As part of a years-long crusade to force more Floridians into the private insurance market, Scott raised premiums and rescinded discounts from the Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the government-backed nonprofit insurer, all while giving private companies extra incentives and protections to operate in the state.

Now that warming-fueled storms are routinely causing billions of dollars in damage across Florida, private insurers are fleeing the state, forcing customers back to Citizens. But now the deals the public insurer offers come with higher premiums and worse coverage.

Now Scott's Democratic challenger for Senate, former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, is hoping voters can make the connection between Scott's eight years as governor and the financial squeeze caused as insurers increasingly fail to pay to repair properties damaged in hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Once voters draw the link between the devastation and the inability to get affordable coverage, "you're going to see people here in the state push back very, very strongly against these electeds that have been here and done nothing," she said.

"It's borderline criminal," she added. "People are so angry, frustrated and exhausted. Helene brought flooding. Then Milton made everything worse."

And the Republican Florida legislature's answer to these problems is to strike any mention of climate change from government, as though that alone will solve the problems. And there's this too:

Scott slashed environmental regulations and cut funding for Florida's water management agency by $700 million, setting the stage for a toxic algae bloom that decimated fisheries and the coastal tourism business in 2018. Scott's critics skewered him with the nickname "red tide Rick," and the issue hurt the Republican in the polls.

"He was red tide Rick'... People living in Florida for a very long time know him very well," Mucarsel-Powell said.

"The homeowners insurance crisis that we're facing right now started under Rick Scott," she said.

Just after taking office in 2011, Scott signed legislation eliminating Citizens' caps on premium increases, causing the cost of coverage to skyrocket.

Citizens then launched a campaign to re-audit homes that state-sanctioned inspectors had already deemed ready for a major storm as part of a process to qualify for an insurance discount. Of the more than 250,000 homeowners Citizens double-checked, three out of four lost discounts, the Tampa Bay Times reported in 2012.

They did nothing to help, just stood and watched like useless baby killers

There are medical personnel on duty at all campaign events for moments like these. It isn't the job nor responsibility of those on stage unless they're specifically called for by others to respond. And even more importantly, those physicians are responsible for more live births than they are terminated ones.

And the only ones being booed at Harris rallies are Trump fan bois trying to disrupt the proceedings through their vocal interruptions, making it impossible for others to hear and the speakers to continue their thoughts until they can be peaceably removed. Hence they're being booed, not the speakers. Just like it happens at Trump rallies, the difference being Kamala doesn't tell security or her audience to 'knock the hell out of them' like the sociopath Trump does.

Anyone with a functioning brain cell knows that, but considering who foisted this nonsensical assertion, obviously no reasoning brain cells are presently functioning inside this individual's cranium.

Related:

The New York Times editorial board has made its case that Mr. Trump is unfit to lead. But the strongest case against him may come from his own people. For those Americans who are still tempted to return him to the presidency or to not vote in November, it is worth considering the assessment of Mr. Trump by those who have seen him up close.

Typical Trumper. Almost every accusation against others is a confession against themselves.

Not to mention he's acting as a Russian agent taking orders from Putin - buying Twitter, allowing it to be used for Russian election interference, and funding Trump's campaign through super PACs - in order to keep himself and his family alive after letting Ukraine use Starlink to terminate untold thousands of Russian lives during Putin's 3 day exercise now heading towards year 4.

But since he's not brown, he's a-ok with Trump and his white nationalist/supremacist crew.

Some men may be tempted to vote for Trump because of their anger at the slow pace of progress, Obama said, but "your rage does not exist in a vacuum."

"If we don't get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women will become collateral damage to your rage," Obama said. "So are you as men prepared to look into the eyes of the women and children you love and tell them you supported this assault on our safety?"

"I lay awake at night wondering, What in the world is going on?'" she said.

Her voice vibrating with emotion, Obama talked about the struggle for women to understand and care for their own bodies, whether it's their menstrual cycles or menopause. And she spoke about the dangers of childbirth, when a split-second decision can mean the difference between life and death for a mother and her baby.

"I am asking y'all from the core of my being to take our lives seriously," Obama pleaded.

