Article published in The Verge in 2014:
Putin signs law forcing bloggers to register with Russian media office
President Vladimir Putin has signed a law tightening the Russian government’s already strong hold on the internet. Earlier this week, Putin officially passed what’s become known as the “bloggers law,” which requires popular internet writers to follow rules normally reserved for larger media outlets. Under it, any blogger with more than 3,000 readers is required to register with the Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media oversight agency.
Article published by News Channel 8 Tampa Bay yesterday:
Florida bill would require bloggers who write about governor to register with the state
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida Sen. Jason Brodeur (R-Lake Mary) wants bloggers who write about Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody, and other members of the Florida executive cabinet or legislature to register with the state or face fines.
Brodeur’s proposal, Senate Bill 1316: Information Dissemination, would require any blogger writing about government officials to register with the Florida Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics.
This Florida blogger will continue to write about the fascist scrote governor and Brownshirt bootlickers like Jason Brodeur and Ashley Moody without registering with FL Minitrue. I think I’m exempt anyway since I criticize fascists for free, and the bill targets paid bloggers. But even if it were expanded to include everyone, opposing fascism is a duty, even for bilious old bird-watching swamp-bloggers.
I’m not a lawyer, but I think even Trump-appointed, Jeb Bush-appointed, Rick Scott-appointed and Ron DeSantis-appointed judges would find this dystopian bill a violation of First Amendment rights if it passes. Admittedly, that’s cold comfort, considering the zealots and corrupt incompetents Repubs have larded up our judicial system with, from the lowest courts to the tippy-top.
So, this fascist bullshit matters, including dumb stunts like the recent bill Repub statehouse slab-head Blaise Ingoglia filed to “cancel” Democrats. It’s easy to dismiss all this crap with Florida gonna Florida, but we’re all seeing the FL governor’s mean, squinty mug on the front page of national publications more often these days since he’s in the national conversation.
Could be DeSantis will flop nationally since he has all the charm of a constipated evangelical charter school dean who’s been forced to fill in for an absentee crossing guard on a hot day. But galloping fascism has engulfed one of our two viable political parties. If not Rage Munchkin, maybe Fleece Vest or some other book-banner will serve as its smoother, blander face in 2024.
Our first Gen Z U.S. House member sees what’s happening:
For those not caring or paying attention to what’s going on in Florida, get ready. The #FascismInFlorida is the canary in the coal mine for what will happen nationwide. We have to fight this now. https://t.co/gkiXJEkCHV
— Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@MaxwellFrostFL) February 18, 2023
Rep. Frost is right.
Open thread.
Reposting: Lucky the Cat Needs a New Home!!!!!
oatler
He’s one of the Chaos Muppets mentioned on this site who want to destabilize the gov’t and make their move. Why not do the chicken dance on the House Floor? If it sticks to the wall, and even if it doesn’t…
Alison Rose
OMG Betty I laughed so hard at this, I scared the cat. You sure as shit ought to be paid for this kind of Pulitzer-level writing!
Tdjr
So far I’ve been impressed with young Rep. Frost. Hope to see more youngsters take the reins.
PaulWartenberg
Florida blogger right here, and I will fight against DeSantis and his Florida toadies every inch for my rights.
https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2023/03/desantis-imposing-silence-upon-floridas.html
There’s a bunch of us FL bloggers on Twitter. I suggested we unionize, or at least find lawyers to fight this shit in the courts.
And where the fck is Disney in all this? DeSantis is basically taking over control of Disney World / Reedy Creek, and they’re rolling over to play dead on us? C’mon, Disney: you went after day care centers for trademark infringements, you ought to be able to take on a 5’7″ governor in 4-inch heels.
schrodingers_cat
Florida is the Uttar Pradesh of the US and DeSantis is its Yogi Adityanath (he is more vile than the current PM and hopes to succeed him)
Baud
Probably, because it would hurt the right more if implemented nationally.
cain
Are there any polls in Florida in regards to DeSantis’s popularity? I can’t believe this shit isn’t alarming people? Even conservatives were always railing against the tyranny of big govt – I guess, it’s fine as a long as they think they are going after ‘woke’ liberals.
Jesse
Pretty sure this violates the first amendment.
cain
@schrodingers_cat:
utter crap pradesh? :-)
MattF
So… next, DeSantis will recruit a Florida brigade to invade Ukraine? Or, maybe just Martha’s Vineyard.
Baud
@cain:
Most people aren’t going to be aware of a bill by a single rep that’s been introduced.
cain
Since it is woman’s month – saw this on mastodon:
https://mastodon.social/@EvilBunnyPottymouth/109955759652847954
Tennessee pastor gets 12 years for raping his 14 year old daughter over 4 years. The prosecutor was pushing for 72 years, but the judge reduced because he felt he is a ‘good Christian man’. What. The. Fuck. Yes, but it’s the trans folks and drag queens who are the problems corrupting children with grooming – but you won’t punish a fucking pastor who you’d think would know better than having incest.
JFC. This country.
Steve in the ATL
Speaking of Florida, when I turned in my rental car at the Pensacola airport, I was asked, “have there been any firearms in the car?”
question: WTF?
cain
@Baud: It should be spreading like wildfire in the media.
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: Spot on, unfortunately. I think DeSatanis is worse than TFG.
Gin & Tonic
@Steve in the ATL: Well? Have there? Don’t keep us in suspense.
