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Weather: Sunny, with a high near 80. Breezy, with a northeast wind 9 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 67. Northeast wind 10 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 21 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:
Drug Court convenes before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols at 10 a.m. in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County courthouse, Kim C. Hammond Justice Center 1769 E Moody Blvd, Bldg 1, Bunnell. Drug Court is open to the public. See the Drug Court handbook here and the participation agreement here.
Town of Marineland Commission Meeting, 6 p.m. in the main conference room at the GTMNERR Marineland, 9741 N Oceanshore Boulevard, St. Augustine. See the town’s website here.
Flagler Tiger Bay Club Guest Speaker Jamie Foster, Ph.D., Assistant Director, Astraeus Space Institute, University of Florida. Today’s topic: Advancing Human Spaceflight and Strengthening Florida’s Space Ecosystem–how the Astraeus Space Institute is advancing interdisciplinary research critical to space exploration, the role of public-private-academic partnerships in expanding the space economy, what we are learning about how space travel impacts the human body, and behavior. 11:30 a.m. at Hammock Dunes Club, 30 Ave Royale, Palm Coast. $35 for members, $40 for guests.
Story Time for Preschoolers at Flagler Beach Public Library, 11 to 11:30 a.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach. It’s where the wild things are: Hop on for stories and songs with Miss Doris.
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.
The Palm Coast Democratic Club holds an “After Dark” Recap Meeting (previous daytime business meeting) at 6 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month to accommodate working Democrats. We will meet at the Flagler Democratic Party Headquarters in City Marketplace, 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suite C214, Palm Coast. Hope you will join us. 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.
Notably: Rick Belhumeur, the Flagler Beach city commissioner, has been on a road trip with his cat Martin halfway across the country for the last few days. He sent in that picture as a “good morning from the cornfields of Minnesota” a few days ago. We needed it. After all the mayhem and losses of the last days, we needed it. It’s not the religious theme I find so appealing, though it’s certainly not not appealing, but the colors, the composition, the Christina’s World feel of it. Other shots were just as restorative.
—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
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
Al-Anon Family Groups
Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town,’ at Limelight Theatre in St. Augustine
Flagler County Library Board of Trustees
Flagler County’s Cold-Weather Shelter Opens
Nar-Anon Family Group
Bunnell City Commission Meeting
For the full calendar, go here.
Here, monks, is the holy truth about pain: birth is pain, old age is pain, illness is pain, death is pain, union with what one does not love is pain, separation from what one loves is pain, not obtaining one’s desire is pain, in summary the five kinds of objects of attachment are pain. Here, monks, is the holy truth about the origin of pain: it is thirst which leads from repression to recurrence, accompanied by pleasure and lust, which finds its pleasure here and there in the thirst for pleasure, the thirst for existence, the thirst for impermanence. Here, O monks, is the holy truth about the suppression of pain and the extinction of this thirst by the complete annihilation of desire, by banishing desire, by renouncing it, by freeing oneself from it, by leaving no room for it. Here, & monks, the holy truth on the path which leads to the elimination of pain is this sacred path, with eight branches, which is called pure faith, pure will, pure language, pure action, pure means of existence, pure application, pure memory, pure meditation
—From the Sermon at Bénarès.
Pogo says
@P.T. (and master Belhumeur)
Beauty and grace; a breakfast feast — amen.
And thank you, God bless you.😺😸😻😺
Pierre Tristam says
Thank you Pogo. Belhumeur texted from Newton Falls, Ohio before dawn this morning, where it was 40 degrees.
Ray W. says
Thank you, Mr. Tristam, for the segment of the Sermon at Benares. It evoked a memory of the first paragraph in Dr. M. Scott Peck’s work of psychology titled The Road Less Traveled. Dr. Peck openly states in the preface, as I recall, that the book is written from a Christian perspective.
Dr. Peck begins:
“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult – once we truly understand and accept it – then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”
My paraphrase of this opening paragraph is that so long as we fight the fact that life is difficult, life will remain difficult. Once we accept that fact, we can begin to make life less difficult. Life will never be easy. The best we can hope for is a life less difficult than the worst it can be.
