To include your event in the Briefing and Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
Weather:
- 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:
9/11 Tribute Climb at Hammock Beach Resort: The community and media are invited to the Annual 9/11 Memorial Tribute Climb on September 11 at Hammock Beach Golf Resort & Spa. This year’s event is a two-part tribute—a ceremony at 8:15 a.m., followed by the climb at 8:46 a.m.—ensuring everyone can participate in remembrance, whether or not they choose to climb. Details here.
Flagler County Government Tax and Budget Hearing: The Flagler County Commission holds the first of two public hearings at b5 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell, on its 2025-26 property tax rate and budget. The hearing includes consideration of a special assessment, or tax, for the barrier island to raise revenue for beach protection. The tax would be set at zero next year, but would be a placeholder for an actual levy the following year. The inclusion of the special assessment on residents’ tax bills, even at zero, has been controversial.
The Flagler Beach City Commission meets at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 105 South 2nd Street in Flagler Beach. Watch the meeting at the city’s YouTube channel here. Access meeting agenda and materials here. See a list of commission members and their email addresses 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.
Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series hosted by the University of Florida Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience at 6 p.m. (Note the new time.) “Little Particles for Big Diseases”. Dr. Jamal Lewis, Associate Professor J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, will be the speaker. In this talk, Dr. Lewis will focus on two particulate systems currently under development in his lab, which attempt to control critical cellular and humoral mediators that cause conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis [RA] and autoimmune autism. Current paradigms for the treatment of autoimmune diseases (e.g., RA) are woefully inadequate, often missing the mark on desired physiological responses and not targeting the root cause of the disease. Predictably, novel approaches to re-establish immune homeostasis in patients afflicted by autoimmune conditions are now under intense investigation. This free lecture will be presented in person at the UF Whitney Laboratory Lohman Auditorium, 9505 Ocean Shore Boulevard, in St. Augustine. Those interested also have the option of registering to watch via Zoom live the night of the lecture. Go here to register to watch online. It’s a free lecture. See previous lectures here.
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
Juxtapositions: This is how the UK Independent reported the Trump administration’s mass assassination of a boatload of suspected drug dealers: “Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said that the United States has the authority to kill suspected drug smugglers after President Donald Trump ordered the blowing up of a Venezuelan boat that was thought to be carrying 11 drug dealers. Trump said that the United States carried out a strike on 11 supposed “terrorists” from a Venezuelan gang. Many legal experts question the authority under which the president can carry out such strikes. But Hegseth spoke to reporters on Thursday saying it had the authority to do so. “We have the absolute and complete authority to conduct that,” Hegseth said.” And here’s how Jules Verne in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea describes Aronnax’s encounter with a “savage” somewhere near a Pacific island, where the Nautilus is stuck on a reef: “I could easily have knocked down this native, who was within a short length; but I thought that it was better to wait for real hostile demonstrations. Between Europeans and savages, it is proper for the Europeans to parry sharply, not to attack.” (In an early Jules Verne draft that never made it to press, the natives swarm the Nautilus’ Nemo electrifies the ship’s surface, and 100 natives are massacred in one zap. Instead, this is how Nemo reacts when Aronnax tells him of the swarm: ““Savages!” he echoed, ironically. “So you are astonished, Professor, at having set foot on a strange land and finding savages? Savages! where are there not any? Besides, are they worse than others, these whom you call savages?”) One more juxtaposition: I came across these lines in Samuel Morison’s History of the United States around the same time as I prepared this Briefing, they were too hilarious not to include here: “Washington organized his army in line regiments, each one coming from a specific state; and the states were supposed to keep these filled. But Americans were not then-nor are they now a military people. They were eager for a fight, but not for sustained warfare.” This in a nation, Morison well knew, that had been involved in close to 200 wars and armed conflicts when he was writing in 1965, not least of them Vietnam. But nations are primarily myths.
—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
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Flagler Beach All Stars Beach Clean-Up
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Sunshine and Sandals Social at Cornerstone
‘Avenue Q,’ at City Repertory Theatre
‘Nunsense,’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre
‘Sweeney Todd’ at Athens Theatre
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
‘Nunsense,’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre
Al-Anon Family Groups
‘Avenue Q,’ at City Repertory Theatre
For the full calendar, go here.