Baud
@cain:
The media doesn’t want to hurt DeSantis’s chances against Biden.
schrodingers_cat
@cain: For better or for worse it is the cultural heart of India since forever. Also they send the most MPs to the Loksabha. We can laugh at them but the joke is on us.
Gin & Tonic
On the topic of elected representatives speaking truth:
trollhattan
Funny how “mah foorst amendment!” cries from everybody kicked off Twitter back when Twitter did such things are suddenly “How dare you publicly impugn my actions? We’ll fix that!”
A technical aside, if one were to blog via a VPN, how the flying fuck would the State know/prove such scurrilous material was “coming from inside the
housestate?” Asking for a friend.schrodingers_cat
@Paul in KY: Oops I read your comment too fast. Yes I agree DeSantis is worse than Orange ex-President.
==========
YA is worse than DeSantis. He has already done stuff that DeSantis can only dream off.
Like imprisoning people for years without bail, demolishing the house of a Muslim protestor without any due process and so on..
Adam Lang
I intend to write a LOT of blog posts about Florida government. I will be delighted to send them a few hundred thousand notifications. All under different pseudonyms, of course.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
I know what she means, but these days “Bullshit” by itself tends to mean “It’s a lie.”
“This is bullshit” would have been better. And true!
West of the Rockies
I wonder if DeSantis and his assortment of dreary pilot fish have enough awareness and self-honesty to know that he plays rather poorly among a massive swath of Americans.
Does DeSantis ever attempt humor or humility or empathy? You think he’d be trying out some new material and masks now to prepare for the national stage.
trollhattan
@Steve in the ATL: That is very odd. Is there a followup, “Can we have them?”
Scout211
Since Fox News has dropped TFG and decided to be the main DeSantis fluffer, it will be interesting to watch. Apparently TFG is whining and complaining about being dethroned from that fluffing perch. And according to a Times headline I read this morning, DeSantis is only appearing on the Fox fluffer channel (at least for now). It should make an interesting primary. And if DeSantis does get the nomination, he will be completely unprepared for hard(er) news interviews.
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: Good for her. WTF, Walgreens?
trollhattan
@West of the Rockies: He’s the Scott Walker of Sam Brownbacks.
MattF
@West of the Rockies: He wants to demonstrate to the Trumpites that he’s as much of an asshole as their idol.
prostratedragon
Russian man discovering his shit don’t travel well:
Baud
@MattF:
He has to. He’s an imitator but doesn’t have any of Trump’s stage presence.
Betty Cracker
@Scout211: DeSantis almost never leaves the con-media bubble, so he probably will be unprepared. His wife is a wingnut former local anchorwoman who is apparently in charge of “humanizing” the snippy, arrogant jerkwad. Good luck with that, lady; you married that angry slab of organ meat, not I, thank dog!
cain
ha, I had to laugh at that one. Indeed.
Roger Moore
@cain:
I think I had an insight into QAnon and the right wing panic over grooming more generally. These people are ready to assume the whole world is controlled by pedophiles because they can see that’s who runs their churches and social organizations. They think the powerful people who run the world can easily get away with it because they see how easily the pedophiles around them get away with it.
zhena gogolia
Frost is absolutely right. DeSantis IS PUTLER
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker: Her cape, I think, will be her signature weapon going forward.
They’re an…interesting? couple from three time zones’ distance.
Roger Moore
@Steve in the ATL:
They probably have some experience with people accidentally leaving their guns in the car, so they want to know to look for them.
different-church-lady
Neither Nazi Germany nor Stalinist Russia happened overnight.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Unless someone tells them about it.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
True. Then they move on to not caring.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
We are impatient.
Alison Rose
@PaulWartenberg: I know, I’m surprised by how not-loud they’re being. The Mouse is usually so lawsuit-happy!
Ruckus
But galloping fascism has engulfed one of our two viable political parties.
It appears in many cases that it hasn’t just engulfed rethuglicans, it has bought and paid for every ounce of their beings. There has to be drugs involved, or a way too large segment of humanity is devolving, all for the sake of hate and money.
Mike in NC
@West of the Rockies:
Let’s wait and see if they invite DeSantis to guest host Saturday Night Live. They did that 2-3 times with Trump, who always came across as a humorless, stone-faced asshole (which he is). Maybe it was because he was tight with Giuliani, who enjoyed dressing as a drag queen on SNL back in the day. These days Republicans have declared war on drag queens as an easy target for their fascist leanings.
I believe the media will try to prop up DeSatan for his 2024 White House run, but rather than being “Trump with a brain” as some call him, he’s going to turn out to be “Trump on steroids” and who just can’t wait for him to melt down on live TV?
Baud
@Roger Moore: Right wing logic.
zhena gogolia
@Mike in NC: I don’t think he’s Trump at all. He’s Putler. He takes all his cues from VVP.
Jeffro
@Steve in the ATL: you know what they say, “for every rule, there’s a reason”. =)
(ie, people probably HAVE left their firearms in the back seat before. and the rental car company’s insurer probably makes them ask)
Uncle Cosmo
@Baud: Preying deMantis = Il Douche. Mussolini without Benito’s charm or charisma. Che vergogna!
Ruckus
@cain:
Somewhat makes one question that judge’s judgement.
Like 100% question.
Sure 72 yrs MIGHT be a bit much but 12 yrs?
