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Weather: Mostly sunny, with a high near 69. North wind around 8 mph. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 50.
- 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:
In Court: Ex-Firefighter James Melady is scheduled for docket sounding at 8:30 a.m. in Courtroom 401 before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols. Trial is scheduled for the following week. Melady faces a first-degree felony rape charge, a third-degree felony voyeurism charge, and a second-degree charge of fraud stemming from an incident aboard an ambulance, when Melady was on duty and he allegedly assaulted an unconscious patient. See: “Ex-Paramedic Accused of Raping Patient in Ambulance Is Denied Bond; County Issues New Rescue Protocols.” Also: Kristopher Henriqson is scheduled for docket sounding at 8:30 a.m. before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols. Henriqson is a 47-year-old state and federal felon and Palm Coast resident facing accusations of having routinely raped and abused his stepdaughter since she was 9. See: “Facing Life in Prison, Man Wants to Represent Himself and Depose Step-Daughter Accusing Him of Rape.”
The Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board meets at 10 a.m. every first Wednesday of the month at City Hall. For agendas, minutes, and audio access to the meetings, go here. For details about the city’s code enforcement regulations, go here.
The Flagler Beach Parks Ad Hoc Committee meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 105 S 2nd St, Flagler Beach. The Committee’s six members, appointed by the City Commission, provide recommendations related to the maintenance of existing parks and equipment and recommendations for new or replacement equipment and other duties as assigned by the City Commission.
The Flagler Beach Library Book Club meets at 1 p.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach.
Separation Chat, Open Discussion: The Atlantic Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State hosts an open, freewheeling discussion on the topic here in our community, around Florida and throughout the United States, noon to 1 p.m. at Pine Lakes Golf Club Clubhouse Pub & Grillroom (no purchase is necessary), 400 Pine Lakes Pkwy, Palm Coast (0.7 miles from Belle Terre Parkway). Call (386) 445-0852 for best directions. All are welcome! Everyone’s voice is important. For further information email [email protected] or call Merrill at 804-914-4460.
The Circle of Light Course in Miracles study group meets at a private residence in Palm Coast every Wednesday at 1:20 PM. There is a $2 love donation that goes to the store for the use of their room. If you have your own book, please bring it. All students of the Course are welcome. There is also an introductory group at 1:00 PM. The group is facilitated by Aynne McAvoy, who can be reached at [email protected] for location and information.
The Flagler County Republican Club holds its monthly meeting starting with a social hour at 5 and the business meeting at 6 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn, 55 Town Center Blvd., Palm Coast. The club is the social arm of the Republican Party of Flagler County, which represents over 40,000 registered Republicans. Meetings are open to Republicans only.
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center: Nightly from 6 to 9 p.m. at Palm Coast’s Central Park, with 57 lighted displays you can enjoy with a leisurely stroll around the pond in the park. Admission to Fantasy Lights is free, but donations to support Rotary’s service work are gladly accepted. Holiday music will pipe through the speaker system throughout the park, Santa’s Village, which has several elf houses for the kids to explore, will be open, with Santa’s Merry Train Ride nightly (weather permitting), and Santa will be there every Sunday night until Christmas, plus snow on weekends! On certain nights, live musical performances will be held on the stage.
Notably: In 1963, three years after he took over Commentary magazine–an organ of lapsed liberals that would become beacon and coaling pit to the reactionary gang of jingos known as neocons–Norman Podhoretz wrote a piece called “My Negro Problem–And Ours.” The bigoted pomposity of the title hasn’t aged. Its judgments are enjoying a revival in the shadows of Charlie Kirk’s halo and maga’s enduring prisonhouse. Podhoretz, these days a 95-year-old maga fan, recalled his white Depression youth in “an integrated” Brooklyn neighborhood full of what he saw as predatory Blacks. He was afraid of them and “hated them with all my heart.” The experience convinced him of the failure of integration and liberalism, whose reverse racism he called “crow-jimism” (a term he borrowed from Beat poet Kenneth Rexroth). It convinced him of a white superiority he still felt as the 33-year-old who wrote Mein Negerproblem. “How, then, do I know that this hatred has never entirely disappeared?” he writes. “I know it from the insane rage that can stir in me at the thought of Negro anti-Semitism.” Did he reserve equal rage for Charles Lindbergh or a millenia of Catholicism then? Might maga’s flowering into tiki-torched great replacement theories have convinced him that he was wrong to call Trump’s election a “miracle”? His hatred gets worse: “I know it from the disgusting prurience that can stir in me at the sight of a mixed couple” (Loving v. Virginia was four years away); “and I know it from the violence that can stir in me whenever I encounter that special brand of paranoid touchiness to which many Negroes are prone.” It takes a bigger man to get over hatred like that. His magazine, now edited by his son, still boasts of the piece as “One of the Most Controversial and Powerful Essays Published in COMMENTARY.”
