Anti-Social
We' not anti-people, just anti-social media. Interesting topics, with some logic, originating from the island paradise of Key Biscayne, Florida.
Anti-Social
She wants to be your Senator: Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
DEBBIE MUCARSEL-POWELL, a former Democratic congresswoman from Miami, is trying to upset Republican Rick Scott for U.S. Senate. Recent polls show the race tightening to within the margin of error.
As Hurricane Milton's damage is still being assessed, we talk to her about the government's role in disaster response, environmental policy, and much more. Listen as she makes her case for election.
The views expressed in the following program are those of the host and guests, and do not necessarily represent those of the Key Biscayne Independent or Miami Fourth Esaate. Portions were pre-recorded
music:and again and again. I think she will
Tony Winton:live from Key Biscayne, Florida. This is anti social, the podcast where we follow the news, current events, and we try to be a calming voice, even when the news is full of anxiety and stress, as it has been the last couple of days. I'm Tony Winton and
Jan Dillow:I'm Jan Dillo. Hope everybody made it through the hurricane Milton with no marks of lingering marks from the from the storm.
Tony Winton:Yeah, I've been following accounts on of on social media, from my friends who have, you know, going back to their homes and finding out what's still standing and what's not this in your stomach. That happens when you're unknown, right? It starts before the storm, during the storm and and then you know what happens afterwards? And at last count, we had about three and a half million people without power. That's as of today, when we're recording the program and a death toll of five, and some news sources are reporting double that in terms of lives that have been lost. So a catastrophe for the state,
Jan Dillow:even though we got away pretty, pretty easily from it, though. I mean, also, a lot of us have family members or, you know, and close friends that are up north. My mother's up there, and she, you know, just the whole it's very scary for people, especially because it was in the middle of the night when all this stuff was going on, you couldn't see what was happening.
Tony Winton:And indeed, and the way that the storm, you know, had been tracked for a while, but the intensification to go from a tropical storm to a category five at one point with 180 mile per hour winds, one of the most powerful systems ever recorded. Now it eased off a bit, thank God, before it hit the coast, but that kind of unpredictability, I think, was adding to everyone's
Jan Dillow:anxiety, yeah, and I think everybody was on edge too, because we were still getting reports from Holy right? So, so
Tony Winton:it's been a it's been a week, right? And on top of all that, there's been this, and if you've been following the news about response, the federal government has promised that President Joe Biden saying, I've got your back to both Helene victims and those now from this storm, but it's been injected into the national political campaign, and that's apt, because our guest today is someone who is running for United States Senate. We have an open rather a seat this time around for our Senate, one of our two senators, and our guest is Debbie mucarcel Powell, and welcome to the program anti social.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powel:Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.
Tony Winton:Well, first off, tell us a little bit about what your information you might have about Milton, even just personally, or what you're hearing about the level of damage. We're still in the early phases, with the sun really just coming up this morning. What are you hearing?
Debbie Mucarsel-Powel:Well, let me start by just telling you a little bit about what I saw last week after Helene. Okay, we were getting ready for Helene when, when Helene, of course, devastated some of the areas in the west coast of Florida, including areas low lying areas in South St Pete, part of Hillsborough County, part of Pinellas County, where they had experienced flooding that they hadn't seen before in decades. And so I met this family. I went down there, and I was walking through the area, and I met a family that, within 20 minutes, they had three feet inside their home, and it was something that they were not expecting. And those are the type of stories that I think we forget. I mean, living here in South Florida, I think many people still remember Andrew, we have lived through some severe storms, severe weather events, like Irma a few years back, but and Ian, of course, a couple of years ago. And I just think that many of us assume that we're going to be okay. The problem that we have seen with Helene and now with Milton is that some of these areas that were impacted by storm surge and flooding were areas that have never expected or seen flooding before. So a senior center, for example, was evacuated today because they had seen high levels of flooding, and these are some of our most vulnerable. Members of our community. I have been in contact with many people in the area, one of them that lives close to Sarasota, Her home was fine, but her neighbor's home was completely flooded. I had a conversation yesterday, actually, in the afternoon, with Amy Amy's mom, her home was affected by a