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Weather: Sunny. Highs in the lower 80s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph, becoming northeast with gusts up to 20 mph in the afternoon. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear. Lows in the mid 60s. North winds 5 to 10 mph.
- 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.
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry: Flagler Beach United Methodist Church‘s food pantry is open today from 9:30 a.m. to noon at 1500 S. Daytona Ave, Flagler Beach. The church’s mission is to provide nourishment and support in a welcoming, respectful environment. To find us, please turn at the corner of 15 Street and S. Daytona Ave, pull into the grass parking area and enter the green door.
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.
Diary: First Clay, now this. Is there a difference where and how we die when the death is unexpected–thrust upon us, so to speak: a car bomb, a car crash, a flash flood, a murder, an errant bullet, a fall? Unlike a stroke, a heart attack, an end after cancer, the death is not from within. It is the body’s betrayal. It is an uninvited shock, a stroke of nature, a freak of criminality or negligence, a reminder that we are all at all times sitting ducks to a lesser of greater extent–a greater extent if we live in Florida, where bullets fly, or if we’re driving on I-4, where drivers better off jailed think asphalt is for surfing. What of the circumstances immediately before the unexpected death? Do they make a difference? Is it any less tragic if the victim was killed in a car crash returning from the grocery store, as opposed to church, or work, or the divorce lawyer? The odd thought occurred to me sitting through the celebration of life for Jorge and Nancy Salinas, the deputy county administrator and his wife, who were killed in a car crash on Oct. 4, on I-4. We learned, from their children, that they were driving home from a day at Disney. For some reason that detail, as heartbreaking as was the entire occasion was, struck me as particularly painful. We’ve all been on that road. We’ve all–most of us, many of us–made that very same trip, often with children in tow. We’ve all found ourselves counting the night miles past 10 p.m., after too many hours at the parks, worn out, craving home. Then out of nowhere. Not even a moment to think. Just that final fright, and nothing. You can never prepare of course, and all the Roman stoics will tell you how lucky you are to be blessed with a sudden death. But for all the treacheries of the Appian Way, they hadn’t driven I-4. “To the tumultuous throng which crowded under these porticos, the solitude of death has succeeded. The silence of the tomb is substituted for the hum of public spaces.” If Chasseboeuv, also known as Volney, could write these lines about Palmyra–lovely, silent Palmyra–I guess the same can be said of I-4. I know I’ve used the song below several times, but it’s not as if sorrow is ever a one-time thing, and “Some day when we meet up yonder/We’ll stroll, hand in hand again/In a land that knows no parting” sounds a hell of a lot better than Luke 20:38. And it is the last song Elvis played on his piano before his apoplectic death in a less memorable place, a bit more private in Graceland.
—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.
November 2025
Flagler County Commission Morning Meeting
Beverly Beach Town Commission meeting
Nar-Anon Family Group
Palm Coast Charter Review Committee Meeting
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry
Sheriff Staly 50th Year Celebration
Flagler Beach Library Writers’ Club
Flagler Beach Planning and Architectural Review Board
Palm Coast City Council Meeting
Bunnell Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry Evening Hours
Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town,’ at Limelight Theatre in St. Augustine
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
For the full calendar, go here.
Strangely, I have never been afraid to die. Not because I am particularly brave, but because I have yet to fully comprehend that it will in fact happen to me. Intellectually, yes. Intellectually, I fully comprehend that one day will be my last on this earth. But I do not believe it, not properly. At the end of the day, this is perhaps hardly surprising–existence is of such unprecedented substance, and that substance, which is my presence on earth, is experienced not simply as a material reality, is perceived not merely as the result of chemical/electrical impulses in a physical mass, but as having quite another nature altogether, and, perhaps most significantly, quite another duration.
–From Karl Ove Knausgaard’s The Morning Star (2021).
Dennis C Rathsam says
:Praise the Lord….. Obama couldnt do it, Biden couldnt do lt! PEACE in the Middle East, thanks to TRUMP.
Pogo says
@Cartoon for this
… from the river to the sea:
“… Hamas has carried out a mass execution in the streets of Gaza as part of a series of bloody reprisals following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from key urban areas.