Betsy
Madame Cracker, you adding days to my life again and yet again.
tam1MI
OT, but I would be interested to hear from our Chicago posters why incumbent Lori Lightfoot lost the primary for Chicago mayor. I had a vaguely negative impression of her but am not sure if that is because she actually performed badly in office or because she was made the scapegoat for problems beyond her control.
Anotherlurker
@cain: One statement which will always induce vomiting for me is “Good christian man”.
gvg
@cain: The judge needs to be investigated. That’s a tell. If he thinks that is “a good christian man” then he is guilty himself. Go look. And look at who tries to protect either man. Some can be battered women or relatives trying to deny because it is their own, but the others…..
Baud
@Anotherlurker:
It’s refreshing IMHO. So many incestuous pedophiles you see nowadays are such bad people.
Mike in NC
When Fat Bastard was squatting in the Oval Office surrounded by Putin’s henchmen in 2017, he made noises about changing libel laws in this country to make it easier to sue people at the drop of a hat. He cannot take even the mildest criticism. That’s how dictators think and act, after all.
Apparently they have no late night comedians on Russian television, or if they do they have to sign a piece of paper which prohibits them from ridiculing the great bare-chested man in the Kremlin.
Baud
@Mike in NC:
There’s a different Florida bill that does that.
Roger Moore
@Alison Rose:
My impression is that the special district is something Walt really wanted because of his dreams for what Disney World was going to be, but it’s not really relevant to how it turned out after Walt died. So Disney doesn’t really care about the State of Florida taking the district over. To some extent, then, refusing to freak out about it is actually the right response; the important thing is they aren’t capitulating on the issues that triggered DeSantis’s tantrum.
gvg
@Paul in KY: In some ways I think it is BECAUSE Trump was so over the top. They don’t know how to win a campaign anymore except by topping their opponents and doing more. They aren’t thinking just reacting. They have to escalate. Now what? It used to work.
Also whipping up hysterical hatred of a new other used to work. We need to make this one not work specifically by pointing out how silly it is and the last few too. I want to make it a dead method for awhile. Make them the fake panic of tiny made up threats party and when what they doom say happens……”nobody notices any changes in their lives” except a few people are not terrorized and miserable and these fraudsters don’t get elected and make a lot of money!
MomSense
Leaving for Florida a week from tomorrow. I have happy associations with family and nature in Florida and I wish the politics were different.
Anoniminous
@Roger Moore:
EPCOT was supposed to be Walt’s very own little fascist paradise where white people could live without Those People contaminating the landscape. The land was bought in the 1960s when Jim Crow laws were still in effect.
Roger Moore
@Mike in NC:
They don’t need any kind of signed statement. They just need to make a few examples, and everyone else will get the message.
West of the Rockies
@MattF:
Yes, but Trump broke out the yucks. I’ve never heard DeSantis attempt humor. Shit, Cruz attempts humor. But DeSantis, like Pompeo, just does anger and disappointment.
Brachiator
@Scout211:
DeSantis may be the Fresh Sour Face for the media and the right wing donor class, but conservative voters outside Florida don’t seem to be interested. Saw some clip where security turned away people wearing MAGA hats and carrying Trump banners from some DeSantis event. Dumb move.
DeSantis wants to be New Trump. Right wing voters still prefer Classic Trump.
Betsy
@Betty Cracker: Wives on the campaign trail, always the same sh!t — yet again with the dude’s “secret weapon” who will “show us the candidate’s softer side.”
WHY ARE WOMEN ALWAYS RESPONSIBLE FOR MEN’S PERSONAL AND EMOTIONAL LIVES?!?!?
Are men not capable of “humanizing”themselves!?!?
Betty Cracker
@Roger Moore: I sort of but don’t completely agree about the Reedy Creek issue. WDW was cagey enough about it that the stupid DeSantis sycophants in the legislature almost took on the bond debt and services obligations, which made them look stupid. So they had to walk that back.
However, DeSantis did take over the development oversight board and appoint a bunch of cronies and Christo-fascists. It’s unclear how or if that will affect operations. Maybe it’s all for show, but I don’t know.
I don’t think Disney has taken a meaningful stand against DeSantis for abridging their free speech. Disney shit-canned the executive who belatedly spoke up. Maybe it was for unrelated performance issues, but it left the impression Disney was cowed.
gvg
@Roger Moore: And also I have to say that special district for Disney never sat well with this citizen of Florida. In one case Disney used it to snap up a bunch of low interest money the state ment for counties to use to give out as downpayments for low income first time home buyers in a federal program. Disney got it all and used it to build cheap housing it rented to its under paid migrant workers in barrack like settings instead of say paying them more or hiring local at decent salaries and the counties had no funds for that that year.
DeSantis appointed cronies so I bet they are crooked and skimming money somehow. So we aren’t better off. The problem is I always had my doubts about the whole reedy creek district existing in the first place. Not sure I want that argued under DeSantis judges. No win that I see there. Other issues yes. We can win.
delphinium
With apologies to Grease and Sandra Dee:
Look at me, I’m Ronnie Dee
Lousy with obscenity
With cronies, I’ll bed
Keep the hatred well-fed
I’m ragey Ronnie Dee
And fuck anyone who tries to whitewash or promote this fascist nob.
Scout211
I agree. But Fox News has many months to influence their viewers through their propaganda. I am guessing that they will be able to manipulate many of their viewers into supporting DeSantis over TFG. That is, if that is where they want it to go. I guess time will tell.
eclare
@delphinium: Bravo!
trollhattan
Speaking of Florida, remember Devin Nunes? Judge-shopping gone wrong.