tornado, and within seconds that home lost the roof, some of the walls collapsed. The glass was broken. It hurt her mother. Her mother had to go to the hospital with a concussion and with some cuts, she's going to be okay. But Amy was in tears, because this was something that, of course, you know, as we're all preparing for another hurricane, for a severe hurricane, we were not expecting all these tornadoes across the state, which also affected Broward, Palm Beach, St Lucie. So what is clear is that the intensification of these weather systems are getting much faster, much stronger. I remember when I was in Congress, I went to visit the College of Engineering, where they do a lot of research on hurricanes, and they were already saying that they had to change the scales, that a hurricane five was not going to be the highest scale that they would see, and it's exactly what we've been what we were seeing and what we were fearful of with Milton. So I am getting ready. My team is getting ready to be of assistance to go up to those affected areas and bring supplies and help those families that have lost everything. I've also visited animal shelters where a lot of families that lost their homes had to surrender their animals. I will be posting information. Would love for people to follow that, because I guarantee you that now we're going to see so many more animals that just are going to need either foster homes or adoption, just trying to do whatever we can, my team and I to be of assistance. The great thing is, I did receive a call from the White House. I received a call from the Vice President's office yesterday and today, and the FEMA has been on the ground all week. The director of FEMA is has the national guard down here making sure that we can restore power, working with state officials to do the same thing. And we have to always be very grateful that we have some of the best first responders here in the state of Florida, and so the work will continue. We will rebuild, but we need to be much smarter on how we're rebuilding some of these communities. Well, speaking
Jan Dillow:about FEMA, there's been a lot of disinformation that seems to have been or a lot of things that have been coming out about FEMA with, you know, Republicans say, or certain Republicans, including Trump, saying that the female FEMA resources were being wasted, and that kind of thing that disinformation. What do you think is, do you feel that that's been widely touted in Florida as well?
Debbie Mucarsel-Powel:Yeah, look, it is the most shameful thing to see people like Rick Scott who have a loud microphone sitting in a position of power spread disinformation about disaster relief. It is absolutely affecting people's requests for relief from FEMA. They don't truly understand whether there is funding or not. And I want to say right here on this program that FEMA has the resources that families will need to rebuild. If you need assistance, please contact FEMA. It is your right to do so, and FEMA has the funding to assist you in anything that you may need. We need to make sure that we're providing accurate information. It really does come in the way of saving lives, of helping families that are in need of help, families that have lost everything. I mean, we have seen disinformation before. During the pandemic, we have seen it from the extreme right wing members of the Republican Party. It is truly shameful for us to see it from a sitting senator like Rick Scott. And I have to say, Florida needs so much better than Rick Scott.
Tony Winton:And I want to I want to point out that we did invite Senator Scott to come on the program today. We didn't even get a response. I would like to follow up, though on the resiliency question, right? So you have this disinformation about what FEMA is doing? You have some members of Congress suggesting that there's some sort of weather control, that somehow the Hurricanes are being sent to Republican leaning areas, but in terms of resiliency, you know the Mr. Scott was the governor of the state. He went through hurricanes here. I remember one point interviewing him when he was governor, and he said that he supported a national windstorm fund like National Flood Insurance. He actually thought that was a good idea. I don't know what his position is now. Well, he's voted against FEMA, yeah. So, so I guess looking at it ahead, you know what kind of because we're in a very vulnerable state, how? How do you. Fashion, a consensus to deal with the insurance risk, really, I guess, is the big driver where, where these, these catastrophic events, are coming more and more often. How does that? How does that work in terms of policy? First
