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Weather: Mostly cloudy. Showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 80s. Lows in the lower 70s. Chance of rain 90 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:
Independence Day Events in Flagler Beach and Palm Coast and Evening Fireworks: The day’s festivities begin with the cherished Stars and Stripes parade down A1A in Flagler Beach starting at 9 a.m., presented by the Rotary Club of Flagler Beach. The parade will follow its traditional route from North 6th Street to South 6th Street along A1A in Flagler Beach, within view of the pier about to be demolished and rebuilt (along with that boardwalk). Following the parade, residents and visitors can enjoy the beach (remember that sunscreen) while indulging in the music and entertainment provided by DJ Vern of SURF 97.3 FM at Veterans Park in Flagler Beach. Day-long activities there include including hula hoops, corn hole toss, limbo, and a Kona Ice brain-freeze contest. The highlight of the day will be the Fireworks Over the Runways, hosted at the Flagler Executive Airport off of Fin Way in Palm Coast. The entire community is welcome to attend, with gates opening at 5 p.m. The fireworks display begins at 9:00 p.m. Details here.
First Friday in Flagler Beach, the monthly festival of music, food and leisure, is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today at Downtown’s Veterans Park, 105 South 2nd Street, from 5 to 9 p.m. The event is overseen by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency and run by Laverne M. Shank Jr. and Surf 97.3
Notably: It was at Harvard, after all, that Emerson delivered his great “American Scholar” lecture on Aug. 31, 1837, a lecture that did for American literature what Jefferson’s Declaration had done for American politics: it declared independence from the old world. “We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe,” Emerson wrote. So why, when Harvard marked its 350th anniversary in September 1986, did it invite as its two keynote speakers prince–now king–Charles (John Harvard, whose donation of 300 books founded the school, was an English immigrant), and Ahmed Yamani, at the time ending 25 years as Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, a one-time Harvard student, and the not-too-bright mastermind of the 1973 oil embargo that followed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, and collapsed within a few weeks. He would be fired immediately after the 1986 speech, in part because of his speech, which took policy positions the Saudi king considered at variance from the kingdom’s. That’s beside the point. Charles could be excused with that distant connection to John Harvard. But Yamani? True, Yamani carried on bromances with every president on his watch and was the darling of the Georgetown set, one of those great hypocrites of Saudi power and presumption (the kind of hypocrisy that lectures at Harvard from near the spot where Emerson lectured while glibly, ruthlessly repressing a nation on a scale comparable only to today’s North Korea and the Taliban in Afghanistan). Yamani had donated money to the school’s Islamic studies program, the program now targeted by the shah of maga. So criticism of Harvard’s 1986 decision is relative. Nothing wrong with a donation to Islamic studies programs–unless you consider the source, and an irony Emerson would have found unscholarly. The 375th was a bit more melodious.
—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.
July 2025
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Peps Art Walk Near Beachfront Grille
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area
Al-Anon Family Groups
For the full calendar, go here.
Mr. President and Gentlemen, this confidence in the unsearched might of man belongs, by all motives, by all prophecy, by all preparation, to the American Scholar. We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe. The spirit of the American freeman is already suspected to be timid, imitative, tame. Public and private avarice make the air we breathe thick and fat. The scholar is decent, indolent, complaisant. See already the tragic consequence. The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself. There is no work for any but the decorous and the complaisant. Young men of the fairest promise, who begin life upon our shores, inflated by the mountain winds, shined upon by all the stars of God, find the earth below not in unison with these,–but are hindered from action by the disgust which the principles on which business is managed inspire, and turn drudges, or die of disgust, –some of them suicides. What is the remedy? They did not yet see, and thousands of young men as hopeful now crowding to the barriers for the career do not yet see, that, if the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him. Patience,–patience;–with the shades of all the good and great for company; and for solace, the perspective of your own infinite life; and for work, the study and the communication of principles, the making those instincts prevalent, the conversion of the world. Is it not the chief disgrace in the world, not to be an unit;–not to be reckoned one character;–not to yield that peculiar fruit which each man was created to bear, but to be reckoned in the gross, in the hundred, or the thousand, of the party, the section, to which we belong; and our opinion predicted geographically, as the north, or the south? Not so, brothers and friends,–please God, ours shall not be so. We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds. The study of letters shall be no longer a name for pity, for doubt, and for sensual indulgence. The dread of man and the love of man shall be a wall of defence and a wreath of joy around all. A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men.
–From Emerson’s “The American Scholar” (1837).
Sherry says
Robert Reich on “True Patriotism”:
Friends,
Today I want to talk about the real meaning of patriotism.
It’s the exact opposite of the version peddled by Trump and his white Christian nationalists — that the nation is losing its whiteness or its dominant religion, that too many foreigners are crossing our borders, that men are competing in women’s sports or children are using school bathrooms inconsistent with their sex at birth, or that teachers are not celebrating the nation’s history.
