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Weather: Mostly sunny. A slight chance of showers in the morning, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the lower 90s. Southwest winds around 5 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent. Monday Night: Partly cloudy. A chance of showers and thunderstorms in the evening. Lows in the mid 70s. Southwest winds around 5 mph in the evening, becoming light and variable. Chance of rain 50 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:
Palm Coast Charter Review Committee Meeting: The city’s committee, appointed by the City Council to propose revisions to the city charter, meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 160 Lake Ave. The committee is made up of Patrick Miller, Ramon Marrero, Perry Mitrano, Michael Martin and Donald O’Brien. The meeting is moderated by Georgette Dumont, an independent moderator and the Director of the Master of Public Administration program at the University of North Florida. The meeting is open to the public and includes a public-comment segment.
The Bunnell City Commission meets at 7 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell, where the City Commission is holding its meetings until it is able to occupy its own City Hall on Commerce Parkway in 2025. To access meeting agendas, materials and minutes, go here. The commission is reconsidering–and possibly approving–the 2,800-acre Reserve at Haw Creek development of from 6,000 to 8,000 housing units.
Nar-Anon Family Groups offers hope and help for families and friends of addicts through a 12-step program, 6 p.m. at St. Mark by the Sea Lutheran Church, 303 Palm Coast Pkwy NE, Palm Coast, Fellowship Hall Entrance. See the website, www.nar-anon.org, or call (800) 477-6291. Find virtual meetings here.
Notebook: A friend writes: A Modest Proposal
“While listening to fake news on an underground radio station (WJCT) this morning, I was struck by the whining of traitors complaining about how immigration raids are depleting the supply of vicious criminals avoiding arrest and deportation by working as agricultural labor.
It occurs to me that there is a market driven solution to the need to protect white Republicans while keeping the strawberries flowing.
When planning a farm raid, ICE should be required to bring a school bus (no A/C) containing 20-30 white Republicans selected from the jury pool rolls of the County who will replace the brown, bloodthirsty killers and rapists hoovered up in the raid on a one for one basis.
To ensure fairness, the replacement workers would be paid $20 per hour from the funds appropriated for DHS in the Big Beautiful Bullshit and would only be required to work until the crop was harvested or 30 days, whichever is less, at which point replacement white patriots would be delivered as needed.
In addition to the normal jury selection criteria, the white patriots would have to be registered Republican voters and have publicly expressed support for the immigration polices of either our Nero on the Potomac or Ronbo or both on social media.
If this selection method does not produce sufficient bodies, the National Guard would be deployed as a backup labor supply.
Any suggested refinements to this program to ensure national security and continued Freedom in Florida are appreciated.”
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.
August 2025
Nar-Anon Family Group
Palm Coast Charter Review Committee Meeting
Bunnell City Commission Meeting
Palm Coast City Council Workshop
Flagler County School Board Information Workshop
Flagler County Affordable Housing Committee Meeting
Book Dragons, the Kids’ Book Club, at Flagler Beach Public Library
Free Know Your Rights Workshop for Renters by Community Legal Services at Flagler Cares
NAACP Flagler Branch General Membership Meeting
Flagler County School Board Meeting
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) Meeting
Separation Chat: Open Discussion
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library
For the full calendar, go here.
“For the State [to Aristotle] exists for the temporal well-being of its citizens, i.e. for a positive and not merely for a negative end, and this positive conception of the State can quite well be maintained without contaminating it with the exaggerations of Totalitarian State mysticism. Aristotle’s horizon was more or less bounded by the confines of the Greek City-State (in spite of his contacts with Alexander), and he had little idea of nations and empires; but all the same his mind penetrated to the essence and function of the State better than did the laissez-faire theorists and the British School from Locke to Spencer.”
–From Frederic Copleston’s A History of Philosophy vol. 1, Greece and Rome (1946).
Pogo says
@P.T.
I’d vote for that modest proposal. I waited in vain (unsurprisingly) for your recent reference to JS Mill to stimulate some discussion of utilitarianism, deontology, competing philosophies, ethics — in short, any of the many courses that might have developed.
Maybe all of that is rapidly being eclipsed by the looming abyss — the inheritance of our post human descendants…
Good luck kids, and goodnight.
Dennis C Rathsam says
So sad….The more ya,ll bash TRUMP, the more he delivers. Not a day goes bye without TRUMP speaking to the press, unlike his hidden predicessor. Over 900, arested in DC so far…. as TRUMP cleans up the mess in nations capital. And still the dems complain. This is just the start of a massive big city clean up…. People are begging TRUMP to continue his work to stop crime & welcomes his directive to there shithole cities. Funny most are Jackassed controled. TRUMP is the 1st president, that I can recall who,s plans cut the deficet, with all the money the tariffs are bringing in, a closed border, & deportations ridding America of BIDENS useless invaders. TRUMP will get this interest rate down, homes will start to sell agan. The economy will start to get better. I know the folks here on this plattform have such a distain for our president, according them TRUMP does nothing right…. Too bad everythings going his way. TRUMP keeps winning…. as the jackasses cry a river of tears everyday.