We can raise ’em dumb here, too.
Frankensteinbeck
He collapses in the face of criticism. He can’t even pull off a pathetic “You’re the puppet!” One debate and he’s toast. Yes, the Republicans will love his hate, but they want a champion for their hate, and DeSantis can’t deliver the chickenshit bravado they think is strength. Trump, meanwhile, has devolved into whining, which doesn’t have that red meat satisfaction, either. I don’t know how the Hell the 2024 Republican primary will go.
@Baud:
Sounds about right.
@Roger Moore:
This. If Disney keeps doing its thing and gives DeSantis nothing, then Disney wins, not DeSantis.
lowtechcyclist
@cain:
I’m trying to think of how one can qualify as a “good Christian” when he’s been repeatedly raping his daughter.
Good Lord. If I lived down thataway, I’d be picketing that judge’s house.
Of course, in Tennessee these days, there are far too many people deserving of being picketed.
FelonyGovt
There are a lot of good people in Florida and I have to believe that DeSantis will push too far.
I also think Repubs live in a virtually sealed bubble and they think this shit is going to play well with “swing voters”. So far at least the mythical “swing voters” don’t seem to like election denying, abortion restrictions, or this anti-woke bullshit.
Betty Cracker
@gvg: I agree the Reedy Creek thing was bullshit from day one. Most Floridians know that, which is why DeSantis’s stunt was a political winner, even for people who don’t necessarily buy into the “woke” bullshit he’s always yammering about. For people who don’t pay much attention, it could look like he was standing up against a corporation that has controlled our politics and sucked us dry for decades. Just not in a good way, since DeSantis is seizing more power for himself, which is no better.
cain
@Roger Moore: Yet no outcry about this verdict from the judge? This pastor’s religion must be the biggest scam – get caught doing something monstrous and then blame it on satan or some such and then everyone forgives and then this guy. Worse, if it is done against a woman or a non-white there is no problem.
Brachiator
@Scout211:
RE: DeSantis wants to be New Trump. Right wing voters still prefer Classic Trump.
Fox jumped onto the already rolling Trump bandwagon.
I don’t know what will happen with DeSantis v Trump. I am just enjoying the in-fighting.
It is interesting that Fox believes that their viewers are so stupid that they will not care that Hannity and company drop Trump in order to fluff DeSantis.
cain
@Ruckus: 72 is a bit much. I think it’s ok to reduce the sentence – but reducing it and explaining it away because he has some feeling is some utter bullshit on the judge’s part. 15-20 would have been appropriate.
New Deal democrat
Two important points:
1. This bill, like many other bills pending in GOP legislatures, openly contradicts decades and in some cases a century or more, of established US Supreme Court precedent.
2. There are at least 5 current members of the US Supreme Court who do not give a rat’s ass about precedent.
On a completely coincidental note, Hamilton believed that the US Supreme Court would become ever more constrained by accumulated precedent, which is one of the main reasons he believed it was “the least dangerous branch.”
cain
@gvg: I agree – it is a tell. It’s projection. They never use such things to excuse a woman or a BIPOC.
Old Man Shadow
Ah, yes. We can’t possibly have a national gun registry because that would be tyranny, but we can make people register their no good, bad opinions and words with the State for freedom.
Makes perfect sense if you have an IQ of 1 or suffer from severe head trauma.
scav
@lowtechcyclist:
I think it’s that “I’m a Christian and thus am forgiven: my actions don’t count against me” school of theology. Those are generally the ones attempting to encode their theoretical proscriptions as the absolute law on all others.
Brachiator
@Old Man Shadow:
That’s because we have the Second Amendment, which makes guns sacred, but there is no amendment protecting freedom of speech.
Oh, wait…
cain
@gvg:
I think though this whipping for votes is only working on the older generations. The younger generation is more like my son and daughter – they put their airpods on and just let it all disappear while the rest of us are agitating. :D
There is definitely a feeling of desperation in all these laws and outrage. They are definitely letting their fascism let out because they are losing their demographic bit by bit, year after year.
geg6
@Roger Moore:
Knowing people who worked for Enterprise, you are exactly right. They find guns in rentals all. the. time.
Matt McIrvin
@PaulWartenberg: Aside from what everyone else has said, the other thing to understand about Disney is that they’ve been going through a crisis of their own that has nothing directly to do with any of this, and it’s taking up a lot of their energy.
Their once and future CEO Bob Iger had one big idea, which was to expand the brand by acquiring companies with popular exploitable IP, and he was really good at that for a long time. Buying Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel–that was all him. And Disney actually picked them well and parlayed these acquisitions into gold, which is something that doesn’t usually happen with corporate mega-mergers.
But his last big bet on 20th Century Fox put the company way into debt. To a large extent it was a bet on streaming media, which looked like a genius move once COVID hit and that was the only thing that was successful, but now a lot of companies are wondering precisely how they were supposed to make money off this. And Disney has all this debt to service because Fox was far, far more expensive than the rest of it.
Anyway, he did this and then immediately retired, with Bob Chapek holding the bag, and the COVID pandemic smacked them in the face and killed a lot of their business at that exact moment. So Chapek has been making all of these decisions that look like horrible nickel-and-diming shit, especially with regard to the theme parks. And eventually the board gave him a vote of no confidence, kicked him out and brought Iger back.