To the contrary:
True patriots don’t fuel racist, religious, or ethnic divisions.
Patriots aren’t homophobic or sexist.
They aren’t blind to social injustices, whether ongoing or embedded in American history. They don’t ban books or prevent teaching about the sins of the nation’s past.
They don’t abduct hard-working people and put them in prison camps in the Everglades.
They don’t rob from the poor to reward the rich. They don’t cut Medicaid and food stamps so the wealthiest Americans get a tax cut.
True patriots are not uncritically devoted to America. They are devoted instead to the ideals of America — the rule of law, equal justice, voting rights and civil rights, freedom of speech and assembly, freedom from fear, and democracy.
True patriots don’t have to express patriotism in symbolic displays of loyalty like standing for the national anthem, waving the American flag, and shouting “USA! USA!” They express patriotism in taking a fair share of the burdens of keeping the nation going, sacrificing for the common good.
This means paying their fair share of taxes rather than lobbying for lower taxes or seeking tax loopholes.
It means refraining from making large political contributions that corrupt American democracy.
It means blowing the whistle on abuses of power even at the risk of losing one’s job.
It means volunteering time and energy to improving one’s community and country.
It means standing up to tyranny — protesting, boycotting, organizing, engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience.
And never, ever losing hope.
Patriots don’t make baseless claims that millions of people vote fraudulently, and seek laws that make it harder for people to vote.
Patriots strengthen democracy, defend the right to vote, and ensure that more Americans are heard.
Patriots understand that when they serve the public, their responsibility is to maintain and build public trust in the institutions of democracy.
They don’t put personal ambition above their love of America. They don’t try to hold power after voters have chosen not to reelect them. They don’t attempt a coup.
They don’t make money off their public offices.
They don’t usurp the powers of Congress. They don’t defy the courts. They don’t try to take over universities or law firms.
When serving on the Supreme Court, they recuse themselves from cases where they may appear to have a conflict of interest.
America’s problem ism’t that the nation is losing its whiteness or its dominant religion or that too many foreigners are crossing our borders or that men are competing in women’s sports or teachers are not celebrating the nation’s history.
Our problem is that too many Americans, including the person who now holds the highest office in the land, don’t know the true meaning of patriotism — and what it requires from all of us.
Pat Stote says
A long read, but every word true. Happy Independence Day.
Ray W, says
OPEC meets tomorrow to discuss whether, in an effort to regain market share, it should raise once again the 23-nation cartel’s overall output of crude oil next month by another 411,000 barrels per day. If approved, the addition will bring this year’s total increases in crude oil output to roughly 1.78 million barrels per day, just about 1.7% of the world’s daily output of crude oil.
According to Reuters, at the time that OPEC+ decided to increase production, the cartel was intentionally limiting output by 2.2 million barrels per day.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
The original OPEC vote to voluntarily restrict production took place in February 2021 amidst a time of vastly reduced consumption of oil products due to the unsettling worldwide effects of the pandemic.
That 2021 vote led to a phased in reduction of 6 million barrels of crude oil per day, with Saudi Arabia announcing that, on its own, it was cutting another 1 million barrels of output per day.
Over the ensuing four years, overall OPEC+ output was adjusted, perhaps directly due to the world’s recovery from the pandemic. Eventually, the voluntary restrictions among the OPEC+ settled at 2.2 million barrels per day.
As an aside, one major dispute within OPEC was the fact that certain nations, such as Iraq and Kazakhstan consistently flouted their output quotas.
In April 2025, OPEC voted to slowly phase down or even end the 2.2 million barrels per day restriction; it has since the April vote met several times to increase production levels.
If the cartel votes tomorrow to again increase production, there will be only one vote left to restore overall production to its original 2021 level.
As an aside, some industry observers have argued that OPEC voted to increase production not just to recapture market share but to also punish offender nations that have flouted their production quotas. Both Iraq and Kazakhstan have been named as the two leading violators. If increased OPEC output totals drive down prices, it will hurt the Iraqi and Kazakh economies.
I argue that OPEC adjustments in overall production had had and will continue to have a direct impact on the American economy. It is one thing for American energy producers to extract oil at $80 per barrel, which is where the price in the international marketplace was parked for much of the past four years.
$80 per barrel, at 13.5 million barrels per day, means that American energy companies bring in slightly more than a billion dollars a day. Drop the crude oil price to $50 per barrel, which is the price that Trump has been saying he wants it to be, and American energy companies bring in $675 million per day, should overall American output remain at the record pace set last December.
With energy industry economists nearly unanimous in the prediction that the threshold for profitability for American energy companies is between $60 to $65 dollars per barrel, I argue that we will eventually see American oil output totals dropping as OPEC output continues to rise.