Ray W, says
Bloomberg reports that the U.S. National Science Foundation announced that it “will not support research with the goal of combating ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation.'”
Make of this what you will.
Ray W, says
FOX Business reports that Cracker Barrel’s fourth remake of its original logo, this time with “the restaurant’s name in black text over a yellow barrel-shaped backdrop”, has prompted backlash. In the reporter’s words, Conservative activist Robby Starbuck argues that the change “reflects a broader abandonment of traditional American values.” Mr. Starbuck said:
“All these things that are nostalgic Americana are constantly being stomped on, and we’re being told that there’s something wrong with it, that we should be ashamed of it in some way, that it needs to be replaced with something more inclusive or more driven by these DEI characteristics. … I think people are just sick of it. We’ve had enough, and we don’t want our whole country stripped down to where we have no semblance of, you know, that sort of nostalgic American culture.”
What was dropped by the change in logo? That portion of the fourth iteration of the Cracker Barrel logo depicting a man sitting in a rocking chair while leaning on a barrel?
Make of this what you will.
BillC says
Isn’t that Wrathsome over there holding the pitchfork and torch?
Ray W, says
Each 20th of the month, Macrotrends updates the performance of the Dow by president, with selections for each president going back to Warren Harding.
Because our modern experiment in government spending began with Reagan, and because the Fed finally broke a 15-year on-and-off run of stagflation by raising the lending rates above anything scene in recent years, for years I have been providing the monthly performances for every president since Reagan.
Here are this months’ numbers:
GHW Bush: 29.5%
Biden: 19.3%
Trump (2016): 14.8%
Clinton: 10.5%
Obama: 7.6%
Trump (2024): 1.6%
GW Bush: -4.5%
Reagan: -11.3%
Make of this what you will.
Ray W, says
According to a Wall Street Journal article, Russia prizes the industrialized Donetsk Basin above all other Ukrainian assets. But after nearly 10 years of fighting, Russia has yet to take the four provinces that comprise the Basin.
British military intelligence “estimates that seizing all of them would take Russian forces a further 4.4 years of fighting and cost around 2 million casualties in killed and wounded troops — a cost Putin would like to avoid with talks.”
According to the authors, as the Ukrainian military has been building up its eastern defenses around the fortified cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, both serving as transportation hubs for the region, surrendering the unconquered lands in the four provinces that Russia wants via negotiations would open up the rest of the Ukraine to future invasion.
Make of this what you will.
Kennan says
Really Dennis? Really? Enough with the bullshit. I was born in DC and raised in Northern Virginia. It’s grown exponentially in the last 59 years, but crime is at a 30 year low. This is just Trump counting on his idiot base, including you, to spread the cancer and racism of a narrative that is quickly making the American people not just weary, but suspicious that the MAGA lies he’s been spoonfeeding all of you stink of buyers remorse. He helps no one but himself. Admit you fucked up and get rid of the DEAD WEIGHT.
Ray W, says
Great Britain’s national security advisor from 2010 to 2012, Lord Rickett’s, appeared on Sky News Sunday a week ago. His argument? Russia has already lost the war in the Ukraine.
Here are some bullet points from a HuffPost article drawn from the interview:
– Recent reports have it that Russia is gaining ground in the Ukraine, “but if you look at the big picture, they’ve really lost badly.”
– “One of the things they did not want was more NATO so close to Russia. Well, they’ve got Finland and Sweden in NATO now. They would never have joined if it hadn’t been for the war.”
– “And they’ve also got new determination by the Europeans to up their spending on defense to take on more responsibility and to stand with Ukraine.”
– “So, I think in the big picture, Russia has already lost the war and Ukraine is now going to be a pro-western, democratic country for the long-term.”
Make of this what you will.
Ray W, says
CNN reports that recent Ukrainian drone attacks are hindering Russian energy production.
Here are some bullet points from the story:
– Because of a rise in Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries, pumping stations and fuel trains, Russia recently banned exports of gasoline in order to keep up with domestic demand for gasoline, but it isn’t working. Prices charged for Russian gasoline are at record highs.
– The refineries struck thus far account for 10% of Russia’s product capacity.
– In August alone, Ukrainian drones have struck 10 Russian energy facilities.
– Including in Crimea, whose governor attributed the region’s recent gasoline shortage on “logistics issues”, other Russian regions report gasoline shortages.
– Despite government subsidies, St. Petersburg-area wholesale gasoline prices are up 10% in August and 50% for the year.
