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Weather: Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. Calm wind becoming southwest around 6 mph in the afternoon. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 65. Light and variable wind.
- 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 Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at its new location on South 2nd Street, right in front of City Hall, featuring prepared food, fruit, vegetables , handmade products and local arts from more than 30 local merchants. The market is hosted by Flagler Strong, a non-profit.
Coffee With Commissioner Scott Spradley: Flagler Beach Commission Chairman Scott Spradley hosts his weekly informal town hall with coffee and doughnuts at 9 a.m. at his law office at 301 South Central Avenue, Flagler Beach. All subjects, all interested residents or non-residents welcome. The gatherings usually feature a special guest.
American Association of University Women (AAUW) Monthly Meeting, 11 a.m. at Cypress Knoll Golf Club, 53 Easthampton Blvd, Palm Coast. A monthly speaker is featured. Lunch is available for $20 in cash, $21 by credit card, but must be ordered in advance. The lunch menu is available on our website. Lunch may be ordered by sending an email to: [email protected].
Peps Art Walk, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every second and fourth Saturday, Beachfront Grille, 2444 South Oceanshore Boulevard, Flagler Beach. Step into the magical vibes of Unique Handcrafted vendors gathering in one location, selling handmade goods. Makers, crafters, artists, of all kinds found here. From honey to baked goods, wooden surfboards, to painted surfboards, silverware jewelry to clothing, birdbaths to inked glass, beachy furniture to foot fashions, candles to soaps, air fresheners to home decor and SO much more! Peps Art Walk happens on the last Saturday of every month. A grassroots market that began in May of 2022 has grown steadily into an event with over 30 vendors and many loyal patrons. The event is free, food and drink on site, parking is free, and a raffle is held to raise money for local charity Whispering Meadows Ranch. Kid friendly, dog friendly, great music and good vibes. Come out to support our hometown artist community!
Grace Community Food Pantry, 245 Education Way, Bunnell, drive-thru open today from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The food pantry is organized by Pastor Charles Silano and Grace Community Food Pantry, a Disaster Relief Agency in Flagler County. Feeding Northeast Florida helps local children and families, seniors and active and retired military members who struggle to put food on the table. Working with local grocery stores, manufacturers, and farms we rescue high-quality food that would normally be wasted and transform it into meals for those in need. The Flagler County School District provides space for much of the food pantry storage and operations. Call 386-586-2653 to help, volunteer or donate.
Second Saturday Plant Sale at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, 6400 North Oceanshore Blvd., Palm Coast, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Flowers, bushes and hard to find plants. The event is sponsored by the Friends of Washington Oaks. Regular entrance fee applies: $4 per vehicle with one person aboard, $5 for vehicles with more than one person.
Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town,’ at Limelight Theatre in St. Augustine, 11 Old Mission Avenue, St. Augustine. 7:30 p.m. most days, with matinees on Sundays, at 2 p.m., and on Nov. 15. Thornton Wilder’s timeless masterpiece chat quietly and powerfully explores life, love, and loss in small-town America. A deeply human story that resonates with every audience.
