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Weather: Partly cloudy with showers and thunderstorms likely. Highs in the mid 90s. Lows in the mid 70s. Chance of rain 60 percent. Heat index values up to 110. Thursday Night: Partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Lows in the mid 70s. Chance of rain 20 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:
In Court: Michael Gilbert returns to court to decide whether and how to plead to his latest probation violation. His choice will decide whether he faces five more years in prison (he has already served nearly 15, as an accomplice of Brandon Washington) or life. The hearing is at 8:30 a.m. before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County courthouse.
Drug Court convenes before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols at 10 a.m. in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County courthouse, Kim C. Hammond Justice Center 1769 E Moody Blvd, Bldg 1, Bunnell. Drug Court is open to the public. See the Drug Court handbook here and the participation agreement here.
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Central Park, from noon to 2 p.m. in Central Park in Town Center, 975 Central Ave. Join Bill Wells, Bob Rupp and other members of the Palm Coast Model Yacht Club, watch them race or join the races with your own model yacht. No dues to join the club, which meets at the pond in Central Park every Thursday.
The Palm Coast Democratic Club holds its monthly business meeting at noon at the Flagler Democratic Party Headquarters in City Marketplace, 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suite C214, Palm Coast. This gathering is open to the public at no charge. No advance arrangements are necessary. Call (386) 283-4883 for best directions or (561)-235-2065 for more information. For further information, please contact Palm Coast Democratic Club’s President Donna Harkins at (561) 235-2065, visit our website at http://palmcoastdemocraticclub.org/ or Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/palmcoastdemclub/permalink
Notably: On the balcony on summer evenings my grandfather often asked my grandmother: “What calm and serenity do you hear?” My maternal grandmother, who was hard of hearing by then and unlike my paternal grandma was still resisting a hearing aid, would answer something completely different, inventing something to answer him and not make him feel unheard, unaware that he was asking her whether she heard the unheard, whether she sensed the silence as he did, with a sensualism his piousness wouldn;t dare speak, though he found other ways,m as you can very well see. It was of the mountains of Sannin that my grandfather was speaking, rising almost 10,000 feet past a series of valleys and lesser mountains from the village where we lived, a mere 2,400 feet up. He was a saint, my maternal grandfather. A few days ago my brother sent me the slide above of both of them, an old batch of slides unearthed no differently than archeological digs unearth amphitheaters of Greece and Rome in our Levantine regions, or amphores still full of reimagined memories, reviving a whole world. They were flirty, Geddo Anis and Nonna, as we called my grandparents. She would end up outliving him by a decade in that house he had built. I remember the day he died. I was there. He had been butchered by prostate cancer surgery and was never again able to walk. It was 1977. Someone came into my classroom at the College Mariste de Champville and pulled me out, her arms around me, after having me get my coat. Obviously, something was wrong. You got used to it. My father, who took the picture above, for FlaglerLive of course, had died the previous year. Loss was not alien to us children of Lebanon back then. What’s left of my grandfather but that same serenity in Sannin despite the bedlam of Lebanon all around? Geography like time is relative: there are nights or days when my mind wanders to the look of that mountain as we’d see it from our house, and like the opening strains of a Mozart particular sonata (see below), it’s all it takes to be transported, to see my grandfather walking with his cane outside–he’d go on epic walks–Sannin always having his back. Like the moon that accompanies you wherever you go, Sannin was too high and colossal not to always be in your sights from the smallness of our village. It was our deity. And there I can still go from time to time, temporarily to be sure: we cannot deny–we cannot defeat–the temporal. It defeats us. But there are moments.
—P.T.
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.
October 2025
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Friday Blue Forum
‘Sweeney Todd’ at Athens Theatre
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
Peps Art Walk Near Beachfront Grille
‘Sweeney Todd’ at Athens Theatre
For the full calendar, go here.
