We are wine grape growers in No. CA. For the past 30 years, I have delighted in watching our (mostly) Mexican immigrant workers integrate into our communities, raise families, study to learn English, start their own businesses. They are reliable employees, arriving on time every day, putting in long hard hours of work. Many have risen to supervisory levels. I feel 100% safe around them.
That same story could be told pretty much everywhere in the country. It certainly is true in the Wash DC area and the VA Eastern Shore. I don't know how, for instance, medical care, construction, landscaping, farming and food production, restaurants...the list goes on...could carry on without the capable and dedicated workers especially from South and Central America, the Carribean and many African and Asian countries who have made this country their home.
We 💙 No Cal wine country ! 1st visited on our honeymoon 33 years ago and have returned many times.A magical place with so many welcoming and friendly employees.🍇🍷
I like to share info from the conservative, Libertarian Cato Institute when conversations turns to the “evils” of immigration.⬇️
Wishing you clear skies tomorrow too, Robert. Back here at home it is supposed to be bright sunshine most of the day. You are going to miss a good 50% here for the lifetime 100% there, hopefully. Dont forget a pinhole image too. It will make for great photos. Enjoy!
Back on the business side, My plumber, for instance is from Guatemala. He has been a licensed contractor for seventeen years now, with a fleet of trucks and licensed enployees. Great guy who does impeccable work. I used to be a general and was totally reliant on my subcontractors. Everywhere you look at a building site, the workers are mostly, to a high percentage, from Mexico or Central America. Damn good workers.
I have a beloved basset in deep decline with kidney failure so my normally intense attention to every daily detail is somewhat diminished. However, yours and one or two other daily articles are keeping me afloat - and hopeful - while you remind me of the need for action, every minute of every day. You are a lifeline in this web of events and I thank you most heartedly!
I think it was a very good question to ask you, Robert, about immigration. Without them, our economy would suffer greatly. They are responsible for the food we eat and buy plus most do the jobs that Americans refuse to do.
We will not get a partial eclipse here in Northern CA due to cloud cover. It is suppose to reach us a little after 11am. Hope you and Jill get to see something. Safe travels!
Marlene, there are no jobs Americans won't do. In 1980, meat packers were Black, and they earned decent middle class wages. By that decade's end, meat packers were immigrants, earning barely above minimum wage, toiling under atrocious conditions where amputtions were common. Those changes were repeated among most of the low/no-skilled jobs. Immigration is Big Biz' way of reducing wages. You can read about this in Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth ($14 on amazon).
In his reporting, the author asked some black poultry workers, recently laid off to make way for immigrant workers, if they would take their old jobs back. No, they told him, because with the wages the immigrants were being paid, they'd have to live in their cars, or many to a house.
Our economic didn't suffer particularly from 1924 to 1970, when immigration was much less than today due to laws that stanched it. In fact, the latter couple of decades of that period was a heyday for Blacks, until immigration surged again.
If we let our population keep exploding--which is what it is doing now--we will kill nature. We've already killed off at least 1/4 of the insects in our country since ~1970--which form much of the bottom of the food chain. Populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish have similarly declined. Growing our population will only kill off more of nature.
Where are the Americans who will do the jobs that immigrants do? Perhaps you support the 11 states that are trying to roll back Child Labor laws in order to have more workers?
Let me give you my background. My mother's mother was one of the first four female Coloradans to get a PhD--5-6 years before she got the vote. Both of her daughters earned PhDs, my aunt in social work, my mother in psych. My grandmother's brother was a UNION LAWYER who ran the Colorado Democratic Party for most of the first half of the last century. My father spent the first two years out of college trying to unionize the NYC textile firm he was working in. He ultimately went into economics hoping to figure out how to better peoples' lots in life. So No, I do not support the rolling back of child labor laws. I'm absolutely horrified by it.
As for the Americans who would do the jobs immigrants do, in 1980, meat packers were Black, and they earned decent middle class wages, which is why they were willing to do those jobs. But immigration is big biz' way of pushing wages down, and enabling getting lackadaisical about working conditions. By the end of the 1980s, meat packers were immigrants, earning barely above minimum wage, toiling under atrocious conditions where "accidental" amputations were common. (Those amputations weren't accidental--the owners weren't concerned about working conditions anymore.)
You can read about it in Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth, by Roy Beck ($14 on Amazon).
