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Weather: A 20 percent chance of showers before 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 69. North wind 6 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Monday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 52.
- 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 his first trial day starting with what is expected to be a day-long voir dire, or jury selection, from a pool of 50 jurors, at 8:30 a.m. in Courtroom 401 before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols. 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.”
Groundbreaking for Flagler County Fire Station 51: Flagler County is hosting a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Fire Station 51 at 245 County Road 305, Bunnell, at 11 a.m. The public is invited to attend.
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.
Nar-Anon Family Groups offers hope and help for families and friends of addicts through a 12-step program, 6 p.m. at St. Mark by the Sea Lutheran Church, 303 Palm Coast Pkwy NE, Palm Coast, Fellowship Hall Entrance. See the website, www.nar-anon.org, or call (800) 477-6291. Find virtual meetings here.
Notably: I am an American immigrant, Beirut born, Augie. Deal with it.
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
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
Al-Anon Family Groups
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Nar-Anon Family Group
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
For the full calendar, go here.
I am an American, Chicago born—Chicago, that somber city—and go at things as I have taught myself, freestyle, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent. But a man’s character is his fate, says Heraclitus, and in the end there isn’t any way to disguise the nature of the knocks by acoustical work on the door or gloving the knuckles.
Everybody knows there is no fineness or accuracy of suppression; if you hold down one thing you hold down the adjoining.
My own parents were not much to me, though I cared for my mother. She was simple-minded, and what I learned from her was not what she taught, but on the order of object lessons. She didn’t have much to teach, poor woman. My brothers and I loved her. I speak for them both; for the elder it is safe enough; for the younger one, Georgie, I have to answer—he was born an idiot—but I’m in no need to guess, for he had a song he sang as he ran dragfooted with his stiff idiot’s trot, up and down along the curl-wired fence in the backyard:
Georgie Mahchy, Augie, Simey
Winnie Mahchy, evwy, evwy love Mama.
–From the opening of Saul Bellow’s The Adventures of Augie March (1953).
Pogo says
@It is
… never a bad idea, before spitting, to learn which way the wind blows.
Pogo says
@As we slouch along the bloody road to djt’s ballroom and grill
… and tilt the board for Putin — make what you will of this:
China’s trade surplus with the world tops $1 trillion, despite tariffs
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/economy/china-s-trade-surplus-with-the-world-tops-1-trillion-despite-tariffs/ar-AA1RVyui
Sherry says
The very definition of trump’s “Malignant Narcissism”. . . this by Robert Reich:
Friends,
Trump recently had his name engraved on the U.S. Institute of Peace — now renamed the “Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace.” On Wednesday, the White House confirmed the renaming, calling it “a powerful reminder of what strong leadership can accomplish for global stability.”
Actually, it’s a reminder of what a strong malignant narcissist can accomplish when untethered from reality.
On Friday, Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, the world football league, awarded Trump the first (and likely last) annual FIFA Peace Prize — along with a hagiographic video of Trump and “peace.”
What FIFA has to do with peace is anyone’s guess, but Infantino is evidently trying to curry favor with Trump. (Infantino, by the way, oversaw the 2020 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, defending and minimizing Qatar’s miserable human rights record. He also played a key role in selecting Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup, notwithstanding the Saudi murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.)
Both Trump’s absurd renaming of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the equally absurd FIFA award are parts of Trump’s campaign to get the Nobel Peace Prize — something he has coveted since Barack Obama was awarded it in 2009 (anything Obama got credited with, Trump wants to discredit or match).
Too late for this year. The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to María Corina Machado of Venezuela “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” (The prize is awarded annually on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, in a formal ceremony at the Oslo City Hall. Trump has his eye on the 2026 prize.)
Ironically, Trump has declared war on Venezuela, without congressional authorization — causing the death so far of at least 87 people bombed by American military jets targeting vessels allegedly carrying drugs into the United States.
Those 87 include two people who barely survived a first bombing, only to be bombed again. (Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who saw a video of the second strike in a closed-door briefing, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” yesterday that the two survivors “were barely alive, much less engaging in hostilities,” when the follow-up strike took place.)
Trump has designated a Venezuelan criminal group — Cartel de los Soles — as a Foreign Terrorist Organization led by Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Yet analysts have pointed out that the Cartel de los Soles is not a hierarchical group but an umbrella term used to describe corrupt Venezuelan officials who have allowed cocaine to transit through the country.
Could it be that Trump wants access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves?