To his subsequent sorrow,
Fulbright agreed.
The cold war was still frigid in 1964; few men on the Hill were ready to urge a soft answer to Communist wrath. But there was one: Wavne Morse of Oregon. On the night after the second Tonkin Gulf incident Morse had a call from someone in the Pentagon. The caller had heard that the senator was going to fight the President’s resolution. He suggested that the senator ask two questions. First, he should insist upon seeing the Maddox’s log, it would show that the destroyer had been much closer to the shore than civilians realized. Second, he should demand to know the ship’s mission; it had been far from innocent. The next morning Morse studied the wording of the resolution and con eluded that it was unconstitutional. Only Congress could declare war, he pointed out to Fulbright. This measure would give blanket approval to the waging of war by the chief executive with no war declaration. Ful bright reminded him of the Formosa and Middle East resolutions. Morse said they had been unconstitutional, too, but they had been more justifi able than this one. The crises which inspired them had been subject to quick solutions. Not so this one, the struggle in Vietnam seemed interminable, and this open-ended license would allow the President to intervene any time he saw fit. The wording was far too general, Morse said.
–From William Manchester’s The Glory and the Dream (1974).
Ed P says
Isn’t it about time to turn down the rhetoric?
Joe D says
Wow! All this took place in Congress in 1964…..how LITTLE we have LEARNED in 61 years!?!
And I repeat what I’ve quoted several times in the recent past on this BLOG…
“Those that fail to learn from the past…are DOOMED to REPEAT it.”
How SAD, that here we are AGAIN…NOW with a potentially more DANGEROUS PERSON (in my opinion) at the helm of one of the world’s STRONGEST military forces in history…
Day by day, I’m getting more and more alarmed for the future of my much loved, beautiful, healthy, happy 4 biracial grandsons ages 7-6-4-1! So SAD…and so UNNECESSARY!
“He” didn’t take over the government by force… “WE” allowed him to be put in POWER, even if only by a 1.8% popular voting “LANDSLIDE” 🤣. BUT it’s REALLY NOT FUNNY!
Dennis C Rathsam says
Rest in peace Charlie Kirk, you are a true American patriot. You will be missed. May God bless his wife & 2 little children.
Skibum says
I’m sorry, but may I ask… is it too soon, THIS TIME, to have a frank discussion about our nation’s ongoing national disgrace? About gun violence here in the U.S.??? Please just don’t… “thoughts and prayers” are nice words but if that was all it took to take care of the horror and prevent further deaths then the every day occurrence of mass shootings would have been prevented years, decades ago.
Yesterday’s gun violence death of Charlie Kirk was tragic. It was horrific. It should not have happened. Nobody in America should be shot for their political views, Not Kirk, not the president, not then congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford, not the Michigan members of their state’s legislature, not congressman Steve Scallise, NOBODY!
But as tragic as yesterday’s gun violence killing of Kirk is, it is no more horrific, no more tragic, no more reprehensible, and should be no more of a call for action than the other gun violence shooting that occurred in another school yesterday in Colorado. No more of a call to action than the gun violence shooting deaths of COUNTLESS other young children in schools all over America who have been slaughtered by mass shooters with a gun for years, and years, and years in this country… and who only got “thoughts and prayers” afterward… you know, because of what conservatives and gun advocates point to as the kryptonite of all kryptonite that prevents any change, any call to action, any preventative measures to stop the gun violence in our country… the dreaded, hundreds of years old 2nd Amendment.
Maybe the hastily called national TV broadcast last night of the president calling for action will have a positive outcome for the horrific gun violence problem here in America. I sincerely hope so. But what it cannot be, should not be, is a political hit job on liberals, a blame game trying to instill fear into Americans, a political stooge acting irrationally to only protect those who agree with the person currently sitting in the WH.
All of the dead school children and their families deserve something better. They deserve not only justice from our state and national leaders, they deserve to be remembered, and their deaths treated as important as any person who is shot because of their political views.