– An increase in recent Ukrainian drone activity follows the development of Ukrainian-made long-range drones, some of which can travel at least 500 kilometers into Russian territory. One Ukrainian drone made it all the way to St. Petersburg, where it ignited an “extensive” fire at an oil complex.
– One such newly designed cruise missile, dubbed the Flamingo, carries a 1,150-kilogram (nearly 2,600 pounds) warhead, much larger than other cruise missiles; it should soon be produced at a rate of 200 per month.
– It is being reported that Russian companies have resorted to buying Belarusian gasoline, with the Belarusian state-owned refiner, Belnaftakhim, issuing a statement that “interest in Belarusian oil products on the Russian market has surged.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Some news outlets report that the Trump administration recently ordered the Ukrainian military to limit its use of American-made long-range missiles. Whether this is another act in a long series of acts of appeasement by the Trump administration remains unclear, but with the Ukraine developing its own long-range drones, not subject to American limitations on use, what is the future for Russian oil refineries?
Ray W, says
In a counter-intuitive and innovative test, Georgia Tech researchers turned “the long-standing assumption that fast charging is risky” on its head.
Trying to make zinc-oxide batteries competitive with lithium-ion batteries, the researchers found that charging zinc-ion batteries at high speed actually lengthened battery life. They expected it to shorten battery lifespan.
Said a researcher:
“We found that using faster charging actually suppressed dendrite formation instead of accelerating it. … It’s a very different behavior than what we see in lithium-ion batteries.”
And the team’s newly developed observational tool lets them witness metal dendrites as they form; it taught them why fast-charging prevents zinc from settling into dendrites.
Zinc, abundant and widely available, is cheaper than lithium. Zinc-ion batteries are “nonflammable, environmentally safer, and easier to recycle.” But zinc-ion batteries have long been thought susceptible to dendrite formation during use. The forming of the spiky metal dendrites can short out batteries. But the research team found that high-speed charging of zinc-ion batteries caused the zinc to settle “into smooth, tightly packed layers, more like neatly stacked books that splintered shards.”
This zinc metal forming process affects only the anode. The researchers are now working on producing better performing cathodes. Zinc chemistries with other metals, called zinc blends, may lead to other enhancements of zinc-ion battery durability.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Zinc, aluminum, iron, manganese, lithium, sodium, copper, cobalt, and more. So many metals that can serve as battery components. Blends of these metals offer their own solutions to current battery obstacles. Billions and billions and billions of dollars are pouring into battery research and testing.
Yet, this is no different from gasoline-powered engines that have been under development for nearly 150 years.
The difference today between battery-powered motors and gas-powered engines is that battery technology is in its infancy and internal combustion engine technology has reached full maturity.
Ray W, says
CarBuzz reports that Subaru has debuted a Maxell-manufactured solid-state lithium-ion battery for use in robotics in a Japanese engine assembly factory. But the battery cannot be recharged; it is designed for one use only. However, the batteries are good for 10 years of use.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W, says
Once per year, a division of Bloomberg known as The Information conducts an “annual price survey” to obtain the average global price per kilowatt-hour of EV battery pack capacity.
In 2024, the price per kilowatt-hour of EV battery packs fell 27% to $97 per kilowatt-hour.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Current literature has battery packs breaking even with gas-powered vehicles when the price point per kilowatt-hour hits $100.
And just because today’s average is $97 per kilowatt-hour doesn’t mean that batteries using a chemistry different from liquid-state lithium-ion batteries are at that price point. BYD claims its Blade II lithium-ferrous-phosphate batteries can be built for $53 per kilowatt-hour.
And battery prices will continue to drop.
Ray W, says
One of the major complaints against solar power farms is that the panels reduce the amount of arable farmland or that solar farms cause deforestation.
I found an interesting article published in Tech Xplore that pertained to “solar trees”.
Solar trees can have the same total exposure to sunlight as solar panels, but with the branches and leaves being the solar collectors, sunlight also reaches the ground under the trees. The solar trees can be planted on the sides of hiking trails and onto boundaries between properties. A simulation of prototype solar trees in South Korea had the trees planted 20 feet apart on hiking trail sides or on property boundaries. 63 solar trees yielded the same power amount as did a 1 MW flat panel structure, while using far less land area.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W, says
Some two months ago, Bloomberg News posted a story about the Russian government blocking the release of monthly demographic records for an indeterminate period of time. Demographic data is now being stamped “for official use only”.
Russia’s Federal Statistics Service did publish a socio-economic report covering the first five months of 2025, but the report lacked the “traditional” section pertaining to demography.
During the first quarter of 2025, available demographic data shows that the nation’s number of deaths significantly exceeded its number of births.
In 2024, Russian researchers recorded 1.82 million deaths and 1.22 million births. “The pace of the population decline accelerated by roughly 20% compared to 2023.
So far, the decision is to stop publishing monthly demographic data. Whether annual Russian demographic data is embargoed remains an unanswered question.
Make of this what you will.