To include your event in the Briefing and Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
Weather: Sunny, with a high near 70. Calm wind becoming west 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 49.
- 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:
Joint workshop of the Palm Coast City Council and the County Commission, 2 p.m. in board chambers of the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. They’ll discuss a joint animal control task force. Canceled.
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.
Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn, at Athens Theatre, 124 North Florida Avenue, DeLand. 7:30 p.m. 386/736-1500. Tickets, Adult $37 – Senior $33 Student/Child $17. Book here. Celebrate the magic of Christmas with Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn—a heartwarming holiday treat packed with show-stopping dance numbers, dazzling costumes, and a treasure trove of timeless tunes. When Broadway performer Jim leaves the bright lights behind for a quiet Connecticut farmhouse, he ends up transforming his home into a seasonal inn, open only on the holidays. But with love in the air, rivalries heating up, and performances for every festivity, the holidays get a lot more exciting than he ever imagined. Featuring 20 beloved Irving Berlin classics—including “White Christmas,” “Happy Holiday,” “Blue Skies,” and “Cheek to Cheek”—this delightful musical delivers all the laughter, romance, and seasonal sparkle of a Christmas card come to life. Presented through special arrangement with Concord Theatricals
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: Can we get back to this sort of front-page news? The front page of The New York Times on this day in 1910, when the rotund Taft was president, Halley’s Comet visited and the Mexican Revolution was under way (no mention of that on the front page), ran this item, just below the fold: “In the second act of ‘Lohengrin‘ at the Metropolitan Opera House last night a man sitting in the front row of the top balcony tried to pass his wife a pair of opera glasses. The glasses slipped from his hands and, dropping to the main floor, landed upon the head of Theodore Obermeyer of 44 West Seventy-seventh Street, who was accompanied by his wife.
Mr. Obermeyer was stunned by the blow, and was assisted to an anteroom, where he was attended by Dr. Stein, who was in the audience. After a short rest Mr. Obermeyer was able to be taken to his home in a carriage. The accident caused a slight commotion among the persons who were seated near Mr. Obermeyer and his wife, but did not interrupt the performance. Mr. Obermeyer said last night that the glasses must have struck him a glancing blow, otherwise he would not have escaped with only a slight scalp wound. He belittled the incident, but said he felt he was lucky to have escaped so easily.” No report about the thank you note Mr. Obermeyer sent the assailant for saving him from Wagner.
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
Wadsworth Park Reopening
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 10-18, at the Flagler County Public Library
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
For the full calendar, go here.
The press sometimes aggravates the public perception of arrogance by the way that it speaks of its constitutional rights. Phrases such as ” freedom of the press ” or ” First Amendment rights ” have taken on the air of dogma, and exclusivist dogma at that. Some editors and publishers act as if the press clause of the First Amendment were designed to protect journalism alone, and to make that protection superior to other rights in the Constitution- propositions that have no support in logic or history. The whole concept of press freedom was first sonorously argued by John Milton at a time when there were no regular newspapers. Milton was concerned about the censorship of books and pamphlets, and it was in this tradition that the free press clauses of the American state constitutions and then the First Amendment arose. No one can seriously argue that the Framers of the First Amendment meant to assure freedom to newspapers and not to books. The combination of the speech and press clauses indicates that they were intended to protect expression in all forms, oral and printed. Nor is there a hint of preference for journalism, or the press generally, above other guarantees in the Constitution-the Sixth Amendment’s assurances that criminal defendants will have a fair trial, for example.
–From Anthony Lewis’s Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment (1991).
Pogo says
@Committing journalism, even attempted journalism
… accidental journalism, etc., stands first in line behind the 1st Amendment, with only the most important right of all in the foremost place — the bagman cometh:
A penny for your heart, mind, and soul
https://www.bing.com/search?q=the+1st+amendment+and+lobbying
She: What kind of woman do you think I am?
He: We’ve already established that. Now we’re just haggling over the price.
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/03/07/haggling/
Pogo says
@Early Santa
There’s a new mayor in Miami–a Democrat, for a change. Is this the start of something big?
https://www.jcbruce.com/p/theres-a-new-mayor-in-miami-a-democrat?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1893290&post_id=181227580&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=2xozwn&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Next November — hurry up.