Notably: Dora-Mittelbau, also known as Dora, was a Nazi subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp, itself established, we may overlook, several years before the beginning of World War II. The brutality at Dora was extreme, the hangings a plaything of the SS, the undernourishment and overwork a norm. Dora sprawled underground in old salt mines, its workers forced to make the V-1 and V-2 rockets that rained on Britain. Francois le Lionnais was an intellectual industrialist, a fabulous chess player, a mathematician who was not yet 40 when the war started. He joined the Resistance, was arrested in October 1944, tortured, and sent to Dora. He survived to eventually become a founder of one of UNESCO’s branches. He published many books and gained a reputation for his style, his humor, his inventiveness. One of those works is a very brief essay called “La peinture a Dora,” or “Painting at Dora,” which can also be a play on word, Painting to Dora. It works both ways. He wrote it in 1946, and it begins this way: “The event took place one morning during one of those routines to which we were accustomed. We were a few thousand prisoners, stagnating on the roll-call square, while a general search was conducted. My gaze fell mechanically on the hill that rose up by the infirmary. Autumn had fully set in there. Then these great, bare trees swooped down on me without warning and carried me away with them. The Hell of Dora suddenly metamorphosed into a Breughel painting, and I became its guest. Aided, no doubt, by the physical and mental weakness in which we found ourselves, a keen exaltation seized me: the feeling of having escaped, as smoke might have, right under the eyes of my idiotic guards. This euphoria was short-lived. It was long enough, however, to allow me to endure the solid volley of punches and jaw-breaking slaps (yet another case revealing the expressive superiority of popular language over academic vocabulary: “baffes” [clouts] is what one ought to say) which were my lot when my turn came to be searched. I knew then that I was once again being summoned by the call of an old passion.” What follows is his description of the way he and a fellow inmate (who did not survive) would spend those moments recreating paintings entirely from memory, one after the other, in detail so astounding that when Le Lionnais described “The Embarkation for Cythera,” the Watteau painting, his friend fell in love with the woman in the bottom left of the painting, giving the words sight unseen–giving the emotion of that love–a meaning as heartbreaking as it is sublime. Together they built an entire museum of the imagination, which made me think of Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence, a work of similar mind-bending beauty, without the overlay of terror and dehumanization, and where the protagonist goes about recreating his fleeting love for a woman through little objects he collects. Memory is our refuge, and how: at one point in his Dora nightmare Le Lionnais begins to introduce elements from one painting into another just to see how the “characters” react. The exercises did a lot to keep him sane, and eventually to save him. It is in sum a living truth that through art and imagination, we can defy, at least up to a point, even the worst prison invented by man. After completing this entry, I came across a video where all the works cited in “La peinture a Dora” are shown and commented by a writer at the Louvre. I could not make the English subtitles work. I’m not sure they’re available. But it is enough to look at the paintings and hear the cadences of the presenter to get a flavor of the work, leaving the rest to le Lionnais’ device: just imagine.
—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
Acoustic Jam Circle At The Community Center In The Hammock
Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn
Tree-Lighting Ceremony in Central Park
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn
For the full calendar, go here.
Thus the days passed for me at Dora, amidst the interminable roll calls in the snow and the cold winter wind. Now well-versed in my game, I no longer had much need for the canvases painted by those painters to create my own universe of forms and colors. A few weeks before the Liberation, I had recovered sufficient inner elasticity to be able to indulge again in one of my old vices: Mental Painting. I am indeed the author of a great number of paintings that I have had to content myself with imagining, lacking the ability to paint them. (The fairies, at my birth, endowed me with considerable manual awkwardness.) I have made a specialty of intoxicating landscapes and astounding faces. On the other hand, I am not very good at still life, and I prefer to say nothing about my attempts at genre painting. It is especially in the evening that I most willingly indulge in this sort of exercise. Unfortunately, my paintings generally do not last more than a few minutes, sometimes even a few seconds. In terms of radioactivity, their “periods” are between those of Thorium A (0.14 seconds) and Radium C (3 minutes). Everything unravels quickly, like the patterns of rain on a windowpane, and authentic masterpieces begin to run like Camembert cheeses. Most often, discouraged, I lose interest in these overly liquid creations and think of something else. Other times, I hang on, I strive to rework them, and I use the debris of a painting in full deliquescence to hastily fabricate another one, which, by the way, will last no longer.
–From François Le Lionnais’ “La Peinture a Dora” (1946).
Dennis C Rathsam says
Just like all the other jackass supported freebies, SNAP, is loaded with FRAUDE! Look at how many programs designed to help the poor the democrats funneled money through it, stealing & reoproperyment.How much money did DODGE find? Time for a real audit, to catch the real crooks stealing money from the poor.
Skibum says
You have zero proof of anything! You watch the maga talking heads at fauxinfotainment and maybe other un-Christian nationalistic extremist media outlets, listen with rapt attention to the daily vomit of lies spouting out of the convicted felon pedophile protecting prez’ mouth like it was the voice of Jeusus reincarnate.
Dennis, the felon prez could pull down his pants and literally shit all over you, and you would smile reverently like his shit was a gift from heaven, and wallow in it all day long thanking your lucky stars.
Even pigs know when it is time to wallow elsewhere, but despicable human behavior is unquestionably something that needs much more study as sane people continue to be in wonderment… and revulsion. Kind of like looking through a glass enclosure at a zoo at all of the weird creatures therein. Want some peanuts?