He doesn’t seem to be particularly upset about cocaine trafficking. While he’s bombing small vessels in the Caribbean allegedly for smuggling fentanyl into the United States, Trump is pardoning Honduras’ former president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of trafficking large amounts of cocaine into the United States.
Trump is also in the process of giving eastern Ukraine to Vladimir Putin. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s golf pal and itinerant diplomat, has offered Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy adviser, a plan for carving up disputed territory in a way likely to appeal to Putin.
As revealed in a transcript of a recent meeting, Witkoff told Ushakov, “Now, me to you, I know what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere.”
Witkoff also advised Ushakov on how Putin can get the best deal for Russia — by having Putin flatter America’s narcissist-in-chief:
”Make the call and just reiterate that you congratulate the president on this achievement [in Gaza], that you supported it, that you respect that he is a man of peace and you’re just, you’re really glad to have seen it happen.”
Ushakov responded:
“Hey Steve, I agree with you that he will congratulate, he will say that Mr. Trump is a real peace man and so-and-so. That he will say.”
While Witkoff has been seeking a “peace” deal in Ukraine by giving Putin much of what Putin wants, Witkoff and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner have been seeking billions of dollars in business deals with Russia. It’s a brazen conflict of interest.
Witkoff spoke on the record to The Wall Street Journal, characterizing the talks with Russia over oil, gas, and rare-earth minerals as “a bulwark against future conflicts there. Because everybody’s thriving.”
Everyone’s thriving, that is, except Ukrainians and those conscripted into the Russian army.
Other potential beneficiaries of the deal include ExxonMobil, along with a Trump donor and college pal of Donald Trump Jr. with the improbable name Gentry Beach. Beach hopes to acquire a 9.9 percent stake in a Russian Arctic gas project.
Meanwhile, Trump has allowed Benjamin Netanyahu to continue bombing Gaza, even after declaring a ceasefire there.
Peace prize? Please.
Trump is taking credit for achieving “peace” between nations that weren’t even at war.
He’s also trying to change the name of the Department of Defense back to the Department of War.
And he’s conjuring up “enemies within” the United States as pretexts for prosecuting political opponents, attacking American universities, and attempting to stifle media criticism of himself and his administration.
According to Alfred Nobel’s will, the Peace Prize is awarded to the person who in the preceding year “shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Nobel’s will further specified that the prize be awarded by a committee of five people chosen by the Norwegian Parliament.
Memo to the Norwegian Parliament and the Nobel committee: No president in American history deserves the Nobel Peace Prize less than does Donald J. Trump.
Ray W. says
The Independent published a story about those Porsches manufactured after 2013 operating in Russia have suddenly begun to shut down, either by failing to start or by shutting off soon after starting or by locking owners out of the cars.
Thus far, no one identifiable issue has been isolated.
A representative for Russia’s largest dealership group told local reporters that the events could be an act of sabotage.
Porsche ended its Russia operations soon after the invasion of the Ukraine; it no longer offers official support to Russian Porsche owners.
One apparent fix is to manually reset alarm units in each impacted vehicle. This fix derives from the fact that Porsche designed its alarm system to immobilise an engine whenever satellite connectivity is severed, as the alarm system interprets any connectivity severance as an attempted theft.
According to the dealership representative:
“Any vehicle can be blocked. Currently, the blocking can be bypassed by resetting the factory alarm unit and disassembling it.”
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
Both Bloomberg and Reuters report that Thailand’s military leadership has, in the Reuters’ reporter’s words, “set a target of crippling Cambodia’s military capability with the aim of neutralizing its threat for a long time to come.”
Earlier today, Thai military aircraft launched strikes on Cambodian military sites, after Cambodian forces attacked a number of Thai border outposts, killing one Thai soldier and wounding about a dozen soldiers.
The violent exchanges, according to the Bloomberg reporter, “threatens to collapse a peace accord brokered by the US and Malaysia. When the Thai Prime Minister was asked if he had talked to President Trump since the latest clashes, he answered:
“No need. This is a matter between Thailand and its neighbor.”
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
A news portal named “Public News Service” dropped a story about rural Iowa communities “diversifying” away from coal towards natural gas.
Iowa-based natural gas-fired power plants supply 13% of Iowa’s current electricity needs, according to the EIA. In 2024, coal-fired generating plants, also per the EIA, produced 21% of the state’s electricity, down from 35% in 2019.