This whole fight with DeSantis happened during the short reign of Chapek, and a lot of the fans (left and right) blamed it on Chapek, either for being feckless or for being “too political”. My guess is that Iger wants to write it all off as just more Chapek failure and put it behind him. He may well find that he can’t. But I think this leadership crisis at Disney is playing into the muted response.
artem1s
finally! something the MAGAt, glibertarian and conspiracy wingnut mouth breathers can point to as violating their First Amendment rights – and they will be correct! *crickets*
also,too xckd will have to amend their strip for the DeAthSantis exception – https://xkcd.com/1357/
cain
@Anoniminous: I was there a few years ago, and apparently history ended when Apple was created. Completely missed everything after that. It’s a worthless place.
The first time I went there – they were talking about how robots would serve us and the like eg slavery of a sort. Strangely, if you removed labor and just had robots, not sure if you still have capitalism.
Roger Moore
@scav:
The key, I think, is that they are good Christians because of who they are. As long as they go to the right church regularly and publicly proclaim their Christianity, they’re set regardless of what else they do. If you attend some other church, you’re absolutely not good.
ian
@New Deal democrat:
The whole portion of the constitution dealing with the courts runs 6 paragraphs, 2 of which are about treason and 1 of which is about giving congress the power to impeach. The framers of the constitution did not put nearly enough thought or effort into how the court functions, and as a result the court has developed into an unaccountable star chamber in which ideologues and partisan activists control many aspects of modern life.
It was one of their most serious blunders (in addition to kicking the problem of slavery down the road).
It is referenced brief at this article, (pdf warning) but for a short time after the war of 1812 the Supreme Court had to meet in a cramped, leaky private house to conduct their business. I think Congress should re-instate this policy.
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
Good points. So far, neither the public nor investors think that the Florida thing is a big deal. And there is an assumption that Iger is the return of good leadership that can handle any problem.
cain
@Anoniminous: I was there a few years ago, and apparently history ended when Apple was created. Completely missed everything after that. It’s a worthless place.
The first time I went there – they were talking about how robots would serve us and the like eg slavery of a sort. Strangely, if you removed labor and just had robots, not sure if you still have capitalism.
cain
@Brachiator: With the 2nd amendment – all things are possible! Just aim and shoot!
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
Disney’s been getting awfully chummy with China of late. Squirming into that market a cash cow.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin: Excellent comment.
The GOP likes to talk about hurting corporations for being woke, but in actual actions, they’ve done very little to hurt corporate bottom lines. From a corporate expense perspective, Democrats are still much, much worse (i.e., better for us).
Long term and systemically, however, Dems are better for the business environment. And the GOP would love to one day be powerful enough to wield corporate power in support of fascists policies. But they’re happy to bide their time, just like they did with abortion.
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin: That context explains a lot — thanks! I don’t think anyone knows yet how the DeSantis takeover of the development board will affect WDW and Disney.
DeSantis was crowing about the power move during the signing ceremony / NuMAGA rally held earlier this week. Here’s a quote:
The board members include a Christian nationalist, a Moms for Liberty goober who’s married to the FL GOP chair and a local Federalist Society chapter president.
cain
@Roger Moore: I suppose it could have been worse – he could have gotten in-house suspension + mental health. I’m sure there are all kinds of shit. I think the judge would have liked to do something like that but knew that the crime was way too heinous to let go without significant jail time.
Roger Moore
@Matt McIrvin:
My impression from talking to the people I know who are crazy about Disney, is that Chapek had a reputation for the nickel and dime stuff well before he was named CEO. I think he was brought in precisely because the board wanted him to cut costs and restore profitability. Cost cutting is never popular, so the board brings in a cost cutter with the expectation he’s going to be a short-term hire; they know they’re going to fire him as soon as the costs are cut. Disney was fortunate they had a cost cutting guy in-house, so they could promote him and look like it was a standard CEO succession.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: Then maybe they should spend time watching the family-friendly content that’s out there instead of trying to find content that outrages them. Sheesh.
Matt McIrvin
@cain: Epcot is weeeeird, in some ways Disney’s most fascinating theme park in how it came about and mutated.
It bears no resemblance to Walt’s concept of the place, which was to build an actual residential city where he would be King and would try out messianic experiments to save America from itself. If that had happened it might well have been a disaster in its own right, but lung cancer got a vote too and Walt Disney died when the project was just starting. Especially after Roy Disney died too, the company was not too keen on continuing with all that.
What actually got built was not EPCOT but sort of a tribute to EPCOT conceived in the mold of mid-20th-century World’s Fairs. So, corporate shilling couched as edutainment about science and technology in the front, and then a land of ersatz country pavilions in the back.
Much of it was supposed to be funded by Disney’s corporate partners like the original Tomorrowland, but most of them pulled out in the first few years (one of the few big exceptions still holding on is GM), so they had to change mission and start shilling for Disney IP instead. And much of the front half ended up getting this eerie dead-mall vibe.
They had a gigantic master plan to make it all over that was one of the many things slammed by the COVID pandemic, and a lot of it sort of got frozen in mid-stride and heavily scaled back.
The part that’s still thriving is the back half because they realized they could forge a new identity as The Booziest Place On Earth. It’s the park where grownups go to do a “world tour” of getting hammered.