Footage has emerged appearing to show around eight kneeling, blindfolded men, bearing signs of beatings, being shot dead in front of a crowd…”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/10/14/blindfold-executions-hamas-trump-plan-israeli-withdrawl/
Ray W. says
I am thankful that a ceasefire orchestrated by U.S. diplomacy since the brutal invasion of Israel directed by murderous Hamas religious extremists provided for the release of the final remnants of the still living Israeli hostages, just as I am thankful for the release of so many more of the living Israeli hostages during the first two ceasefires that were orchestrated by U.S. diplomacy.
I am hopeful that this third ceasefire holds.
I wonder whether other elements introduced during the multilateral negotiations will in time lead to a greater and more enduring form of ceasefire and perhaps even a possible actual peace that is more than simply stopping the shooting of each other.
History records that on November 11, 1918, the Great Powers instituted an armistice. It was not a peace, far from it; rather it was a cessation of soldiers shooting at each other. Months elapsed between the implementation of the armistice and the beginning of the Paris Peace Conference and then the final Treaty of Versailles. The terms agreed to in the Treaty came to be considered so unequal that a movement arose in Germany that directly led to WWII just over 20 years later. Perhaps the best way to describe the lack of war in the interim years was an “uneasy peace” based on an idea of mutual disarmament folding into both Japan and Germany withdrawing from disarmament negotiations, folding to aggression by both Japan and Germany, folding to sanctions, folding to war.
After the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan at the end of WWII came the Marshall Plan, long lauded as perhaps the most consequential American foreign policy decision ever carried to fruition. Both of the defeated nations rebuilt their economies with the substantial economic aid from the U.S.
Beginning in 1949, four years after unconditional surrender, limited political power was granted to a fledgling German government. Final and full political power was granted in 1955.
In 1947, the Japanese people voted into being a constitution modeled on the American Constitution. In 1951, six years after unconditional surrender and after the Treaty of San Franscisco (1951) formally ended the war, limited political power pursuant to the terms of the treaty was handed over to a fledgling Japanese government, a handover process that was completed in 1952.
After a time a true peace between the defeated and the victorious took root, a process that has been refined and renewed for many decades.
I remain unconvinced that an agreement to stop the shooting and separate the killers equates to peace between the two belligerents. Hamas is not defeated. The IDF is not victorious. Unless some form of obligation by treaty is ever formed between the belligerents (the definition of belligerent is “hostile and aggressive”) that is perceived as equal by each, the best that might be said is that an uneasy ceasefire now holds in the Gaza Strip, not a true peace.
As for the murderous Jewish religious extremist settler movement, the random and capricious killing and wounding of Palestinian farmers and villagers tending to their West Bank fields and groves and homes continues unabated.
Indian-backed extremists recently killed 11 Pakistan Army soldiers, according to Pakistan’s government. Syrians remain engaged in internecine violence. Houthis recently sank a freighter. Cambodian and Thai border dispute violence continues, as does violence between factions in Rwanda.
History repeatedly records claims of “peace” that are broken over and over again. Those types of “peace” may be called many things, but true peace? Not so.
Ray W. says
NBC NEWS reports that after a summer hiatus, and for the fourth straight fall, outbreaks of a highly virulent form of avian flu on American egg farms have been recorded in multiple states, including Minnesota and Iowa. More than four million poultry birds were slaughtered in September and through October 7th.
The main concern is whether the extremely virulent form of Avian Influenza has mutated in enough different ways to meet the definition of “endemic”, meaning that it is now highly unlikely to ever fully go away.
Since this form of avian flu has jumped into the cattle population, there remain concerns that it might continue to mutate in a way that eventually makes it easy to jump into the human population. Thus far, during the four years it its existence, this strain of the avian flu has infected 70 humans, killing one.
No word yet on how broad will be the impact. No word yet on the impact on egg prices this fall outbreak will be.
As of September 20th, the average price of a dozen large eggs was $4.36. For the year, the highest average price for a dozen large eggs was $6.60 per dozen on March 15th, during the spring migration of wild birds.
Culling more than 4 million birds is no small number, but from the outset of the new form of virus to the end of the spring migration, over 175 million domesticated fowl were culled.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Several of the more gullibly stupid FlaglerLive commenters have continually blamed the Biden administration for high egg prices. What fools they are.