To do otherwise would be a slap in the face of every dead child, every injured child, every parent or family member who still to this day grieves for the loss of young school students who died because they went to school. We need change, we need a call to action because of them, and to protect school children in the future from being shot at a school, a college, any place of learning, just because they were going to school.
So I hope that IF this latest political shoot is actually a real call for action to address our national disgrace of gun violence, that it actually does some good, for once, so we as a nation can retire the old “thoughts and prayers” and relegate that sentiment to the side, as an aside, as an afterthought… after REAL action from the people who we elect to do REAL work rather than just mouth meaningless sentiments and then look away and do nothing.
Ed P says
It’s reported that 44 or 47 school shooting have occurred in 2025, exact number not available.
From 2000 to 2022 there has been 1375 school shootings in US according to USA facts data.
Makes all our political differences appear asinine.
Perhaps it’s time we all take notice and start looking for solutions to this crisis as well others.
The latest was yesterday, Evergreen High School in Colorado.
Pogo says
@FWIW
As stated
https://www.google.com/search?q=myths+are+real+to+believers
Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.
— Joseph Campbell
Use caution when waking a somnambulist…
https://www.google.com/search?q=somnambulist
Fascism says what you and I experience as facts or what reporters experience as facts are irrelevant. All that matters are impressions and emotions and myths.
— Timothy D. Snyder
https://www.google.com/search?q=Timothy+D.+Snyder
Ray W. says
This past Sunday on Meet the Press, according to an article published by The Street, Commerce Secretary Scott Bessent, when asked about the status of manufacturing jobs in America, said:
“It’s been a couple of months. And with the manufacturing sector, as you know, we can’t snap our fingers and have factories built. ‘The One Big Beautiful Bill which has full expensing for factories and equipment was passed on July 4th. Many companies were holding back then. So we are going to see construction jobs. And we are going to see manufacturing jobs.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I agree with Secretary Bessent. It takes time for policies implemented by a new executive administration to take effect. It may be that factories that have been fully expensed by the new bill will take time to be built.
The important thing is that Secretary Bessent is setting a baseline for the future. We will see if what he is claiming now will actually come into fruition.
On the same point, many of the factories that were fully expensed during the Biden administration are coming online. The jobs that they create will be due to Biden administration policies. I hope that President Trump acknowledges that fact if manufacturing job figures rise in the near future.
In other portions of the article, the reporter points out that year-over-year inflation, after falling 2.3% in April, have been steadily rising ever since. 2.4% in May. 2.7% in June. 2.7% in July. 2.9% in August. It may be coincidence, but the average effective tariff rate across all imported goods and services, 2.4% at the start of the year, was 10% in June, and “likely” 10% in July and 11.5% in August.
In an August 10 Goldman Sachs note to investors, the company published its assessment of the percentages of tariffs revenues that have been absorbed by foreign exporters, the percentage absorbed by importers, and the percentage passed through to consumers:
“Foreign exporters had absorbed 14% of the costs of all tariffs implemented so far through June, but that share will rise to 25% if the more recent tariffs follow the same pattern as the earliest tariffs on China. … US consumers had absorbed 22% of tariff costs through June but that share will rise to 67% if the recent tariffs follow the same pattern as the earliest ones. This implies that US businesses have absorbed more than half of the tariff costs so far but that share will fall to less than 10%.”
Make of this, too, what you will.
Me?
Is it fair to argue that US businesses can absorb only so much of tariff costs before having to pass on more and more costs to consumers? We have reached a point in time where US companies are having to report to their investors the actual costs of tariffs. Will investors, who invest in order to gain a return on their investment, pressure company boards and CEO’s to take steps to preserve company profits? Will the pass-through to consumers costs rise from 22% to 67%. And if the percentage of pass-through to consumer costs really does rise from 22% to 67%, what impact will that have on prices that consumers will have to pay in stores?
Buckle up, it might be Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride for us all!
Ray W. says
Thank you, Pogo, for the Campbell description of dreams. But what of personal waking dreams, like the mild delusions of grandeur that I fashion on a daily basis?
Ray W. says
CBS NEWS reports on today’s monthly CPI report, which followed yesterday’s PPI report.