“Where are the Americans who will do the jobs that immigrants do?” –
This discussion has centered on low-income immigrants. However, that doesn’t capture the totality. For example, many of my neighbors, physicians, are immigrants. Very many American scientists and engineers are immigrants; our graduate schools are chock-full of non-Americans, many of whom will seek US citizenship.
Immigration is big biz' way of reducing wages. As just one example, in 1980 meat packers were American Blacks. They earned decent middle class wages, in no small part due to decades of labor organizing. By that decade's end, meat packers were immigrants, toiling for barely more than minimum wage under atrocious working conditions where amputations were common. Those changes repeated themselves in many of the low/no-skilled work categories. Here's another example:
I was lucky enough to be able to meet Robert and Jill -- and a delightful group of San Antonio democracy supporters -- Saturday morning. A huge thank-you to Taddy McAllister for opening her home to us. FYI to y'all out here? Robert is a GREAT speaker!! Anytime you can get him and Jill to speak at an event will be a big win. My friend and I had a really good time and came away feeling such a great and for many of us in Texas, unusual, feeling of comfort and hope. Thanks again, Robert and Jill and may viewing the eclipse later today be more than you even hoped it would be. This is Texas, after all. I have to hope that Greg Abbott won't figure out some way to spoil even this universe-wide event...
Follow Don Hankey's shifting explanation for Knight Insurance $175 million Trump bail bond with this interactive "Follow-The-Money-Chart" including today's updates from Seth Abramson. https://embed.kumu.io/4c30e4adb9788312ca78b3adf6e04137
And his money ills may not stop there! A story posted by Newsweek this morning raises some questions about this past weekend's Mar a Lago fundraiser and the tax-exempt status of the Pac that sponsored it. The IRS may not be happy!
Don't hold your breath. If a democrat leaning charitable organization would do the same thing, they would lose their tax exempt status in ½ a Scaramucci. Republican entities (as well as churches) seem to be untouchable.
Our workforce which is so impactful on our strong economy needs AFFORDABLE HOUSING. We need to invest in hammers and nails. There is a lot of work to be had where I live. Unfortunately, due to the lack of affordable housing, workers must travel great distances to and from work, hence the vicious cycle of pollution, high cost of living, higher wages, poor quality of life balance affecting health, etc. Must I go on?
But overpopulation is bad for nature. We're already well overpopulated. We depend on ecosystem services, as I learned in a class at Berkeley from John Holdren, who later became Pres O's Science Advisor. Ecosystem services provide things like clean air, clean water, pollination, disease prevention (COVID, HIV, and tick-borne diseases escaped into the human population due to humans messing up nature), biodiversity, and many more.
What you’re really talking about is increasing the population *of the US*. In this discussion, world population is what it is.
If the US were to stop all immigration – immediately – then, following your reasoning, other countries would be overpopulated (according to your standards); and so the environmental degradation you posit would shift to other nations.
The US is the country that I share responsibility for, albeit with 320 million others, and I take that responsibility very seriously, in the way I vote (can't wait to vote again for the man who has been the best president of my lifetime, and I hope I don't have to tell you that I mean Biden!) and in my politics generally. I am also an activist with NumbersUSA.com.
As far as overseas, I give to money to groups abroad that help women avoid pregnancy and deal with pregnancy.
But I also do think that people who have the gumption to walk thousands of miles across Central America to the US would use that energy to better effect if they stayed home and worked with their fellows on improving their countries.
Of course, you're right that population is a problem everywhere, although since we're the country with the per capita greatest resource use and greenhouse emissions, we're still the place most in need of NPG, or at least ZPG. The average immigrant's greenhouse emissions rise threefold after arrival here. It's partly that they want to live like Americans, part of which means consuming like Americans, and it's also partly tht they can't help living like Americans. They could probably walk everywhere in their old countries--now there's a lot of driving involved to get to jobs.
And just to give you a better feel than I think you have for how the population explosion is killing nature in the US, more people means more land goes to sprawl, for housing, roads, business, agriculture, etc. Since we're richer, agriculture, housing, business, roads, and sprawl take a lot more land than they would in third world countries. And understand that when land is taken for homes, even with big yards, or for agriculture, the latter land does not go to nature. Not at all. Land tht gets dug up for agriculture loses all the CO2 that was sequestered within it. All the animals that lived on that land get usurped, and that's more nature down the drain.
What the rapist and fraud running for President will do to if elected is a proper reason to oppose him. To do that we have to stop normalizing him. Referring to him as anything but an adjudicated rapist and fraud normalizes him. He is not normal. He is a rapist and a fraud. So says a jury and a judge in Federal and State courts. He should always be referred to as the rapist and fraud that he is. Rapist and Fraud Donald Trump has no business being considered normal. He’s not.