Earlier this year, during a massive lying campaign, the Trump administration announced a $1 billion dollar effort to counter the overall impact of the bird flu, including $100 million designated in part for research into developing an mRNA-derived vaccine.
The Trump administration failed to note that the Biden administration had already spent $1.2 billion to counter the overall impact of the bird flu, including money for research into developing mRNA-derived vaccines that were in the testing phase.
In the article, it is reported that Moderna, recipient of grants to continue its bird flu research efforts, just saw cancellation of those grants by the Department of Health and Human Services. And the CDC recently stopped holding H5N1 “coordination calls” with health providers.
I continually post comments about egg prices because so many of the more gullibly stupid among us buy into the lies spread by the professional liars who sit atop one of our two political parties. Once a lie takes root in the minds of the more gullibly stupid among us, it is difficult to counter their lie laundering.
Here is the truth. In 2022, a variant of the H5N1 Avian Influenza virus was detected on American egg farms during a period of wild bird migration. The variant was almost immediately declared highly virulent.
Every migratory season since, outbreaks of avian flu on American egg farms have spiked upwards. In summer and deep winter, the number of outbreaks falls. The fall migratory season has begun.
I don’t know what impact that will have on grocery store prices for eggs. But if the disease is truly “endemic”, then we will in almost all certainty continue to see seasonal swings in egg prices, regardless of who occupies the White House.
Ray W. says
For a couple of years now I have posted comment after comment to the FlaglerLive site about the low head count of cattle on American farms and ranches. As of the last article from which I commented, the total American cattle head count was the lowest since 1951. At the time, we numbered almost 154 million people, significantly less than half the American population today.
Beef prices have leaped over the past few years.
The cause? Drought followed by poor feed crop yields. Over and over again, vast areas of the American Midwest have seen drought conditions, though this year has seen ample rain across the region.
Numerous industry journals publish articles based on the idea that it is wiser to sell off cattle herds before maturity in order to save on rising feed costs. This specialized form of journalism posits that it will take years for American cattle farmers and rancher to rebuild herd size, This, it follows, means that it will take years for American beef prices on the display case to return to a more affordable level.
I came across a Cool Down story about the current economic health of the Canadian cattle industry.
Thus far this year, beef prices are up 12.7%. Herd size is at its lowest level in 37 years. 70% of the nation’s agricultural acreage is “abnormally dry”, meaning “moderate to extreme drought.”
Said University of Saskatchewan at Saskatoon professor of agricultural and resource economics Stuart Smyth:
“It’s not that they (farmers) can suddenly change their herd size in one year. It’s going to take them a number of years to build that herd size up. As consumers, we will have higher beef prices for the next two or three years, possibly.”
Make of this what you will.
Skibum says
Dennis, really dude??? “PEACE in the Middle East, thanks to TRUMP” is just an uninformed, presumptuous outcome that has yet to be achieved and will take much more effort than this very first step – a cease fire. That is all that has been agreed to, other than exchanging Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
Given the very long history of conflict in the Middle East, only a loony tune would jump to touting this very fragile agreement in the terms of everlasting peace between the two arch rivals. If you want to hold your breath and dream something that has not yet come true, go right ahead. Your loony tune convict in the WH will hold his nose, close his eyes and “advocate” for the little people he despises ONLY if he thinks it will help him convince Norway to award him the Nobel Peace Prize. Otherwise, he couldn’t care less about them… or YOU!
Go drink some more kool-aid.
Ray W. says
I recently posted several comments to FlaglerLive about two lease sales of millions of tons of coal to be mined from federal lands. One of the sales, involving Montana coal reserves, drew a one-tenth of a penny per ton bid.
According to the Associated Press – Business News, the sale of the Montana coal has been invalidated by the Department of the Interior due to a finding that the bid of $186,000 did not “meet the requirements of the Mineral Leasing Act.” By statute, bids must be “at or above fair market value.” The last lease sale of Montana coal, which sale took place more than a decade ago, drew a bid of $1.10 per ton.
No details of a possible future bidding process were included in the announcement.
According to the article, the second bidding event, this time for Wyoming coal, was postponed, even though a number of articles published last week reported that it actually occurred, with a bid of less than a penny per ton of coal.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
For weeks, the professional lying class that sits atop one of our two political parties used social media to spread the idea that the Trump administration was going to make America great again by opening federal lands up for bids on coal.