Laurel says
Good cartoon, and Pogo, good article! Dade County historically leaned Democrat. As the Cuban American population grew, it became more Republican. The Cuban America population is highly suspicious of any hint of what they believe may be communism (which won’t happen here), so they turned towards Republican politicians. Apparently, they are now seeing that fascism isn’t any better!
I think they are starting to get it that ICE, if brought into Dade County, would be harassing Latinos, as the Supreme Court said Trump’s government can use racial profiling. Hispanics would have to carry government IDs that prove they are Americans, and how would their offspring be effected if they were born of “illegal immigrant” parents? Many, many Cubans came here illegally, and it sometimes took years to become legal citizens. Meanwhile, some had American born children during the legalization process.
I’m glad the Cuban American population has started to wake up!
Ray W. says
Hello Pogo.
In October, White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, said during a CNN interview:
“When in our history have we tolerated unlawful riotous assemblies night after night around FBI buildings, or ATF buildings, or DEA buildings? … This is the textbook definition of domestic terrorism.”
According to a Congress.gov site, domestic terrorism is “ideologically driven crimes committed by individuals in the United States that are intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or influence the policy or conduct of a government.
Unlike foreign terrorism, there is no federal criminal statute that includes a mechanism that permits a prosecutor to “formally characterize” a citizen as a domestic terrorist.
But in 2021, the Department of Homeland Security announced a strategy intended to counter domestic terror threats. In that strategy, domestic terror threats were defined to include potentially unlawful use of threats of force or violence in furtherance of ideological agendas from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, anti-government or anti-authority violent extremists (further broken down to include militia violent extremists, anarchist violent extremists, and sovereign citizen violent extremists), animal rights/environmental violent extremists, and abortion-related violent extremists.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I ask FlaglerLive readers to note the repeated emphasis in the DHS strategy on “violent” extremists. Can it be argued that people donning inflatable T-rex costumes or inflatable penises, or riding bicycles while nude past a Portland building are not violent extremists?
And, can anyone think of one other federal building that Mr. Miller could have added to his list?
Endless dark money says
If you find yourself defending pedophiles, rapists, murderers, and thieves. Your a Republican!
Skibum says
The convicted felon, pedo protecting prez could have, SHOULD have ordered the release of DOJ’s Epstein Files on day 1 of his second term in office, as he campaigned on and promised to the American people. But no, it was all lies.
His sycophant and accomplice, AG Pam Bondi, assured the American public that a list of names of Epstein’s pedophiles was on her desk to be reviewed. Then she backtracked and stumbled through an incomprehensible laundry list of excuses why she could not release anything at all. More lies.
It too a near unanimous vote in both houses of Congress to pass a law ordering the release of DOJ’s Epstein Files, and against fierce objection from the pedo protecting prez, he signed it into law… but then did absolutely NOTHING to adhere to the law that was passed. More lies.
We still do not have ANY assurance, or concrete steps being taken by the pedo prez’ own DOJ to follow the law and release the files. So the continuing lies, distraction, and obfuscation of the law by federal authorities all the way to the WH begs for answers to critically important questions. Why is the president so intent on hiding what is in the Epstein Files? Who is he protecting? Is he himself revealed in the files to be a sexual predator of young girls?
Congress deserved to have answers to these questions. The American public deserves to know for certain that our president is NOT a sexual predator of young girls, and that he is not involved in any scheme to protect the identities of wealthy or powerful men who are!
Unless the president shows complete transparency and orders the release of the files that are in the possession of his DOJ, questions about his culpability and criminal involvement will continue to revolve around him. We will NOT forget or ignore this issue, and it will only get worse for him and result in more concern by members of Congress as to his fitness for the job as president of the U.S.
Ray W. says
This from the Washington Post.
Yana Leonova, a Belarussian woman accused of smuggling “sensitive U.S. aviation equipment into Russia” valued at more than $2 million, visited France, at which time she was arrested on an extradition warrant.
Neither Russia nor Belarus have extradition agreements with the United States.
Ms. Leonova was finally extradited to the United States to face prosecution on 10 counts of fraud, smuggling, and money-laundering.
The extradition process, started during Biden’s term in office, took over a year to complete.
Upon her arrival in the U.S. to face the charges, The Trump administration issued an immigration detainer to start the process of having her deported.
According to the Post reporter:
“A federal magistrate judge called the situation ‘Kafkaesque’ at a hearing in U.S. District Court in D.C. on Monday.