Should Iowa utilities move from coal to natural gas, the executive director for Clean Energy Districts of Iowa, Andrew Johnson, told the reporter that utility prices for electricity could rise:
“That demand for electricity [from natural gas] plus the growing demand for exports, we worry, could significantly outstrip the growing supply, … then you have the supply and demand problem.”
According to the reporter, Iowa natural gas prices are already the tenth highest in the country, because Iowa’s natural gas distribution infrastructure is limited in some areas.
Commented Mr. Johnson:
“So, even if there is theoretical supply at the fracking fields … we can’t get that much larger volume of gas to some parts and places of the country and the state.”
As an aside, the reporter wrote that Iowa’s wind farms supply a greater percentage of the state’s overall electricity supply than any other state. Per an October 2025 EIA report, in 2024 wind powered slightly more than 63% of Iowa’s electricity needs.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
It isn’t just building a natural gas-fired power plant whenever demand for electricity rises. Not every state produces natural gas. Not every state has a natural gas distribution pipeline network sufficient to provide higher quantities of natural gas. Sometimes, existing pipelines are maxed out.
If I am reading the story correctly, should Iowa decide to build new natural gas-fired power plants, it might have to build new pipelines to supply any rise in demand because in some areas of the state, the pipeline network capacity is already maxed out.
Ray W. says
According to a Raw Story article, on Saturday morning, Fox and Friends scheduled a guest, financial commenter and radio personality Peter Schiff, who “pushed back at the president’s insistence that he has turned the economy around.” The reporter wrote that Schiff has been raising alarms about America’s “affordability crisis.”
Later that Saturday, President Trump took to Truth Social:
“Why would Fox and Friends Weekend (of all things?) put on a ‘Stockbroker’ named Peter Schiff, a Trump hating loser who has already proven to be wrong. Either the show made a mistake, or it is heading in a different direction. … He thinks prices are going up when, in fact, they are coming substantially down. Gasoline hit $1.99 a gallon yesterday, in certain states, and is down BIG since Biden. Other prices are almost all down. Biden caused the AFFORDABILITY CRISIS, I’M FIXING IT, along with everything else! Much of it, like the BORDER, is already fixed. … Check out the ‘booker’ who put this jerk on!”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Every FlaglerLive reader knows that gasoline is not selling for $1.99 “in certain states.” It is true that RBOB (reformulated blendstock for oxygenate blending) base gasoline that is currently being sold for less than $2 per gallon at the refinery output point before it enters a pipeline to be shipped to a distribution point, but that refinery cost does not include pipeline transport costs, blending costs (for example, Texaco adds Techron additives to RBOB gas at distribution points like Jacksonville), state and federal taxes, costs to transport the gasoline by semi-truck from Jacksonville to Flagler County gas stations, plus any profit that station owners can realize at the point of sale.
Every FlaglerLive reader knows that gas prices are not down BIG since Biden. Thank goodness I just submitted a comment that, per GasBuddy price records, gasoline prices are down by about 6 cents per gallon, year-over-year. Six cents per gallon is a drop, but it can never be called a BIG drop.
Every FlaglerLive reader knows that inflation is significantly above the 2% rate considered ideal by the Fed. According to the latest government figures, admittedly stale because of the government shutdown, year-over-year inflation through to the end of September is 3%.
Every FlaglerLive reader knows that “other prices” are not “almost all down.”
If our president has to lie in order to make a point, is it fair to argue that the point was never truthful from the outset?
Every FlaglerLive reader ought to know by now that the modus operandi of the professional lying class that sits atop one of our two political parties is to lie in hopes that the more gullible among us will launder those lies.
Laurel says
And launder they do, even using their own rationalizations to add to it. It’s been several years now, that when my husband and I walk out of Publix, we shake our heads in disbelief. Three small bags, and I mean small, less than half filled bags, and a twelve pack of beer, for $80 plus. Many in the Hammock go over the bridge to shop at Aldi, even though Publix is right here. Even Aldi prices have risen, and not yet come down. Will they ever?
We have been hearing about how the recession is coming, from money shows, for ages, so I stopped listening for some time now. However, I think it may be coming. The irresponsibility, and lack of talent, of this administration leads me to believe that it may happen. Yet, if it does, the lie launderers will cry it’s the fault of the Biden-Harris administration. They will believe that Trump will fix what he states is a nonexistent hoax. Blatant foolishness!
I’m sick of it!