Then came the reality that no one wants coal anymore. Only one bidder placed a bid and it was more than a thousand times less lucrative than the last bid. So, the government rejected the bid as representing something less than fair market value. The second bidding session drew only the same bidder. That process has been postponed.
If it is true that more than a decade lapsed between a sale of coal to be mined from federal land in Montana at $1.10 per ton and the October 2025 bid of one-tenth of a penny per ton, then how does anyone know what the fair market price for coal actually is? One-tenth of a penny might actually be too much to pay for a product that is no longer marketable in the American energy marketplace.
And I am not forgetting the recent successful bidding process for coking coal to be mined from federal land in Alabama. But coking coal, critical for use in making steel, is different from the type of coal used in power plants. There is still a demand for coking coal.
The economic argument for power plant-quality coal collapsed 20 years ago. From what I can find, the last company in America to submit an application for a permit to build a coal-fired power plant did so in 2008, when Power4Georgians sought to build the Plant Washington, Georgia power plant. That application never came to fruition.
But the building of a coal-fired power plant is an economic decision, not a political decision. And the economic decision is not based on getting a permit. The issue is persuading lenders to provide the money to build the power plant. The economics, long ago, stopped supporting the expense of building and then operating new coal-fired power plants over the 30 years or so that it takes to fully operate such a plant. Many lenders require the existence of long-term contracts to sell electricity at prices that would yield a profit. What utility company would ever enter into a long-term contract to buy electricity from a coal-fired plant when it can buy electricity over the same length of time at far lower rates from solar or wind farms?
Yes, the professional lying class the sits atop one of our two political parties has made coal a centerpiece of its lies. And, yes, many of the more gullibly stupid among us accepted those lies at face value, without ever attempting to understand what was really happening.
Ever since Hillary Clinton told Americans during the 2016 presidential campaign that the coal industry was dying, the professional lying class that supported her opponent kept up a slew of lies of many different types, hoping that the most gullibly stupid among us would continue to internalize their lies and then attempt to launder the lies to a wider audience.
Hillary Clinton actually was economically correct in her assessment and even truthful to the American people, but she misjudged the ability of the Trump organization to spread a slew of political lies.
As Pogo would type, and so it goes.
Ray W. says
Here is an HuffPost UK take on whether peace is the result of the recent signing of a multilateral ceasefire agreement involving the Gaza Strip.
According to the story, the BBC has on its staff a reporter, Jeremy Bowen, who is described as a Middle East expert.
During a Radio 4 Today program, Mr. Bowen commented:
“There’s actually almost no detail about how [the deal’s] going to be implemented. … Donald Trump essentially stated the destination, but he didn’t say state (sic) how you got there, and that seems to be his style. … It’s important to get some clarity from looking at what it is and what it isn’t. It is not a peace deal, it is not a peace process, it’s a ceasefire and hostage agreement. … Now that’s a considerable achievement in itself, and it tries to go on to state where it wants to go, but it doesn’t say how you get there and that’s a real problem.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I am not a Middle East expert. At best, I am a curious student. I don’t even know if Jeremy Bowen is a Middle East expert.
But, I am old enough to remember the side issue of the “battle of the tables” dispute between delegates from the United States and its allies, including South Vietnam, and delegates from North Vietnam over the number, size and shape of the negotiating tables to be used in Paris. The negotiations stalled until a bombing campaign brought the United States and the North Vietnamese to agreement on the tables in January 1969. Only then could actual negotiations begin. Even then, it took another four years for the negotiators to finally sign the 1973 Paris Peace Accords.
By April 1974, the last of the Americans left South Vietnam in a chaotic withdrawal. I turned 18 in 1975. I read about these things at the time because they interested me.
Billions of dollars worth of munitions and materiel, including jets and helicopters, jeeps and tanks, trucks and APC’s, all were left behind for use by the South Vietnamese Army so as not to denude the South Vietnamese Army of a means to protect the government after we left.
By 1975, South Vietnam fell as its army disintegrated. Hundreds of thousands of the South Vietnamese who had supported their government and American forces who had been left behind risked life and property to immigrate to the United States, where they came to lead productive lives and build a future for their families.