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.
December 2025
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry
Book Dragons, the Kids’ Book Club, at Flagler Beach Public Library
NAACP Flagler Branch General Membership Meeting
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
Separation Chat: Open Discussion
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
For the full calendar, go here.
We say: man. And we, we think of the one who falls, of the one who is lost, of the one who weeps and is hungry, of the one who is cold, of the one who is sick, and of the one who is persecuted, of the one who is killed. We think of the offense done to him, and of his dignity. Also, of everything in him that is offended, and of everything that was, in him, to make him happy. That is man. […] We today, we have Hitler. And what is he? Is he not man? We have his Germans. We have the fascists. And what is all that? Can we say that this, too, is not in man? That it does not belong to man?
–Elio Vittorini, cited in an introduction to Robert Antelme’s The Human Race (1947).
Ray W. says
Here is a recent Motley Fool headline to a story:
“The Stock Market Sounds an Alarm, and the Federal Reserve Delivers Bad News About President Trump’s Tariffs”
The story begins:
“The Federal Reserve recently published a study that suggests President Trump’s tariffs will increase unemployment and slow economic growth. The research is particularly concerning because the S&P 500 recently achieved one of its most expensive valuations in 40 years. The combination of economic weakness and an expensive stock market could lead to trouble for investors.”
For that study, the San Francisco Fed reviewed 150 years of data and concluded that “[t]ariffs will lead to higher unemployment and slower economic growth.” Reasons for this conclusion include that tariffs bring about economic uncertainty and that, in response, consumer sentiment tends to worsen, a sentiment that suppresses demand and prompts companies to hire fewer people.
The reporter pointed out that when the unemployment rose to 4.4% in October, the highest level in four years, consumer sentiment in November dropped to the “second-lowest reading in history.”
The reporter referred to a rarely occurring economic fact. The 40-year average price to earning ratio in the S&P 500 is 15.9 times forward earnings, according to Yardeni Research.
In late October 2025, for only the third time in four decades, the S&P 500 “recorded a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio above 23.”
The other two times the P/E ratio broached 23, the dot.com bubble soon burst and the pandemic brought on a bear market. In the first instance, the S&P 500 lost 49% in value. In the second instance, 25% of the index’s value evaporated.
Each time the P/E ratio has topped 22, over the next three years the S&P 500 has delivered a return of 2.9% per year, well below the long-term average of about 10% per year.
We have the San Francisco Fed’s study.
Now, let us all read about President Trump.
President Trump recently stated what the reporter called a “patently false” position:
“From 1789 to 1913, we were a tariff-backed nation, and the United States was proportionately the wealthiest is has ever been.” The reporter wrote that since 1900, real GDP per person has grown tenfold, “which means Americans generally have a much higher standard of living today.”
In November, President Trump posted to social media that “[t]ariff power will bring America national security and wealth the likes of which has never been seen before.” He has stated that tariff revenue can justify eliminating individual income tax. The reporter wrote that tariff revenue is projected to bring to the Treasury $210 billion in 2026, far less than the $2.6 trillion that income tax revenues brought to the Treasury in 2024.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
The many lie launderers who populate the FlaglerLive community magically believe that fantastic claims alone are enough to presage a fantastic future. They claim that there is no inflation when there is. They claim that fossil fuel energy prices are dropping when they aren’t. Saying so doesn’t make it so.
Ray W. says
I recently commented about a Jacksonville airport-based aircraft manufacturer that has designed a plane that cuts 60% of the fuel cost compared to comparable business-jet class aircraft.
Here is another story, this one from The Cool Down, on the business-class aircraft sector, though this aircraft is designed for “urban air mobility”, including medivac services.
Aerofugia Technology Co. Ltd., based in Sichuan, China, has designed a six-passenger electric 8-rotor vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft with a range of 200 kilometers (124 miles), named the AE200-100. By definition, eVTOL aircraft do not need a runway. The multi-dimensional craft has entered into testing for airworthiness certification and then into mass production. It has already passed the “all-tilt transition flight test”, the first Chinese eVTOL to do so.