Scout211
And I just read on CNN , this guy (who may be one of those you mentioned):
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Ah beer. The cause of and the solution to all of life’s problems. –Homer Simpson
Ksmiami
@New Deal democrat: eh either reform the Supreme Court or Burn it down and start over…. It’s a perversion of Justice and a fucking failure of an institution.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
The key point, IMO, is that Democrats care a lot about growth, while Republicans care about patterns of distribution. Basically, the Democrats have tried to solve their internal conflict between wealthy donors and rank-and-file by focusing on trying to boost growth enough that everyone can be happy even if the distribution favors the other guy. Republicans care far more about getting ahead of the other guy than about whether they’re better overall. It’s basically Davis X. Machina’s comment about people being happy living under a bridge as long as Those People don’t even have a bridge to live under.
Bill Arnold
We praise you. That arguably has monetary value. There are industries that monetize praise; fake reviews of products and services, bot farms of (semi-)synthetic sycophants on social media, etc.
What might be especially amusing is that twitter is literally a microblogging site.
NotMax
@Scout211
The punch lines write themselves.
trollhattan
@Matt McIrvin: I’m imagining the line for Martini Mountain.
kalakal
@Scout211: He’s not even prepared for soft interviews. He just screwed up one by The Times (prop. R. Murdoch)
London Calling
Baud
@kalakal:
Answer: “I would support the other side in the war.”
Not hard.
bjacques
Remember Mike Diana…
kalakal
@cain:
I shudder to think what a ‘bad Christian man’ would be like according to this tool.
Ex Altar boy Reinhard Heydrich perhaps?
Paul in KY
@gvg: I sure hope that ends up being true, gvg. There are alot of dumb and jerky people in this country. Many of them aren’t really concerned with the ‘trueness’ of the charge, just as something to be able to get their hate on.
kalakal
@Baud: It is if you’re DeSantis – he has the mental dexterity of a paving slab
Paul in KY
@Betsy: DeSatanis is not, as he’s about as evil as Voldemort on angel dust.
Matt McIrvin
@Roger Moore: Disney fascinates me but it’s more a combination of general theme-park fandom (their house aesthetic isn’t my favorite, but I can’t deny they’ve been at the top of the game for many years) and the spectacle of goings-on what has always been one of America’s oddest megacorporations, to some extent due to the obsessions of its founder. I guess there’s a fair bit of that all over.
Ruckus
@Betsy:
Are men not capable of “humanizing”themselves!?!?
Often not.
Often boys/men are told they need to be self sufficient.
And rarely actual told what that means or how.
All humans know nothing when we are born. We should be shown how to actually be humans, it would help a lot. But a lot of the people that are in a position to do that, have zero concept of it themselves because they were never taught this. Women, at least more often, get at least a rudimentary education because of their physical needs/differences from males. And like every thing else in humanity it is no where near a perfect system. Add in those who think that a divine being will guide them (see cain at #12) and the entire situation is that sure we should all be taught better, but the system requires that learning is actually happening. And it far more often than not is not even close.
Paul in KY
@Matt McIrvin: I did the ‘world tour’ back in 85. Had great times in the British, French, Italian and Canadian pavilions. Glad I could stagger to the monorail to go back to my room.
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
January of 2024 quickly approaching, legislatively speaking. Will Disney wheedle Congress to extend copyright yet again?
wenchacha
@cain: Maybe for some crimes, we bring back the public pillory.
(altogether too dangerous, these days)
Princess
@Roger Moore: I’ll go one step further: most of Qanon are either abused themselves and/or are abusers or closely adjacent to abusers. They project their own hideous knowledge about their own small worlds outside those worlds onto us so they can cope with what they know.
Matt McIrvin
@NotMax: I’m guessing no. The political landscape on that has changed immensely since the last time they did it–prominent liberals are not as willing to play ball.
What you see instead is that Disney has been going nostalgic and hyping up the classic 1928 version of Mickey Mouse so they can effectively protect him as a trademark rather than under copyright. It’s a pivot to the legal mechanism they can still defend.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Ownership of that line is one of the things Disney went massively into debt for.
cain
@Matt McIrvin: nice! Thanks for the history lesson on this!
Princess
@tam1MI: I’ll be interested in seeing what other people say, if anyone else has replied but I think Lightfoot displeased people both to the right and to the left of her. Paul Vallas, the right-leaning pro-police candidate won in the white, wealthy parts of town, and in Chinatown and Bridgeport, and also did very well in Mexican Latino neighbourhoods. Lightfoot did well on the Souhside, in Black neighbourhoods but only came third. Johnson, the progressive, supported by the unions, did well in more liberal, progressive and racially diverse neighbourhoods, and came second. Chuy Garcia’s support seems to have collapsed in the Puerto Rican neighbourhoods and Vallas took a lot of votes away from him. His collapse may be the most unexpected news of the night. I voted for Johnson.
bbleh
So your post would seem to suggest that you think DeSantis behaving like Putin is a bad thing.
Why would any Right-Thinking American think that?
A Good Woman
@tam1MI:
Turnout was abysmal, even in the Black neighborhoods that Lightfoot was counting on. Only 3% of the youngest voter range showed up, the citywide average was 30+%.
Crime and the perception of public safety was an issue throughout Lightfoot’s tenure. Vallas capitalized on that, as did Garcia to an extent. Vallas had the endorsement of the FOP Lodge 7, headed by Catanzara, who retired a day before being fired over conduct issues. He had a history of excessive force complaints and lying in official matters. Vallas got real cozy with the FOP, although he claimed he didn’t take any money from them. He was a consultant to the FOP during their most recent contract negotiations and claimed he got the contract in, without mentioning his involvement. In the wards Garcia won, Vallas usually came in second.
