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Weather: A chance of showers, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 8am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 83. Windy, with an east wind 16 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Friday Night: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 72. Breezy, with an east wind 14 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- 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:
Free For All Fridays with Host David Ayres, an hour-long public affairs radio show featuring local newsmakers, personalities, public health updates and the occasional surprise guest, starts a little after 9 a.m. after FlaglerLive Editor Pierre Tristam’s Reality Check. Guests today include Dan Ingrid of the Pink Army (the annual AdventHealth Palm Coast fundraiser for breast cancer) and the winners of the FPC photo contest. See previous podcasts here. On WNZF at 94.9 FM, 1550 AM, and live at Flagler Broadcasting’s YouTube channel.
First Friday Garden Walks at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, 6400 North Oceanshore Blvd., Palm Coast, 10 a.m. Join a Ranger the First Friday of every month for a garden walk. Learn about the history of Washington Oaks while exploring the formal gardens. The walk is approximately one hour. No registration required. Walk included with park entry fee. Participants meet in the Garden parking lot. The event is free with paid admission fee to the state park: $5 per vehicle. (Limit 2-8 people per vehicle) $4 per single-occupant vehicle. Call (386) 446-6783 for more information or by email: [email protected].
The Friday Blue Forum, a discussion group organized by local Democrats, meets at 12:15 p.m. at the Flagler Democratic Office at 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suite C214 (above Cue Note) at City Marketplace. Come and add your voice to local, state and national political issues.
First Friday in Flagler Beach, the monthly festival of music, food and leisure, is scheduled for this evening at Downtown’s Veterans Park, 105 South 2nd Street, from 5 to 9 p.m. The event is overseen by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency and run by Laverne M. Shank Jr. and Surf 97.3
‘Avenue Q,’ at City Repertory Theatre, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m., 160 Cypress Point Parkway (City Marketplace, Suite B207), Palm Coast. Celebrate CRT’s 15th season with the Tony Award-winning hit Avenue Q! This laugh-out-loud musical blends puppetry, pop culture, and catchy songs to explore adulthood, love, and finding purpose. Don’t miss this unforgettable, irreverent journey through the ups and downs of post-college life—CRT-style. Tickets are $32.70 for adults, $17.17 for students (including ticketing fees). Book here.
‘Nunsense,’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre, Limelight Theatre, 11 Old Mission Avenue, St. Augustine. 7:30 p.m. except on Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets are $37.55 per person. Book here. Definitely “habit-forming”, this riotous show takes us through a fundraiser organized by the Little Sisters of Hoboken. They are trying to raise money to bury one of their sisters who was accidentally poisoned by the convent cook, Sister Julia (Child of God). Originating as a line of greeting cards, Goggin expanded the concept into a full musical that became the second-longest off-Broadway run in history.
‘Sweeney Todd’ at Athens Theatre, 124 North Florida Avenue, DeLand, Thursday, Friday and Saturday a 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets: Preferred $37 (Row A-F, Orchestra & CC-DD Center Balcony), Adult $32 – Senior $28, Student/Child $12. A $5.00 per ticket Processing charge is added to all purchases. Book here. Prepare for a dark journey through the sinister streets of Victorian London with Sweeney Todd. Follow the vengeful barber as he seeks justice, aided by the cunning Mrs. Lovett and her rather… unique meat-pie business. Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece weaves a twisted tale of love, revenge, and morality, brought to life by hauntingly beautiful music. Equal parts chilling and captivating, Sweeney Todd will leave you spellbound—and maybe a bit wary of your next shave…
Free Family Art Night: Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens, 78 East Granada Boulevard, Ormond Beach. All art supplies are provided. No art experience is needed, and all ages are welcome. Free Family Art Night is a popular, monthly program typically scheduled on the first Friday of each month to coordinate with the free, family-friendly movie shown outdoors at Rockefeller Gardens. The two programs offer a stimulating evening for families, at no charge, in the heart of downtown Ormond Beach. Our art program takes place in the OMAM Classroom, rain or shine, but the City’s outdoor movies are weather dependent. Movie information can be found here or call The Casements at 386-676-3216.