TrumpHole says
Maine just elected someone who pleaded guilty of, and was convicted of Manslaughter. She served a 20 yr. sentence and was released in 2022. Three years later she was elected to city counsel!
I think manslaughter is a felony…..
A Communist Muslim elected Mayor of NYC? Never had a real job, but got elected. Talk about a bullshit artist!
Dearborn elected Muslims, while Muslims are trying to destroy the USA from within.
These are facts.
Wait until we see the despicable behavior coming from Islamic Terrorists, there will be plenty to study. Hopefully the glass we look through will be bulletproof.
Sometimes common sense TRUMPS proof!!!
You call him a felon. Mortgage fraud doesn’t come close to manslaughter.
Try to stay away from the MSM. Broaden your horizons by leaving your political comfort zone and pay attention to what our enemies are doing and maybe you will have a better understanding of why the political party you despise is doing what it does. God Bless The USA…..
Ray W. says
It’s always preferable to check one’s sources before commenting, but TrumpHole, while substantially wrong in his comment about Angela Walker, isn’t completely wrong.
According to Fox News, in 2003, Angela Walker, alongside her brother, entered a plea to manslaughter, and she alone pleaded to perjury, in a case arising from a 2002 event in which a Canadian tourist who allegedly used a racial slur derogatory to Native Americans was later found “beaten to death and suffocated with sand.” Ms. Walker, a Native American, received a 10-year sentence and was released from prison in 2012.
After her release, she underwent treatment for alcohol addiction and now works as the “peer services coordinator” at the Bangor Area Recovery Network.
According to a WGME story, Ms. Walker was one of nine candidates on the ballot for a Bangor city council seat.
She ran on a platform of improving public spaces, identifying and fixing public safety issues, and bettering public transportation.
She beat, among seven others, Richard Ward, who had a documented history of neo-Nazi rhetoric.
She told the Bangor Daily News:
“That’s my past. I don’t live there any more and I’m a different person.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I went to a MSM news outlet, in this case Fox News, and found a story that revealed TrumpHole a lie launderer.
Then I went to the WGME site.
I understand, however sadly, that many a FlaglerLive commenter is willing to throw away credibility in order to make a comment, however false it becomes under their distortions, more appealing to certain people.
Laurel says
Again, the only thing I can figure is that acceptance, in a tribe, is more important than facts. Even if that includes paranoia.
Laurel says
By the way, what the hell is “reoproperyment?”
Sherry says
Thank you Ray W. for doing your research and giving us the “full story”. Obviously “Cherry Picking” should remain as a food source only. :)
I’m calling Maga “trolling” on the person who certainly has an appropriate handle.
Laurel says
The people are hungry, they have no bread.
“Let them eat cake!”
For those of you who want to blame this solely on Democrats, please explain, then, why, when told by the court to distribute money for food stamps, the Trump administration is fighting it? They are literally fighting the release of available funds to feed people. How do you rationalize that?
Pogo says
@As stated
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+question+isn't+where+was+god+it's+where+was+man
Ed P says
The partisan asymmetry in media, activism, and everyone’s comments even at Flagler Live are all guilty of extending the shutdown. It’s right down the partisan divide. Shameful.
Since the lack of sincere compassion of using human pain and suffering won’t move the Dems to fold their losing hand (because their all in bluff has been called by the republicans), maybe the potential economic destruction of our economy will catch their eye.
The lost employment in the private and public sectors will in many instances be permanent. Possibly 10,000 or more jobs will vanish. The toll will accumulate and exponentially accelerate weekly as it drags on.
It’s estimated that we have permanently lost 7-14 billion in economic output. Gone forever. This amount multiplies every week and could top $58 billion in the coming weeks. It’s estimated we will see a reduction of GDP down to 1% for the fourth quarter even if the shutdown ends now. That’s significantly lower than the projected 2.3-2.4%
The gullible media will be blaming the economic downturn on Trump, the tariffs, and everything but the facts- it’s the shutdown stupid. It’s not Ai either.
Anyone who endorses either side of this debacle can’t see reality. That light is a train coming.
The shutdown must end immediately. The damage is done but will irreparably hurt our entire country if it’s allowed to carry on another 8 weeks.