Johnson took a more progressive stance and had to live down past statements about defunding the police, but still came in #2 and made the runoff. He is a sitting County Commissioner and a lobbyist for the Chicago Teachers’ Union, which provided significant funding for his campaign. CTU is not necessarily beloved in the city.
I have seen email traffic indicating that the “Lakefront Liberals” who supported Chuy are having an internal fight over how quickly Chuy should issue an endorsement and for whom!
The remaining 5 candidates got very little in terms of votes and I have to wonder if they were in it to hurt Lightfoot versus being viable candidates.
Lightfoot is a prosecutor, not a mediator or negotiator, and she managed to alienate a lot of people. She did well with COVID, although the schools being closed might have hurt her. That was a real bone of contention. The fact that crime went up and there were at least two incidents of groups vandalizing, stealing from and sometimes torching storefronts in the Loop and River North was not a good look either. I recall driving downtown and seeing jersey barriers up on some of the cross streets to Michigan Ave. Increases in shootings overall, plus increases in murders, have many people concerned. Basically, I think she was in over her head.
Vallas has a rep of being a hard headed individual who wants what he wants and can alienate people. His tenure on the Philadelphia school board did not end well for him. Johnson is definitely a progressive. He will have to win Lightfoot and Garcia voters, a potentially tough sell with the latter. The prospect of the FOP having access to the 5th floor may be enough to drive Black voters to Johnson.
Roger Moore
@kalakal:
Someone who attended the wrong church.
Roger Moore
@Matt McIrvin:
I find Disney really strange as well, and I’m sure a lot of it traces back to Walt’s personal idea about what the company was supposed to be. The company is clearly still on the path he laid for it, for good or for ill.
Sister Golden Bear
@Betty Cracker:
At a recent press conference he was asked about Russia. He prompted told the reporter to ask a different question.
Anoniminous
@cain:
Never been there, have no desire to go.
Apparently people are starting to realize going entails heavy crowds, long walking distances, a lot of loud noises, and high prices. 68% of Disney World fans say it’s “lost its magic.”
The Lodger
@Anotherlurker: I’ve never heard “Good Christian Man” used as anything but a defense, and almost always a last-ditch defense. When I hear it, it’s usually applied to a loathsome creep, who supposedly is loved by God. Nobody mentions that *IT’S GOD’S JOB* to love low-lifes like this pastor.
Anoniminous
@Scout211:
About time someone rose-up to protect our precious bodily fluids.
Sister Golden Bear
@Mike in NC:
Florida is currently considering, and will undoubtedly pass, a law that, among other things, mandates that describing someone as anti-LGBTQ+ is inherently defamatory. We know why….
Sister Golden Bear
@trollhattan:
Not dumb, using the legal system for harassment. He doesn’t file suits in states with anti-SLAPP laws.
CaseyL
@Paul in KY: I went to WDW with a bunch of friends back in the early 90s, and we had a great time at Epcot’s “nation pavilions.” I particularly remember liking “Morocco,” with the narrow, winding, high-walled “streets.” It felt like a World Expo to us.
Having not been there since, I have no idea if the place has gone to seed, or peoples’ opinions about what constitutes celebration and what constitutes appropriation have changed that much in the intervening years.
Matt McIrvin
@Anoniminous: The Disney World experience is really deteriorating. Even when I went, planning a trip there was like planning a military assault. I could respect a lot of what they were doing but the total experience wasn’t great–and Universal Orlando actually did better at that.
Now, they’ve done all these things like turning their FastPass system (which was already kind of terrible) into an incomprehensibly complex paid system with multiple price tiers, and it just feels like, as I said, nickel-and-diming. But they know they’ve got a core of obsessives who will still eat all of that.
Matt McIrvin
@CaseyL: The back half of Epcot is the half that still feels like a thriving concern. The Morocco pavilion is, I think, the best-themed one because it was the only one with significant actual buy-in from the country being depicted, and participation of local artisans.
Matt McIrvin
@Roger Moore: Well… to some extent. There’s a tension there. Walt Disney was a cultural reactionary at heart, but the company today wants to be seen as somewhat progressive because they don’t want to alienate their own creative staff too much, or a too-large chunk of their customers.
But now that is getting them in trouble with the government where their biggest theme-park operation is. And they’re used to playing ball with the locals where they can. So they’re kind of stuck. Conservatives want to force Disney to be as conservative (and racist, sexist etc.) as they were 50 or 80 years ago. It’d be disastrous for the bottom line if they did it–I think Disney is too big to become a conservative subculture brand like, say, Chick-Fil-A–and it’s probably not going to happen. But refusing makes them a target too.
I think they grew up adapted to a country in which there was some concept of a strong cultural consensus they could play to (whatever that was, they could adapt to it), and they’ve done poorly in times when huge culture-war divisions were tearing our society in half.
RaflW
CPAC attendance is dismal (hooray!). I am in no way thinking there’s any grounds for complacency, but the energy in ‘movement conservatism’ seems really flat and dissolute.
I really think there’s only so long this sh*t can spiral out with absolutely nothing positive, uplifting or hopeful to offer. Yes we’re still basically reeling from two decades of lurching from major regional calamity, to economic melt down, to global pandemic and such.