As a prosecutor, defense attorneys would approach me from time to time with requests for pre-trial intervention (PTI) plans for their clients.
To me, PTIs were useless if the defendant was incapable of completing the plan for whatever the reason. Some people will promise to do things and then do anything to avoid doing what they promised to do. I didn’t want to offer a PTI and then come back two or three months later and have to reprosecute the case because the defendant couldn’t complete the terms of the agreement. So most of the time I denied requests for PTIs.
But not always. I sought to limit my offers of PTI agreements to those who proved to me that they could complete a simple goal within a short but set period of time.
I began telling the defense attorneys that their clients had two weeks from that day to obtain a particular book of my choosing, read it through, and submit to me a (by my 30 year old recollection) 250 word essay about the meaning of the book.
Most often, I assigned The Road Less Traveled. On occasion, I assigned Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Neither are short reads.
I don’t know how often I asked for the essays. Perhaps a hundred. Perhaps more. Perhaps less. I no longer have the folder in which I kept the essays.
But the responses from the defendants were extremely positive. One wrote a cover page to his essay, in which he described how he went to the New Smyrna library to check out the book. The librarian told him that all of their six copies of the book had been checked out. The defendant then bought the book. After he read it, he bought five more and gifted them to the library. He already knew that he was going to get the PTI because he had met the conditions I had set for him, so he didn’t need to write what he wrote, but he said the book had become that important to him that he felt the necessity of enabling others to read it too.
I agree with Dr. M. Scott Peck that among all of the possible truths available to us, there exist “great” truths.
Opposing the hateful among us, the vengeful among us, the violent among us, that is a “great” truth.
Opposing the liars among us, the lie launderers among us, the opportunists who lie for economic or political gain among us, this too is a “great” truth.
As for the editorial cartoon depicting the Pope being assailed by hate personified and by lies personified, a number of news outlets recently reported about the Pope’s discussions with visiting U.S. Bishops who had traveled to Rome to speak of “stories and fears of our immigrant sisters and brothers from across our country”, in which discussions the Pope encouraged them to “strongly” speak out against the manner of treatment towards immigrants dealt out by the current administration.
On September 30th, Pope Leo spoke:
“Someone who says I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”
Is this, too, a “great” truth?
Make of all of this what you will.
Me?
In response to the Pope’s statement about pro-life, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the she “would reject there was inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the United States under this administration.”
Each of us can determine for ourselves whether Ms. Leavitt is lying or not.
I maintain the position that I have taken for a long time.
If in 1985, forty years ago, a child is carried across our border at the age of three, that child is incapable of forming the mental intent of whatever type to commit what our federal legislature defines as a minor misdemeanor crime of unlawfully crossing the border (remember, it is a civil offense, not a criminal offense, to remain in the country without documentation).
If in the ensuing forty years that child who was incapable of committing any crime at the age of three earns a high school diploma and works her way through college, is that evidence that she is pursuing the American dream?
If in the ensuing forty years that child becomes a member of a church family and participates in church activities, is that evidence that she is a positive addition to her faith, her family and her community?
If in the ensuing forty years that child marries and has a family is that evidence that she will likely never engage in criminal activity?
If in the ensuing forty years she creates and grows her own business to employ others, is that evidence that she is a positive economic addition to the American society?
If after forty years she is detained at the door of her business and thrown to the ground and cuffed without court order, is she the type of immigrant that Pope Leo is talking about?
If she is hustled off to a detention facility and then moved thousands of miles away from the only home that she has known, from her family, from her church, from her business, is that the type of government action that Pope Leo says his Bishops should oppose?
If she is deported without a hearing to a country she has never seen, to a country in which she has no family or resources, is that the type of government activity, the type of cruelty, the type of hate, the type of lies, that Pope Leo is speaking out about?
Let’s face facts.
Should an undocumented immigrant who is the worst of the worst be detained, no one will oppose deportation.
But many of the best of the immigrants among us are being swept up in their driveways and hustled away without access to legal recourse despite their never having committed any crime at all.