Here are some bullet points from the article:
– The overall CPI figure, based on an assessment of the prices for a large basket of goods and services, rose 2.9% year over year, consistent the forecasts by economists.
– In mid-2024, the year-over-year CPI dropped to as low as 2.3% year-over-year, before it kicked up a bit. The year-over-year CPI then dropped down again to 2.3% in April of this year, before it began its steady rise to today’s rate.
– Food prices averaged across the board are up 3.2% year-over-year, with most of the rise coming from higher restaurant prices.
– Coffee prices are up 21.7% from a year ago. I have commented on the effect of drought in Vietnam and Brazil, plus higher heat, which can have an impact on coffee prices, but I think it is time to accept the argument that when President Trump placed a 50% tariff on all Brazilian goods and services, that include coffee. I understand that President Trump just carved out an exception for Brazilian coffee from the 50% tariff, so coffee prices might start to come down pretty soon.
Make of this what you will.
Pogo says
@Ray W
“…what of personal waking dreams, like the mild delusions of grandeur that I fashion on a daily basis?”
Every man’s home is his castle.
Oops, every person. Personally, I’m fed up with converting every goddamn word and thought to gender-neutral correctness. I’m no polymath of languages, but gender, is it not, fundamental? One example: BOLO: a person. NO profiling, patriarchal oppression, racial discrimination, or ageism — totally inclusive. And totally useless.
Please excuse the digression; I’m genuinely pleased to receive a cordial remark from you. I esteem your comments more than most. And also, you did teach one of my sisters to drive a manual transmission — she recalls you fondly for that kindness, and confirms that you are exactly the decent intelligent man, that that teenager she knew long ago, was too.
Well, back to all this… but I do believe:
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+best+portions+of+a+good+man's+life
Sherry says
Isn’t it about time to turn down the hate filled rhetoric?
Donald Trump blamed “the radical left” for the shooting and promised a crackdown, saying its “rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today and it must stop right now”. In his address from the Oval Office Trump also provided a list of incidents of what he termed “radical left political violence” while not including violence against Democrats.
Ray W. says
Thank you, Pogo.
I helped a number of my friends and acquaintances learn how to operate a manual transmission, just as I worked on their cars when they needed help. It heartens me that someone remembers that small effect with fondness.
I, too, fondly remember many small instances of kindness that have been offered to me over the decades.
As I read your comment, I thought of a customer on my paper route who collected coins. Each Friday evening or Saturday when I collected the weekly paper charge, he would invite me into his home and show me coins he had retrieved from a safety deposit box. We would talk about each coin and he would show me from publications how rare they were and what to look for to determine their quality. We would discuss and decide the quality of each coin, under his guidance. He then would give me the previous week’s edition of a numismatic publication for me to read during the week, asking that I return it to him on the next collection date.
I told another route customer of this weekly event. Shortly before that Christmas of 1967, she invited me into her home and sat me down at her kitchen table. She was a nurse, as I recall, and her husband was a police detective. She placed three large jugs of coins, perhaps the size of today’s gallon milk containers, on the table, saved from daily purchases. She asked me to separate out all the silver for her. If I did that, she told me, I could keep all of the old “wheat” pennies and pre-1964 nickels I could find.
At ten years of age, this was a treasure trove, with many if not most of the nickels and pennies mine as my Christmas tip for delivering papers during the year to her. It took me hours to separate the coins, time that I would not have missed for anything at that moment of my developing maturity.
For a few years, a doctor who lived near my father and step-mother asked me before each Christmas Eve to assemble gifts that he had purchased for his two daughters.
My parents tried to install in all seven of the little Warrens that wherever we went we should leave it a little better than we found it. Each morning after we packed up before leaving a campsite, and we very commonly camped out, my father would drive the camper out of the site. The nine of us would then line up fingertip to fingertip and walk back and forth over the entire site and pick up every piece of trash we found, both our trash and the trash left by others who had camped before us. Every time to this day when I park in a parking lot, I pick up one item of trash from the lot and put it in a trash can on my way into the store. My parents’ teachings are not the only reason I do that, but every time I do it I leave the lot a tiny bit cleaner than it was when I entered the lot.