Nixon’s effort is an example of a failed “peace” accord, just as President Trump’s signing of an agreement with the Taliban in early 2020 is an example of a failed pact to have American forces leave Afghanistan by April 2021.
President Trump forced the Afghan government to release some 5000 Taliban fighters from jail, including the Taliban’s current leader in exchange for a promise to withdraw American soldiers, a promise that required us to leave billions of dollars of munitions and materiel, including jets and helicopter, jeeps and tanks, trucks and APCs so as not to denude the Afghan Army of a means to protect the government after we left.
I remain unconvinced that the Abraham Accords were ever “peace” accords.
None of the four Arab nations that signed the accords were actually at war with Israel when they put pen to paper. These were “diplomatic” accords designed to “normalize” relations between the four Arab countries and Israel.
Sudan has never signed its Accord, because its people cannot decide on who should govern the country. Nonetheless, in exchange for agreeing to an Accord, the United States signed a Memorandum of Understanding that it would loan $1.2 billion to Sudan to clear the country’s debt to the World Bank. Sudan then accepted a new loan greater than $1 billion from the World Bank. The United States also removed Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. Sudan paid $335 million into a fund to compensate American victims of state sponsored acts of terror.
Morocco signed its Accord after the United States agreed to reverse its previous position and waive formal objections to Morocco’s claim to land in the Western Sahara. The U.S. had previously supported efforts to settle land claims between the Moroccan government and the Polisario Front, an independence movement by the Sahrawi people.
Neither Bahrain nor the UAE were ever at war with Israel.
Is it fair to argue that peace had long existed between each of the four Arab nations and Israel when the four Abraham Accords were reached?
I am not arguing that the Abraham Accords were not then and are not now important. But if they were “peace” accords, they would be called “peace” accords, just as the Paris Peace Accord between the United States and its allies and North Vietnam is called a “peace” Accord.
Yes, I accept that words can have multiple meanings. But I find it extremely difficult to expand the meaning of “peace” to include nations that are not now at war, nor have they been at war for 50 or more years. That stretch is just too far.
The meaning of the verb “to run” may have had 105 different variants in 1982, but none of those 105 different meanings included the verb “to stop.”
In 2020, four Arab nations did not have diplomatic relations with Israel. That doesn’t mean that any of them were at war with Israel. It only meant that there was no formal way for them to talk with each other. To bastardize the meaning of an accord that normalizes diplomatic relations between nations did not have a formal process for them to talk to each other into a “peace” accord is just a step too far into a world of language with no meaning at all.
Ray W. says
The Daily Beast reports on comments made by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent about the Chinese government’s decision to restrict exports of rare earth metals and minerals, restrictions that require foreign companies that wish to acquire the minerals and metals to apply for licenses and then promise to meet the requirements set for the licenses.
Secretary Bessent is quoted as saying to the Financial Times:
“This is a sign of how weak their economy is, and they want to pull everybody else down with them. … Maybe there is some Leninist model where hurting your customers is a good idea, but they are the largest supplier to the world. … If they want to slow down the global economy, they will be hurt the most.”
According to The Daily Beast reporter, Bessent added that China was in the midst of a recession or depression and the country is “trying to export their way out of it.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I am confused. If China is placing restrictions on exports of rare earth metals and minerals by requiring the issuance of licenses to qualifying countries or businesses before exports of these materials can resume, then how can the licensing process mean that the country is trying to export its way out of a recession or depression?
I don’t know how to interpret his comments.
On the other hand, I do know that prior to the 2024 federal election, President Trump promised to impose tariffs and other restrictions on international trade.
I do know that in April 2024, not only did President Trump declare a “Liberation Day” but the Trump administration set up a licensing scheme for certain powerful and critical computer chips, called advance AI chips, and in particular the Nvidia H20 AI chip. Any foreign nation or company seeking to buy these types of American chips had to apply for a license and meet American restrictions in order to get the license.
I do know that China immediately responded to the American licensing scheme by setting up its own system of licensing on rare earth metals and minerals, a scheme requiring any American company that wanted to buy the rare earth metals and minerals to obtain a license and meet Chinese restrictions in order to get the license.