Debbie Mucarsel-Powel:of all, we need people in the Senate, in the House of Representatives, in the governor's mansion in Tallahassee, we need people that understand that we are experiencing stronger storms because of the impacts of climate change. Rick Scott, of course, has been in government for 14 years. Tony, for 14 years. He knows, he knows that if we experience a severe storm, we need to make sure that we have communities that are prepared, that have the funding that they need in terms of building infrastructure that's going to be more resilient, that's going to be built to code. We changed the building codes here in South Florida after Andrew, but that did not happen in other communities in Florida, and so that's why you're also seeing some of these homes completely, completely lost because of the storms, and of course, the severe tornadoes. We need to make sure that we're working with people that are willing to sit at the table and find solutions for these issues. And I can tell you that when I was in Congress, I was able to do that with a couple of Republican members, one of them Brian mast up in the Palm Beach area. We both care deeply about water quality, and we were able to work together on some bills. I actually brought, I led an effort to bring $200 million in Everglades restoration. We I was in the committee, in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, where we were overseeing FEMA, and there was bipartisan support to make sure that we held FEMA accountable, that we got rid of the bureaucracy that sometimes these federal agencies have, because we need to make sure that they're responsive to the needs of these communities. And there were Republicans in that committee, and I that we all agreed on that. I mean, let's get back to a place where we put politics aside and we work and do the work that people deserve so that we can protect lives, so that we can protect businesses our economy. I mean the
Tony Winton:impact. But if I can pin you down a little bit, do you think something like a national windstorm plan, sort of like flood insurance, but that would include that is possible or achievable. What do you think? Oh,
Debbie Mucarsel-Powel:we're we're going to have to have a federal program, not only for flood that which we have right now, and we need to expand the risk on that one, the National Flood Insurance Program, but also on wind and a disaster fund. The reality is that we in Florida have been experiencing hurricanes, but in other areas, there's flooding, like in Texas and Louisiana. We're seeing fires in the west coast of our country. I mean, we are seeing bigger and bigger disasters, and the cost of inaction is so much higher, because eventually we will have to pay to rebuild these communities, so we are going to have to have very difficult conversations on a bipartisan basis with Republicans and Democrats that are going TO to have to agree to create a disaster fund that will support all these disasters across the country. So there's a lot that we can do, Tony, we just need to have the courage and have leaders that have the courage to do the right thing here.
Jan Dillow:Debbie, just to change the subject rather abruptly, but one of the things in Florida that is, you know, the Democrats are looking at is possibly helping them in the elections, is the amendment four and the abortion issue. Do you think that that's something that's going to be that you're going to be able to work with, or, you know, play to your advantage?
Debbie Mucarsel-Powel:Well, it's an issue that is so personal to me, and I'm sure to you as well, where a woman should be able to have the freedom to choose what happens to her own body, when and how to start a family. It should be a freedom that should not have politicians or government interference whatsoever. And it's an issue that unites Floridians, despite of partisan politics, I can tell you that I've spoken to a lot of Republicans where this is a top issue for them, and I do think that amendment four and protecting a woman's right to choose will pass, and I am speaking about it not only because, you know, it's a political issue right now, which people from the from the right side of the Republican Party have politicized it, but also because I'm a mom. I have two daughters, I have a son, and I do not want my daughters to live in a state or in a country where they can't have that access to that health care that is so central to our livelihood as women. Having come from Latin America, we passed laws to have access to abortion for women because when we live under these extreme bans on abortion. Have higher rates of violence, higher rates of maternal mortality. So we absolutely should pass amendment four and also protect it at the federal level, a woman's right to choose should always be protected in this country. Rick
Tony Winton:Scott is on the air with ads saying he's a big supportive IVF,
Debbie Mucarsel-Powel:oh, Tony, well, you can never, ever trust anything that Rick Scott says or does I mean. He voted against access to IVF, not once, but twice. He has co sponsored a national abortion ban. He has said that he supports the six week ban for women here, that he would have signed that bill into law. He also oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the history of this country, Tony. But then he sits with seniors and says that he wants to protect Medicare when he wrote a plan that would propose eliminating Medicare and Social Security, I mean, he will say and do anything to continue to hold on to power. He is now the wealthiest Senator in Washington, DC. He's been in office 14 years, profiting from the government. That's what he's been doing, doing nothing to help Floridians with the skyrocketing property insurance rates, doing nothing to bring businesses to our state that could bring good paying jobs, and also trying to have some oversight on the incredible cost of living here in Florida, which is much higher than other states. Our inflation rates here are higher. So we need, we need someone that understands what public service is, not public profiteering, like Rick Scott does, right?