The first time I ever went down the Mississippi, I thought the highest bluff on the river between St. Louis and New Orleans — it was near Selma, Missouri — was probably the highest mountain in the world. It is four hundred and thirteen feet high. It still looms in my memory with undiminished grandeur. I can still see the trees and bushes growing smaller and smaller as I followed them up its huge slant with my eye, till they became a feathery fringe on the distant summit.
–From Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad (1869).
Pogo says
@Back here
[T]here seems to have been an actual decline in rational thinking. The United States had become a place where entertainers and professional athletes were mistaken for people of importance. They were idolized and treated as leaders; their opinions were sought on everything and they took themselves just as seriously-after all, if an athlete is paid a million or more a year, he knows he is important … so his opinions of foreign affairs and domestic policies must be important, too, even though he proves himself to be ignorant and subliterate every time he opens his mouth.
— Robert A. Heinlein
Sherry says
Thank You Pogo! Our lives are now. . . in this trump fascist regime. . . “stranger than fiction”!
Ray W, says
Thank you, Mr. Tristam, for sharing both your thoughts and the intangible intimate interaction of humanity depicted in the photograph of your grandparents.
Some 30 years ago, perhaps more and perhaps less, while visiting the AME church on George Engram Boulevard, I sat in a pew two rows behind a young father on whose shoulder rested the head of an infant child sleeping through the noise and thunder of an evangelical wonder.
Through the singing, the praising, the preaching, the child slept, completely unmoving. Through the chorus, the swaying, the community, the child slept, completely unmoving. For I don’t know how long, as I wasn’t checking the time, the father didn’t flinch a muscle.
I marveled at the privilege of my witnessing of Heaven’s gift of humanity to us all.
Your family photograph brought back to me the fond memory of Heaven’s gift. For that, I again thank you.
Sherry says
Just a tiny example of trump’s unethical actions. . . calling to discuss tariffs and asking for the Nobel Peace Prize “at the same time”! This kind of action is similar to the same kind of “Bordering On Bribery” stunt that got trump “Impeached” the first time! No Pride! No Shame! No Character!
This translated from a Norwegian media outlet:
Trump raised the Nobel Prize in a toll-free phone call with Stoltenberg
Out of the blue, while Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg was walking down the street in Oslo, Donald Trump called from the White House. He wanted the Nobel Prize – and to discuss tariffs.
Trump has repeatedly mentioned to Stoltenberg that he wants the Nobel Peace Prize.
Published August 14, 2025, at 12:32 AM
Just say'n says
So the president takes no salary and pays for the renovation himself and still getting hate.TDS is real and has dire effects on people’s ability to think.Florida must be a living hell for you libs and I couldn’t be happier.Just wait till a conservative black man is governor….your realy gona loose it.
Perry says
NO, Just Saying, Trump is not paying for anything out of his own pocket. The grifter makes his money hawking sales from the White House. This, by the way, is illegal, that is, it was until the grifter in chief took office. Hawking sales from the White House is no longer prosecuted if the grifter does it. Now, as he once said, he can shoot someone on NYC’s Fifth Avenue and get away with it. We can thank people like you who are either mesmerized by the convicted felon or people like you who value money and power over country.
Sherry says
@ just sayin’. . . make sure you read all about trump’s personal enrichment during the first few months of his second term. . . please read and “think” about every word:
And. . . Now. . . During trump’s second term he is actually “Looting the USA”. . . This from the Milwaukee Independent:
Once a global standard-bearer for democratic norms and the rule of law, the United States now teeters on the edge of something far darker under Donald Trump’s renewed leadership: a full-fledged kleptocracy.
The warning signs were all there during his first term and the chaotic years that followed, but the opening months of Trump’s second term have obliterated any remaining illusions. The daily reality is a government openly run for the enrichment of Trump, his family, and his loyalists, while the machinery of state is weaponized against perceived enemies and rivals.
Kleptocracy is not a term to use lightly. It describes a system where those in power exploit national resources and institutions to enrich themselves at the expense of the broader public. Trump’s actions fit this definition with chilling precision.