Hence the question:
If the most gullibly stupid among us applaud the deportation of people who are better than they are, what does that say about us?
It strikes me that a lesser percentage of a plurality of the American people have decided that the current administration has permission from them to delegate a portion of the administration’s limited political powers to those who personify political hate and to those who personify political lying? The best of our undocumented immigrant population is paying a huge price for that decision.
Skibum says
The maga republi-cons are foaming at the mouth incensed by the word “antifa”, as if it refers to some kind of nuclear holocaust scenario for the destruction of America. It is not… the word, and those who are supporters, simply are anti-fascist and do not want any sort of fascism to take over our country. No forever king or emperor, no authoritarian un-democratic government, NO ONE MAN RULE and power grab of all three branches of the federal government for his own benefit! That is what Hitler tried to accomplish, and for awhile, succeeded at.
That is why drumph is rightly compared to Hitler by so many people, including myself. And for those who think that comparison is wrong or offensive, think again! Drumph’s own horrible, racist, Hitler-loving members of the Young Republicans Club have been revealed for what they really are. Their messages in what they thought was a secret chat group contained a chain of disgusting text messages back and forth that were not only revealing, they are vile, disgusting, anti-American, antisemitic, and should be extremely offensive to all Americans.
Here are just a small sample of the Young Repbulicans Club chat messages:
“I’m ready to watch people burn now”
“you’re giving nationals to much credit and expecting the Jew to be honest”
“I’d go to the zoo if I wanted to watch monkey play ball”
“When do we start bullying dude?”
“They love the watermelon people”
“Great. I love Hitler”
and finally,
“If we ever had a leak of this chat we would be cooked fr fr”
Our idiot VP and couch sex pervert Vance has attempted to defend the horrendous conduct and statements from this republi-con group of morons, saying well, they’re just kids and kids say dumb things. NO, they are NOT kids! Everyone in this group are adults, some as old as 40 years old! There is NO defending any of this! They can’t just simply waive it away, turn their heads and in the same breath make idiotic statements that antifa, anti-fascists are the problem when people within the republi-con party are spouting hateful rhetoric, antisemitic and racist vulgarities, and praising Hitler.
It is just another indication that the current ideation of what was once the Republican Party has now devolved into a white supremist, Hitleresque version of the KKK without the white hoods and late night torch rallies. Simply states, it is the repbuli-cons who by today’s standards and behavior show America they protect pedophiles and act like domestic terrorists. They must be so proud of those accomplishments.
Ray W. says
This just out.
Researchers with Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business, working with the Seidman Research Institute, published a study titled “THE 2025 OFFICIAL LDC U.S. LATINO GDP REPORT”
The study is based on economic data through 2023, the latest year that complete data was available to the researchers.
CNBC covered the report.
Among the many conclusions from the report was this, as interpreted by the reporter:
“Dennis Hoffman, ASU economics professor and the lead author of the U.S. Latino GDP report, warned deporting as many as 8.3 million undocumented workers could lead to losses of more than 19.5 million workers because of the lost revenue and economic activity provided by undocumented workers.”
Added Professor Hoffman:
“We need to fix our immigration system. I’m not suggesting open borders. I’m not suggesting we allow people to work persistently without papers. But our system is fixable. … We can sponsor productive, hardworking, undocumented workers and not suffer the pain that we would have to incur if we actually did something like this [mass deportation].
Other bullet points from the article:
– “As baby boomers age, their share of spending declines by about 4% annually, … and U.S. Latinos are poised to fill the spending gap. Their share of U.S. consumption is growing by more than 3% annually. Actual consumer spending is up nearly 5% annually compared with 2.4% for non-Latinos, driven by population changes and a rise in disposable income.”
– Professor Hoffman developed an economic algorithm, what he calls a “simulation”, for the impact on the American economy, should all 8.3 million undocumented immigrants be deported. From that simulation came the expectation that total U.S. GDP would decline by 7.7%, or by $2.3 trillion per year.
– U.S. Latino GDP is up 50% since 2015. Non-Latino GDP is up 17% over the same time.