Tony Winton:We have limited time, so if it's okay, we're probably going to hit you with a bunch of like grab bag questions. And I'm sorry if it's a little bit, but they're all these big national issues out there, and I think for our listeners, they're kind of know where you are one, one thing you know, Florida is a state that you know voted for Barack Obama, but it, but it nationally seen. I guess political pundits are saying it's shifted red. You're trying to challenge that assumption. What evidence are you seeing that that that Florida is a place where Democrats can win statewide.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powel:Well, Floridians all over the state, everywhere I go, have had it with the extremism. Look, we have had some extreme politicians hijack the state government here for many years, and they've gone too far. And I think Floridians really understand that. And so what you see in the polls, and you can see that the majority of the polls in the past few weeks, I would say almost all of them, except for one, one was an outlier. They all have me within within three, two, even one had me within one point. I'm basically statistically tied right now with Rick Scott, and that is because of the people of Florida, because people understand who He is and don't want to vote for him in office, and that shows who we are in Florida. I mean, I have been saying this for a long time. We we are always going to be a swing state because of our culture of who we are. We're very independent. We don't like people telling us what to do. We are resilient. We we do come together, especially when we are hit by storms like that and and we put partisan politics aside to elect the right person and the right candidate. And I think that when they have information in front of them, the accurate information of who's who, many Floridians will choose the right candidate. Unfortunately, we've seen voter suppression tactics. We've seen the governor has purged voters off the rolls, gerrymandered maps as well, which makes it very difficult for people to choose their elected officials and not the other way around. So that's why, also, this race is so important. We need to have oversight. Right? These two senators that we have right now have done nothing to conduct oversight to make sure that we have a true representative democracy in the state of Florida. So I can tell you that people are excited. They we have been talking mainly about the issues Tony and these issues, like I said, are not partisan issues. Everyone is suffering under an insurance crisis. Everyone is suffering with an affordability crisis. They can't pay for their rent. Whether you're a student in FAMU a senior living in the panhandle, it's the same story I hear everywhere. So we are going to prove all these pundits wrong in November, because I can tell you we are. Our movement just continues to grow. Well,
Jan Dillow:one of the things that the Republicans have been using against the Democrats in most races is immigration and the problems that we have at the border. If you were elected to the Senate, what would your position be on that?
Debbie Mucarsel-Powel:Well, first of all, we had a very strong border bill that came to the Senate floor, and Rick Scott voted against it, and it was endorsed by customs and border patrol to support to bring funding for the border, I would have voted for that bill. It wasn't a perfect bill, but it was a first step to protect our border. It's a matter of national security, but at the same time you know what's going on at the border is a much more. Complicated issue that most people realize. We have violence in Haiti. We have dictatorships in Cuba, Venezuela Nicaragua. People are fleeing those countries because they can't feed their families. They're fleeing political persecution, and we have to look at our own hemisphere on what we need to do in the United States, to support democracy, to support the people that are fighting for freedom and democracy in these countries, and to make investments, either through trade agreements, commerce agreements, so that people can actually stay in their home countries, but have a flourishing economy, an economy that's going to work for them, an economy that's going to work for us. I mean, those, those are things that you never hear anyone talk about, but that's the reality of the complexity of the border. Because you can build the biggest wall in the southern border, people will find ways to come to United States if they can't feed their children, if they're fleeing gang violence, which is actually happening, and it's growing in the area. So we really need to provide ways that we can support the hemisphere right here, our own hemisphere, and at the same time, provide pathways for legal status for dreamers. We have 10s of 1000s of dreamers living in the state of Florida who have been here their entire lives, their nurses, their teachers. Let's start by giving a legal pathway to our dreamers. There's a lot like I said that we that I can talk about on this issue, but we just have to be able to have the willingness from both sides to sit down at the table and bring solutions to these issues.
Tony Winton:One, one more question before we get to your closing your closing statement, and that's kind of a more general threat to democracy. For a lot of people, this election feels very different than in the election before after January, 6. How are you approaching that? Well, I
Debbie Mucarsel-Powel:think Tony of when I was growing up in Ecuador, where I was born, before my mother decided to bring my sisters and I here, I remember, I remember what it felt like to grow up in a country where you had military tanks, where you had curfew where you had violence in the streets. I remember that we've seen a little bit of that already before January 6. During the January 6 insurrection, we've seen a rise in anti semitism. We've seen a rise in political violence in our country. We continue to see high rates of gun violence. The political rhetoric has become more and more divisive, including these very dangerous conspiracy theories that that one side. Let's make that clear. It's one side that continues to spread conspiracy theories and disinformation, and that's the right side. I mean, it's the right wing of the party, of the Republican Party, the extreme Mada side of the party, that continues to do that. And a lot of what they're doing is creating a scene where they can actually say that Donald Trump won and and somehow fight the results of the election. Rick Scott his campaign have yet to confirm whether they will recognize the results of the election. Tony and Jan This is extremely dangerous. This only happens in countries like in Venezuela. That's what Maduro did. He did not recognize the result of that election in Venezuela. That's what they're doing right now. Rick Scott doesn't want to confirm that. Donald Trump doesn't want to confirm that we saw in the vice presidential debate. JD Vance did not want to confirm that he would recognize the result of an election where we know, in this country, we still have fair and free elections, but only, only if we do the right thing and protect democracy, because if we lose it now, it may take too long for us to be able to get it back.