No one should take a partisan position on this debate because it is the proverbial circular firing squad.
Ps The holiday travel disruptions and supply chain issues will be the very least of our worries.
Pierre Tristam says
Right. Blame media. Blame activists. Blame commenters. Blame victims. But at no cost blame the one man who, too busy starving 41 million Americans and building shrines to his cock, could end it immediately. Shameful indeed.
Ed P says
Pierre,
Where have you been for the last 8 weeks?
Glad to see you are finally fire up.
Laurel says
You see, Pierre? That’s the game. I don’t want to play anymore. It’s like taking a logical, factual brain and banging it against the wall. That’s “owning the libs.” It’s better to ignore.
Pierre Tristam says
Ignore, but keep writing.
Laurel says
My Republican husband says that Mike Johnson is such a bad actor that he couldn’t get a job in an elementary school play!
I say, it’s amazing the admin puts him behind a podium!
Sherry says
The Democrats “caved” and offered huge compromise. . . which the Republicans immediately smacked down:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader John Thune quickly swatted down a Democratic offer to reopen the government and extend expiring health care subsidies for a year, calling it a “non-starter” as the partisan impasse over the shutdown continued into its 38th day.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer made the offer to reopen the government on Friday as Republicans have refused to negotiate on demands to extend health care subsidies. It was a much narrowed version of a broad proposal Democrats laid out a month ago to make the health tax credits permanent and reverse Medicaid cuts that Republicans enacted earlier this year.
Laurel says
The longer the Republicans swat down, the more time passes on the Epstein files. The duly elected Democrat won’t be sworn in, and able to vote for releasing the files. The Trump supporters have already forgiven the child rapists and are contented to move on. The girls be damned. The wealthy pedophiles are protected. The files can be scrubbed.
They don’t give a shit if people eat, other than the cartoon shit dropped on American citizens from the king’s plane.
Vile!
Sherry says
It’s accident that an over the top, garish party was actually held at Mar A Lago. . . while trump appeals his REJECTION of SNAP benefits for starving children to the Supreme Court!
Why don’t you see that this is a “Spit In The Eye” to all average US citizens?! trump and his billionaire oligarchs are partying down while millions upon millions of “working” Americans are living paycheck to paycheck! Beyond Reprehensible!
Laurel says
They don’t see for the same reason cult members need intervention and the brainwashing be reversed.
What is obvious to you and be is a threat to the cult, as it would diminish the cult. The tribal acceptance would dissipate.
Sherry says
Sorry. . . I meant to say that “It’s “NO” accident. . .
Skibum says
At drumph’s mar-a-pedo “Great Gatsby” bash that was happening just as he ordered SNAP food benefits cut for families in need, wealthy, entitled tuxedo wearing, inebriated men drank and partied with strapless, scantily dressed tarts who danced the night away inbetween sips from their martini glasses. The gaudy glitz, golden ensconced surroundings and monied excess of the partiers showed exactly how life imitates art.
The back story of the original “Great Gatsby” revolved around the moral decay and excesses of both the new money wealthy trying to fit in and be accepted by the old money wealthy, both of which were morally bankrupt and engaged in reckless behavior while dissing and ignoring all of the average Americans who were having very different challenges involving the difficulty of just trying to figure out how to get by right before the entire collapse of Wall Street’s stock market.
The rich were getting away with anything and everything in their pursuits of pleasure, not being held accountable for their corrupt actions. For the rest of America, only emptiness and dispair as their financial situations became more dire.
Yes, drumph’s glitzy, gaudy party of excess was the perfect metaphor for his morally bankrupt and corrupt administration and what he has demanded the maga republi-cons TAKE from the American people who are in more dire straights every day since the government shutdown.
Take food out of hundry children’s mouths… why yes, DO IT!
Take affordable healthcare away from millions and millions of American families… yes again, DO IT!
Send all republi-con members of the HOR back home to sit and do nothing for nearly two months as an excuse for drumph’s maga sycophant speaker to say sorry, can’t swear in a newly elected dem member of congress because nobody’s home… for sure, yes, DO IT!