In time, I came to expand my parents’ message into meaning that the best exercise anyone can do is to help another person up.
These remembrances do not prove that I am a good person. As I have been telling coworkers and friends for decades: If you meet me on my best day, friends for life. And if you meet me on my worst day, I am an asshole. Most days, I am somewhere in between asshole and life friend. I learned long ago that this approach to life helps me identify other assholes, however hard they try to disguise the fact that they are assholes, and to identify others as friends, perhaps friends for life.
Again, thank you, Pogo.
Ray W. says
Hello Sherry.
Since it was part of my representation of clients to collect any news articles about their cases, I began reading FlaglerLive a long time ago. But I never commented to the site, to my memory, until shortly after I read about a Flagler County Republican politician who took to the local radio to ask just when would it become time to “behead Democrats.” This event occurred perhaps one or two weeks after January 6th. I felt at the time that it was incumbent on me to begin opposing the hatred emanating from Republicans, both elected and lay Republicans.
When President Trump announced that he was our “retribution”, I opposed him because I knew he was fomenting violence against Democrats.
When Governor DeSantis told a rally audience during his presidential campaign that if he was elected he would begin his first day in office by “slashing throats”, I opposed him because I knew he was fomenting violence against Democrats.
When the Republican-candidate for governor of North Carolina told a rally audience that “some people need killing”, I opposed him because I knew he was fomenting violence against Democrats.
When a Republican Senator told a rally audience that, if delayed on a bridge by protesters, they could get out of their cars and throw protesters off the bridge, I opposed him because I knew he was fomenting violence against protesters.
When a Republican senatorial candidate told rally attendees that when they went to vote that November they should put on the armor of God and strap on a Glock, I opposed her because I knew that she was fomenting violence against voters.
Only a gullibly stupid FlaglerLive commenter would blame only Democrats for today’s political violence.
I have been commenting for nearly five years now that we are still in the beginning phase of an age of political violence the likes of which have not been seen for over a century. I refer FlaglerLive readers to Barbara Tuchman’s, The Proud Tower, in which she describes an age of disaffection that permeated European and American society with bombings, assassinations, murders, arsons against newspapers, between 1890 and 1915. The violence came to an end only with the onset of WWI.
I have been commenting for nearly five years now about the importance to society of a liberal democratic Constitutional republic based on separation of powers, individual rights and the rule of law. I have pointed to the first paragraph of Federalist Paper #1, in which Alexander Hamilton posed the “great” question, whether the American people could be the first in history to constitute a government based on “reason” and “choice”, as opposed to all other governments that had been tried over the centuries that had devolved into governments based on “accident” or “force.”
For nearly five years I have opposed the liars and the lie launderers who comment to the FlaglerLive site. I have opposed the vengeful among us all. Not all of these commenters are Republicans.
But about three or four years ago, I began looking for articles and presenting them in condensed form, to the FlaglerLive community. I chose certain subjects, knowing that the subjects were the target of a professional lying class that sits at the top of one of our two political parties. I began commenting about energy subjects, EVs, law, government, the economy, the stock market, and a few other subjects. This effort, perhaps wasted, was to prepare FlaglerLive readers for the many lies that would be issued by the professional liars during campaign seasons.
No one can claim that I picked sides, other than to oppose the vengeful among us and the liars and the lie launderers, because I asked each reader to accept or reject whatever it was I commented about. I demanded of each reader the exercise of intellectual vigor.
I vigorously opposed Ed P. in the beginning not because I disagreed with what he wrote, but because he presented as an asshole in the way he denigrated people with whom he disagreed. So I treated him the same way he treated others. I appreciate him far more today than I did then not because I agree with his points but because he so seldom continues to present as an asshole towards others. Indeed, I actually enjoy many of his comments. Whenever Ed P. called me an asshole, I didn’t disagree or even argue with him, mainly because I know that I am capable of being an asshole, particularly when someone is vengeful or spiteful or lying.