The pattern is unmistakable, with attacks on due process and civil liberties for the disfavored, impunity and rewards for the favored, systematic undermining of independent institutions, and the transformation of government into a vehicle for personal profit.
ATTACKS ON DUE PROCESS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES
Trump’s approach to governance has always been transactional and vindictive. From the earliest days of his presidency, he targeted those he considered disloyal or “enemies of the people.” The Justice Department, once a bulwark of impartiality, was bent to serve his personal interests. Investigations into Trump and his allies were dismissed as “witch hunts,” while federal law enforcement was urged to pursue his critics.
This erosion of due process has already accelerated since the start of his second term. Trump’s regime has pushed for sweeping changes to the civil service, making it easier to purge career officials and replace them with loyalists.
The result is a government staffed not by experts or public servants, but by political operatives whose primary qualification is fealty to Trump. Dissent is punished, whistleblowers are targeted, and the machinery of justice is wielded as a weapon against opponents.
The most glaring example is the treatment of those involved in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Trump openly promised pardons to those convicted insurrectionists during his 2024 campaign.
One of his first official acts after returning to the White House was to deliver a blanket pardon to those criminals, signaling that loyalty to him was a shield against accountability. Meanwhile, those who protest his policies or expose wrongdoing face harassment, legal threats, and the full force of the state.
IMPUNITY FOR THE FAVORED
While Trump’s enemies are relentlessly pursued, his allies enjoy unprecedented impunity. The pattern was set in his first term, with high-profile pardons for political cronies and convicted felons who refused to cooperate with investigators. In his second term, that became a routine policy in the first 100 days. Trump’s inner circle operates with the confidence that the law does not apply to them.
This culture of impunity extends to Trump’s family and business associates. Investigations into their financial dealings are stonewalled or shut down, or smothered before even gaining oxygen after allegations surface.
Regulatory agencies are packed with loyalists who look the other way as conflicts of interest and self-dealing proliferate. The message is clear: loyalty to Trump is the only currency that matters, and those who possess it are above the law.
ATTACKING ALLIES, EMBRACING DICTATORS
Trump’s contempt for America’s traditional allies and his admiration for authoritarian leaders are not new, but they have become more pronounced and dangerous. He has repeatedly undermined NATO, insulted democratic leaders, and questioned the value of longstanding alliances. At the same time, he has praised and sought closer ties with autocrats in Russia, North Korea, Iran, and elsewhere.
This realignment is not just rhetorical. Trump’s foreign policy decisions are increasingly driven by personal and financial interests, rather than national security or democratic values. Military aid and diplomatic support are conditioned on loyalty to Trump, not the interests of the United States. This transactional approach weakens America’s global standing and emboldens authoritarian regimes.
RECONSTRUCTING THE U.S. ECONOMY FOR PERSONAL GAIN
Perhaps the most insidious aspect of Trump’s kleptocratic project is the systematic reconstruction of the American economy to serve his interests and those of his inner circle. Trump’s economic policies are designed to reward loyalists and punish dissenters. Government contracts, regulatory relief, and tax breaks flow to favored businesses and industries, often with direct ties to Trump and his family.
The revolving door between Trump’s regime and his business empire spins faster than ever. Family members and close associates are appointed to key positions, where they wield enormous power over economic policy and regulation. Decisions about infrastructure spending, pandemic relief, and trade policy are made with an eye toward personal enrichment, not the public good.
THE WAR ON SCIENCE AND OBJECTIVE TRUTH
Trump’s hostility to science, medicine, and independent sources of information is not just a matter of personal preference. It is a deliberate strategy to consolidate power and suppress dissent. Scientists, public health officials, and journalists who challenge Trump’s narrative are smeared, silenced, or driven from their posts.
The consequences of this war on objective truth are dire. Public health guidance is ignored or distorted to fit political needs. Climate science is dismissed outright, with regulatory agencies forbidden from even mentioning the term. Data is manipulated or withheld to obscure the true toll of policy failures, whether in pandemic response, environmental protection, or economic management.