– In 2023, California’s Latino GDP was $889 billion, a figure that is projected to surpass $1 trillion in 2025. Texas, Florida and New York have Latino populations producing hundreds of billions of dollars in GDP each year. Overall, in 2023, $4.1 trillion in GDP came from Latinos.
– According to Saul Trujillo, chairman of the Trujillo Group and co-founder of the Latino Donor Collaborative:
“It’s very clear — if there’s a silver bullet for the economy beyond [artificial intelligence], it’s the Latino consumer. They are workers, entrepreneurs and consumers, driving significant growth across sectors in the American economy.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I am not an economist. But it doesn’t take an economist to understand certain basic economic truths.
For example, total GDP of the American economy is measured from two factors.
One of these factors is GDP productivity per worker. This is a very important factor. GDP growth can occur even if the total worker pool stagnates or contracts if technological or organizational breakthroughs allow for greater productivity per worker.
Right now, many economists conclude that the major driver of technological or organizational growth comes from AI. Billions of dollars, perhaps hundreds of billions, are being invested in the AI sector each year to take advantage of the possible productivity gains on offer. But many economic sectors separate and apart from the AI sector are languishing or slightly growing. Our GDP growth of 2.05% during the first half of 2025 (0.3% in the first quarter and 3.8% in the second quarter) comes predominately from investment in AI. Economists warn of a one-trick-pony type of economy. A broadly-based economy is considered by economists as far more healthy than a more narrowly-based economy.
The second factor in GDP growth comes by adding more workers to the total labor pool of workers. The productivity gain resulting from the addition of each new worker adds to total GDP. Should the total labor pool contract, total GDP contracts too, absent technological or organizational growth.
In most European countries, and in Japan and South Korea, this second facet of GDP doesn’t exist, because the labor supply is contracting as their populations age and their birth rates drop below replacement rate. America, too, is hitting this wall as baby boomers age out of the economy. Demographic studies show that the native-born labor pool began to flatline in 2020. Without some magical increase in the native-born among us, what will follow the “flatlining” will be a tipping into a decline in the native-born population. Without immigrants, we simply cannot increase the total labor pool of workers unless we bring ever younger workers into that labor pool and/or we extend the retirement age to keep our elders from retiring out of the total labor pool.
Ray W. says
The South African automobile manufacturing sector produced over 600,000 personal vehicles and light commercial vehicles in 2023. Many of those vehicles were exported to other countries.
About a month ago, a Reuters reporter, after learning of a government official having revealed to South Africa’s parliament its plans to induce Chinese investment in South Africa, wrote of ongoing negotiations between South Africa’s Trade, Industry & Competition ministry and a number of Chinese EV makers who want more access to the country’s automobile sector.
South Africa’s government position is that Chinese automakers should invest in manufacturing capacity in South Africa, both to sell the product domestically and to export the rest, and that current trade restrictions and tariffs will not be relaxed to allow import of cheap Chinese-made EVs.
Said a South African minister of government:
“We’ve also been trying to move up to the highest ceiling of import duties to make sure that cheap imports do not price out South African-manufactured cars.”
Established carmakers such as Ford, Isuzu, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Hyundai, Toyota, Nissan and Mahindra already assemble or manufacture vehicles in South Africa, not just for the domestic market, but for export.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
BYD is expanding all over the world with battery factories and assembly plants and manufacturing plants into countries a number of countries, such as Brazil, Turkey, Germany, Hungary, Thailand and Mexico, with plans to enter Pakistan and apparently now South Africa.
Other Chinese EV makers want to expand their presence all other the world, too.
Ray W. says
According to an Interesting Engineering article from a few weeks ago, Geely Auto has a subsidiary brand called Geely Galaxy, which just introduced its 17-foot-long M9 into China’s crowded full-sized SUV sector.
The M9 comes with two motor packages, each twinned to a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine that produces up to 219 horsepower and 188 lb-ft of torque. The base single-motor package that drives both front wheels produces 241 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque.
The dual-motor package, with one motor per rear wheel, adds another 228 horsepower per motor and 207 ft-lb of torque.