Take back the promise to be completely transparent and release the Epstein Files that contain the names of Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophile associates. Order the AG to have investigators erase all indications of pedo protecting drumph’s name from the pages and hide the files deep within the DOJ to prevent congress and the American public from knowing the names of other sexual abusers that drumph and his maga speaker of the house are protecting… yes again, DO IT!
There are so many other morally bankrupt, conspiratorial, illegal, unconstitutional, unethical and dishonest actions taking place AND being planned for the future, but not until all of the dirty old men with money finish their martinis and finally stop dancing the night away with their little tarts in strapless dresses at the gaudy, glitzy mar-a-pedo reality show that mimicks all of the debauchery that occurred with the ultra wealthy back in the 1920s.
Is THIS what maga voters, what independent voters thought they were getting when they voted for DJT in last November’s election???
Laurel says
Yes Skibum, and he’s knowingly flaunting it in our faces while his supporters think he’s working for them.
I wonder who will get the rights to this miniseries?
Ray W. says
Thank you, Mr. Tristam.
I no longer recall how old I was at the time, but quite some time ago I read a short story about an Australian P.O.W. in a Japanese camp. I have commented on this before.
The soldier did not grow up near the sea. He had never sailed in his life, except to get to where he had been captured on a troopship. All he had was a book about sailing on the ocean. He allotted himself one sentence per day. He spent each new day imagining what each sentence meant, what it was like to actually manually work the rigging and just sail. He permitted himself to reread sentences, but never to skip ahead. The slim book lasted his entire confinement.
Ray W. says
The Associated Press reports that a South Korean-owned Georgia solar panel assembly plant plans to temporarily reduce the working hours and pay of 1,000 of its 3,000 employees because this past June Customs officials started detaining “imported components needed to make solar panels.”
The company, Qcells, will also lay off another 300 employees from two staffing agencies located northwest of Atlanta. According to the company, furloughed workers will keep all employment benefits until the import issue is resolved and full manufacturing resumes.
A 2021 law passed to prevent import of parts made in China by Uighur forced labor is at issue.
Customs, according to the reporter, became suspicious that the components at issue had been made by forced Chinese labor.
The factory owner, according to a spokeswoman, manufactures all of its imported components in Korea and then ships them to Georgia for assembly into the final product.
According to the Qcells spokeswoman, the company maintains “robust supply chain due diligence measures” and keeps “very detailed documentation” of the origins of the components.
“Our latest supply chain is sourced completely outside of China and our legacy supply chains contain no material from Xinjiang province based on third party audits and supplier guarantees”, said the spokeswoman.
According to the AP reporter:
“Qcells is completing a $2.3 billion plant in Cartersville that will let it take polysilicon refined in Washington state and make ingots, wafers, and solar cells — the building blocks of finished solar modules. That will allow it to reduce imports of solar modules. The company has said it will finish the plant even though President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress dismantled most of the tax credits for buying solar panels earlier this year.”
Said the spokeswoman:
“Our commitment to building the entire solar supply chain in the United States remains. … We will soon be back on track with the full force of our Georgia team delivering American-made energy to communities around the country.”
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
According to a Bloomberg story, yesterday Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson addressed a Frankfurt gathering, telling the attendees that he supported the Fed’s recent decision to reduce lending rates by a quarter-point for a second time.
He said:
“That step was appropriate because I see a balance of risks as having shifted in recent months as downside risks to employment have increased” and that “it makes sense to proceed slowly as we approach the neutral rate” despite the fact that current lending rates are having a “somewhat restrictive” effect on the economy.
He added that, according to the reporter, enough economic data is still coming out, even though there has been a “near-blackout of official government statistics due to the federal shutdown”, saying:
“We still have a lot of data on the economy. … We get information from the states. We have contacts in the business world that provide us information. We do surveys of consumers and businesses that provide us with information. … There is enough information out there for us to do our job.”
Mr. Jefferson said that the American economy continues to grow at a “moderate” pace and that the labor market is “gradually cooling.” He sees “signs” that “underlying inflation” may be progressing toward the Fed’s 2% objective and that the Treasuries market is “well-placed.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I miss the weekly, monthly and quarterly releases of economic data by federal agencies, data that many economists around the world call the statistical “gold standard” data on which economists prefer to rely.
Simple as that.
