. Massive price increases have not yet materialized, so save the whine for the cheese.
Jim says
Ed P,
I didn’t “gloss over” anything. I didn’t mention gas prices. I didn’t mention a lot of things. You want to act like prices are coming down? Go right ahead. But since you brought it up…. Last week I paid $3.199 per gallon. I just checked on line and I see some gas at $2.999 per gallon so that’s a $0.20/gallon improvement. So, sticking with your $20/week savings to consumers, somebody buys 100 gallons of gas per week to save $20 per week. I don’t know who that might be but obviously you do. I’d have estimated most people average a tank of gas a week so if we say they have a 25 gallon tank, they would be saving $5 per week. But I’m sure your numbers are based on facts you got from Fox News or maybe Trump, who knows?
As far as “with all the above”, if you had a lucid point in there, you need to try again. The CEO of Walmart won’t be taking a pay cut and Walmart is an American company so the fact that they might see a profit reduction is still a tariff impact on Americans. Walmart pays [a little] tax on their profits. And as far as “will [tariffs] be worth it will take time”, you must be joking. Do you think any jobs are coming back to the USA as a result of Trump’s tariffs? If you do, you don’t have much experience in business. Trump’s tariffs will not bring a single job into this country. However, Trump and his administration are doing a great job of getting some of our best scientists and engineers to look at opportunities in other countries (like the European Union). And that will ultimately result in a serious reduction in our country’s competitiveness world wide.
If you’re going to make these kind of comments, at least get some facts from a reputable source to support them.
Sherry says
Thank You Jim!
Ed P says
Jim,
First gas has recently bounced around and at our new Wawa just last week it was as low as $2.74. Most of St John’s county is around $2.85. I purchased gas twice in the last week at BJs for $2.69. Opps….what averages or you paid is not actually precise, is it?
Most families have 2 autos, hence my estimated $20 savings. That was not the actual point. My “lucid point “ is how selectively everyone on the left criticize tariffs while ignoring everything else involved in the economy. It’s extremely complex and is intertwined in everything. Tariffs are just one piece.
Trump’s dig at Walmart targeted all the lefties who railed against evil chains who were accused of “gouging” when Biden was dealing with his “transitory” inflation period. Remember?
Trump was bashing the libs, only a low information voter bought into that comment. No one expects Walmart to “eat” the entire tariff cost. But it won’t shake down to consumers at the full percentages. It’s too soon to cry wolf. McMillon was being negatively political. Like it or not, Trump punches back.
You are so far off base in stating that tariffs will not bring a single job to the country. Of course it will draw in new manufacturing. Long term not short term. Are you stating anything factual or just a “hope” that all the investment pledged by major corporations can not create jobs?
My personal resume.
FYI, 1 undergraduate decree accounting, 1 MBA, over 240 total hours of higher education. (bounced around a bit because I was employed and relocated multiple times and transferred hours did not always match curriculums) My career was with fortune 100/500 corporations with fiduciary responsibilities along with some international trade as well. Prior to full retirement I purchased a small wholesale distribution business doing 9 Million a year in revenue and sold it when it was doing $175 millions 10 years later. Then mentored my youngest son and started a competing distributor from scratch. He’s smarter and faster than I ever was and he continues to run the firm today. Im a myopic fool. You got me. No experience. Damn.
Your arrogant supposition of my business experience demonstrates how you interpret information as a whole. If you had been reading my post, drips and drabs of my business experience have been exposed. Obviously, you did not respect my opinions enough to learn who I am before you launched into the above diatribe. In business, I nicknamed associates like you “jump to conclusion men”.
However, I am nothing more than a student of the tariffs because they are so radical that there is not any historical references points to make any honest assertions.
In summary, I was pointing out your propensity to lurch at every opportunity to bash the right. I get that, but it would serve you well to wait a brief period of time to allow results to formulate, positive or negative.
Laurel says
Gee, I thought it was “free enterprise” that was the important thing. Americans, very happily, bought the items in Walmart. Were we not allowed to make up our own minds? Didn’t Trump tell us China would pay the tariffs? Didn’t he throw a tantrum when Jeff Bezos stated Amazon would post the tariff attached to the items sold? What’s wrong with that? Too truthful?
Yeah, Trump is telling us how many dolls we can have, and how we need to feel the pain. Meanwhile, he and his family are making millions off of his bitcoins even though he is in office. We should feel the pain, SNAP should be cut, Medicaid should be cut, Meals on Wheels should be cut, so that he can enjoy a foreign gift of a jet we should pay for. He has spent 25% of his time *in office* playing golf at taxpayers’ expense. Is that more of the “pain” we should feel?
Are you freakin’ kidding me? He has turned this country into a damned reality show.