Notebook: It’s really not that long ago: on this day in 1990 that the two Germanies reunified, 4 years after the Soviets declared East Germany a separate country, though historically Germany had been unified for fewer years than Nebraska, Nevada, West Virginia, Kansas, Oregon, California, Texas and many other states had been states. A unified Germany was the product of the late 1860s, and it was not always good news for Europe. Growing up, watching East German athletes at the Olympics, at the World Cup, seeing East Germany’s kidney-like shape in Central Europe, I never imagined I’d see the day it would reunify, let alone see the fall of the Iron Curtain. In 1984 I traveled by car from south West Germany to Berlin and back, and took a quick trip to East Berlin, where I remember drinking a local version of Coke, a bit like sugary clay, hanging out a bit on the West Berlin side of the wall, taking pictures. Then those scenes in 1989 of Germans dancing on the wall, of the wall literally crumbling from sledge hammers and souvenir seekers, those trains jammed with people fleeing Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, pouring into the West, and Gorbachev just sitting there, letting it happen. He’d invited the demolition in his speech to the United Nations on Dec. 7, 1988. As Max Boot writes in his biography of Reagan, it was Gorbachev who ended the cold war, who called forth a Soviet Union based on the rule of law, who proclaimed a “new world order” (no, it was not George Bush). ” In the light of existing realities, no genuine progress is possible at the expense of the rights and freedoms of individuals and nations, or at the expense of nature,” he said. “It is obvious, for instance, that the use or threat of force no longer can or must be an instrument of foreign policy. This applies above all to nuclear arms, but that is not the only thing that matters. All of us, and primarily the stronger of us, must exercise self-restraint and totally rule out any outward-oriented use of force.” Of course he won the Nobel. Now, imagine the difference between Gorbachev’s speech that year and Trump’s speech this week, that salad of insults and hatreds hurled at Europe and so many other countries, that bile, that contempt. He is lucky the United States has a poor rail system and that it isn’t connected to Europe. The trains would have been pouring into western Europe anew. He’s making a shithole of this country and calling it great. His Tacitus will be busy.
—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
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Founders’ Day
Peps Art Walk Near Beachfront Grille
Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town,’ at Limelight Theatre in St. Augustine
‘The 39 Steps,’ at the Daytona Playhouse
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area
Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town,’ at Limelight Theatre in St. Augustine
‘The 39 Steps,’ at the Daytona Playhouse
Al-Anon Family Groups
For the full calendar, go here.
As the world asserts its diversity, attempts to look down on others and to teach them one’s own brand of democracy become totally improper, to say nothing of the fact that democratic values intended for export often very quickly lose their worth. What we are talking about, therefore, is unity in diversity. If we assert this politically, if we reaffirm our adherence to freedom of choice, then there is no room for the view that some live on Earth by virtue of divine will while others are here quite by chance. The time has come to discard such thinking and to shape our policies accordingly. That would open up prospects for strengthening the unity of the world. The new phase also requires de-ideologizing relations among states. We are not abandoning our convictions, our philosophy or traditions, nor do we urge anyone to abandon theirs. But neither do we have any intention to be hemmed in by our values. That would result in intellectual impoverishment, for it would mean rejecting a powerful source of development – the exchange of everything original that each nation has independently created. In the course of such exchange, let everyone show the advantages of their social system, way of life or values – and not just by words or propaganda, but by real deeds. That would be a fair rivalry of ideologies. But it should not be extended to relations among states. Otherwise, we would simply be unable to solve any of the world’s problems.
–From Mikhail Gorbachev’s speech to the United Nations, Dec. 7, 1988.
Skibum says
A dictator’s thirst for more and more power over and control of the populace is NEVER quenched. Drumph and his supporters within the federal government as well as some of our states have gerrymandered elected offices. He tried his best to have potentially hundreds of thousands of legitimate citizens’ ballots thrown out in “blue” cities and states. He lied to the American public and falsely claimed he won “in a landslide” when he lost to Biden. He sent a mob of insurrectionist supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol to try to stop the legal process to certify that presidential election. Now, even after being re-elected as president for a second term, even after having a maga republican majority in BOTH houses of Congress, drumph is not satisfied with the maga GOP power block.
He is dead set to continue his unconstitutional withholding of congressionally approved funds and grants to those cities and states he believes did not vote for him. After refusing to send those cities and states specific public safety funding and grants that would help to hire additional police officers, he attempts to incite violence within those areas by sending in federal troops, he unleashes masked, unidentified federal officers to sweep through private businesses, hospitals, even court houses, making arrests of anyone who appears to possibly be a non-Caucasian, undocumented alien. He speaks of many of our 50 American states as though they are war torn, Middle Eastern countries that are under constant siege from extremist terrorist groups, when in fact the extremist terrorist groups Americans are most concerned about are drumph’s own thugish maga mob members like the “proud boys”, the “oath keepers” and the white, good ‘ole boys who the most current ideation of our nation’s military is recruiting to target and be let loose on American cities that didn’t support the wanna-be dictator in the WH.
He has talked about jailing his political rivals, without even a single word about what crime they may have committed except that they oppose his unconstitutional and illegal power grab. He has publicly stated how he hates his opponents. When a so-called “president” has and talks about having so much hatred for his fellow American citizens, that is not natural, it is not wholesome, and it is NOT what an American president should be!