There are a number of stories documenting Trump administration officials attacking Fed Chair Powell, as if he controls seven of the 12 votes necessary to raise or lower lending rates. He is only one person. Yes, he is the chairman, but the last time the Fed Open Markets Committee voted on whether to reduce the lending rates, one member voted to reduce them by one-half a percent, 10 members voted for a quarter-point reduction, and one member voted to keep the rates the same.
I have no idea what the Fed will do at its next meeting, but it looks like moderation holds the upper hand right now. Add in the latest available economic data being of lesser quality than that normally available and continuing caution might end up being the wisest choice.
Ray W. says
According to Barron’s, long a reputable MSM business news source, New Jersey state regulators approved on Friday a plan to build a compressed natural gas pipeline from the Pennsylvania state line across the state toward the state line with New York near New York City.
On the same day, New York state regulators approved a plan to build a compressed natural gas pipeline, called the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE), from the New Jersey state line into New York and then under the river into New York City at Rockaway Beach.
Five years ago, then-Governor Cuomo had rejected a prior application for the NYC permit, but after the company applying for the permit pivoted away from the initial plans toward a plan that more adequately meets state requirements, Governor Hochul approved the permit.
The pipeline will supplement existing natural gas supplies to the city, sufficient to power 230,000 homes.
Natural gas for the project will come out of Texas through an existing pipeline network that has a spur line ending in Pennsylvania.
Critics of the NYC pipeline claim that on the day President Trump approved a New York state wind project, Secretary of the Interior Dough Borgum posted to X that Governor Hochul was pro-pipeline. Yesterday, Governor Hochul released a statement that energy reliability is a top priority and that the lights and heat must stay on for all New Yorkers: “We need to govern in reality.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Canada already supplies much of New England’s and New York’s natural gas needs via pipelines crossing the national border. Long existing pipelines out of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale basin provide some of the region’s needs. But demand for energy all across the region is rising. New sources of natural gas energy, solar power and wind power are needed to meet that rising demand.
I am not saying that natural gas is the answer to all of our energy needs. I have long argued that so long as solar and wind power continue to drop in cost and increase in efficiency, natural gas power will become less and less economically competitive. But we have to cross a divide from our more expensive energy past into a less expensive energy future. Natural gas can be one of many bridges to that more frugal future.
Ray W. says
Reuters dropped a report on Japan’s industry ministry’s announcement that the government intends to follow up on a plan tentatively announced last year to buy an additional twelve liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes (a total of 840,000 tons of LNG) to beef up its Strategic Buffer LNG emergency reserves, starting next January. Japanese utility companies pressed the government to expand the nation’s ability to hedge against disruptions. If no emergency arises, the LNG will be sold, with the government making up any retail losses. The apparent goal is to mitigate
Starting in 2023, Japan’s largest LNG buyer has been buying one LNG cargo for each of the nation’s three winter months to add to the national reserved, but no emergency has yet to be announced. Starting next January, one LNG cargo will be purchased in each of the year’s twelve months.
According to the reporter:
“Japan has no underground gas storage but has LNG storage capacity of around 12 billion cubic meters, or about 9 million tons, which would be just over a month’s consumption, at its receiving terminals. …”
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
The LA Times ran an opinion column about the federal government shutdown.
Here are several of many bullet points from the column:
– In July, the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act was passed, without a provision to continue funding ACA healthcare and health insurance subsidies, subsidies that are slated by law to sunset at the end of the year.
– On day 14 of the federal government shutdown, Senate majority leader John Thune (R) said of a continuing Republican resolution:
“Republicans remain united around a clean, nonpartisan funding extension … simple and clean.”
– Congressional Democrats were then told that they could accept the “clean continuing resolution” and, in the columnist’s words, “settle the question of what happens to the healthcare of tens of millions of Americans later.”
– Ever since, Republican legislators have remained firm in their resolve to separate the two issues.
– This partisan divide is the same “access to healthcare and health insurance” fight that our two parties have been having for the past 15 years.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
On September 18, 2025, a news outlet named The Guardian US published a story from the day before about a federal jury, after deliberating for just over an hour, acquitting Brayan Ramos-Brito, a U.S. citizen, of a charge of assaulting a border patrol agent.