More than 1,000 commercial orders for the craft have been placed, with anticipated first-year manufacturing capacity “fully booked.”
Make of this what you will.
James says
As I watched the news footage yesterday of Trump and Hegseth explaining the boat strike, I couldn’t help but think of what Senator Mark Kelly and others had tried to warn about to our military personnel a few days ago.
So very transparent to me that Trump and Hegseth were placing the blame on others down the chain of command that it almost reminded me of a Jackie Mason routine… “I didn’t know, I wasn’t expecting that, I wasn’t there, I was someplace else, they misunderstood, I misunderstood, there was a miscommunication, I don’t condone the actions, although I ordered them, I didn’t think they would carry them out specifically as stated, …” etc, etc, etc.
It would almost be comical.
Scapegoating, so soon? How quick to throw others under the bus, eh?
Just an opinion.
Ray W. says
A former federal prosecutor, James D. Zirin, authored an opinion piece published by The Hill, re: High Seas Killings.
Mr. Zirin starts with the history of the Nuremberg trials, during which a number of Nazi defendants raised the defense that they were just following orders.
Mr. Zirin writes:
“No civilized nation has ever thought that a member of the military is justified in obeying illegal or unconstitutional orders.”
And, he writes, the Uniform Code of Military Justice holds that “servicemembers must refuse clearly illegal orders and can be held liable for following unlawful ones.”
In the author’s words, the first time the USSC addressed the issue of following illegal orders as a defense occurred in 1852, when it wrote:
“[I]t can never be maintained that a military officer can justify himself for doing an unlawful act by producing the order of his superior.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Other sources mention the war crimes prosecution and subsequent execution by firing squad of a U-boat captain who ordered that survivors of a sinking Greek freighter be killed. Flotsam and jetsam from the ship were fired into to sink the pieces, in order to make it harder to track where the submarine had been.
The captain and a senior officer were executed, as was the ship’s doctor, who as a non-combatant was not permitted to fire weapons; he violated international law by firing into the mass of debris on which survivors clung.
As an aside, my father traveled to Italy shortly before he died to pay his respects at a grave of the unknown soldier in Italy where his plane’s pilot’s name was listed on a plaque.
During the war, my father was assigned to the 716th Squadron of the 449th Bombardment Group (H). After the war, a group of veteran’s formed the 449th Bombardment Group Association. The group gathered written accounts and published three compilations of those historical accounts. One association member obtained transcripts of a war crimes trial, from which transcripts an account of the trial was published in the Association’s quarterly publication.
Once my father completed various Army Air Corps schools, he was assigned to a B-24 piloted by Captain John Knox as a nose gunner/bombardier. My father celebrated his 19th birthday in the Azores on his way to Italy.
After arrival at Grottaglie air base, near Taranto, Capt. Knox, as was protocol, flew as second pilot to an experienced crew. The aircraft was downed over Hungary. Those of the 10 airmen who were captured by the Wermacht survived the war. Those captured by a Hungarian SS detachment were executed. Cap’t Knox’s body was never found.
Four of the SS members were tried for war crimes. Hungarian villagers who watched the executions from a distance testified. Two of the four were hanged. Two received prison terms.
My father’s crew was then separated into different bomber crews as replacements. His own new bomber was damaged over Hungary, but his pilot was able to keep the craft aloft until it cleared German lines. His pilot crash-landed the B-24 on a short airstrip near Split, a Croatian city on the Dalmatian coast. Partisans provided safety until transport aircraft could pick them up.
Laurel says
Kernal Klink: “I know nossing!”
Ray W. says
This from an Alternet story, headlined: “Inside the misleading story Fox News told before Trump sent troops to Portland”
On September 4, 2025, Fox News aired a 150-second story about protests outside Portland’s federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, during which segment Fox News displayed to viewers a video from the 2020 Portland protests that occurred after the murder of George Floyd. Fox News mislabeled the date of the video as having occurred in 2025.
Two other included scenes from the segment had occurred in cities other than Portland, though Fox News hosts suggested that the scenes were from Portland.
One Fox News host said the protesters were attacking federal officers.
Chyrons carried at the bottom of the screen phrases such as “violent demonstrators”, “protesters riot”, “anti-I.C.E. Portland rioters” and “war-like protests.”