But that begs for a vision for the future, not “owning the libs, daily, and as nastily as possible.” There’s to there, there.
Matt McIrvin
@RaflW: What’s left is massive bloodshed–they can simply decide to start killing everyone who isn’t them. But I don’t know how much of a stomach the average Republican really has for the project.
RaflW
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, that is a real concern. Seeing that Iowa Rs are proposing reversing freedom to marry, and of course the avalanche of trans bans, I am keeping a very watchful eye.
BF and I have fairly recently renews passports, and while I don’t want to abandon this country now, we need to have firm markers decided to know if/when it is time to leave. BF preached a sermon a while back on authoritarianism (well, several sermons on that topic) and he talked about having known marker moments, and to not let those go if/as conditions deteriorate.
I also think about the ways I’d want to use my resources to try to be sure we’re not just leaving other vulnerable people behind while we flee.
Sucks to have to do this survival planning, but while I have hope we as a country can turn the corner, I ain’t being blinded by any sentimentality that it’ll ‘just work out ok.’
eta: To your last comment, history has too many ugly lessons that people tolerate a lot of suffering of others, as long as they perceive themselves as out of range.
Matt McIrvin
@RaflW: Florida concerns me particularly because it feels like they’re feeling their oats–conservatives are starting to openly talk about outlawing the Democratic Party, mass arrests of Democrats, punishing anyone who defames the governor. It’s like they’re trying to set up totalitarianism in one state. And then you have people like MTG in Georgia daydreaming about taking the right to vote away from people who she thinks are turning her state purple.
RaflW
@Matt McIrvin: I don’t have the level of resources or connections to make a difference in FL, but I think the Democratic party on the national level should be investing heavily in FL right now.
The GOP seems to think they can play this fascist game right out in the open. They need to be proven wrong in 2024. And that electoral groundwork needs to be happening yesterday.
Subsole
@trollhattan: Skin tone and chromosome 23, I imagine.
Subsole
@Baud: Pedantic note: the proper formulation would be “This right here, is some bullshit.”
Roger Moore
@Matt McIrvin:
My thought was more about the structure of Disney, with the studio side of things but also the theme parks, cruise line, vacation housing, and the like. It’s a kind of strange company structure that doesn’t look like other entertainment companies but does still largely reflect Walt’s interests.
Matt McIrvin
@Roger Moore: Yes, though Universal/Comcast is another entertainment company that has gotten deep into the theme-park business (with them, it started with their studio tour becoming an elaborate tourist attraction).
Others tend to be content to license their IP (and, sometimes, name) to someone else.
Subsole
@Roger Moore: That is a disturbingly good point.
Subsole
@Ruckus: Being human is hard work and the pay is shit.
Being Tucker Carlson is very remuneritive and requires nothing more than a capacity for excusing one’s inner slug.
Matt McIrvin
@Roger Moore: I’ve thought for a long time that the tendency to accuse any and all Others of being pedophiles is to some degree projection/distraction from all the regular-folks pedophiles.
Subsole
@Betsy: We are.
Sadly, it requires a good deal of specialized training that far too many of us are discouraged from receiving.
Also, being human is hard, and the pay is shit. Much, much easier to just outsource it. Efficiency, people. Efficiency. Gotta streamline that grindset.
Subsole
@cain: Maube they were using robot in the original eastern European sense? A drudge, a laborer.
Y’know…biorobots?
louc
Even more context setting: Dozens of corporations opposed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill before it passed. Disney said nary a word until after it passed. The Disney creatives kept agitating until finally, reluctantly the CEO took a stand. And it stood out because it was an isolated, post-law stand and DeSantis seized upon it.
The other thing: Chapek wanted to move all of Disney’s operations to Florida. I wonder if Iger is still going to do that. There was a lot of resistance to that move as well. I actually don’t understand why DeSantis would want to piss off Disney enough where it cancels that migration. Maybe he sees a wave of lefty voters moving into Fla and thinks that’s worth stopping even if it hurts Florida’s economy in the long run.
louc
PS. Here’s a story from the Hollywood Reporter about the issue.
Matt McIrvin
@louc: Also because Disney is an attention-getting target, and had already done a bunch of things aimed at remedying or burying old problematic material in their repertoire that had made people complain that they’d gotten “woke”.
Notice that DeSantis followed up by trying to sue to stop them from re-theming Splash Mountain from “Song of the South” to “The Princess and the Frog”. I mean, that’s not even a dogwhistle.
Matt McIrvin
@louc:
Maybe he doesn’t care about Florida; really just wants to be President and sees this kind of red-meat fight as the quickest path to the Republican nomination, which is a necessary condition.
Impoverishing Florida in the process does not matter because he can just lie and say it’s doing great, and the Republican base will believe him.
Dan B
@Ruckus: JoeMyGod blog has one or more pastor convicted of child molestation every day. There are probably ten who are not caught for every one convicted. How many drag queens and trans – none.
Mustang Bobby
@PaulWartenberg: My headline at Bark Bark Woof Woof this morning was “Oh Hell No.”
NickM
“He has all the charm of a constipated evangelical charter school dean who’s been forced to fill in for an absentee crossing guard on a hot day.”
And the boots to match!
Caroline
@Betsy:
“WHY ARE WOMEN ALWAYS RESPONSIBLE FOR MEN’S PERSONAL AND EMOTIONAL LIVES?!?!?”
This x 1000.