From a different perspective, what happens if $400 million per day is taken out of the American economy?
Let me suggest a microeconomics lesson. I know a person who works in the lease return industry; her job is to direct tow truckers to pick up corporate vehicles, among other typed of leased vehicles, when leases come to an end. Normally, she has advance notice of when and where formerly leased vehicles should be picked up, so she calls towing companies in advance to pick up the vehicles.
The picked up leased vehicles are then picked up and delivered to central locations where they can be sold wholesale to dealers who seek more used vehicles.
When the pandemic hit, her company was suddenly overwhelmed with vehicle pick-up orders from leasing companies, mostly to pick up abandoned American energy company trucks. With prices for crude oil dropping into negative territory due to the sudden lack of demand for gas and diesel fuel, many American energy companies simply walked away from their leases; it took months for her company to locate the abandoned vehicles and clear the overload of heavy-duty trucks.
Sherry says
From the Washington Post by Ron Charles:
In 1787, when Elizabeth Willing Powel asked Ben Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got: a republic or a monarchy?” the clever statesman replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
It’s salutary to be reminded of the provisional nature of the United States, though the last few months have provided perhaps a few too many reminders.
Underlying the Trump administration’s assault on education, the arts, journalism and science lurks a deeper campaign against critical thinking. The president who defunds universities on a whim, threatens to deport political rivals and hawks his own eau de toilette depends on a populace too dulled by distraction to resist his tyranny, too alienated from moral imagination to appreciate his absurdity.
With Orwellian flair, medical quackery is rebranded as “common sense,” a tax cut for billionaires as “populism,” bigotry as “patriotism” — all while America drifts back to the loving bosom of a mad king.
Tuesday, Paramount, the parent company of CBS News, cravenly agreed to contribute $16 million to Trump’s eventual presidential library (news).
I could understand a casino-brothel, but a Trump library? Built to honor the man who has done more to undermine libraries than any president in American history?
In such a competitive climate, satirists might as well start practicing, “Do you want fries with that?”
Widespread disengagement from the news is the only thing protecting Americans from an epidemic of laughter-induced injuries.
But this is no joke. Nor is it a challenge unique to the United States.
Ray W, says
The Independent reports that the water level in the Danube River is so low that cargo ships are traveling at 30% to 40% of capacity, per a spokesman for the Hungarian Shipping Agency; he added that surcharges of as much as 100% are added to normal freight rates when ships cannot travel the river when loaded to full capacity.
HungaroMet, the state meteorological institute, advised that only 17% of normal rainfall for the region fell in the month of June, normally one of Hungary’s most rainy months.
According to the reporter, Poland’s Vistula River was at a record low level and expected to further drop, and that the Rhine River water level was “unusually low.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I don’t suppose FlaglerLive readers remember my several comments over the past three years or so about the Mississippi River being so shallow near Memphis in the summer of 2022 that the Army Corps of Engineer had to dredge the riverbed on an emergency basis so that barge traffic loaded with grain could continue its route down the river.
The drought in 2022 was so severe across the Upper Midwest that grain prices rose enough to prompt cattle ranchers to send cows to slaughter before they reached full weight. The drought continued in 2023, and cattle ranchers again sent more cows to slaughter before reaching maturity. Drought conditions abated in 2024. Drought across the Upper Midwest is back again this year. Steak prices are at an all-time high right now.
As an aside, I wonder why Dennis C. Rathsam does not mention these types of things every time he blames the Biden administration for things it never did do.
OPEC cuts overall crude oil production in 2021 and keeps it low for four years. Gasoline prices at the pump rise. Dennis C. Rathsam still blames the Biden administration for the higher prices at the pump.
An unusually virulent variant of the bird flu carried by wild birds as they migrate vast distances devastates the egg farming industry. Egg prices rise. Grocers and egg distributors gouge the public. Egg prices rose even further. Dennis C. Rathsam still blames the Biden administration for higher egg prices at the display case.
Ray W, says
Per a survey conducted monthly by the Institute of Supply Management of senior manufacturing executives, as reported by MarketWatch, for the fourth straight month the U.S. manufacturing index remained below 50, a threshold that signals manufacturing contraction.
The ISM survey also asks the executives for anonymous comments. An executive with a metal parts manufacturer responded thus:
“Business has notably slowed in last four to six weeks. Customers do not want to make commitment in the wake of massive tariff uncertainty.
BMO Capital Markets senior economist, Jennifer Lee, told the reporter:
“Companies ‘need some clarity on tariffs. … Certainty on what the tariff rates will be and what they will cover. The uncertainty is putting the brakes on business planning.'”
Opined the reporter:
“New orders, a sign of future sales, shrank again to a three-month low of 46.4%. Just one year ago, new orders were strong.”