Check out several Freakonomics podcasts all about immigration. #580-582. Eye-opening info! Our current laws and anti-immigrant atmosphere end up encouraging terrific foreign students and potential Americans to move elsewhere - including Canada.
Do you have any idea how many people the United States can support in a sustainable manner? If everyone in every country on Earth lived an American lifestyle, we'd need five earths to support everyone.
In the last 50 years, the numbers of insects in the US have declined by at least 25%. Bird population declines have been estimated at one quarter to one half. Mammals, reptiles, and amphibians have had similar declines in the US.
Basically, our human population and its activities, from agriculture to transportation, is killing nature.
And if immigrants are so great, wouldn't it be better if they stayed home and worked on making their homelands better places to live, like we did in the late 1700s?
The whole company not registered thing has gotten complicated by the whole "excess lines" issue, and that law feels very murky. Understanding it involves expertise I don't have beyond ability to read statutes. And the statutes are VERY tangled. But one thing is clear: if this bond wasn't issued via an excess lines BROKER who is licensed in NY, the bond is definitely invalid and amongst all the blather from Knight about their excess lines ability they haven't said word BOO about a broker.
Excess lines is a way a really poor risk can go outside the state to a foreign insurer (out of state, not registered in NY) to find coverage. It seems to mostly if not solely apply to property and casualty. Though surety can be written by an ADMITTED company licensed for Property and Casualty, surety isn't really in that "line" of insurance. It isn't insurance at all actually, though governed by Insurance Dept rules.
Excess lines may come more into awareness as Property and Casualty companies leave certain disaster prone states like Florida and Canada. That will be a windfall for the companies, because they don't have to file rates and can pretty much charge any fortune they please to get you, for example, homeowners insurance in a wildfire zone.
Yes, this is already happening in Florida !The legislature passed HB 1503 allowing excess line insurers to take over policies from Citizens( our insurer of last resort) that do not cover a primary residence.It’s estimated it affects about 80k policyholders. The original version of the bill had to be amended amid pushback as it included primary residences.The Fl. legislature’s version of “insurance reform”. 😡🌀
We're not far from you, in Horseshoe Bay, with our family from CA and NJ, also hoping for a few minutes of clearing at the right time. They are just beautiful when the weather cooperates (my 5th, I’m 2 for 4) but if not, think about Iceland or Spain in a few years!
The interactive map is great and provides great selling points which I hope the Democrats use in their campaigns. Over the weekend I got into an interesting discussion. A friend who is an attorney commented that because Trump is not paying for his own attorney fees himself he can keep delaying his trials because there is no cost to him personally. There is no consideration about costs. An innocent person would want their day in court and not waste money on appeals that have a limited chance of winning. In essence he is wasting valuable money that could be used by the Republican Party for his own delay strategies. Where is the outrage from Republicans?
Fingers crossed for you travelin' to Totality questers! We here in the northern reaches of Virginia are hoping for the best but will take what comes our way. Weather forecasts have gone from definitely going to be cloudy to maybe not going to be cloudy. Looking forward to tonight's debriefing after all is said and done.
As for the immigration controversy, I say the more the merrier!
P.S. On the interactive map, Virginia has a mostly positive score.
We are wine grape growers in No. CA. For the past 30 years, I have delighted in watching our (mostly) Mexican immigrant workers integrate into our communities, raise families, study to learn English, start their own businesses. They are reliable employees, arriving on time every day, putting in long hard hours of work. Many have risen to supervisory levels. I feel 100% safe around them.
The irony is that Trump was the posterboy for sanctions by DOL for hiring illegals. Paid $1M fine. https://time.com/5039109/donald-trump-undocumented-polish-trump-tower-bonwit-teller/ https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/08/trump-organization-undocumented-workers
Trump Inc also brings in temporary visa workers to Mar a Lago and the Doral, ostensibly so they don't have to hire Cuban Americans. https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2023/06/14/mar-a-lago-foreign-workers-trump-classified-documents/?sh=184e66192b6b
That same story could be told pretty much everywhere in the country. It certainly is true in the Wash DC area and the VA Eastern Shore. I don't know how, for instance, medical care, construction, landscaping, farming and food production, restaurants...the list goes on...could carry on without the capable and dedicated workers especially from South and Central America, the Carribean and many African and Asian countries who have made this country their home.