Later, in a court order, the judge wrote:
“Indeed, it is both preposterous and offensive for the government to bring someone into the United States against their will and then turn around and seek ICE detention because that person is here ‘illegally.’ … The government needs to decide what its priorities are: ginning up deportation stats or prosecuting alleged criminals.”
The magistrate ordered daily updates on the government’s decision-making process, adding “It’s unbelievable we’re even having these conversations.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Priorities?
An ICE official told Congress last year that through July 2024, it had identified 435,000 unauthorized immigrants residing in the United States who had prior criminal convictions, including 13,099 who had been convicted of murder and 15,811 who had been convicted of sexual assault.
Some of these 435,000 undocumented immigrants have been here for more than 40 years, per Cato Institute stories I have commented on. Over 3,000 of these convicted murderers were released into the population during Trump’s first term in office, according to one Cato Institute study.
President Obama, according to that Cato Institute study, signed an executive order focusing as a matter of priority on deporting immigrants who had prior convictions.
On Trump’s first day in office in 2017, he signed an executive order repealing President Obama’s order. President Trump, in his supplanting executive order, prioritized that mass deportation of immigrants seeking asylum over the deportation of immigrants who had been convicted of crime.
President Biden renewed President Obama’s executive order focusing on prioritizing removal of immigrants with criminal convictions.
On President Trump’s first day in office in 2025, he once again reversed the priority order and reimposed his prior order prioritizing the mass-removal of immigrants seeking asylum.
According to a recent NBC NEWS story, based on ICE data, through May 2025, 752 of those 13,099 immigrants convicted of murder over the past more than 40 years have been picked up. 1,693 of those convicted of 15,811 immigrants convicted of sexual assault have been picked up over that same span of time.
Ray W. says
Salon reports that President Trump returned to the campaign scene by holding a rally in Pennsylvania to the announced theme of making America affordable again.
For an hour or so, he spoke to an estimated fewer than 200 attendees in a conference center ballroom inside a “local casino.”
He told attendees that making America affordable again meant that people need to practice personal austerity:
“Americans must learn to adjust to a lower standard of living. … You can give up certain products. You can give up pencils. … You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter. Two or three is nice.”
Later in the rally, when speaking of the Fed, President Trump told attendees:
“I just heard it could be all four commissioners in the Fed signed by Biden including Too Late.” According to the reporter, Too Late means Fed Chair Powell, whom President Trump and not Joe Biden appointed to the Fed.
Even later in the rally, President Trump told attendees:
“I love this Ilhan Omar, whatever the hell her name is, with the little turban. … She comes from her country, where, I mean, it’s considered about the worst country in the world, right?”
In the reporter’s words, President Trump lied when he then accused Rep. Omar of marrying her brother to obtain citizenship.
President Trump added:
“She should get the hell out. … Throw her the hell out.”
Make of this what you will.
Stephen says
R W. Thanks for posting. This is the only way people actually see and read what is truly happening. I saw this on Medias Touch network. Truly pathetic. The major news organizations don’t have time to post this stuff. We have to get this from independent news. Can’t believe people voted for this.
Ray W. says
After the Trump administration announced in October in a “fact sheet” that China would purchase by the end of December 2025 12 million metric tons of soybeans from American farmers, CNBC reports that U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer just told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that China will make the purchases by “the end of the growing season”, distinguishing the purchase deadline from the end of the calendar year.
His statement came in response to a question raised by Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb:
“There remains anxiety about if and when China will fully follow through on those purchase commitments that were made.”
Mr. Greer told her: “It is for this growing season, so, thank you for highlighting that. … We’ve heard from a couple farmers, they wanted to know about that discrepancy, and it is a discrepancy, it’s through the growing season.”
Mr. Greer later explained there was a “discrepancy” between the calendar date set in the fact sheet and the newly announced actual deadline.
Thus far, China has purchased 3 million of the 12 million promised metric tons of American soybeans.
Joe Glauber, a former Obama era U.S. Department of Agriculture chief economist, described to the reporter that the term “growing season” is not used by the USDA, saying:
“It’s not a term that USDA means by any chance. … Does that mean at harvests or does that mean actually the end of the marketing year, which is the more common way?”