The next day, President Trump told reporters that he was considering the dispatch of National Guard troops to Portland, at one point saying it was because of something he had seen on TV that day and at another point saying it was because of something he had seen on TV the night before. At another point of President Trump’s comments to reporters, he added that he believed that Portland was being destroyed by paid agitators and that Portland residents were living in hell.
Later in September, President Trump told Oregon’s governor that “unless they are playing false tapes, this looked like World War II. Your place is burning down.”
On September 28, 2025, National Guard troops were dispatched to Portland.
That same late September date, Fox News reporters displayed to viewers a clip of what was described as a “hectic” scene in which protesters were clashing with police. As the anchor intoned that Portland’s police chief needed to see this footage and as the co-anchor added, “Look at that. Just a peaceful protest”, a small box on the screen identified the image as coming not from Portland, but from Illinois.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Some commenters refer to 1984 as a reference to a dystopian future. Others refer to Animal Farm. Still others to Fahrenheit 451 (the temperature at which paper catches fire). I repeatedly refer to a book written shortly before the others, The Abolition of Man.
C.S. Lewis had delivered three lectures at the University of Durham that he later condensed into his book, in which lectures he had described his view, in part, that every generation adds to the knowledge left to it by preceding generations, but not necessarily adding to the wisdom of the inheriting generation. As each generation grows, it might further develop how better to mislead and mold the thoughts of its populace. In time, one supergeneration would grow enough to learn how to manipulate the populace to accept whatever thoughts it wished to manipulate. If that generation were wise enough to mold itself into a Christian vision of the future, there was hope. If not, that supergeneration would define itself by its own corrupted view of the world. He titled that chapter, “Men Without Chests.”
I am not arguing that we are that supergeneration. But I do argue that there is a reason why we now have a professional lying class that sits at the top of one of our two political parties. There is a reason why Dennis C. Rathsam declares that there is no inflation when there is an inflation rate, year-over-year, of 3%. There is a reason why FlaglerLive commenters conflate communism with socialism, when the two political theories are far different from each other. There is a reason why FlaglerLive commenters repeatedly state that Democrats were the direct cause of the economic harm that was actually directly caused by the onset of the pandemic. That reason is that the professional lying class has decided that lying is a virtue, and it is getting better and better at manipulation of thought.
When candidate Trump was called out for lying to the American people about the subject of Haitian immigrants eating pets, candidate Vance publicly furthered the lie. When candidate Vance was called out for his own lying, he said that if it took him lying to get people talking about what he wanted them to talk about, he openly stated that he would continue to lie.
Laurel says
I am concerned about Generation Z. They are deep into such things as “Lazy Girl” work (not putting force one ounce of effort beyond), “silent quitting,” and not wanting to work at all while living off the money of others. Why that worries me, is there will be more robotics taking over jobs. Where will the Z generation be if our world does become dystopian? How will they survive amongst the dramatic culture shock of trying to survive? Will it all just work out, like it has in the past? I fear it won’t, and I hope I’m wrong.
Pogo says
@Live or die
One, or the other, will happen. Always did, always will.
Seems very likely there will be fewer, slimmer young folks in the world that happens to them — while they did something else…
Ray W. says
According to a Global News article, year-over-year Canadian air traffic into the U.S. during October is down for the ninth consecutive month, this time by 8.9%. Total Canadian air travel was up year-over-year by 4.5%.
U.S. Travel Association statistics project that international tourism from all nations into the U.S. will drop by 3.2% in 2025, with a loss of $5.7 billion in spending, with the Canadian “boycott” deemed the “primary driver” of that loss.
Make of this what you will.
Laurel says
I live on the ICW, and every spring, I see the boats heading north, and every fall, I see the boats heading south. I’ve always seen Canadian flags. So far, this year, I have seen none. I feel so bad that we have let down our good neighbors.
Ray W. says
WESH Orlando reports that a 20-acre site at the intersection of Orange Avenue and Colonial that has sat empty since 2020 when the Orlando Sentinel abandoned the property will be repurposed by a 20-year $2 billion multi-phase buildout into a “walkable, mixed-use district featuring new homes, businesses, retail and public spaces.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
So disappears another link to a once-active newspaper past.
FlaglerLive readers should understand just how rare it is for anyone to establish and buildup a growing and hopefully thriving internet news site when so many other news efforts crumble and shrink.
Endless dark money says
Depression 2.0 here we go! Best part it was on purpose lol!