I do know that during the first half of the year, President Trump imposed a new tariff percentage on Chinese goods and that China immediately responded by imposing a counter-tariff. Trump then raised the tariff to 135%, which meant that the tariff level became an effective embargo on Chinese goods. China then retaliated again.
After negotiations, both Trump and Xi agreed to roll back the tariffs and China agreed to speed up the rare earth metal and mineral licensing process. Eventually, President Trump agreed to speed up the computer chip licensing process.
After Invidia and AMD agreed to pay into the Treasury 15% off revenue from Chinese purchases of these advanced AI chips, President Trump allowed the resumption of chip sales to Chinese companies. China immediately banned any of its domestic companies from purchasing the chips.
President Trump then threatened to reimpose the 100% tariff on Chinese goods that had been negotiated away.
China then reimposed and expanded licensing restrictions on rare earth metals and minerals, effectively cutting off all exports of these critical materials to the U.S.
So here we are.
I suppose each of us should form our own opinions, but the facts don’t really seem to be in too much dispute. All of this has been playing out in the press and on social media platforms since January 20th. Up and down, on and off, no one can predict where this will end up.
Secretary Bennett seems oblivious to what the current administration has done,
with proof of that possibility coming from his blaming everything on China.
Maybe he is right. Maybe all of it is China’s doing?
But the current administration is the one that first imposed an increase in tariff rates on China, and the evidence supports an argument that the current administration is the one that first imposed licensing restrictions on critical exports, such as advanced AI chips.
One consistent FlaglerLive commenter has asserted more than once that the Trump administration is playing chess when all others are playing checkers. And he, too, might be right.
My overriding concern is that the current administration may not be playing either chess or checkers, but that in reality it is playing with fire.
Igor S says
This cartoonist should change his name from David to pots.
His demon blindness an good and hate to Trump is out of control.
Freedom of speech not include hate.
If he see other options how to stop that war, do it.
Disgrace to great job Trump did.
I am not in huge favor about Trump, but this is great job so far.
Pogo says
@Hello Ray W
You could prosper on Substack, and on merit. One more thing I could not afford.
Anyway, your remarks on this date, as usual, are excellent.
FWIW, I add:
As stated
https://www.google.com/search?q=us+coal+mines+rare+earth
Be well.
Ray W. says
Hello Pogo:
Thank you.
It should be no secret any more that I place some of my focus on the many lie launderers who post false or inaccurate comments to the FlaglerLive site.
My returning over and over again to the egg shortage issue provides but one of many excellent opportunities for me to point out the lies that have repeatedly been laundered on the FlaglerLive site by the lie launderers among us.
Upon thinking about your comment, an instance of free association led me back to a long ago lie that had been laundered on the FlaglerLive site, a lie promulgated by Tucker Carlson, re: a diesel fuel shortage. So I looked it up.
On October 27, 2022, during a segment of his Tucker Carlson Tonight program, Mr. Carlson told his listeners that new EIA figures proved that America had 25 days of diesel fuel in reserve and that the entire nation would run completely out of diesel fuel “by the Monday of Thanksgiving week.”
A number of the more gullibly stupid FlaglerLive readers among us at the time immediately laundered Mr. Carlson’s lie on the FlaglerLive site. Each of these lie launderers claimed that President Biden was responsible for the coming complete depletion of the nation’s diesel fuel reserves.
Each of those gullibly stupid FlaglerLive commenters had missed the obvious. Tucker Carlson said this because the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is the busiest travel time of the year and that American families need abundant food for Thanksgiving dinners. If American truckers ran completely out of diesel fuel on the Monday of Thanksgiving week, many family Thanksgiving plans might be disrupted.
This is the modus operandi of the professional lying class that sits atop one of our two political parties, i.e., to issue lies that create fear in hopes that the more gullibly stupid among us will launder the lies all across the land.
I responded to the commenters who had laundered Mr. Carlson’s lies by arguing that the figure from which Mr. Carlson drew his conclusion was the amount of diesel fuel in our national storage and distribution system, not the total amount of diesel fuel constantly entering that system.
Since our refineries had not completely shut down, new quantities of diesel fuel were continuously flowing into the national reserve.
In other words, Mr. Carlson’s figure of 25 days of reserve, I argued, was a normal figure because refineries had not stopped cracking crude oil into new quantities of diesel fuel to continually replace that which was being consumed.
