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Weather: A chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 11am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 85. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Monday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 2am, then a slight chance of showers. Partly cloudy, with a low around 71. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
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Today at a Glance:
The Palm Coast Charter Review Committee is hosting one of four community engagement meetings at 6 p.m. at the Southern Recreation Center, 1290 Belle Terre Parkway, Palm Coast, to hear public input on the review and potential amendments to the Palm Coast Charter, the document that is the equivalent of a constitution, but for the city. The committee is reviewing the document at the City Council’s request, and will potentially submit a list of amendments by the end of March, which the council will in turn review. It’ll be up to the council to decide which amendments appear on the 2026 November election ballot. The committee will host four such community engagement meetings, one in each of the city’s districts.
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.
Notably: A video oped from the imes:
—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 United Methodist Church Food Pantry
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Palm Coast Beautification and Environmental Advisory Committee
Flagler Beach City Commission Meeting
Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town,’ at Limelight Theatre in St. Augustine
Florida Ethics Commission Meeting
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Scenic A1A Pride Meeting
Friday Blue Forum
Acoustic Jam Circle At The Community Center In The Hammock
Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town,’ at Limelight Theatre in St. Augustine
‘The 39 Steps,’ at the Daytona Playhouse
For the full calendar, go here.
Worrying about the so-called mainstream media can seem nostalgic when that mainstream is increasingly in the hands of social media. In Dabhoiwala’s view, platforms like Facebook are simply exporting the original sin of First Amendment absolutism worldwide. But take a closer look. If anything, Facebook’s evolution underscores how far it has drifted from America’s free speech doctrines. After the Rohingya massacres in Myanmar in 2017, the company scrambled to hire Burmese-speaking moderators and ban various nationalist figures—often fumbling the results but unmistakably tightening control. Facebook’s community standards prohibit hate speech, harassment, praise for criminals or terrorists, even stray jabs at national character. Posting “Irish are the best, but really French sucks,” an example from its internal instructional material, would be a violation. During the pandemic and the 2020 election, it removed millions of posts deemed to be misinformation (including posts suggesting that Covid-19 may have originated from a lab leak), coordinated with health authorities, and, after January 6, suspended Trump, breaking its own “newsworthiness” precedent. Its policies, like the Vicar of Bray’s, are pragmatic and in constant flux—shaped not by ideology but by regulatory threats, political calculations, shifting social norms. It comfortably invokes international human rights standards and seldom mentions American constitutional values. If Facebook is exporting anything, it’s an uneasy civility code—one that favors order and safety over liberty and too often falls short on all counts.
–From “Watch What You Say,” a review of Fara Dabhoiwala’s What Is Free Speech? The History of a Dangerous Idea, by Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Review of Books, Sept. 25, 2025.
Dennis C Rathsam says
AS the economy continues to get better, inflation is exceptable, considering no help from the fed. The markets are doing quite well. TRUMP is doing what the 77 million asked him to do! The border is closed, Bidens invaders are being deported at record numbers! Best thing TRUMP did was take a bite out of crime, a big bite. Washington DC. has seen the resergence, soon so will all the big cities, BURYED in crime. Seems there was some hanky panky going on during TRUMPS 1st term, in office lots of lies, & hidden meetings, all designed to bring TRUMP down. They tryed so hard, for so long & Now it looks like a lot of democrats are on the hot seat. Time will tell what the GOP uncovered, it could all be smoke & mirrors, it could spell the end to the JACKASS party as we know it.
Skibum says
I haven’t been able to call the current occupier of the WH a “president” because he is so un-presidential! He has totally brainwashed so many Americans into believing the garbage about him wanting to somehow “protect” law enforcement officers in cities by sending in national guard and military troops. Let’s be perfectly clear about this… drumph has NEVER, EVER been “pro law enforcement”!!!
He uses law enforcement personnel as props, as political pawns, just like he uses our military… for his political benefit. When it is not to his personal benefit, he squashes them like bugs because he has no dedication to the rule of law, no backing of “the blue” when their purpose is contrary to his unconstitutional or illegal desires.
All anyone has to do is recall what happened on Jan. 6 when his maga mob that included extremists from both the “proud boys” and “oath keepers” stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. Over 100 federal and D.C. police officers were injured specifically because drumph sat there in the WH relishing the violent insurrection, refusing even his own daughter’s pleas for him to call off his supporters. He did not care even a tiny bit that police officers were getting beaten with clubs and other weapons by the riotous mob that grossly outnumbered the officers who were at the capitol building that day.
Drumph loves political violence when it is done by his supporters, in his name. He has the gall to call those criminals “patriots”. After thousands of his supporters were tried and convicted of federal crimes, many of them convicted of felonies, and were sentenced to various terms of prison, drumph then spat at all of this nation’s ethical, hard working law enforcement personnel by giving full and complete pardons to the criminals who seriously injured police officers on Jan. 6, and to this day continues to refer to those criminals as “patriots” because their felonious, criminal acts were committed at drumph’s behest.