Trump recruited temps from Slovenia, other Balkan countries, Poland, not the Americas.
Indeed! He certainly wouldn't want any PoC on the grounds. Who knows what languages they might be speaking.
We 💙 No Cal wine country ! 1st visited on our honeymoon 33 years ago and have returned many times.A magical place with so many welcoming and friendly employees.🍇🍷
I like to share info from the conservative, Libertarian Cato Institute when conversations turns to the “evils” of immigration.⬇️
https://www.cato.org/testimony/unlocking-americas-potential-how-immigration-fuels-economic-growth-our-competitive
Couldn't agree more.
100% more trustworthy than dt.
Wishing you clear skies tomorrow too, Robert. Back here at home it is supposed to be bright sunshine most of the day. You are going to miss a good 50% here for the lifetime 100% there, hopefully. Dont forget a pinhole image too. It will make for great photos. Enjoy!
Back on the business side, My plumber, for instance is from Guatemala. He has been a licensed contractor for seventeen years now, with a fleet of trucks and licensed enployees. Great guy who does impeccable work. I used to be a general and was totally reliant on my subcontractors. Everywhere you look at a building site, the workers are mostly, to a high percentage, from Mexico or Central America. Damn good workers.
You two are wonderful, that's all I have to say for tonight. Thank you for everything, wishing you the best of all possible tomorrows!
I have a beloved basset in deep decline with kidney failure so my normally intense attention to every daily detail is somewhat diminished. However, yours and one or two other daily articles are keeping me afloat - and hopeful - while you remind me of the need for action, every minute of every day. You are a lifeline in this web of events and I thank you most heartedly!
Hold that beloved basset. Your attention is right where it needs to be. My heart hurts for you. Peace to you both. ✨
Hugs to you and your doggo!!!
I'm so sorry your dog is so ill. I know what it is like to lose a beloved pet!
I'm sorry about your basset hound. Dogs give us so much love, and it's so hard when they leave us.
I think it was a very good question to ask you, Robert, about immigration. Without them, our economy would suffer greatly. They are responsible for the food we eat and buy plus most do the jobs that Americans refuse to do.
We will not get a partial eclipse here in Northern CA due to cloud cover. It is suppose to reach us a little after 11am. Hope you and Jill get to see something. Safe travels!
Marlene, there are no jobs Americans won't do. In 1980, meat packers were Black, and they earned decent middle class wages. By that decade's end, meat packers were immigrants, earning barely above minimum wage, toiling under atrocious conditions where amputtions were common. Those changes were repeated among most of the low/no-skilled jobs. Immigration is Big Biz' way of reducing wages. You can read about this in Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth ($14 on amazon).
In his reporting, the author asked some black poultry workers, recently laid off to make way for immigrant workers, if they would take their old jobs back. No, they told him, because with the wages the immigrants were being paid, they'd have to live in their cars, or many to a house.
Our economic didn't suffer particularly from 1924 to 1970, when immigration was much less than today due to laws that stanched it. In fact, the latter couple of decades of that period was a heyday for Blacks, until immigration surged again.
If we let our population keep exploding--which is what it is doing now--we will kill nature. We've already killed off at least 1/4 of the insects in our country since ~1970--which form much of the bottom of the food chain. Populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish have similarly declined. Growing our population will only kill off more of nature.
Where are the Americans who will do the jobs that immigrants do? Perhaps you support the 11 states that are trying to roll back Child Labor laws in order to have more workers?
Let me give you my background. My mother's mother was one of the first four female Coloradans to get a PhD--5-6 years before she got the vote. Both of her daughters earned PhDs, my aunt in social work, my mother in psych. My grandmother's brother was a UNION LAWYER who ran the Colorado Democratic Party for most of the first half of the last century. My father spent the first two years out of college trying to unionize the NYC textile firm he was working in. He ultimately went into economics hoping to figure out how to better peoples' lots in life. So No, I do not support the rolling back of child labor laws. I'm absolutely horrified by it.
As for the Americans who would do the jobs immigrants do, in 1980, meat packers were Black, and they earned decent middle class wages, which is why they were willing to do those jobs. But immigration is big biz' way of pushing wages down, and enabling getting lackadaisical about working conditions. By the end of the 1980s, meat packers were immigrants, earning barely above minimum wage, toiling under atrocious conditions where "accidental" amputations were common. (Those amputations weren't accidental--the owners weren't concerned about working conditions anymore.)
This same pattern repeated itself in all the low/no-skilled jobs over the next several decades. For example: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff-at-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html
You can read about it in Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth, by Roy Beck ($14 on Amazon).