Here are some bullet points from the article:
– Prosecutors alleged, based on Border patrol agent testimony, that on June 7th, near a Homeland Security office, Mr. Ramos-Brito struck an agent.
– “[F]ootage from a witness … showed an agent forcefully shoving Ramos-Brito. The footage did not capture the demonstrator assaulting the officer.”
– From an LA Times story about the trial, “[v]ideos played in court captured the agent shoving Ramos-Brito, sending him flying backward, and showed the protestor marching back toward the agent.”
– Department of Homeland Security internal reports revealed “multiple factual discrepancies.” One such factual discrepancy was that language from a criminal complaint suggested that five defendants, including Ramos-Brito, had attacked agents in protest of the arrests of two sisters. DHS records showed that the two sisters were arrested after Ramos-Brito’s arrest. “A supervisor later documented the correct timeline and ‘apologized’ for errors.”
– Four border patrol agents testified to the jury about the incident, but only Gregory Bovino, described in the article as a senior government official, testified that he saw the alleged assault by Ramos-Brito. During cross-examination, Mr. Bovino was questioned about a prior misconduct allegation sustained against Mr. Bovino. The allegation resulted in an official reprimand for his referring to undocumented immigrants as “scum, filth, and trash.” Mr. Bovino claimed under oath to the jury that his comments had been directed toward a “specific criminal illegal alien.” The defense attorney then had Mr. Bovino read directly from the reprimand that his comments had been directed to “illegal aliens”, not to any individual.
– According to a CalMatters investigation, Mr. Bovino had been accused of engaging in false and misleading statements when he claimed that agents had a “predetermined list of targets” prior to a “major immigration sweep” in Los Angeles in January 2025 and that he said that many of the immigrants had criminal records. Of 78 people taken into custody during the sweep, 77 had no criminal history.
In June, Mr. Bovino falsely posted on social media that a U.S. citizen who had been arrested had been charged with assaulting an officer.
– One of the other three border patrol agents who testified to the jury said that he had been chasing a man who had assaulted him up to when Ramos-Brito and a second man, Jose Mojika, stopped him. Video evidence depicting the border patrol agent did not show any chase of anyone by the officer.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I can’t speak to federal jury instructions, but Florida jurors are told that if any witness has been impeached, the jurors can accept or reject any part of or all of that witness’ testimony.
Said a former federal supervisor in the L.A. branch of the Department of Justice to the reporter:
“In addition to harming the individual case, if a law enforcement officer has their credibility impeached on the stand, that can impact if they can testify in future cases and if their word can be relied on in sworn affidavits going forward.”
She also told the reporter:
“The government bears the burden of proof, and if you don’t have footage of relevant events, then everything is going to rise and fall on the credibility of your witnesses. If the witnesses are law enforcement officers and jurors believe they had bias … that’s really going to hurt their credibility.”
Ray W. says
According to a Daily Express article on Russian childbirth trends, in 1999, the year before President Putin received political power in Russia, “the number of babies born in Russia plunged to its lowest recorded level.”
For the entire 25 years that Putin has held some sort of executive power, he has sought to reverse Russia’s plunging birth rate.
In 2019, President Putin said the plunging birth rate “haunted” the country.
In 2023, he said:
“Many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had seven, eight, and even more children. … Let’s preserve and revive these wonderful traditions. Having many children and a large family must become the norm.”
In recent years, President Putin has created initiatives, such as free school meals for large families and “hero-mother” medals to women with 10 or more children. A popular TV reality show is “Mom at 16.”
Just over a week ago, President Putin told a demographic conference audience that the plunging childbirth problem was “crucial” to the country.
According to a demographer, this past February, the number of babies born in Russia was the lowest in over two centuries.
Since 2022, Russia is observing two new state holidays. Pregnant Women’s Day is observed on April 7 and October 7. Family, Love and Fidelity Day is observed in July.
Russia’s population, despite the addition of 2 million Crimean residents illegally annexed into the country, dropped from 147.6 million in 1990 to 146.1 million in 2025. And 30% of the population is now 55 or older, up from 21.1% in 1990.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
There are many reasons why President Putin ordered the invasion of the Ukraine. One is its vast industrial base. Another is its oil and natural gas reserves and its rare earth minerals. A third is the fact that Ukrainian soil is considered among the most fertile farmland in the world. But one of the most vitally important reasons is that the Ukraine has some 44 million highly educated and productive people. Russia wants them. Putin wants them. They do not want Russia or Putin.