Tony Winton:We are at a time, so So you have one minute, we call it the closing argument, the the succinct pitch that you're making to a voter who hasn't made up their mind, or maybe they have made up their mind. But what is your your closing argument? Look,
Debbie Mucarsel-Powel:I started working at a minimum wage when I was 15, and because of the incredible opportunities that I've received here in this great, great country, I've been able to have a good job. I became an associate dean at the medical school here at FIU. I was elected to serve in the United States Congress, and now I am the Senate nominee running for US Senate in the state of Florida. But unfortunately, those opportunities are slipping away too quickly for so many families living in our state. I understand the struggles that families are facing because I have faced them myself. I know what it's like to have to count, you know, every dollar and make sure that you can actually buy the groceries for your family. I've been there. I know what that feels like, and I. I want everyone in the state to understand that I want to go to Washington, DC, to put you first, to put you above any partisan politics, to make sure that we work for these families so that they can have those opportunities, the opportunities that I grew up with here, so that they can send their children to school and make sure that they're safe in school, free of gun violence, so that we can bring investments for climate resiliency. There's so much we need to do, but we have to have someone that is serious about doing the work for Florida, and I hope I can earn people support. It's time for change. After 14 years of Rick Scott, someone who's done nothing to make your lives better, give me a chance. I'm going to make it happen,
Tony Winton:and your website is Debbie for florida.com thank you very much. Debbie mukaselle Powell, candidate for United States Senate, for being our guest, and thank you for making the time on antisocial and we'll be back right after this.
Unknown:You the bear cut bridge, America bridge,
Tony Winton:and we're back on antisocial. I'm Jan Dillo and I'm Tony Winton. So we have one of two Senate candidates here. I'm hoping we'll get the other one. I really do. I really would like to have Senator Scott Come on.
Jan Dillow:Look. I love I'm, I mean, I'm kind of new to the podcast. I'm not brand new, but talk sit, getting the opportunity to sit down and talk to the candidates and ask them these questions and get their answers is really, really important, and I've learned a ton from it. Yeah, we
Tony Winton:do not do the kind of interview you're going to see on CNN or Fox or MSNBC, we're trying to, like, let the candidates speak about their policy. Couple of follow ups, really, what are they talking about? And we're talking about hurricanes today. It's going to be on everybody's mind before the hurricane. Property Insurance huge here in Florida, being driven by, yeah, not just hurricanes, but sea level rise and,
Jan Dillow:well, I think that's why Milton was so interested. I mean, such a terrible storm. And what, it wasn't as bad as everybody thought it was going to be, in terms of hitting Tampa, but the fact that it was, what, like a four thread, it was flooding. And, you know, from rain storm surge hurricanes, I mean, you and it came on the heels of another storm, so that everything was already wet. I mean, there's what it shows is, as these storms get, you know, bigger and bigger, there it's more problematic for us. But it also means that, you know, we thought we were maybe done with, you know, with with Hurricane issues after Helene, I guess that we were crossing our fingers. But, you know, we could still have another one. You know, the hurricane season doesn't end until December 1.
Tony Winton:No, and I was talking with Brian McNulty, friend of the program, scientist, meteorologist at the rosensteel school, right up the road from Key Biscayne, about the and he's been posting on social media tracking the amount of heat in the ocean. We've written several stories about it. He's been a guest on this program to go back and to our archive on antisocial which, by the way, is free to everyone, and he can talk to you about what he's been doing the amount of oceanic heat, not just in the Gulf of Mexico, but the Atlantic has been off the charts. Yeah, unprecedented amount of warmth. And of course, it's bleaches corals, and it might have other effects on marine life, but it's in terms of being a fuel source for tropical systems.