[Obama's] remarks were searing and passionate in their support of Harris.

"By every measure, she has demonstrated that she's ready," the former first lady said. "The real question is, as a country, are we ready for this moment?"

Obama added, "Do not buy into the lies that we do not know who Kamala is or what she stands for. This is somebody who understands you, all of you."

Regardless of what the men do, this election will be decided by women, the class who has the most to lose should Trump win the presidency again. And Trump is running the most anti-woman campaign perhaps in American history, but certainly since women have had the right to vote. And more women vote than do men so which demographic is most important?

Yeah, he's quite the stable genius after all.

Even Tony acknowledged liberal media exists.

No I didn't. You have to be careful with your words because they DO have distinct meanings.

Of course, particular media sources can be biased but that wasn't what you said.

You claimed there was a liberal media when there isn't. There is a conservative media such as Sinclair, IHeartRadio, and the entire right wing mediasphere - Fox News, Newsmax, OANN, et._al., which controls political content from the top down.

The gender gap among young women has not inspired the same level of analysis and deep focus as has the gender gap with young men. Even a close reader of election coverage may forget for a moment that this is the first presidential election since the Supreme Court's decision on Dobbs more than two years ago. If there were ever an election in which to focus on the political behavior of young women, it's this one.

Roevember is almost here.

#33

Scratch that. It's a photoshop fake by the Russians to discredit Harris supporters.

It is sad that women had to be stripped of their basic right to control their bodies - and to be threatened with the loss of lifesaving medical care - for Kamala to even have a chance to get the votes of enough women to offset losing the votes of so many men.

Trump is running a hypermasculine campaign - with Chief Bro Elon Musk bizarrely bouncing up and down - that is breathtakingly offensive to women. Trump is exploiting the crisis among Gen Z men, a crisis driven by loneliness, Covid isolation, economic insecurity, a lack of purpose and a feeling that the modern world seems more accommodating to young women.

Trump is a renowned predator and groper who has been found liable for sexual abuse. But he has the gall to cast Kamala as "retarded," "lazy as hell" and a "bitch" and ask, "Does she drink? Is she on drugs?"

Barack Obama punctured the MAGA macho myth at a rally with Kamala on Thursday. Putting down people is not "real strength," he said. Real strength is standing up for those who can't stand up for themselves. "That's what we should want in our daughters and our sons," Obama said. "And that's what I want to see in the president of the United States of America."

Why are the Democrats losing?

I wonder if we can find examples of this from the early voting returns.

lfthndthrds = moron

So I guess you don't believe there are news sites with a right wing bias either?

Apples, oranges Bill. Look at what you stated.

liberal media versus right wing bias

One is not like the other. Of course particular media sources can be biased but that wasn't what you said. You claimed there was a liberal media when there isn't. There is a conservative media such as Sinclair, IHeartRadio, and the entire right wing mediasphere - Fox News, Newsmax, OANN, et._al., which controls political content from the top down.

Name one media outlet that is 100% liberal outside of progressive radio. Which network is liberal? NBC isn't, they're corporate just like Laura said. MSNBC is certainly liberal leaning, but some of its most popular programs are helmed by a former Contract for America ex-GOP congressman and a former GOP political operative who worked in the W White House and for the McCain presidential campaign.

Every other non-right network is for profit only, not politically biased as a matter of its existence and marketing. Even NPR is only considered left-leaning because its based on intellectualism which is anathema to today's conservatives who proudly demean intellectuals every chance they get. NPR often asks responders to politically self-identify so they can try to be more openly balanced.

U.S. officials said in a statement sent by the FBI that they believe the video was "manufactured and amplified" by Russian actors. The officials said it's part of "Moscow's broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the U.S. election and stoke divisions among Americans."

The information was released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The Bucks County Board of Elections had identified the video as fake on Thursday, saying the envelope and other materials in the video "are clearly not authentic materials belonging to or distributed by" the board.

The video showed a person sorting through what looked like mail ballots labeled as coming from Bucks County. The person, who was Black, appeared to be tearing up ballots marked for Trump, and leaving alone ballots marked for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Researchers who closely study Russian foreign influence campaigns had previously connected the video to a Russian disinformation network known as Storm-1516 or CopyCop. The network has previously shared numerous videos with false claims about Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz.