In this environment, only the president’s word is treated as fact, and all other sources of information are branded as hostile or fake.
The campaign against reality serves a clear purpose. It allows Trump and his allies to operate without oversight, shielded from accountability by a fog of misinformation and manufactured doubt.
When facts themselves are up for debate, corruption and abuse of power become easier to hide. The result is a government where decisions are made in secret, for private benefit, and the public is left in the dark.
SELF-ENRICHMENT AS POLICY
At the center of this system is the relentless self-enrichment of Trump, his family, and his closest supporters. The lines between public office and private business have been obliterated. Trump’s properties openly profit from government and foreign spending, with officials, lobbyists, and foreign dignitaries encouraged to patronize his hotels and resorts.
The presidency has become a marketing tool, with Trump and his family leveraging their positions to secure lucrative deals and expand their business empire.
That pattern extends far beyond the Trump Organization. Cabinet members and senior officials routinely use their positions to benefit themselves and their associates. Ethics rules are ignored or rewritten to permit conflicts of interest that would have been unthinkable in previous administrations.
The message is unmistakable: public service is now a pathway to personal fortune, and those who play by the old rules are left behind.
THE MAGA PARADOX: BLINDNESS TO KLEPTOCRACY
Perhaps the most bitter irony is the reaction of Trump’s most fervent supporters. Many in the MAGA movement rail against the specter of communism and Marxism, warning of government control over business and individual lives. Yet, they are willfully blind to the reality unfolding before them. Their government now exists not to serve the people, but to enrich a single family and its loyalists.
Kleptocracy is not about ideology, it is about power and profit.
Trump’s America is not a socialist state, but something far more corrosive. It is a system where the rules are rewritten to benefit the few at the expense of the many. The very abuses that MAGA supporters claim to fear are being enacted in plain sight, only with a different set of beneficiaries.
THE HUMAN COST
The consequences of this descent into kleptocracy are not abstract. Real people are harmed when government resources are diverted for private gain, when public health is sacrificed for political advantage, and when the machinery of justice is weaponized against the vulnerable.
The erosion of democratic norms and the rule of law leaves ordinary Americans exposed to abuse, with no recourse or protection. Communities are left without critical support as funds are siphoned off to favored projects and cronies.
Public trust in institutions collapses, replaced by cynicism and fear. The sense of shared purpose that once bound the country together is shattered, replaced by tribalism and suspicion.
In the end, kleptocracy is not just a matter of corruption. It is an existential threat to the very idea of America.
THE FIGHT AGAINST KLEPTOCRACY
Stopping kleptocracy from metastasizing in American politics is not just about opposing Trump or his policies. It is about defending the principles of accountability, transparency, and equal justice under the law. It requires a public willing to confront uncomfortable truths, to demand real oversight, and to reject the normalization of corruption and abuse of power.
This is not a partisan issue. It is a test of national character. What does America still stand for? The choice is stark. Americans can accept a government that serves only the powerful and connected, or reclaim the promise of a democracy where the law applies to everyone, and public office is a trust, not a prize.
Americans of this generation must decide quickly if they want kleptocracy to be their legacy for future generations, by allowing the rot of Trump to become a permanent stain on the American experiment.
Laurel says
Working for “free” and all he can steal.
I wonder how Jarod and Ivonka and their $2billion Saudi money are doing these days. We don’t hear too much from them anymore. Funny that Trump didn’t need them as “Senior Presidential Advisors” anymore. I guess they got their share. The sad thing is, maga thinks they will get theirs. They will.
How’s the price of groceries, gas, healthcare and insurance doing for ya these days. Jarod and Ivonla aren’t worried. Are you?
Laurel says
Ivonka.
I remember, several years ago, before any hint of Trump running for President, that Ivonka was asked if she had insurance (by some interviewer, I can’t remember) and she replied “No, thank God!”
You see, the rich don’t need health insurance. It’s definitely not a priority. Enjoy your support, albeit one sided.