He is our “enemy within”, not the American people.
BillC says
It’s pretty clear that Trump is disoriented by dementia, didn’t know who he was addressing when he addressed the Generals with a MAGA stump speech, (yea, he stumped them) after spokesmodel Hegseth set the tone of disconnection from reality. Probably Stephen Miller is running the government, same as Nancy Reagan ran the last year of Ronald Reagan’s term.
Phil says
Orange terror must think the economy is a 12 year old girl the way he’s been treating it. The Reich pushing their misinformation and propaganda!
Haha and economic data is suspended during the shutdown convienant since we haven’t created a job in months in the entire country hahahah! Get what you voted for morons!
Ed P says
Skibum,
When was the last time you came to the beach? Relax. Breathe. Embrace the salt life.
You hit upon 14-15 (maybe more) ideas in your post. The pinball effect?
You are like a farmer with a 100 foot wide plow, covers lots of ground but barley scratches the dirt.
Nothing you plant will grow.
PDE says
Ed P, every one of Skibum’s 14-15 + opinions were concise and well thought out, and all of them exposed the core of what trump is.
Maybe YOU need to go to the beach, relax, and embrace the salt life, because every time someone posts something about trump you object to, you try to marginalize them, and diminish & dismiss their thoughts.
You’ll defend trump until your last day on this earth (or his), no matter what the consequences are.
So, keep those blinders on, because it’s a great way to avoid reality.
BillC says
@Ed P “You are like a farmer with a 100 foot wide plow, covers lots of ground but barley scratches the dirt.” Hey that’s a pun- *barley*. Although inadvertent, far more clever than your flatfooted name calling of Skibum.
Ed P says
Bill C,
Never inadvertent. Actually went back and changed after spell checking.
There wasn’t a name called.
Unless the reference to a farmer? Definition of a farmer is “ a man outstanding in his field”
PDE,
Sound bites are rarely clear, concise or complete thoughts. Posting an alternate idea of how Trump should be doing it better rather than the chronic negative criticism could encourage more people to engaged in useful debate.
Can’t debate anyone’s perceptions. That’s an impossible task.
Laurel says
I’m with you, Skibum.
I don’t really know that it’s dementia, but I do know that it’s a big time power grab, and one that does not benefit U.S. citizens. I think that Steven Miller, and his ilk, are playing on Trump’s enormous ego, and getting their Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 moving, while keeping Trump happy with his gilded kitsch, meme coins and family grifting. While Trump distracts us, with unhinged ramblings, they are distracting him. Useful fool, but a rich fool. Works for some.
What blows my mind, is average people think this is all going to work for them! No, folks, that’s not the plan.
Trump is not your retribution,
you are his.
Sherry says
I’m thinking that trump “may” not have been “officially” diagnosed with dementia. . . BUT, he most certainly often gets things wrong or confused. Is trump being manipulated by those close to him like steven miller?
The situation in Portland, Oregon is a recent example. The governor reported a conversation with trump where she said he sounded confused and thought perhaps trump was (being fed?) watching old videos of fires in Portland from years ago:
Trump referenced a weekend conversation with Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, and he alluded to being told by Governor Kotek that the reality in Portland is different from what’s being portrayed to him.
“I spoke to the governor, she was very nice,” Trump said. “But I said, ‘Well wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what’s happening? My people tell me different.’ They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place…it looks like terrible.”
Sherry says
Great thinking and analysis, as usual, Skibum! There are so many completely egregious acts committed by trump almost daily, it takes a brilliant mind to see how they are relevantly tied together under the heading of “dictatorship”. Thank You!
BillC says
@Ed P “There wasn’t a name called”.
Name-calling definition: “Verbal abuse; insulting language.”
— American Heritage Dictionary
Also, no record of a corrected spelling. “Never inadvertent.” Sounds very desperate and defensive. (That’s a complement.)
Ed P says
Bill C
The pot call the kettle black?
Sherry says
A Warning From Robert Reich:
Friends,
The direction we’re going is either martial law or civil war.
Americans from so-called “red” states, with the backing of their Republican governors and legislatures, are on the brink of using lethal force against Americans in so-called “blue” states, whose Democratic governors and legislatures strongly oppose the moves.
I pray we don’t come close to this but Trump has now ordered the deployment of 400 members of the Texas National Guard to several states, including Oregon and Illinois — ostensibly to protect ICE agents and facilities from protesters. The first group of Texas Guard troops is expected to arrive in Chicago tomorrow.
The troops are under the control of the Pentagon, with Trump as commander-in-chief. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that “the orders will be effective immediately for an initial period of 60 days.”