According to Mr. Glauber, the “marketing year” for American soybeans begins each September when the soybean harvest begins and ends in August of the next year. Brazil’s marketing year starts early next year, said Mr. Glauber, a time when Brazil typically dominates the soybean marketplace.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
If I understand the positions, there is a calendar year, a marketing year, and a growing season, and that the South American soybean harvest dominates early in the calendar year and the North American soybean harvest dominates late in the calendar year, simply because farmers grow soybeans at different times of the year between North and South America.
The current administration first announced China’s plan based on the administration’s chosen definition, which was a calendar year. Now that Chinese soybean purchases are not working out as announced, the race is on to redefine the deal in more flexible terms.
As an aside, during a recent New York Times DealBook Summit, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent chimed into the issue:
“So I think that will be February 28. … they are in perfect cadence to complete that goal.”
Secretary Bessent defined the season by picking an arbitrary date that fits at the moment the rate of Chinese buying. No doubt, if the Chinese need more time to buy the 12 million metric tons they promised to buy in 2025, Bessent will change the date again. The Chinese have agreed to buy 25 million metric tons of soybeans in both 2026 and 2027, though who knows what that really means now.
Ray W. says
A Regtechtimes reporter built an article on renewable energy on the premise that 80% of the world’s population lives in the “Sun Belt.”
For these residents, the Sun Belt is a “region with strong sunshine for most of the year. For these countries, solar energy is not just clean. It is practical and abundant. Every hour of sunlight gives them a chance to power homes, factories, and transport at low cost.”
The reporter points to China for this development:
“China is driving a major shift in the world’s energy landscape, and the change is happening faster than many expected. Clean technologies like solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles are spreading across the globe at record speed. This rapid progress is powered by China’s rise as a strong “electrostate” – a country built on clean technology instead of fossil fuels.”
China, writes the reporter, has a solar manufacturing capacity “far higher than what the world needs to stay on track for global climate goals. This means China can supply not only its own energy needs but also help power the rest of the world.”
The story goes on:
“[China’s] huge production has made clean energy much cheaper. As a result, many developing nations are choosing solar and wind power simply because it costs less than oil, gas, or coal. The idea that fossil fuels are the only path to development is quickly fading. Clean energy is no longer a luxury for rich countries. It has become the smartest and most affordable option for countries that need fast, reliable power. … More than half of these countries now generate a larger share of their electricity from solar power than the United States.”
The reporter describes a new energy era on the way:
“Nations now face a simple but important question: How should they work with a country that controls most of the world’s clean-energy supply? Should they welcome these products to speed up their transition? Or should they block them to protect local industries, even if that slows progress? …
“China’s leadership in clean technology is shaping this new era. By flooding global markets with affordable solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles, it is speeding up the energy transition more than any agreement or treaty ever has. And as these products become even cheaper, the shift toward a cleaner world will only accelerate.
“In this new reality, the rise of the electrostate is redefining climate action. Clean technology – not negotiations – is driving the global push toward a low-carbon future.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
There was a time not so long ago when the political argument of coal and gas versus solar and wind split the country. But more and more the argument is shifting away from a political argument for coal and natural gas and tilting toward an economic argument for solar and wind all over the world. The economic argument in the energy marketplace no longer cares about political arguments. Cost per kilowatt-hour generated is going to lead the argument.
The political argument can no longer carry the day in the face of a price advantage for solar and wind, unless people are prepared to continue to pay more than they have to pay for the electricity they consume.
Ray W. says
Reuters reports that one of the reasons inhibiting the transition from coal-fired power generation to solar with battery backup is contractual obligation.
Some Southeast Asian countries have 100% of their current energy needs contractually locked to coal-fired power plants. Others have 50% of their current energy needs contractually locked to coal, contracts that “lead to underutilization of wind and solar power.”
Even as global reliance on coal-fired electricity generation over the last decade has dropped from 39% of the overall electricity marketplace to 34%, the story reports, reliance on coal-fired electricity has grown from 35% to 45% in Southeast Asia.
The lead analyst for the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, Lauri Myllyvirta, told the reporter:
“The concern is that we’re seeing a repeat of what happened at the end of last year when grid operators had contracted too much coal power under long-term contracts and decided to curtail solar and wind.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I have repeatedly commented on FP&L’s decision a few years ago to purchase outright two aging coal-fired power plants and immediately shut them down instead of continuing to pay the plant owners the long-term contract-rate for electricity that had been negotiated decades earlier.