Jan Dillow:It's huge. It's huge. It's
Tony Winton:like having, being living next to a being a big bag of dynamite
Jan Dillow:that that's a little too grand. Well, I agree with you, yeah, it is,
Tony Winton:that is the the the it's the potential energy. It's being stored in the ocean that is there to be exploited by any kind of puff of wind that comes off the coast of Africa, or in this case, off the Mexican coast, there's a little disturbance, and all of a sudden, boom, it has an if the other aspects of an environment are there, there are a number of check marks. A hurricane has to have to really spin up. But this one, the first several days, it was,
Jan Dillow:it was massive. It was like, massive, yeah, really, really, bad, astonishing, yeah. And it really had a lot of, I mean, I'm kind of an, I look at sort of insurance stuff. I
Tony Winton:was gonna ask you about that, because you, you and I have talked about this off the show, right? So, so you know, what is. Is the right public policy? Is it to keep you know, we talk, we can have a national windstorm insurance, like National Flood Insurance or national disaster insurance, but is that really the best public policy? If we are, we are just adding more dollars.
Jan Dillow:Well, what it does. I mean, the problem with that is, is what we've been doing is underwriting risk in areas where people shouldn't be living or expanding their footprint, right? And so I think that, in my opinion, you need to look at what we are paying for disaster relief and marry it to what can we do to not have to pay that again? I mean, there are places that have been flooded three and four times, and they're still rebuilding them. I mean, it becomes, it becomes more and more a sense of, you know, people that are wealthy can rebuild, people that aren't will move. But then you have, you know, you can't live in a society where you know you've only got wealthy people, because that's just not society that will work. Right? You need people to do well, different stuff
Tony Winton:over, over history. There have been many, you know, there have been, there have been serfs and peasants and the and the royalty. Yes, there that that has existed in the past, right?
Jan Dillow:But you have to have a place where, you know, be able to live. And in Florida, that's that's becoming more and more difficult because, you know, of the insurance costs. And you know, we also have to think about what's going on with citizens, right? Because they've been, they'd be been depopulating their their policies, but I don't think that that's necessarily going to they're going to be able to do that, you know, as you know. And
Tony Winton:also the what are they going to write for? There's a cap on what you can get a policy for. They're just not going to write over a certain dollar amount, right? And if you're in an area like Key Biscayne, right?
Jan Dillow:And then there are implications for the mortgage market, because if you can't get insurance. So there's a lot of stuff that that, I think that needs to be, this needs to be a broader conversation, because it's not just Florida, right, but Florida is a lot of it. I mean, Florida is a significant it's
Tony Winton:the biggest driver of disaster expenditures? Exactly?
Jan Dillow:Yeah,
Tony Winton:and that's a question like, like, here in Key Biscayne, we've had, we've had, we had other candidates for village council on the show. We have a big redevelopment planned for the Atlantic coast, right? And there's a quiet, small, little motel that is going to be replaced, the developers hope by a very upscale condominium. Yeah, 15 floors, yeah. Now, in terms of the, you know, the density, is it the same? They will argue that it's the same, but it is yet a another structure, another from now, a permanent structure on a on a very exposed piece of beach, right, right? So, how does that deal? How does that to your argument is that something you want to continue to encourage,
Jan Dillow:right, right? Exactly. And I think what we've been, I mean, we, we clearly have been subsidizing that. Because we've clearly been subsidizing it for the last, I don't know, 100 years. I don't know how long. Well, I guess not. When did flood insurance started? I think in the late 60s, if I'm not mistaken. But I mean, as long as you subsidize, you know, you subsidize that, then it's, you know, it's just going to get more and more expensive, because to rebuild that, you know, this, this, if that you know, the new build, or to get into trouble, it would be a lot more expensive than to rebuild something like the silver sands. So I don't know it's, I think it's, you're either going to have a, my opinion, again, you're either going to have a political discussion about this, where people talk about all the different factors that are going on and the cost of it. Because I'm also very focused on, you know, like the government debt issue side of that, but you're going to either have to have a conversation, or the market's going to figure it out, right? So at some point, the market, you know, because, like I said, at some point you you know, you can keep redeveloping these things, but you're
Tony Winton:saying the market will force a retreat, yeah, because the cost of insurance and all these other things will alter the market dynamics to such an extent, right? That it's just people just say, you know, you can only people who are super wealthy, who can really do everything on their own, are going to be able to stay living on beachfront property, right?