This is directed toward every FlaglerLive commenter who submits a comment to the FlaglerLive site standing for the belief that any one party, Republican or Democrat, is solely responsible for today’s political violence: You are lying, both to yourself and to the entire FlaglerLive community! Because you are lying, because the foundation of your argument is wrong, any conclusion you draw from your flawed argument fails, too. It is extremely difficult to win an argument when one starts from a losing position.
An entire segment of our society has accepted as good the capacity to be violently opposed to “the other”, regardless of party. This most recent terrible killing may trigger the end of the beginning of that long wave of political violence that has engulfed our society for years, but it is not the overall end nor is it the beginning of the end of the political violence. It may take decades for us to exhaust ourselves out of the collective hatred and anger. Millions of the disaffected roam among us. Lying about the cause of that disaffection will never help.
Sherry says
Just so you are not missing my point. How’s about trump setting a good example instead of constantly inflaming hate and hostility?
Here’s how President Biden and Obama responded:
Biden: “There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk’s family and loved ones.”
Obama: “We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”
Sherry says
Thank you Ray W!
I absolutely feel much the same way you do. I pulled out quotes from trump’s divisive reaction to the terrible murder of Charlie Kirk in response to a Maga commenter saying we should turn down the rhetoric regarding this cartoon.
In my opinion, trump intentionally throws fuel on the divisive fire of rage in our country in many different ways almost every day. trump is a master of manipulating those who are ruled by their negative emotions. But, trump did not “start” the anger that simmers in the subconscious of so many.
From my view, trump and his advisors recognised a huge group of disgruntled citizens who had been convinced that their negative lot in life . . . no matter the circumstance or situation. . . was the “fault” of someone else. I have long witnessed my own dear friends/family/neighbors who watched hours of FOX (News?) everyday for many years become more and more agitated and angry at what I call the propaganda conspiracy theories. They were becoming fear filled and indoctrinated before my very eyes. They refused to travel outside the US, or would only go in the “protection” of a cruise or an “American” tour group. Over the years, they became more and more closed minded to other cultures and religions. Almost to the point of paranoia. “The means are justified by the result” became their new moral compass. They apparently became ripe ready for a savior who would give them retribution for whatever FOX had built up in their minds regarding their unfair plight in life. trump fills that bill perfectly!
The Maga cult is powerful and difficult to debate because they are governed solely by their negative emotions, which automatically rejects factual reasonable analysis and logic. We can “fact check” them until the cows come home, and it will do little good. . . unfortunately.
Saying that, although the people that need your factual analyzes the most are possibly the least likely to read them, I do take the time skim over most of what you post as there are jewels scattered everywhere. :)
Skibum says
Starting now, I commit to tone down and double, even triple check the comments that I write so I will hopefully not be accused of what could be described as hateful rhetoric… just the facts. I hope to hear and see that the message is getting to those on the right who have learned from the encouragement toward hate and violence from the top of our government, especially from the one in the WH. I cannot expect others to do something that I am not willing to do, so let’s give it a try and see if it helps with a more courteous, intellectual debate.
Ray W. says
According to an Alternet story, immediately after the shooting of Charlie Kirk, President Trump posted to Truth Social that he blamed Kirk’s death on “radical left political violence.” On Friday morning, President Trump responded to a question raised by a Fox & Friends host by saying that he “couldn’t care less” about uniting the country.
After the Kirk shooting, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) called upon President Trump to join with Speaker Johnson and “other level-headed Republicans in condemning political violence”, instead of inciting it further.
In response to his comment, Rep. Moulton was inundated with threats of violence, including death threats, aimed not only at him, but at his family and his congressional staff.
Here is one of those threats:
“I pray to God some good old MAGA boy blows your motherfucking brains out. … WE have most of the guns, and you won’t find very many Democrats at the shooting range. We know what we are doing. … I would spend the rest of my fucking life in federal prison to make America great again by eliminating somebody like you. … I pray for your violent, bloody anguishing death.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
There are a number of gullibly stupid FlaglerLive commenters among us who claim that today’s long-term and ever-growing wave of political violence in all its forms can be blamed solely on Democrats. What fools they are.
This cannot be stressed to often. These several FlaglerLive commenters are not only lying to themselves when they type what they type, they are lying to others.