Before the Shale Revolution that began around 2009, natural gas prices in the U.S. were comparatively high. It made sense to some utility power companies to contract over decades a certain rate per kilowatt-hour from owners of coal-fired power plants. After the onset of that revolution, natural gas became comparatively inexpensive and some utility companies began shifting away from buying coal-fired power plants where possible.
A shift away from natural gas is occurring now with renewables. Many old coal-fired power plants still operate only because utility companies had unwisely contracted decades ago to pay a certain rate per kilowatt-hour produced. Even if a utility company builds new more efficient solar farms, the company is still contractually obligated to buy electricity from the old power plants at the negotiated higher rates.
Utility companies that fail to foresee coming economic change in the energy marketplace end up charging customers more than they would have to pay had the company exercised better foresight.
As an aside, I looked for articles about public utilities that lock their customers via contract into paying higher prices for electricity. I found a description of a study that published on October 19, 2019 in the Union of Concerned Scientists. The title was “For Some, Coal Contracts are, ‘Heads I Win, Tails You Lose.'”
The author wrote:
“Note the difference between merchant generators (that are 100% reliant on wholesale markets and bi-lateral contracts for revenues) versus public power and monopoly utilities, that have captive customers who are forced to continue paying the utility company even if they make a bad decision on fuel that is uneconomic.
“Merchant generators procure two-thirds of coal via the spot market and none have any contracts longer than 20-years. In contrast, public power and regulated utilities are much more likely to sign longer contracts, locking their customers into buying coal for years to come.”
The good news?
On December 31, 2020, FP&L closed its last coal-fired power plant in Florida. According to FP&L, by the end of 2025, it will have installed more than 30 million solar panels at dozens of solar energy centers across Florida.
Ray W. says
This from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service link:
In 2015, China bought American soybeans to the tune of $10.49 billion.
In 2016, China bought American soybeans to the tune of $$14.20 billion.
In 2017, China bought American soybeans to the tune of $12.22 billion.
In 2018, Trump’s year of tariffs in his first administration, China bought American soybeans to the tune of $3.12 billion.
In 2019, China bought American soybeans to the tune of $8.00 billion.
In 2020, China bought American soybeans to the tune of $14.07 billion.
In 2021, China bought American soybeans to the tune of $14.12 billion.
In 2022, China bought American soybeans to the tune of $17.92 billion.
In 2023, China bought American soybeans to the tune of $15.06 billion.
Last year, the latest year from which figures can be drawn, China bought American soybeans to the tune of $12.64 billion.
The reason I laboriously point out the USDA figures is that, yesterday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, during an interview televised by Newsmax, said:
“President Trump convinced President Xi to continue purchasing, or begin purchasing again, American soybeans, which is something China wasn’t doing under the last administration because they had no respect for our president Biden or for the country at the time.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
China stopped buying American soybeans after President Trump started his trade war by imposing tariffs on Chinese goods.
China never stopped buying American soybeans during the Biden administration. In fact, in value, in 2022 China purchased the most it has purchased in any of the last nine years.
Trump had to bail-out American soybean farmers in 2018 to the tune of $12 billion. Yesterday, Trump announced a second bail-out of American soybean farmers, again to the tune of $12 billion.
So why is Press Secretary Leavitt flat-out lying to the American people?
I can’t answer that. I have no idea why anyone would lie like that. His own Department of Agriculture disproves her point.
The only thing I know on this subject is that by now every FlaglerLive reader ought to know to never take at face value anything said by any member of the professional lying class that sits atop one of our two political parties.
Sherry says
More photos from the Epstein files. . . you know, the files Pam Bondi lied about and tried to conceal. Does anyone in their right minds really think that each and every one of those men hanging out with Epstein were just “there” for some kind of tea party or something? LOL! If so, why weren’t their wives and girlfriends included?
OMG! I’m beginning to believe that even if they published a video of trump in bed with some underage victim, Maga Core members would make excuses for him. Denial! Denial! Denial! Not just a river in Egypt, Maga!
Take a a moment to get educated. . . This from the Associated Press:
https://apnews.com/article/epstein-photos-released-democrats-trump-clinton-andrew-f256bd536bf4d2e63c37e59d50a65304
Laurel says
So, of course, Bondi (an ongoing embarrassment to the State of Florida) vows to investigate Democrats! Gee, what a shocker!
How about Bondi (a real piece of work) investigate any and all who hung out with the sex trafficking pedophile?
This administration is so corrupt. How does ANYONE support it?