He is more of a mafioso mob boss than president, a fascist, a misogynist, an adjudicated sexual assaulter, a convicted felon himself, and someone who nobody in America should be loyal to. He should be in prison, he should be reviled, and when he is dead and buried his grave should be spat upon as one of the most corrupt and despicable human beings we have ever had in American politics.
Pogo says
@FWIW
The liars and thieves who have usurped all things and all power, with wealth and unbridled brutality, are prodigious mimics with voids posing as souls. Everything done to oppose them is ignored, and then appropriated to return to the world as their child, their property, their faith — they shamelessly declare this; and then piss down your neck and gleefully thank God for sending rain.
It’s what they do, what they are
Sherry Epley says
The major media outlets have dismissed trump’s mental deterioration! The latest from wonderful Robert Reich:
Friends,
Over the weekend, on his Truth Social, Trump shared a video purporting to be a segment on Fox News — it wasn’t — in which an AI-generated, deepfaked version of himself sat in the White House and promised that “every American will soon receive their own MedBed card” that will grant them access to new “MedBed hospitals.”
What?
Believers in the “MedBed” conspiracy theory think certain hospital beds are loaded with futuristic technology that can reverse any disease, regenerate limbs, and de-age people. No one has an actual photo of these beds because they don’t exist.
Trump also posted (again, without any basis in fact) that the FBI “secretly placed … 274 FBI Agents into the Crowd just prior to, and during” the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, during which they were “probably acting as Agitators and Insurrectionists.”
Trump added that this “is different from what Director Christopher Wray stated, over and over again!” and went on: “Christopher Wray, the then Director of the FBI, has some major explaining to do. That’s two in a row, Comey and Wray, who got caught LYING.”
In fact, the Department of Justice’s inspector general reported that there were no undercover FBI agents at the January 6 riots. (FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that the few FBI agents present on January 6 were there on “a crowd control mission after the riot was declared.”)
Trump also announced Saturday that he intends to send the U.S. military to Portland, Oregon, authorizing “Full Force, if necessary” to “protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”
Hello? Although protesters have been camping on the sidewalks outside the ICE office for months, the demonstration has dwindled to almost nothing. Of the 29 related arrests, 22 happened on or before July 4, when the protests were at their peak.
What’s been the media’s response to Trump’s bonkers postings and announcements this weekend? Nada. The media either ignored them, mentioned them as part of Trump’s “strategy,” or assumed Trump was just being Trump.
But there’s another explanation.
Trump is showing growing signs of dementia. He’s increasingly unhinged. He’s 79 years old with a family history of dementia. He could well be going nuts.
You might think this would be covered in the news, but he isn’t facing anything like the scrutiny for dementia that Joe Biden did.
Perhaps the most telling evidence of Trump’s growing dementia is his paranoid thirst for revenge, on which he is centering much of his presidency.
The paranoia was becoming evident in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election. On November 11, 2023, he pledged to a crowd of supporters in Claremont, New Hampshire, that:
“We will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections and will do anything possible — they’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American dream.”
Most media commentators chalked this up to overheated campaign rhetoric.
But since occupying the Oval Office, Trump has demanded that his attorney general target political opponents, urged the head of his FCC to threaten a major network for allowing a late-night comedian to say things Trump disliked, suggested that the government revoke TV licenses of network broadcasters that allow criticism of him, and pulled government security clearances from former officials whom he deems his enemies.
Less than two weeks ago, he demanded that the Justice Department prosecute a handful of named political opponents “now!” — including James Comey, whom Trump fired from his post in 2017 after Comey oversaw the FBI’s investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election; Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, who indicted Trump; and Adam Schiff, U.S. senator from California, who played an active role in the House hearings on January 6, 2021.
On September 19, Erik Siebert, the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia (initially selected for the position by Trump) resigned after Trump told reporters “I want him out.” Siebert had concerns about the strength of the evidence against both Comey and James.
The following day, Trump posted a message to his attorney general, Pam Bondi. “Pam,” it began, “Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.’”
He said he was promoting Lindsey Halligan, one of his former personal attorneys, to take Siebert’s place, and fumed: “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
On September 22, three days after Halligan assumed office, she secured a simple, two-count indictment against Comey for allegedly lying to Congress and for allegedly obstructing justice.
“JUSTICE IN AMERICA! One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey,” Trump exalted on social media following the indictment. “He has been so bad for our Country, for so long, and is now at the beginning of being held responsible for his crimes against our Nation.”
The Comey indictment was a blip in the weekly news cycle. The media appeared to shrug: Yes, of course Trump is vindictive, so what else is new?