As for the educated and productive populace, in nearly four years, the Ukraine has revamped its industry to now produce some 60% of its weaponry needs. It is developing long-range missiles, long range drones, marine drones, heavy artillery, armored personnel carriers.
According to the Jamestown Foundation, which bills itself as a global research and analysis think tank, an October 2025 report shows that the Ukraine has more than tripled its defense manufacturing base and more than quadrupled the number of munitions factories since February 2022. Armored personnel carrier manufacturing is up 400%. Artillery up 200%. Ammunition up 150%, with Ukrainian companies now making more 155 mm artillery shells than the 32 EU states combined. Anti-tank weapons up 100%.
Russia’s Shaheed drones cost $20,000 each. A Ukrainian anti-drone interceptor costs $3,500 to produce.
Ukrainian researchers are working on producing their own version of our Patriot missile interceptor system.
The U.S. is “planning a $100 billion deal with Ukraine in exchange for ownership rights to certain Ukrainian military technology”, which would be the first time that the American military has purchased military equipment from a non-NATO country. Two U.S./Ukraine partnerships have been listed as approved suppliers of long-range drones to the U.S. military.
An American company has the rights needed to “assemble and sell” in the United States the Magura V7 sea drones that successfully destroyed about a third of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
Bell Helicopters is ramping up helicopter manufacturing in the Ukraine.
In March, NASA began working with Ukrainian-made robots.
American farmers are already using Ukrainian-made drones, with a potential future value of $135 million per year.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Keep crying fools !!!! TRUMPs your president for the next 3 years !!! GET OVER IT! You guys want a little cheese with you whine?
Skibum says
Dennis, I was just thinking of the complete shellacking of republican candidates in last week’s election victories of democrat after democrat in various local and state elections. Don’t republicans understand that if Congress doesn’t agree to extend the healthcare subsidies NOW that this issue will certainly be on the forefront of every single democrat candidate come next year’s midterm elections?
I heard of not a single republican candidate winning their election last Tuesday, and ALL 435 of the House of Representatives are facing re-election next year. Republi-cons in Congress are sealing their own doom by their unwillingness to negotiate with democrats in Congress and extending the healthcare subsidies that are so popular with people ALL over America, including republican voters!
Kennan says
Jesus Dennis! Are you a billionaire Dennis? I don’t think you’re a billionaire are you Dennis?
After all this shit, Trump has put this country through with the most chaotic presidency in history. Cutting every fund, you can imagine for Schools, cutting funding for child cancer research, trying to cut funding for Medicare. A healthcare system that absolutely sucks! I didn’t think anything could suck so hard! This douche bag wants to make it suck harder. I could go on and on and on, and on about everything Trump has done to this country, but the sheer volume of illegality and unconstitutional behavior is so deep and wide that it cannot even be put into words. Trump cares not for this country. Trump care is not for the people of this country, in fact, he hates them. He hates you. He hates me. He hates everyone. Trump loves one thing, and one thing alone, and that is Trump.
Come on Denny boy! don’t double down so much! You don’t have a leg to stand on. You are not immune to the damage this president has done and will do.
Skibum says
Kennan, some people are just lost souls, and end up making excuses for wrongdoing even when deep down inside they know better. Otherwise, the only answer left is that they are bereft of compassion and concern for others, which is one of the worst character faults a human being can have.
Laurel says
One thing psychopaths are good at, is manipulating and/or messing with people. Someone like Trump plays by a different set of rules from honest, caring people. Many (adults even) don’t understand this, and it’s to his advantage. Though there is a saying “Oh what a web we weave when we practice to deceive.” Time is not on his side.
I once worked at a place where a nutcase hid my work, disconnected the dongle on the back of computers, and was so convincing with his bullshit, that people would look at me like I ate puppies! I can’t tell you how weird it was. Then, he would walk by me and drop his vacation photos in front of me and walk off, like this was normal behavior. That’s when I learned about the rules are different game.
These crazies are everywhere, and now, running our government.