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Weather: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm, then showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. High near 90. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Saturday Night: Showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 8pm. Low around 74. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
- 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. 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, as they do today:
Chess Meet-Up At the Flagler Beach Public Library, 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the library, 315 7th St S, Flagler Beach. It’s free. All ages, all skill levels. Flagler Beach Chess is a community-driven organization dedicated to promoting the game of chess in Flagler Beach, Florida, and surrounding areas. We seek to bring together players of all skill levels and provide opportunities for friendly competition, socialization, and skill development. We believe that chess is more than just a game – it’s a way of life. Our community is built around a shared love of strategy, critical thinking, and intellectual challenge. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced player, we invite you to join us for a game or two, learn from other players, and share your own knowledge and expertise. Join us today and become a part of our chess community. Every third Saturday of the month.
Democratic Women’s Club of Flagler County meeting at 9:30 a.m. at the Palm Coast Community Center, 305 Palm Coast Parkway NE.
The Battle of Shallowford, a play at Limelight Theatre, 11 Old Mission Avenue, St. Augustine. 7:30 p.m. except on Sunday, 2 p.m. Buy tickets here (generally $37.60 for adults). The play centers around the dramatic events that unfold when the residents tune into Orson Welles’ famous “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast. The locals, who rely on the radio for news and entertainment, are thrown into a frenzy when they believe an actual Martian invasion is taking place in their own town.
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.
Random Acts of Insanity’s Roundup of Standups from Around Central Florida, 8 p.m. at Cinematique Theater, 242 South Beach Street, Daytona Beach. General admission is $8.50. Every third Saturday RAI hosts Live Standup Comedy with comics from all over Central Florida.
World Cup:
- Netherlands v Sweden 1 p.m. FOX Telemundo NRG Stadium, Houston.
- Germany v Ivory Coast 4 p.m. FOX Telemundo BMO Field, Toronto.
- Ecuador v Curaçao 8 p.m. FS1 Telemundo GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City.
- Tunisia v Japan midnight FS1 Telemundo Estadio BBVA, Guadalupe, Mexico.
Diary: We are all Etruscans. Etruscans may have originated in present-day Turkey, according to Herodotus (more recent scholars disagree), but we know them for the pre-Roman civilization of a thousand years in central Italy, from around 900 BC to around the time of Julius Caesar. Etruscans feared death, which they imagined to be life similar to what they’d left behind, but slower. Much slower. In the words of Raymond Bloch, the French historian and archeologist (1914-1997), they wanted “in their final resting place a familiar setting without which they would have feared even more of penetrating into the dark kingdom of Hades.” So they built elaborate tombs, little apartments really, which they filled with familiar trinkets, the sepulchral equivalent of comfort food. Isn’t travel a form of death in the Etruscan sense? Whether we go to the next town, the next state or the next continent, whether on business or, worse, on touristy jaunts (when we are supposed to be in discovery mode), don’t we do what the Etruscans did in their tombs? Don’t we entomb ourselves by looking for the familiar, the restaurant chains we know, the gift shops we’re familiar with, the hotel brands we know from home? Travel is a jump into the abyss. It’s always a chance. The further away from the familiar, the chancier. Kaliningrad is not Kansas City. Even in Kansas City, what fools we would be to take refuge in a Panera instead of a beefier indigenous joint. The chancier the travel, the greater the potential rewards. We don’t come home with memories of the familiar but of the new (“only things foreign to us always seem to have character,” Thomas Mann writes in The Magic Mountain, one of the great travel books of the 20th century, though I think of The Gulag Archipelago in the same way). That Etruscan fear was a security blanket, but doffing it could have its rewards, too: we don’t know. But we should dare.
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.
July 2026
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Second Saturday Plant Sale at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park
American Association of University Women (AAUW) Meeting
Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area
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
For the full calendar, go here.
Every journey, to be completely profitable, needs an almost unique thought which directs it. It is not enough to set out on the journey with the happy willingness to observe. We must also know what we will preferably observe; it is necessary, through previous work, to have created a dominant taste, a study of choice, to which the mind is attached in the midst of the varied spectacles of a society new to it. Thus the poet will not travel like the naturalist, nor the painter like the diplomat; and since this is England, Voltaire will not travel there like Montesquieu, nor Montesquieu like M. Dupin. The illustrious author of Letters on the English will see among them above all philosophical opinions an ancient constitution and on this earth whatever form it is and religious; Montesquieu, the spirit of his laws; and for our contemporary, it will be the industry that he will visit and surprise the classic that it has chosen: beneath it, it will not hide its mysteries; because the need to be useful to France animates its efforts, and its science draws strength at the same time as morality from the inspirations of the homeland.
–From Sainte-Beuve’s review of The Travel of a Young Frenchman by Adolphe Blanqui (1823).