Less than an hour after Trump’s order, Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, responded that he “fully authorize[s]” such a move by Trump. “You can either fully enforce protection for federal employees or get out of the way and let Texas Guard do it,” Abbott said in a post on X.
The Democratic governors of Oregon and Illinois have sought emergency injunctions against these and similar deployments.
Late Sunday night, a federal judge in Oregon (appointed by Trump) temporarily blocked the mobilization of any state national guards to that state. Today, a federal judge in Illinois declined to block the deployment of National Guard units there.
What is Trump’s plan? What is the troika behind him (Stephen Miller, JD Vance, Russell Vought) seeking to accomplish, and how?
Sad to say, I believe Trump and his enablers have worked this out in advance. At the Pentagon on September 30, 2025, Trump pitched the plan to use American soldiers for the purpose of punishing his political enemies.
He told hundreds of United States military leaders that they must prioritize “defending the homeland” against the “invasion from within” in American cities run by “radical-left Democrats.” He stated his intention is to use certain cities “as training grounds for our military.”
The first step has been for the Department of Homeland Security to deploy ICE agents to use aggressive tactics in targeted cities.
ICE has sent masked and armed federal agents into cities with Democratic mayors — arresting and detaining people outside immigration courtrooms, firing tear gas and chemical munitions on city streets without warning, raiding homes and apartments in the middle of the night and arresting their occupants willy-nilly — including Americans and people legally in the country, and children, using racial profiling to stop anyone looking Latino and demand proof of citizenship without warrants, and detaining people they believe are here illegally, and doing so without due process.
The second step is for such aggressive tactics to provoke demonstrations, and for Trump to exaggerate the scale and severity of them.
Trump has described Portland as a “war-ravaged” city “burning to the ground,” with “insurrectionists all over the place.” In fact, demonstrations there had been muted and rarely expanded beyond a one-block radius of the immigration detention facility in the city.
On September 6, 2025, Trump posted on social media an image of the Chicago skyline in flames, stating “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” including a depiction of himself in the image of the fictitious warmonger character Lt. Col. Kilgore from the 1979 film Apocalypse Now, titling the post “Chipocalypse Now.”
Yesterday, he described Chicago as a crime-ridden “war zone.”
The third step is for Trump and Hegseth to deploy federalized National Guard troops to control the demonstrators, an act that’s already enflaming the public and provoking some actual violence.
Until Trump’s announcement that he was sending troops into Portland, protests rarely numbered more than two dozen people. Since his announcement, clashes have become more violent.
The fourth step will be for Trump and Hegseth to invoke the Insurrection Act.
All of this is preamble for Trump’s real goal: to invoke the Insurrection Act, which empowers a president to deploy the U.S. military and to federalize the National Guard units of the individual states to suppress civil disorder, insurrection, or armed rebellion against the federal government of the United States.
It is a statutory exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits the president’s power to deploy the U.S. military within the United States.
The Insurrection Act requires that after invoking it, but before exercising its powers, a president must formally order the dispersion of people committing civil unrest or armed rebellion.
The major clause of the Insurrection Act reads:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in all cases of insurrection, or obstruction to the laws, either of the United States, or of any individual state or territory, where it is lawful for the President of the United States to call forth the militia for the purpose of suppressing such insurrection, or of causing the laws to be duly executed, it shall be lawful for him to employ, for the same purposes, such part of the land or naval force of the United States, as shall be judged necessary, having first observed all the pre-requisites of the law in that respect.
***
As I said, I hope we don’t come near to this. I hope the federal courts, including the Supreme Court, stops Trump’s plan. But I believe it is Trump’s plan (the details of which have been worked out by the troika of Vance, Miller, and Vought), and they are implementing it as quickly as they can.
I don’t want to unduly alarm you, but you need to be aware of this imminent danger. It’s unfolding very rapidly.
Please share.
Sherry says
It’s actually happening in Chicago! I dare you to watch this Maga:
Laurel says
Sherry: Thank you, Robert Reich is correct. Trump, Miller, Vance and Vought have already started this civil war in the guise of immigration reform, and homeland security. The red states are being pushed to invade the blue states. The military has gone into cities that had crime rates lower before armed troops were sent in. Proud Boys types and non trained wannabes are acting as federal agents. It is nearly impossible for citizens to stand quietly by, while people are thrown to the ground and pepper sprayed without any lawful reason given.
I haven’t seen this type of federal behavior since the civil rights protests in the last mid century, and the Vietnam protests. This may even overshadow Kent State, if we let it.
The people who are promoting this war on civilians need to be procecuted and sent to jail. That includes the Felon in Cheif, and his ambitious predecessors.