Other points from the article:
“Production turned positive again for the first time in four months — if just barely — as companies filled orders put in place before tariffs were raised.”
“Employment contracted for the fifth month in a row, with more companies resorting to layoffs.”
“Prices rose again and are at the highest level since 2022, when inflation raged through the U.S. economy.”
Make of this what you will.
Ray W, says
Business Insider reported two days ago that Constellation Brands, Corona’s parent company, just released its first quarter sales report. Beer sales are down 2% on weaker purchasing by the Hispanic population.
Constellation Brand’s said its inference to the Hispanic population was based on “subdued spending” in zip codes that have “larger Hispanic populations.”
The reporter referenced an earlier published Business Insider similar story holding that business owners in neighborhoods that have larger immigrant populations had seen a “lower footfall” in their establishments.
Constellation Brand’s non-beer products, i.e., wine and spirits, saw a 28% decline in the quarter.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W, says
A publication called VISAVERGE published an article on April 29th based on facts drawn from ICE deportation figures for the first 100 days of the Trump administration.
Here are some bullet points from the story:
– In the first 100 days dating from January 20, 2025, 135,000 immigrants were deported from the country. It was noted by the reporter that the pace of deportations is increasing every month.
– In the first 100 days dating from January 20, 2025, 151,000 immigrants were detained.
– The peak deportation number during the Obama administration (2014) was 316,000 immigrants.
– The peak deportation number during the first Trump administration (2019) was 267,000 immigrants.
– The peak deportation number during the Biden administration (2024) was 271,000 immigrants.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
In a prior comment submitted to FlaglerLive readers, I noted that there is a difference in government immigration statistics between “removals” and “turnaways.” People stopped at the border who are returned into Mexican territory do not have to go to immigration courts; they can simply be turned away without detention. Those who are deported are classified as having been removed from the country.
A number of FlaglerLive commenters present themselves to other readers as having become confused by the misinformation disseminated by the current administration. Yes, during the Obama administrative border agents turned away large numbers of immigrants at the border based on immigration law as it was interpreted at the time. But they didn’t arrest these people, nor did they conduct administrative hearings before turning the immigrants away. For decades, federal immigration law has delegated a narrow segment of political power to the executive branch, and hence to border agents, to turn immigrants away at the border without triggering civil or criminal remedies, and they have done so for all those years.
Ray W, says
According to the Washington Examiner, on this past Wednesday the Dallas Fed (Fed) released a survey of oil executives on the subject of industry exploration plans.
Here is how the Examiner story starts:
“President Donald Trump has been a vocal advocate of ‘drill, baby, drill,’ but a number of top oil executives are doubtful that they will be able to increase production in the coming months, in large part thanks to the president’s own policies.”
The reporter then wrote that with lower prices for their product, when coupled with increases in the prices for steel and aluminum imports related to tariffs, oil producers find themselves in an economic “bind” that may result in their reducing their 2025 plans to drill wells.
According to the reporter, one oil executive told the Fed that there is too much “uncertainty” in the market to see growth.
26% of oil company executives told the Fed that the number of wells they plan to drill will “decrease significantly” from original plans.
Another 21% told the Fed that well drilling will “decrease slightly” from original plans.
A majority of such executives told the Fed that if oil prices remained at $60 per barrel over the next 12 months, then oil production levels would drop off.
If oil prices were to drop to $50 per barrel, President Trump’s stated goal, 46% of oil company executives told the Fed that production levels would “decrease significantly.”
Said one oil industry executive:
“There is constant noise coming from the administration saying, ‘$50-per-barrel-oil is the target.’ Everyone should understand that $50 is not a sustainable price for oil. It needs to be mid $60s.”
One of the survey respondents wrote:
“Tariffs are increasing our product costs. … Despite efforts to mitigate their impact, the scale and breadth of the tariffs have forced us to pass these costs on to our customers.”
Another oil company executive wrote:
“The ‘Liberation Day’ chaos and tariff antics have harmed the domestic energy industry. ‘Drill, baby, drill’ will not happen with this level of volatility. … Companies will continue to lay down rigs and frack spreads.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
These are comments by oil company executives in response to Dallas Fed survey questions about the current state of the American energy industry as they perceive it.
It seems clear that at least some of the executives do not buy into the rhetoric coming from the Trump administration.
I just posted a comment based on Baker-Hughes rig counts, a figure that the company publishes each week. For 10 straight weeks, the number of oil and gas rigs in operation across the entire country has been dropping.
A few weeks ago, I visited the Texas Railroad Commission website to search for information. The number of drilled wells that are being reported as finished is dropping. If I am interpreting the data accurately, that means that some of the wells that are almost complete are not being reported to the Commission as finished, which suggests by inference that when current low oil prices rise enough, the already drilled wells will get the finishing touches sufficient for them to become operable.