Battery options are as follows:
Base single-motor package – 18.4 kWh battery pack that provides 62 miles of electric-only range, with a total range between battery and gas engine of 823 miles.
Base single-motor package – 41.46 kWh battery pack that ups electric-only range to 143 miles. Total range combining battery-only and gas-power rises to 935 miles.
Three-motor package with larger battery yields a battery-only range of 130 miles and a total range of 808 miles.
Acceleration from 0-62 mph takes as little as 4.5 seconds. With a depleted battery pack, the gasoline-powered engine provides fuel mileage of between 4.8 to 6.25 liters per 100 kilometers. In miles per gallon, that means between 49 mpg to 37.6 mpg, again depending on motor package. Weight, depending on motor and battery packages, ranges from 4,806 pounds to 5,578 pounds.
Battery recharge rates, one of the best in its class, permit charging from 15% to 80% in 15 minutes.
The M9 comes standard with a single Nvidia Orin-Y chip.
As an aside, many American vehicles contain over 1,000 specialized computer chips, but the Chinese EV industry is pushing towards using a single AI-capable chip to handle all necessary functions.
Price in the Chinese marketplace? From $27,040 to $36,100.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
In the ultra-competitive Chinese automotive marketplace, EVs sell for far less than they do in export markets. The last article I read that referred to the breadth of the carmaking sector had 113 Chinese carmakers still active in the domestic EV sector. A winnowing in underway. Many carmakers will fail or be bought out in the next few years. In time, the Chinese marketplace may see a rise in vehicle prices.
Ray W. says
This comment comes from a really odd space.
The Independent reports that this past Sunday afternoon, at or about 5:00 p.m., a three-piece band that calls itself the “Unpresidented Brass Band” was playing music on a sidewalk near the Portland ICE detention facility, a facility that has been subject of protests for the last several months.
When the band launched into playing the Ghostbusters theme song, ICE officers reportedly threw her face down to the ground, with one agent straddling her and eventually arresting her. In a video of the incident, her clarinet was about two feet to her left.
Her husband, when interviewed, said:
“Why are they targeting a clarinet player? A clarinet player standing on the sidewalk far away from the street, following instructions.”
The husband told a KOIN6 reporter:
“It is a beautiful party atmosphere. Everybody’s really excited. Then the band hits into ‘Ghostbusters’, and then at ‘Ghostbusters’, that’s when ICE start storming in.”
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the clarinet player is being held on charges of “suspicion of assaulting a federal officer.”
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin issued a statement, in which the arrest of three persons was described:
They were “assaulting law enforcement including for spitting, kicking, and biting officers.”
According to Ms. McLaughlin, the protesters were “Antifa domestic terrorists and anti-ICE rioters” who were “staging ‘die-ins’ by laying naked in the street to block roads near the federal facility, …” The reporter inferred that Ms. McLaughlin was referring to naked bicyclists who had pedaled past the ICE building this past Sunday.
As an aside, I looked up when, if ever, Portland has been the location of a organized naked bike ride.
It seems that on July 26, 2025, 5,700 naked bicyclists staged an charity fundraising event on behalf of “Hearts and Handlebars”.
Another site referred to a naked bike ride designed to protest “Trump’s illegal invasion” of Portland being scheduled for October 12, the date the clarinet player was arrested.
A “World Naked Bike Ride” apparently took place in Portland this past August.
Back to Ms. McLaughlin. In the official DHS statement, this language was set out:
“These unsightly tactics won’t stop us or slow us down — our law enforcement will continue to remove murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and terrorists out of our country. … This chaos and violence will end under President Trump. Law and order will prevail.”
Who knows what to make of this? I wasn’t there.
Somehow, it seems, an attempt to organize a naked bike ride past an ICE detention center became in a government statement nudists engaging in a “die in” by laying naked in the street. I concede that two separate events can occur at the same time and that nudists engaging in a “die in” can occur alongside a nude bike ride.
And somehow a 38-year-old clarinet player, married and the mother of one, and perhaps skilled in a rendition of the Ghostbusters theme song, became an Antifa terrorist or an anti-ICE rioter.