Nukes, Florida Politics & Property Insurance - Top Three Takeaways – October 19th, 2023
- The crazy man with the nukes. The past day mainstream news media has once again shown itself to be about as credible as it happens to be...not very. I suppose the journalistic approach of the New York Times, CNN, NBC and others was that if you can’t trust what Islamic terrorists tell you, what can you trust? I’m of course referring to the knee jerk reaction by a who’s who of leftist legacy news media outlets which were quick to repeat the talking points of Palestinian Terrorists in the so called “hospital attack” by the Israeli military which according to both Israeli and American intelligence was in fact an Islamic terrorist group firing rockets essentially on themselves and those in the parking lot of the hospital. Oh, and there’s actual video evidence of this being the case. But of course, the terrorist propaganda spread around the world like wildfire, Hezbollah’s called for a day of rage, embassies throughout the middle east are under seize and the world is suddenly a powder keg. We’re now living in the most unstable time around the world since the peak of the Cold War which isn’t a coincidence given that our country has the weakest president it’s had since at least we were still in the Cold War. A common conversation I’ve been having with my friends on the left who’re afraid of what’s next, is the crazy man with the nukes conversation. It’s the same now as it was then. While the world is a less safe place because Joe Biden is the President of the United States, it was the safest place it had been in any of our lifetimes geopolitically while he was president because of his strength...or perhaps even because he was “the crazy orangeman with the nukes”. The common refrain of the left about Trump was that he was too unstable, too dangerous to be trusted with the nukes. My response today is the same as it was then. Let’s say you’re a bad actor somewhere in the world. And let's say that you think Donald Trump is an unstable and dangerous man with access to nukes. Would that make you more or less likely to act out? On that note the former and perhaps future President of the United States penned an op ed for Newsweek entitled: Biden’s Weakness and Incompetence Strengthened Iran – and Hamas. He’s right. And even any honest Biden voter knows it. As Trump stated in the piece: Under my leadership the world was safe, peaceful, and calm—because the United States of America was respected and strong. And even any honest Biden voter knows it. And that’s why he has credibility in saying: Under a Trump administration, Iran will once again be weak, Israel will once again be safe, and the United States of America will be stronger and more powerful than ever before. The left may not miss his Tweets, but how many people miss the crazy man with the nukes about now?
- Free falling. Another monthly update of registered voters by Florida’s Division of Elections has revealed another brutal month of lost voters by Florida’s Democrats. It’s only been a couple of weeks since the state’s previous monthly roundup of voter registration information from across the state showed that August had been the worst month of the year, and actually ever, for Florida’s Democrats...however as the state got back on its usual reporting schedule this month – we've now seen that the August woes for team Nikki Fried, who has a proclivity for weed, have been outdone by what went down in September. So yeah, what went down in Florida in September...Democrat voter registrations. As Trump might say – they were down bigly. Florida’s Democrats shed over 61,000 registered voters in September and now have lost nearly 372,000 voters on the year. The purge of voters, as Florida has cleaned its rolls this year, has led to fewer GOP and NPA registered voters as well – but nothing close to what we’ve seen with Florida’s Democrats. Republicans now hold a voter registration advantage that’s greater than 600,000 voters – which is huge, but is also remarkable considering that two years ago today, Democrats still led the state in registered voters. What’s also remarkable is that Republicans now hold close to a 5% voter registration advantage in a state which was known as recently as 2018 as the ultimate swing state with statewide elections regularly decided by 1% or less. Of course, not all registered partisans vote for the party they’re registered with, but most do, and what the remarkable trend in Florida's voter registrations illustrates is that what Florida experienced last November, a record red wave in the state, may soon become the norm. Florida’s Democrats are free falling and there’s no indication a bottom is in sight – in fact, the size and speed of the fall has only accelerated with time. Something that’s not free falling in Florida...
- Property insurance premiums. The bane of many Floridians’ existence is unlikely to become more affordable anytime soon. That’s the bad news. The better news is that a new independent study has found the Florida legislature has done what it needs to do in order to control what’s controllable. According to the independent risk management firm Karen Clark and Co. Florida’s property insurance premiums are unlikely to drop anytime soon but there’s also nothing else that can be likely be done about it...at least in terms of insurance reforms. In early September in discussing the topic I said this...following last year’s multiple legislative efforts to reform Florida’s property insurance market, I felt like more needed to be done. The legislative action taken this year to reduce the window of time claims from previous years (along with lawsuits may be filed), along with strong litigation reform including the elimination of one-way attorney's fees is being evidenced as effective. There are no longer any aspects of Florida’s property insurance crisis which have gone unaddressed and there are now many strong indications of a recovering market – one that has the potential to improve quicker than many, including myself, thought may be possible. And that’s proved true. We’re gaining new property insurers seemingly by the week in recent months. But there’s a difference between a recovery in our property insurance market and lower prices. According to industry analysis about 40% of Florida’s policy premiums are impacted by litigation expenses. The rest still comes down to risk and construction expense. As litigation risks are coming down the risks of storms are not – nor are the costs of repairing damage from them. Ever-rising inflation continues to take its toll on construction costs. So as litigation risks and expenses begin to abate for insurance companies, construction costs for repairs continue to rise. So, for now we’ll have to settle for the good news being that already expensive property insurance premiums, which are now about triple the national average, aren’t even worse. And if we’re to see property insurance relief in Florida two things need to happen. Fewer storms resulting in less damage and lower inflation...it’s not just hitting us in the wallet every time we buy something it’s hitting us in the wallet every time we insure something as well. The flaming hot cost of construction inflation has reached a staggering 22% higher rate than the overall inflation rate since the onset of Bidenomics.