But wait. Are his acts those of a sane person? Or of an aging paranoid megalomaniac?
Even if it’s unclear to which category Trump belongs, shouldn’t this question be central to the coverage of his presidency? At the very least, shouldn’t the media be actively investigating?
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Sherry says
More embarrassment for the US! Speaking of the DE-Evolution of what once was the “civilized society” of our country. . . take a look at the news from the “abusive” language and behavior of some audience members at the golf tournament between the US and Europe at the Ryder Cup this week. The crowd even gave an Irish player’s wife a hard time. The police had to be called in.
I’m thinking this kind of completely unacceptable hostilility has been stoked by the “nationalism and hate” spread by trump and Maga. Such brutish behavior had my hubby had I actually rooting for the Europeans!
Here is a video of Rory McElroy’s interview after Europe won:
https://apnews.com/video/rory-mcilroy-calls-out-unacceptable-and-abusive-behavior-from-bethpage-fans-at-ryder-cup-0000019995b8de7dafbfd7ba924a0000
James says
Well, Sherry.
I had suspected for quite some time that we might possibly be witnessing one of the most egregious cases of “elder abuse” in history unfolding before us.
Doubt it.
Just a thought.
Ray W. says
Dennis C. Rathsam might be correct in his claim that the American economy is getting better than the economy that President Trump inherited from the Biden years, a Biden economy that was described as “the envy of the world” by both The Economist and the Wall Street Journal. And I want him to be correct. I want the inflation rate down to 2%, instead of steadily rising to today’s 2.9%. I want 150,000 new jobs per month that we saw all of last year, instead of today’s 22,000 new jobs. I want a GDP rate consistently above 2%, as we saw last year, instead of the average of under 2% that we have seen thus far this year.
This from the Lexington Herald-Leader:
In the month of April, according to U.S. Treasury data, international demand for American whiskey intended for export has dropped 70% year-over-year.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I remain unconvinced that enough evidence exists to support the argument that the true direction of the American economy can be inferred. But the fact that international demand for American whiskey appears to be down 70% over April of last year is an unusual statistic. American distillers have worked for decades to build market share in the spirits industry. To lose that much that fast is concerning.
According to the reporter, overall whiskey demand, including American demand, is down 28% for the year. I do not know of many economic sectors that can absorb a 28% drop in demand over a 12-month cycle. Something tells me that there is about to be a significant contraction in the number of American whiskey producers.
According to the reporter, the industry winnowing has started, with no end in sight.
Silvereed says
So glad we have independent news like MeidasTouch news and FlaglerLive news to report the crazy shit that no one sees or hears about. Our government has gone just plain stupid with this grifter.
Ray W. says
Hello FlaglerLive readers. Dennis C. Rathsam claims that the border has been closed.
Drawing from a number of recently published stories, including from Reuters and the Wall Street Journal, a Raw Story reporter writes that cocaine is flowing across the border as federal agents have been pulled from their normal drug enforcement duties to chase immigrants around the inside the country.
For example, the Journal reports that drug cartels have joined efforts to the point that so much cocaine is coming into the country that the price per gram of cocaine today is half what it was five years ago when the border was supposedly unguarded. Apparently, so much cocaine is crossing the border that supply is rising even though the amount of cocaine already seized this year is up from last year.
A “senior Justice Department official” told a Reuters reporter, Brad Heath: “We’re seeing a reduced amount of time on long-term investigations so agents can go out in their raid gear and be seen supporting immigration raids.”
Citing from court records, Heath wrote that “[s]o far this year, about 10% fewer people have been prosecuted for drug violations compared to the same period of 2024.” The 10% decrease in cases means about 1,200 fewer federal drug prosecutions have been initiated so far this year, and the lower number suggests the slowest rate of drug prosecutions since the late 1990’s.
Money laundering prosecutions are down 24% so far this year.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
If the reporting is accurate, it seems that the current administration has decided that chasing immigrants who add to our economic security is more important than taking on the drug cartels, led by those who now see an opening through which to drive an increase in the flow of cocaine into our towns and cities and states.
James says
“… so much cocaine is coming into the country that the price per gram of cocaine today is half what it was five years ago when the border was supposedly unguarded …”
See, Wrathsam and dimbulbXYZ were right, Trump HAS reduced inflation for the American consumer.
Laurel says
Sherry: I’m not sure it’s dementia, I think he’s just nuttier than a freakin’ fruitcake, and
“Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
– British politician Lord Acton
Sherry says
@ Laurel,
trump is “ALL” of it:
1. ZERO MORAL CODE= DISHONEST, UNETHICAL, UNTRUSTWORTHY, CORRUPT
2. CRIMINAL
3. MEGALOMANIA
4. NARCISSISM
5. DEMENTED
Laurel says
Psychopathy may be involved.