Bagging Big Snakes, Disney’s Doubling Down on Florida & Trump’s Peaking – Top 3 Takeaways – September 20th, 2023
- Bagging big snakes. Last Friday the 2023 Florida Python Challenge winners were announced. The top prize went to Paul Hobbs who bagged 20 Burmese pythons in ten days to win 10k. In total, over the ten days of this year’s challenge, 1,050 people pulled in a total of 209 big snakes. Which btw, makes Paul’s haul that much more impressive when you consider that his effort alone accounted for almost 10% of the entire remediation effort. Fewer pythons wreaking havoc in the ‘Glades is of course a good thing. But the question remains as to whether all our efforts are really accomplishing anything to stop the spread of the invasive species which is known to have eradicated the natural population of six animals while wreaking havoc on dozens more. The annual Python Challenge is the state’s most visible program aimed at python remediation but it’s actually the least impactful one. Most pythons removed from the Everglades come courtesy of the state’s ongoing Python Action Team which works in tandem with the South Florida Water Management District’s Python Elimination Program. Neither sounds a sexy as the “Python Challenge” but both are responsible for the removal of most of the snake skins that come out of the swamp. Contractors who work as regular members of the removal team have bagged 11,000 pythons over the six years the program has been in place, or about 85% of the removed snakes documented by Florida Fish and Wildlife. But the fact that there continues to be a bunch of big snakes readily available to bag is a sign of how pervasive the problem with them continues to be. The US Geological Survey still estimates that “tens of thousands” of Burmese pythons are in the Everglades today. But at least there aren’t “tens of thousands” more that would be there without the ongoing effort. We’ll know the day has come that we’ve really made progress in curbing the Burmese invasion when it becomes much harder and far rarer to bag big invasive snakes in the Everglades.
- Disney’s doubling down on Florida. Ten years and $60 billion. That’s how much more Disney’s decided to plow into its Parks, Experiences and Products division over the next ten years according to its SEC filing on Tuesday. According to the filing Disney will be: investing in expanding and enhancing domestic and international parks and cruise line capacity, prioritizing projects anticipated to generate strong returns, consistent with the Company’s continuing approach to allocate capital in a disciplined and balanced manner. When it comes to cruising and when it comes to theme parks, nowhere in the world does them quite like Florida does. Despite the multi-year dust up with DeSantis, Disney had previously forecasted a $17 billion 10-year expansion within our state which would come with the creation of 13,000 jobs. While the filing didn’t get specific with details, beyond the disclosed doubling of their previous plans, there’s likely to be no bigger beneficiary than Florida. The move which could now bring over $30 billion and 25,000 additional jobs to our state by Disney over the next decade was recently forecasted. Last month Governor DeSantis’ message to the company was that the state had “moved on” from the Disney drama and lawsuits. In an interview with CNBC, he called on the company “to drop the lawsuit”, saying “let’s move forward”. Disney’s response was to drop all but the “free speech” component of their lawsuit. And now this. DeSantis has “moved on” from the feud and Disney is set to literally double-down on their already huge investment which had been planned in Florida.
- Trump’s peaking. A week from today is the second Republican presidential debate. If recent history holds the biggest winner of it won’t be in it. It was always going to be an uphill battle for any Republican presidential contender to knock off a former president who had a greater than 90% approval rating with Republican voters while president. However high that hill was before, it’s become higher now. The presidential debate process this cycle is an especially important one for non-Trump candidates as they seek to make themselves known to voters across the country and to make their mark as a possible Trump-alternative candidate in the process. What we’ve seen in the weeks following that first debate is that the candidate Republican voters want most is Donald Trump. Not only is Donald Trump’s national polling lead now bigger than it was prior to the first debate, it’s bigger than it’s been at any point in the polling cycle. With an average of 57% support currently among Republican primary voters, and a lead of 44% over his closest competition, it’s clear that whatever all of the other candidates have been doing hasn’t been working. There was always going to be a large percentage of voters were always going to vote for Trump no matter what. But what’s most impressive for the former president is how he’s grown his pledged support. As recently as March, when he only had a couple of official contenders for the nomination, Trump’s support nationally stood at 43%. Despite numerous candidates jumping in the race and numerous indictments coming his way he’s grown that support by 14%. By way of comparison, his growth in this race is now higher than the level of support of any other candidate currently in it. And it’s not just in the national polls which ultimately don’t decide anything other than which candidates may qualify for a debate stage. Donald Trump now has a lead that’s the largest it’s been in each of the first four states to vote as well. Trump’s peaking and he’s doing it at a time in which other candidates, if they’re to be serious contenders, should be the ones on the move. Nothing’s over in this race until votes are cast and counted, but the feeling of inevitability is growing along with his already massive polling lead.