“Where are the Americans who will do the jobs that immigrants do?” –
This discussion has centered on low-income immigrants. However, that doesn’t capture the totality. For example, many of my neighbors, physicians, are immigrants. Very many American scientists and engineers are immigrants; our graduate schools are chock-full of non-Americans, many of whom will seek US citizenship.
Immigration is big biz' way of reducing wages. As just one example, in 1980 meat packers were American Blacks. They earned decent middle class wages, in no small part due to decades of labor organizing. By that decade's end, meat packers were immigrants, toiling for barely more than minimum wage under atrocious working conditions where amputations were common. Those changes repeated themselves in many of the low/no-skilled work categories. Here's another example:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff-at-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html
I was lucky enough to be able to meet Robert and Jill -- and a delightful group of San Antonio democracy supporters -- Saturday morning. A huge thank-you to Taddy McAllister for opening her home to us. FYI to y'all out here? Robert is a GREAT speaker!! Anytime you can get him and Jill to speak at an event will be a big win. My friend and I had a really good time and came away feeling such a great and for many of us in Texas, unusual, feeling of comfort and hope. Thanks again, Robert and Jill and may viewing the eclipse later today be more than you even hoped it would be. This is Texas, after all. I have to hope that Greg Abbott won't figure out some way to spoil even this universe-wide event...
Follow Don Hankey's shifting explanation for Knight Insurance $175 million Trump bail bond with this interactive "Follow-The-Money-Chart" including today's updates from Seth Abramson. https://embed.kumu.io/4c30e4adb9788312ca78b3adf6e04137
And his money ills may not stop there! A story posted by Newsweek this morning raises some questions about this past weekend's Mar a Lago fundraiser and the tax-exempt status of the Pac that sponsored it. The IRS may not be happy!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/donald-trump-fundraiser-may-have-broken-the-law/ar-BB1lgv6y?ocid=socialshare&cvid=48ff63280d6549038a4fe30e9c3e03fc&ei=12
Don't hold your breath. If a democrat leaning charitable organization would do the same thing, they would lose their tax exempt status in ½ a Scaramucci. Republican entities (as well as churches) seem to be untouchable.
It would be useful if you could document this.
Our workforce which is so impactful on our strong economy needs AFFORDABLE HOUSING. We need to invest in hammers and nails. There is a lot of work to be had where I live. Unfortunately, due to the lack of affordable housing, workers must travel great distances to and from work, hence the vicious cycle of pollution, high cost of living, higher wages, poor quality of life balance affecting health, etc. Must I go on?
Thank for the facts regarding immigration. I knew immigration was good for the economy. Facts help me make the case to others.
But overpopulation is bad for nature. We're already well overpopulated. We depend on ecosystem services, as I learned in a class at Berkeley from John Holdren, who later became Pres O's Science Advisor. Ecosystem services provide things like clean air, clean water, pollination, disease prevention (COVID, HIV, and tick-borne diseases escaped into the human population due to humans messing up nature), biodiversity, and many more.
Also, we are using up our groundwater, putting our agricultural production at risk https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/28/climate/groundwater-drying-climate-change.html
And Propublica warns that within several decades, MILLIONS of Americans will become climate refugees.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/15/magazine/climate-crisis-migration-america.html
Continuing to grow the population is folly.
What you’re really talking about is increasing the population *of the US*. In this discussion, world population is what it is.
If the US were to stop all immigration – immediately – then, following your reasoning, other countries would be overpopulated (according to your standards); and so the environmental degradation you posit would shift to other nations.
The US is the country that I share responsibility for, albeit with 320 million others, and I take that responsibility very seriously, in the way I vote (can't wait to vote again for the man who has been the best president of my lifetime, and I hope I don't have to tell you that I mean Biden!) and in my politics generally. I am also an activist with NumbersUSA.com.
As far as overseas, I give to money to groups abroad that help women avoid pregnancy and deal with pregnancy.
But I also do think that people who have the gumption to walk thousands of miles across Central America to the US would use that energy to better effect if they stayed home and worked with their fellows on improving their countries.
Of course, you're right that population is a problem everywhere, although since we're the country with the per capita greatest resource use and greenhouse emissions, we're still the place most in need of NPG, or at least ZPG. The average immigrant's greenhouse emissions rise threefold after arrival here. It's partly that they want to live like Americans, part of which means consuming like Americans, and it's also partly tht they can't help living like Americans. They could probably walk everywhere in their old countries--now there's a lot of driving involved to get to jobs.