Ray W. says
The Telegraph, a British news outlet, reports that the autonomous government of the Falkland Islands, with a population of 4,000, recently authorized drilling efforts by British-based Rockhopper Exploration in the “Sea Lion” field off the shore of the Falklands. The oil is expected to be located in a field both 500 meters below sea level and another 2,000 meters below the sea floor.
Rockhopper Exploration’s financial report lists the field as containing as much as 1.7 billion barrels of crude oil, but just because there exists the possibility of that much oil doesn’t mean that all of that oil will be accessible. I checked. Today’s Brent crude price was $63.11 per barrel.
Due to anticipated costs of exploration, Rockhopper Exploration partnered with Navitas, an Israeli company that now owns two-thirds of the “working interest” in the project. Navitas has raised $378 million for the first phase of the project. Navitas released an “investor note”, in which note it claimed it had obtained approval “in principle” from the Falklands Islands government to drill up to 23 wells in the first stage of development. Information about government royalties were not listed in the story.
The partnership will hire the Aoka Mizu, a floating exploration platform that has been working in the North Sea since 2009. Depending on when Navitas obtains the proper “go-ahead”, the Aoka Mizu should leave the North Sea mid-2026.
Make of this what you will.
Sherry says
Meanwhile. . . If you are an “illegal” immigrant who has “connections” in the White House you certainly get much better treatment:
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A Brazilian woman with family ties to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will be released from ICE custody while she fights potential deportation, an immigration judge ruled Monday.
Bruna Ferreira, 33, a longtime Massachusetts resident, was previously engaged to Leavitt’s brother, Michael. She was driving to pick up their 11-year-old son in New Hampshire when she was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Revere, Massachusetts, on Nov. 12.
Ferreira later was moved to a detention facility in Louisiana, where an immigration judge ordered that she be released on $1,500 bond, her attorney Todd Pomerleau said.
“We argued that she wasn’t a danger or a flight risk,” he said in a text message. “The government stipulated to our argument and never once argued that she was criminal illegal alien and waived appeal.”
The Department of Homeland Security previously called Ferreira a “criminal illegal alien” and said she had been arrested for battery, an allegation her attorney denied. Neither the department nor the White House press secretary responded to requests for comment Monday.
Laurel says
Kristian Karoline saved the day! Kristian Kristi surely didn’t make a mistake, did she? “The worst of the worst.”
Skibum says
I wonder how many bulk cases of glittering Kristian krosses on faux diamond necklaces have been ordered from manufacturers in China, to be peddled by the maga peddler-in-chief of cheap junk kitsch to his adoring, worshiping maga women with revealing blouses drooping low over their boobs to properly frame their symbol of kristianity???
Laurel says
You know, Skibum, I have never called myself a Christian, I just like what the man said, even though it is difficult to practice. I did not like church, and wanted nothing to do with organized religion (still don’t). So, I never thought, of all people, I would be a person offended by the way “Christians” ignore Jesus! Life is funny.
Laurel says
Trump has called Governor Walz “seriously retarded.” Since Trump has no concept of an apology, he doubled down on the comment. Trump supporters have joined in, and have started harassing Walz’s son, who is mentally disabled. The maga people have driven by the Walz house, and screamed out horrendous things at Walz’s son. Why? What did he do to them? Here is Gus’s sister’s response:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-tim-walz-slur-hope-b2879772.html
Okay, Trump supporters, explain to me why you support this behavior. Don’t ignore it, don’t let it become a no response crickets moment, stop being chickenshits, and explain this in a way that makes it normal for you. Explain why you support this. Why the hate for a young man, and his family? Why do you not condemn this? I really want to know, and don’t go to whataboutism, stick with the subject here.
Have you no shame? Will you answer me? I doubt it. You always clam up, and change the subject while waiting for a new Fox Entertainment story.
Laurel says
🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗, as usual.
Skibum says
Steven Miller and Kristi Noem were summoned to the WH with their marching orders. They hurried out to the WH lawn where the nativity scene was set up, and they immediately removed the Jews, the Arabs and the other foreigners to better align the WH nativity scene with American Nationalist religious beliefs.
All that was left of the nativity scene were one jackass and a handful of sheep. Way to go, Kristians.
Sherry says
My laugh of the day Skibum! Thank You! HO! HO! HO!
Skibum says
Same to you, Sherry! I cannot take credit for originality… I saw something similar on social media and decided to expand on someone else’s idea because I thought it worthy of sharing.