Jan Dillow:And that's, you know, the argument for, you know, doing the resilience stuff at Cuba skiing is that if we can do more things for resilience, to get rid of the flooding, to, you know, to accelerate the clearing of the water, that that would help us with our flood risk. And in theory, that would help with our insurance rates. And in theory, you know, you know, it's easy to look at like the cost of, you know, your the present value of your insurance over time, if it's higher than the value of your house, is going to be lower, I would think. But anyway, there's a lot of issues that have to that, I think need to be considered on this. And it's a really important thing. I mean, we this is it needs to be discussed, I think, at the highest levels of the state, not just the governor, but, you know. Between the Democrats and the Republicans. They need to come up. There needs to be a serious discussion about this kind of stuff.
Tony Winton:Yeah, I am, given the extent of gridlock that exists, one is skeptical, as a reporter that that can happen. I'm just watching what's happening in Key Biscayne, where there was a campaign to get funding with a resiliency bond, and passed overwhelmingly, and now the first phase of that is underway, and it's an active issue in the election. You can check out our podcasts again for the candidates to give different opinions about that. Some people believe it should be deferred and and some have argued even let it flood, let people raise their own homes, right? You know that, that that's that, to me, is,
Jan Dillow:what is it? I'm like blanking, but that's just saying that eventually, eventually we're all going to have to leave. I think that's, that's that argument managed. What is it called? Managed? Yeah,
Tony Winton:surrender, retreat, yeah, exactly, banded in place. I don't know whatever term you want to use, but it's, it's a that would be issue, essentially, the futility argument that the that the long term answer, there's no way you're going to stop climate change, and eventually no all, all that, all the within the reasonable of anyone's lifetime, right? Think that's going to happen, and the reasonable course of action is stop. You know, if that's really what you believe, then why are you spending all this money? But of course, as a famous economist once said, in the long run, we're all dead. Yeah, exactly, yeah. So, so Anyway,
Jan Dillow:anyway it's going to be, it's, it's something we're going to have to live with. You know, every it's we're going to have to live with, or we aren't. But will there a decision will be made whether we make it or it's made for us by market forces. I think that's what's going to happen. Well,
Tony Winton:we're going to keep bringing you more of these candidate interviews. We're trying to set up one more round of two, two people to be on the show. No confirmation yet, so I don't want to announce it, but we're going to try and bring them to you as we get closer to election day, ballots are already out in the mail. Mine already came and I already voted.
Jan Dillow:I'm good for you, you know, I just want to say a couple of things too, you know, as Tony mentioned earlier, but I want to make sure everybody knows the Annie the antisocial podcast is free. It's not part of your subscription. Anybody that wants to to listen to it can and if you think that you know what we've discussed, or you know the people that we have on our program are somebody that has said something that you want to share with others, all you need to do is share it on your social or just send a text to a friend and say, did you see Did you hear this? Because we're available on Apple podcasts.
Tony Winton:We're on we're on Apple podcasts who are on Spotify. We're on every podcast platform, and all of these platforms let you, you text it to somebody or share it to someone, and so you don't need a subscription to listen to antisocial. And when we put it, we usually write a story based on the interview of what we did of our guest, and the story is also free, so we try to make as much content as we can on the I should say this, all the content is free on the site. Premium. Being a subscriber means you, you get a little you get a little more easy access. But everything can be free if you wish, but the podcast always is available. Yeah.
Jan Dillow:So if you if you like these, or if you want to hear them again, or you want to share them with others, please feel free to do that. You know, it's important for us to get the news out to everybody, but again, I'm going to make a plea that I usually do. But you know, news isn't free, and we do have bills to pay, so if you like the Key Biscayne independent, please donate and remember us as we're getting closer to year end in your tax planning,
Tony Winton:right, we will be launching the annual news match campaign. So just to give you a heads up, and we would also appreciate anyone who wants to volunteer to help fundraise that's really important. Spread the word. Be a social media maven, reach out to your friends. We always count on you for that part of our fundraising season, and that is really just around the corner. So please drop us a line. You can write info at kbin dependent.org That's our general purpose email info at kbin dependent.org we'd love to hear from you as we get ready to keep bringing you the news of our community.
Jan Dillow:Thanks everybody. Have a great week.
Tony Winton:I'm Tony Winton. Be safe, everyone.
Unknown:You you.