So what's going on here? It's not clear. There are a few possibilities. One is that that Republican early voting is itself skewing female and thus keeping that gender spread high. Another possibility is that Democratic women are voting early at even higher rates than in previous cycles and that's off-setting the impact of Republican early voting.

For the moment I don't think we can say this is good or bad for one party or the other. It's more that there's some additional factor which is allowing the rate of Republican early voting to expand without that 10 point gender spread contracting. It's not clear what that is yet. But whatever it is could turn out to be significant for the final results of the election.

There are two other swing states releasing gender breakdown data for the early votes. And the numbers are comparable and actually larger. In Georgia it's 11.2 percentage points and in Michigan it's 13.1 percentage points.

WSJ has definitely shifted left as they see Trump as a threat to the deep state uni-party neo-cons.

The editorial board isn't Murdoch now is it?

Damn. If there was only a timely story about the owner of one of the nation's largest papers overruling his editorial board.

Oh,... there is.

damn the Democrats

I didn't know that the Democrats are running the Wall Street Journal. Rupert Murdoch is a Democrat. Wow.

You're not very bright, are you?

She's not been bringing in this election.

Biden was -5 to -7 when he dropped out. Harris is currently +2 to -2 depending upon the national poll.

Only morons would call +5 to +7 not bringing it.

Do these people even think rationally, or simply gorge themselves on right wing Kool-Aide all day long?

Harris is a terrible candidate.

Yeah. She's only 7-0 in elected politics and was elected US Senator from the largest state in America - the one with an economy only exceeded by 5 other nations on Planet Earth.

What were Democrats thinking? /s

This South African can SHOULD potentially be de-naturalized of his US citizenship...

FTFY

#5

Perfect example of the dichotomy. Every word out of Trump's mouth that's actually understandable is either projection or an oblivious confession of his own failure in never taking responsibility for anything in his entire miserable life as he lives in a fantasy world where he's the eternal victim under siege from all directions.

Calling Trump's disjointed verbalized meanderings 'word salads' is a affront to both lettuce and dictionaries.

AngryDrunk, like Aroma don't care about ethics in journalism.

Trump couldn't spell ethics if you spotted him all six letters in order. The only letter he cares about is the "I".

And this is from Rupert Murdoch's paper, you know, the same person that owns Fox News. It's a multi-sourced story so the editors know who the sources are even if pinheads like Turds don't. Is Murdoch trying to smear Trump? Your complaints are laughable in the face of reality.

The issue here is that Putin is in direct communication with the person funding Trump's campaign to the tune of $134 million and counting. In Turd's world, the Watergate story was bogus too since the source never became public until almost 50 years afterwards. If he had 2 braincells in total he'd understand how anonymous sources work and why they want to remain nameless. Newspapers can be sued for libel if they publish information that they know is false and derogatory and lord knows Musk has the money to sue, so why not wait and see if he does before casting ignorant aspersions because you simply don't like the information being offered?

I guess the Trumpers are showing that America simply isn't meaningful anymore to them if their first complaint is about the reporting instead of the allegation Putin is pressuring Musk for his own misery in Ukraine. And then Musk buys Twitter, removes the fact checking of right wing disinformation, and joins Trump as a surrogate in his campaign while in communication with Putin himself.

National security sacrificed on the altar of Trumpism, how quaint.

He jumps more abruptly between subjects and from his script to improvising, sometimes offering what sound like non-sequiturs. He occasionally mixes up words or names, and some of his sentences are meaningless or nonsensical. As he delivered more speeches in October, he has made multiple slip-ups per day. He has become more profane in public.

With less than two weeks of campaigning left, Vice President Kamala Harris is increasingly trying to use Trump's words against him. At recent rallies, she has started playing clips of him speaking and calling him "unstable and unhinged."

"He has called it the weave,'" Harris said at a rally on Saturday. "But I think we here will call it nonsense."

And we haven't even spoken about his total unfitness for the office even if he wasn't a criminal convict, thief, grifter, con artist, racist, misogynist, xenophobic bigot. So there's all that too.