Dennis C Rathsam says
IRAN has no Army, no Navy, no Air Force, 1/2 ass electric, no internet….with no running water in many places! t will take them a decade to rebuild what the USA & BIBI destroyed. Obama didn’t destroy anything except many American lives, with the CASH he sent them, who then funded Hezbola. Then Obama & Biden sat back & watch them kill Americans.
Skibum says
You are so foolish. If you somehow believe Iran is no longer a threat to shipping, no longer a threat to other nearby gulf countries, and no longer a threat to U.S. military vessels that have intentionally NOT ventured through the Straight of Hormuz specifically because of the ongoing threat from Iran’s huge number or remaining ballistic missiles and tens of thousands of explosive laden drones, then the only conclusion I can come to is that the one remaining brain cell you might have had between your ears has gone the way of all the others when you became a maga lovin’, sexual abuser supporting, lying con man electing numskull!
Congrats for revealing your diagnosis resulting from the brain eating, degenerative “trump derangement syndrome”. We the people on Earth 1 have pity for you.
Skibum says
Oh, guess what, Dennis… as of this afternoon (Saturday) at just after 1 pm, national news sources are reporting the breaking news that Iran has closed the Straight of Hormuz yet again due to ongoing strikes by the Israeli military in Lebanon. Wow, nobody could have predicted this, huh???
So, brainless Dennis… if Iran has, as you vomit disinformation, NO military capabilities and is no longer a threat then our U.S. Navy ships could sail right up into the Straight and ensure that shipping continues to transit that body of water safely, correct? Want to bet that doesn’t happen? Our military experts, leaders of other nearby Gulf countries, and more importantly, owners and insurers of all of the ships that need to transit back and forth through those waters know damn well that there continues to be an enormous threat of loss of life to any civilian or military ship that dares to try such a foolish stunt while Iran blocks the Straight of Hormuz with threats of their ballistic missiles and bomb laden attack drones.
Why don’t you take your own little “excursion” over to the Middle East, get on a row boat plastered with maga slogans and a photo of your “dear leader” and giddily paddle into the Straight of Hormuz to show America’s strength and resolve, testing that Iran’s military power has been “decimated”, “obliterated” as the lying liar and his idiot sycophants who don’t even believe their own words try to convince the rest of the world into believing the unbelievable. Go ahead… we’ll wait for your report on how it goes. Sayonara!
Ed P says
Hello Skibum,
Just because the Iranians say the strait is closed, is it true?
They are claiming victory too. I suspect some on the left believe that as well and will endlessly debate it. Does that make it true?
21,000 air strikes and an economy in free fall paints a much different picture.
The starts and stops are expected. The Iranian leadership has to convince itself and the people of Iran that they won.
Reality will prevail. Just needs time, be patient.
Ps. Can we agree calling Dennis foolish and brainless while suggesting he take a MAGA row boat and paddle his way through is also kind of ?
Skibum says
Well, you apparently don’t believe it when Iran says they have closed the Straight of Hormuz, but our own U.S. Navy ships are not testing that statement, are they. Oil tankers of all sizes are certainly not going to be taking a chance that any such statement is merely bluster.
If you doubt Iran’s direct or implied threat is real, knowing they still have huge stockpiles of ballistic missiles and attack drones at the ready pointed into the waters off their coastline, feel free to join Dennis in his row boat. Maybe fauxinfotainment will loan you two an on-camera video feed and a mic to give minute-by-minute updates.
Don’t hesitate to yell loudly for help from U.S. naval vessels far, far away from where you will be lurking, because they are not going to be anywhere close by where they could potentially be targets like you guys will be if you choose this journalistic assignment. You both will be doing mankind a favor, either way it works out for you. Good luck!
Ray W. says
Hello Skibum.
Windward, an outlet of news about shipping, reports that on June 20, 2026, 17 ships were tracked as entering the Strait of Hormuz, including six tankers. 15 outbound ships, including five tankers, were observed. Iran’s Kharg Island has resumed loading crude oil into tankers, with three tankers observed taking on oil. 841 shipping vessels of all types were either anchored, docked or moving in the Persian Gulf, not in the Strait and not in the Gulf of Oman.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
From numerous news outlets, prior to onset of war, on average as many as 130 to 140 ships per day transited the Strait of Hormuz. Finally, after more than three months, shipping traffic has grown back to roughly one-quarter normal volume, if only for one day.
Whether this counts as evidence of unconditional surrender, I suppose, depends on one’s political perspective.
The dude says
It is kind of sad that Iran has more credibility than Don Snoreleone.
The obese, pathological liar currently besmirching the Oval Office, and this country, just can’t be trusted or believed at all.
The dude says
Seeing Dennis spout the lies spoon fed to him by his MAGA taskmasters, it’s easy to see how algae is literally outwitting MAGA rubes and dullards right now.