I have been very clear from the outset that I did not begin commenting to the FlaglerLive site until after I read of a Flagler County elected Republican official taking to the local radio airwaves to ask just when would it be time to begin “beheading Democrats.”
I already believed at that time that a wave of political violence was breaking upon the shores of this country. Nothing that has occurred since that time has dissuaded me of that belief.
So here we are. Charlie Kirk is dead. A young man is in custody. We do not yet know his motives. The professional lying class immediately after Mr. Kirk’s death began blaming Democrats for “all” of today’s political violence. Certain FlaglerLive commenters immediately began laundering those lies to the FlaglerLive community.
As Charlie Kirk would say: “Prove me wrong.”
As an aside, the reporter also wrote:
“After 22 year-old Utah resident Tyler Robinson was arrested for allegedly shooting Kirk, new details have emerged showing that he was raised in a staunchly pro-Trump family. While Robinson himself was registered as non-partisan, his grandmother said she wasn’t aware of a single Democrat in their family.”
I am not saying that, without more, this latest reporting about Mr. Robinson and his family proves much of anything, much less anything of significance about, Mr. Robinson’s motives.
And this latest reporting is not likely to be the last reporting on the subject of Mr. Robinson’s motives for allegedly shooting Mr. Kirk.
Is it a fair question to ask whether Mr. Robinson, if he actually is an ardent Trump supporter, turned against Mr. Kirk, and only Mr. Kirk, after Mr. Kirk himself crossed Mr. Robinson’s personal line by turning against one or another of President Trump’s policies or political positions?
Skibum says
Thank you, Ray W. for your latest comments, and plea to everyone here on FlaglerLive, to be circumspect about their comments that are seen by a wide variety of people on both sides of the spectrum. One has to be either totally uneducated or dishonest to somehow believe everything is righteous on one side of the political spectrum, and everything is bad or hateful on the other. We all know, or should know, that none of us are perfect, and there is good and bad within the democratic party as well as within the republican party, and in-between.
If we cannot even talk to each other without threatening violence on those we don’t even know, how in the world do we expect to live together peacefully in the same American society? I, for one, can certainly live among those who I do not agree with. Jeez, I don’t even agree some of the time with my own spouse, yet we have lived peacefully and happily together for the last 33 years.
Can’t we all try a little harder to get along?
Sherry says
Thank You Skibum!
Ray W. says
This from ABC News:
During a court appearance earlier today for Tyler Robinson, the alleged shooter of Charlie Kirk, state authorities made public the sworn complaint affidavit signed by a law enforcement officer.
Complaint affidavits are not required to list every known fact in a case; they require the bare minimum quantum of facts sufficient to support each and every element of each and every crime set out in the affidavit.
An Incident Report, on the other hand is supposed to cover every aspect of the case. I have seen murder cases with five page complaint affidavits and nearly 100 page incident reports.
In Mr. Robinson’s complaint affidavit is set out an account by his parents of when they met with him to discuss things. When asked why he had committed the crime (remember, this is drawn from the officer’s interpretation of what the parents told him), Mr. Robinson said:
“[T]here is too much evil and the guy [Charlie Kirk] spreads too much hate.”
Also released in body of the complaint affidavit was a message to Mr. Robinson’s roommate:
“I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
It strikes that this is a motive directed solely at Charlie Kirk, incited by something he said or did.
Can an argument be made that Mr. Robinson formed a settled belief that Mr. Kirk had crossed one or more of Mr. Robinson’s personal lines in a manner that Mr. Robinson deemed “evil”? If this can be so, then can it be argued that Mr. Robinson acted against Mr. Kirk not because he thought him a political partisan but because he thought him a hateful and evil individual?
But which one or several of Mr. Kirk’s claims or actions might have crossed such a personal line or lines?
If the statement or action that crossed the line had targeted presidential candidate Harris, then perhaps a claim that a larger and general left-wing indoctrination was at work might be legitimate.
If the statement or action targeted his roommate, then it is much harder to claim that a generalized left-wing indoctrination was at work, because the targeting was no longer a generalized motive; it was an individualized motive.