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Weather: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. High near 86. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Tuesday Night: Showers and thunderstorms. Low around 73. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
- 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:
The Palm Coast City Council meets in workshop at 6 p.m. at City Hall. For agendas, minutes, and audio access to the meetings, go here. For meeting agendas, audio and video, go here.
The Community Traffic Safety Team led by Flagler County Commissioner Andy Dance meets at 9 a.m. in the third-floor Commissioner Conference Room at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. You may also join virtually by computer, mobile app or room device. Click here to join the meeting. Meeting ID: 276 236 998 121 Passcode: CyEKoW [Download Teams | Join on the web]
The Flagler County School Board meets at 3 p.m. in workshop to go over the items on its upcoming school board meeting two weeks hence. The board meets in the training room on the third floor of the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. Board meeting documents are available here.
The Flagler County Planning Board meets at 5:30 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. See board documents, including agendas and background materials, here. Watch the meeting or past meetings here.
The St. Johns River Water Management District Governing Board holds its regular monthly meeting at its Palatka headquarters. The public is invited to attend and to offer in-person comment on Board agenda items. Note: meeting start times vary from month to month. Check here to verify the time. A livestream will also be available for members of the public to observe the meeting online. Governing Board Room, 4049 Reid St., Palatka. Click this link to access the streaming broadcast. The live video feed begins approximately five minutes before the scheduled meeting time. Meeting agendas are available online here.
The Flagler Beach Library Book Club meets at 5 p.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach.
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy, 8 p.m. at Cinematique Theater, 242 South Beach Street, Daytona Beach. General admission is $8.50. Every Tuesday and on the first Saturday of every month the Random Acts of Insanity Comedy Improv Troupe specializes in performing fast-paced improvised comedy.
Notebook: Ever since Aristotle’s infatuation with teleology–Instagram translation: everything happens for a reason–and the Enlightenment’s invention of “progress,” we like to think that history marches forward like a swarm of Deepak Chopras. The Declaration of Independence was written by a slave-holder for slave-holders, but as Ronald Reagan would say, aren’t you better off today than you were 249 years ago? History is more bipolar. We need only look back at how Barack Obama’s disbelieving walk onto the platform at Grant Park before a nation weeping with disbelief that November night in 2008 gave way eight years later to the man from Trump Tower’s Hades, riding that escalator back up and into the whitest White House since Woodrow Wilson whooped to “Birth of a Nation” in the White House screening room. The Biden interregnum now feels like Bobby’s Bad Dream in “Dallas.” Trump campaigned on a platform of anti-pluralism and won. His predecessors in the genre–Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan, the second Bush–only dog-whistled their desire to turn back the clock on some rights, and mostly as a distraction from their wars (on regulation or non-whites across time zones, whichever). Trump was explicit: civil, voting, women’s, gender and immigrant rights, plus regulations, all bad. Or “sad,” in the Trump lexicon. We’re now full in that great regression, aided by a majority of Supreme Court justices who seem to get most of their culture-war jurisprudence from Cotton Mather’s Wonders of the Invisible World. The question is whether Trump will be our ages’s Jonathan Edwards, sermonizing us with such grotesque determinism that his compulsive excesses become the seed of trumpism’s doom. It seems inevitable. But pendulums will not be rushed. Nor should we fool ourselves gain that whatever follows will have anything to do with progress.
—P.T.
Now this: The lecturer, from the YouTube summary: Jamie Warren has a Ph.D. in American History from Indiana University, and she is an Assistant Professor at BMCC-CUNY where she teaches American history, the history of women and gender, and women’s studies. Her research focuses on slavery in antebellum South with a particular focus on death, the body, and the philosophy of history.
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.
September 2025
Palm Coast City Council Workshop
Community Traffic Safety Team Meeting
St. Johns River Water Management District Meeting
Flagler County School Board Workshop: Agenda Items
Flagler Beach Library Book Club
Flagler County Planning Board Meeting
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee 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.
The return of Congress from its August recess brings a critical inflection point for President Trump, who has used the first phase of his second term to swing a wrecking ball through the American establishment with astonishing speed and force. From MAGA enthusiasts to No Kings protesters, whether one sees outdated shibboleths justly demolished or a precious inheritance tragically wasted, everyone agrees on the astounding scope of the changes wrought: the global economic order upended, the border secure and deportations underway, foreign aid programs gutted and entire agencies shuttered, Ivy League universities brought to heel. But what now? Each of these actions was a necessary first step toward the kind of reform championed by the administration’s officials and supporters. New trading relationships cannot take form until partners accept that the old arrangements are over. Employers will not begin thinking about how to create jobs that Americans will do until they lose easy access to a supply of illegal and easily exploited workers who will take jobs that Americans won’t. Universities have shown for a decade that enough money on the line will send them scurrying to develop a new campus in Qatar, but no amount of criticizing and cajoling would move them one inch closer to the cultural mores or economic priorities of the nation on which they depend. […] It’s the next stage, however, that will define Mr. Trump’s legacy: Can he and his administration move past the demolition, clear the debris and, well, build back better? The pain imposed thus far has been intentional, is proving tolerable and will be well worth the cost if it helps to move the economy and various national institutions onto a stronger long-term trajectory. But without follow-through the nation will see the pain without much gain. Does he have the will to pursue his promise of a new golden age for American workers and their families?
–From “This Is the Moment We Find Out if Trump Is for Real,” by Oren Cass, New York Times, Sept. 3, 2025.
Pogo says
P.T.
You’re in top form today.
What, I wonder, causes the focus of all attention on the dilapidated monster who is a priori too lazy, self-involved, and grossly inadequate a person, alone, to credit for this bleak moment. Today’s cartoon, indeed, explains — and answers, in very large part, the question.
My compliments — and gratitude.
Pierre Tristam says
Thank you Pogo. The other day I was reading an old review by John Updike on Al Capp, and of course he mentioned your namesake, which made me smile: we still have ours.