I looked up the amount of distillate fuel (including diesel) that today is in our national reserve.
Every week, the EIA publishes a report titled “This Week in Petroleum”. I went to that site.
In the October 8th weekly report, the EIA reported a distillate (including diesel) reserve of 31.7 days, as of October 3rd. On August 29th the distillate reserve was listed at 29.8 days. On September 29th, the distillate reserve was listed at 33.9 days. On October 3, 2024, the distillate reserve figure was listed at 30.6 days.
Tucker Carlson’s lie was spread to the FlaglerLive site by his gullibly stupid listeners nearly three years ago. We have yet to run out of diesel fuel over those nearly three years, not even close.
I am going to type this over and over again.
No FlaglerLive reader should ever accept at face value anything said by any member of the professional lying class that sits at the top of one of our two political parties. Never, ever!
Again, the modus operandi of that professional lying class is to lie and then claim that others have a burden to prove them wrong. The professional liars refuse to accept the burden of production of competent and reliable evidence and the burden of persuasion, the two facets of legal reasoning that comprise burden of proof.
In the world of the professional lying class, simply saying something automatically makes it true. And if no one responds to prove their lies wrong, that means to them that their lies remain true.
Here is perhaps a simple offering of how legal argumentation works.
If someone bears the burden of proof, then if they do not meet that burden of proof by the end of their presentation, no one needs to respond to their claim with other proof. The person with the burden of proof automatically lose their position. The lack of a response never proves their position. Over the years, some FlaglerLive commenters post a comment, at the end of which they type: I’m waiting. When no one answers, they then claim in another comment that the failure to respond proves their point. What fools they are. They have the burden of proof. All a failure to respond proves is a failure to respond.
One further way of explaining this concept is to rely on the theft statute. If a person claims that someone else stole his or her property, proof of possession of that property by the defendant at a particular time is but one part of the charge. Bearing the burden of proof, the complainant needs to prove more than that. The complainant has to prove that he or she owned or properly controlled the property at the time of the alleged taking. If the complainant doesn’t prove an ownership interest of whatever type at the time of the taking, the defense need not say anything at the end of the complainant’s case and the judge must dismiss the charge.
There once was a particular type of business practice that was common in the restaurant industry. This is not the first time I have commented on this subject.
Decades ago, people who held both an extremely valuable liquor license and a building in which a restaurant could be operated would offer to lease these two items to prospective restaurateurs for an initial down payment, plus a monthly sum such as a percentage of the gross receipts. In the late 70s and through the 80s, a common initial down payment was between $25k and $50k.
The owners of the liquor license and the building (sharks) would accept the down payment and remain as silent partners of the new restaurants and the budding restaurateurs (bait) would spend more of their money to upgrade the premises and obtain supplies.
Once open, the silent owners would eat and drink for free. Sometimes they would entertain their friends. In time, as commonly happens in the restaurant industry, the restaurants would fail, in part because of the drain by the sharks. The silent owners would file a criminal complaint against the restaurateurs, claiming that their property had been stolen by the restaurateurs, hoping to use it as leverage to get even more money out of their bait.
Certain locations throughout Volusia County would see new restaurants opening every few years. Same sharks, new bait. I began working in restaurants in 1971 and I worked by way through high school, college and law school, listening to co-workers and managers and bosses along the way. These certain locations were notorious in the industry. People talked of friends and bosses losing everything to the sharks whose goal was to strip everything they could from their bait. Don’t get me wrong. There are people in the restaurant industry who make their money by supporting people who lease their buildings and their liquor licenses. These people invest in human capital. The sharks, though, destroy human capital.
Shortly after becoming a felony prosecutor, I had one of these cases hit my desk. The attorney representing the failed restaurateurs had receipts for nearly all of the property the sharks claimed in their complaint affidavit belonged to them, including a convertible that was the centerpiece display at the front of the restaurant. I checked out from state records the ownership of the car. Sure enough, the bait owned the car at the time of the opening and still owned the car.