Laurel says
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tGEMhXmritQ
Pogo says
Hi L
Very good, qualifies as must listening (your 1st link to him too) — it’s sad that the American prayer and dream is become a Netflix sitcom about hustlers (and of their earned, deserved, and often random fates) of every type and kind: short sellers rigging the wheel at the “investor” flea circus, slight of hand cons, everyday pickpockets, etc, and the barkers (media and otherwise) for the snuff film that passes for the world’s economic system.
Nothing ends badly, or well. It just ends — when it ends. And then the next ripple follows it.
Om…
https://www.google.com/search?q=buddhism+om+symbol
Laurel says
Yes. I see that we are at all, different stages of growth.
Ray W. says
According to an RBC Ukraine story, earlier today gas stations across Crimea have been ordered to stop selling fuel. Fuel rationing hasn’t worked. All Crimean fuel reserves are being allocated to official government use.
And, after drone strikes on Crimean electricity infrastructure, a region of Crimea lacks
electricity.
And, due in part to drone strikes on docks, ferry operations to and from Crimea have been suspended.
And, Ukrainian drones struck six radar systems linked to the Russian anti-air network.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
It was recently reported that a Ukrainian battery manufacturer recently started deliveries of solid-state lithium-ion batteries to drone manufacturers. The lighter and smaller batteries that are comparatively more energy dense permit current drones to now travel much farther than before. Being one-way attack, or suicide, drones, the batteries do not need the capacity for multiple recharging cycles. Now, Ukrainian drone operators working far behind the lines of battle can easily and more cheaply strike more distant Crimean targets. As the Russian anti-air radar network degrades, more and more of these cheap drones will get through.
In May 1943, Winston Churchill was invited to address the U.S. House; his comments went out across America and to the world. Churchill cited to the June 1942 Battle of Midway, the January 1943 German surrender of an entire army at Stalingrad, and the recent surrender of an entire Italian-German army in Tunisia. He said that the Axis powers had already lost WWII; they just didn’t know it yet. Only the killing remained to be done.
He reminded Congress that General Lee had lost the Civil War at Gettysburg, but he didn’t know it at the time. More Americans had to die after Gettysburg than had died
before. That was what Churchill meant when he said only the killing remained to be done.
Ukrainian drone operators, per other stories, have begun dropping into rivers and the Black Sea many of the rail and road bridges connecting Crimea to the mainland. Crimea, the stories report, is becoming an isolated island again. Vehicle traffic on the few highways connecting Crimea to Russia has slowed toward nonexistent. The Ukraine is shifting from the defensive to the offensive. Is it reasonable, i.e., valid, to argue that the Russians long ago lost the war they started, only they didn’t know it then and still don’t know it now. That only the killing remains?
Skibum says
Hi Ray. Thanks for the additional info.
For Dennis and Ed P… even if there was only one tanker with a captain foolish enough to want to make that very slow, excruciating navigation of the Strait of Hormuz, hoping that the odds might be in his favor, can either of you imagine the vessel’s owners taking such an enormous risk knowing full well their insurers most like would deny any claim of loss due to the volatile conditions and threats to shipping by the extremist Iranian military?
The reality of the current situation is that prior to the U.S. attack on Iran, the Strait of Hormuz was open to all shipping, without restriction or controls in place by ANY country. Afterward? Iran if more emboldened, more extreme, and more committed to using that natural body of water as their exclusive ace in the hole against the world’s economies.
* Iran succeeded in getting a MOU signed by our surrendering loser-in-chief allowing for the sanctions the kept Iran from selling its oil to other countries removed.
* Iran succeeded in getting another stipulation in the MOU that other Gulf countries will pay Iran 300 billion dollars for reconstruction costs. Whether that will actually happen or not, it is still in the MOU the surrendering loser-in-chief agreed to.
* Iran succeeded in getting the surrendering loser-in-chief to agree to tell Israel to cease all hostilities in Lebanon.
The ONLY thing the U.S. gets in this surrender deal is a return to where we were before he so stupidly ordered our military to initiate bombing attacks on Iran.
So the status quo, supposedly reopening the Strait to shipping, cost us 13 American military lives, nearly spent the vast majority of our missile stockpile, has cost us more than 30+ billion dollars total in military assets, and has reportedly cost hundreds of billions of dollars to the economies of the world. All to only bring us back, MAYBE – if we are lucky, to where we were before the insane war was started by Generalissimo Bone Spurs.
And you two somehow believe that is any kind of victory, or even an accomplishment???
James says
Pretty obvious by now… no? Tesus needs to “wrap it up” by the midterms, gotta get the price of gas down.
Just my opinion.
Btw, it’s pronounced “Tee-jus” if you’re confused. 🏌️⛳