And just to give you a better feel than I think you have for how the population explosion is killing nature in the US, more people means more land goes to sprawl, for housing, roads, business, agriculture, etc. Since we're richer, agriculture, housing, business, roads, and sprawl take a lot more land than they would in third world countries. And understand that when land is taken for homes, even with big yards, or for agriculture, the latter land does not go to nature. Not at all. Land tht gets dug up for agriculture loses all the CO2 that was sequestered within it. All the animals that lived on that land get usurped, and that's more nature down the drain.
Bring on the immigrants along with their work ethic and innovation!! When you get right down to it, we are ALL immigrants to this continent!!!
Not my ancestors, at least most of them.
What the rapist and fraud running for President will do to if elected is a proper reason to oppose him. To do that we have to stop normalizing him. Referring to him as anything but an adjudicated rapist and fraud normalizes him. He is not normal. He is a rapist and a fraud. So says a jury and a judge in Federal and State courts. He should always be referred to as the rapist and fraud that he is. Rapist and Fraud Donald Trump has no business being considered normal. He’s not.
Check out several Freakonomics podcasts all about immigration. #580-582. Eye-opening info! Our current laws and anti-immigrant atmosphere end up encouraging terrific foreign students and potential Americans to move elsewhere - including Canada.
Do you have any idea how many people the United States can support in a sustainable manner? If everyone in every country on Earth lived an American lifestyle, we'd need five earths to support everyone.
https://www.politicsphere.com/5-earths/
In the last 50 years, the numbers of insects in the US have declined by at least 25%. Bird population declines have been estimated at one quarter to one half. Mammals, reptiles, and amphibians have had similar declines in the US.
Basically, our human population and its activities, from agriculture to transportation, is killing nature.
And if immigrants are so great, wouldn't it be better if they stayed home and worked on making their homelands better places to live, like we did in the late 1700s?
As for Freakonomics, they are incredibly glib.
The whole company not registered thing has gotten complicated by the whole "excess lines" issue, and that law feels very murky. Understanding it involves expertise I don't have beyond ability to read statutes. And the statutes are VERY tangled. But one thing is clear: if this bond wasn't issued via an excess lines BROKER who is licensed in NY, the bond is definitely invalid and amongst all the blather from Knight about their excess lines ability they haven't said word BOO about a broker.
Excess lines is a way a really poor risk can go outside the state to a foreign insurer (out of state, not registered in NY) to find coverage. It seems to mostly if not solely apply to property and casualty. Though surety can be written by an ADMITTED company licensed for Property and Casualty, surety isn't really in that "line" of insurance. It isn't insurance at all actually, though governed by Insurance Dept rules.
Excess lines may come more into awareness as Property and Casualty companies leave certain disaster prone states like Florida and Canada. That will be a windfall for the companies, because they don't have to file rates and can pretty much charge any fortune they please to get you, for example, homeowners insurance in a wildfire zone.
Yes, this is already happening in Florida !The legislature passed HB 1503 allowing excess line insurers to take over policies from Citizens( our insurer of last resort) that do not cover a primary residence.It’s estimated it affects about 80k policyholders. The original version of the bill had to be amended amid pushback as it included primary residences.The Fl. legislature’s version of “insurance reform”. 😡🌀
We're not far from you, in Horseshoe Bay, with our family from CA and NJ, also hoping for a few minutes of clearing at the right time. They are just beautiful when the weather cooperates (my 5th, I’m 2 for 4) but if not, think about Iceland or Spain in a few years!
The interactive map is great and provides great selling points which I hope the Democrats use in their campaigns. Over the weekend I got into an interesting discussion. A friend who is an attorney commented that because Trump is not paying for his own attorney fees himself he can keep delaying his trials because there is no cost to him personally. There is no consideration about costs. An innocent person would want their day in court and not waste money on appeals that have a limited chance of winning. In essence he is wasting valuable money that could be used by the Republican Party for his own delay strategies. Where is the outrage from Republicans?
In Florida he even has one member of his defense team being directly financed by the tax-payers.
Fingers crossed for you travelin' to Totality questers! We here in the northern reaches of Virginia are hoping for the best but will take what comes our way. Weather forecasts have gone from definitely going to be cloudy to maybe not going to be cloudy. Looking forward to tonight's debriefing after all is said and done.
As for the immigration controversy, I say the more the merrier!
P.S. On the interactive map, Virginia has a mostly positive score.