Armed with the receipts, I called in the sharks. They swore under oath that the car belonged to them, plus almost all of the chairs, stools, cutlery, plates and other items inside the building. I asked them for proof of ownership, including title to the car. They had none. I showed them the receipts that had been provided to me, including title to the car, that, if true, showed that the sharks didn’t own what they were saying the restaurateurs had stolen from them. I asked whether, if given time, the sharks could come up with proof of ownership. The husband and wife told me that time would not help them show proof of ownership. They agreed that perhaps I shouldn’t prosecute the restaurateurs.
I told them that if the restaurateurs ever filed a complaint of false prosecution and that if the case came to me then I would prosecute the sharks, not on what the sharks had told me under oath, but on what I possessed in the file about actual ownership of the property.
Prosecutors don’t initiate prosecutions on their own without a complaint affidavit. They can’t have someone cut them off in traffic and then go into the office and file a charge of reckless driving on their own. A case based on a complaint affidavit alleging that a crime had occurred and that a certain set of defendants had committed that crime had come to my desk and my job was to determine whether I could prove that the crime had occurred and whether the defendants were the ones who had committed that crime. I closed the case.
As an aside, I told the sharks that of all the prosecutors in the county, their complaint affidavit had been assigned to the one prosecutor who understood what the sharks were trying to do, which was to use a prosecutor in order to further shake down their bait.
I borrowed this long ago from an attorney whom I have always respected. I already understood him when he said it, but he said it better than I could. Every day, somebody somewhere is going to try to use a prosecutor (or a judge) to hurt someone else.
I commonly drove home on a route that took me past the failed restaurant location. A number of restaurants at that location had already opened and soon failed. Within a few weeks of my meeting with the sharks, a new restaurant opened up. It soon failed. Then another restaurant opened on the same site. It, too, failed. But after a few years, a bar on that site took root and soon flourished.
Ray W. says
Here is The Independent’s take on President Trump’s claim that peace has come to Gaza.
The headline? “It’s taken only 24 hours, but Trump’s fairytale of peace in the Middle East seems doomed”
Here are some bullet points from the story:
– Eleven years before, to the day of the recent mulitlateral meeting in Egypt that Dennis C. Rathsam claims at the top of this comment thread brought “PEACE” to the entire Middle East, another multilateral meeting took place, also in Sharm el-Sheikh. The reporter covered that meeting, too, recalling it as being billed as a “peace summit.” Another bloody war between Israel and Hamas needed resolving.
What was the purpose of the 2014 meeting? To sign a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
– The reporter also wrote:
“… [L]ess than 24 hours after Donald announced this ‘everlasting peace’, Palestinians were still being killed in Gaza, aid trucks stopped from going into Gaza and a row broke out about the failure of Hamas to return the bodies of the dead Israeli hostages.”
– “Palestinian health officials reported that seven people inspecting their homes in east Gaza were killed by Israeli drones, violating the fragile ceasefire.”
The IDF told The Independent that the individuals “had passed through a ‘yellow line’ to which they [the IDF] were withdrawn. Israeli journalists suggest that the IDF has “invisible lines” that Palestinians don’t know about.
– Online videos exist showing gunmen, purportedly Hamas gunmen, publicly executing men whom Hamas claims are “criminals and collaborators with Israel.”
– The largest of a number of Israeli hostage organizations now calls for the government to suspend all “ceasefire implementations” for the above-stated reason that not all of the bodies of the deceased hostages have been returned. The government has decided to not open the Rafah Gate between Gaza and Egypt for the ingress of humanitarian aid until all of the bodies of the hostages have been returned.
The reporter concludes:
“It seems it is even impossible to get through this simple and tiny starting point in the galling — even Herculean — task of trying to find a fair, just, and crucially practical peace agreement for Israel and Palestine. A Gordian knot of a problem people have been trying to resolve for literally generations.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
If what the reporter is describing is accurate, I remain convinced that, at most, the recent Sharm el-Sheikh agreement was nothing more that a ceasefire between belligerents, with an exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and with a slight pullback of IDF forces, though not all the way out of Gaza. The threat of famine remains, the threat of murder remains, the threat of religious extremism remains. This was not a “peace” deal, unless one so bastardizes the term so as to render it meaningless.
Pogo says
@Ray W
Thanks for the recollections and the sad truth: people have been selling — and buying — that bridge in NY, since they quit living in trees. Hell, they probably sold, and greased, the vines in the trees!
Can’t resist: and so it goes — look out below.