Nothing unusual here, just the CFO of the state of Florida advising the CEO of the state’s largest employer to kiss the governor’s ass or else:
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis: “If I’m Bob Iger, I’m working around the clock to try to figure out how to make amends with Ron DeSantis. Just light Bud Light should be working around the clock to go kiss Kid Rock’s ass. pic.twitter.com/r6dTYIdUIn
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2023
For non-twits, here’s the quote:
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis: If I’m Bob Iger, I’m working around the clock to try to figure out how to make amends with Ron DeSantis. Just light Bud Light should be working around the clock to go kiss Kid Rock’s ass.
Patronis is not only being an authoritarian goon here, he’s being a disingenuous authoritarian goon. To the extent “Kid” Rock has enticed conserva-chuds to destroy their own beer to protest trans inclusion, that’s a consumer boycott. Patronis, his boss and the Florida legislature lickspittles are unlawfully using state power to punish a private company (and intimidate others) for speech they don’t like, which is fascism.
According to a report in Rolling Stone, chances are increasing that Ron DeSantis-style fascism will remain a Florida problem rather than becoming an America problem:
On a group chat of wealthy DeSantis donors, images of which were reviewed by Rolling Stone, participants exploded with alarm last week over the Florida governor’s presidential prospects — and his primary chances against Donald Trump.
“What the fuck is wrong with RD?” one participant wrote after Desantis did not curtail his out-of-state publicity tour to return home amid massive flooding in the Fort Lauderdale area.
Another participant demanded to know who in the group could get in contact with Desantis most quickly to complain…
Several other top donors to DeSantis were livid about the governor referring to the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine as a “territorial dispute,” with at least one major donor calling DeSantis to urge a walk-back, a source with knowledge of the outreach and another person briefed on it say. “My understanding is that the message was: ‘If we wanted a fucking MAGA candidate, we would donate to Donald Trump,’” the second source says.
Hahaha! That’s exactly what they’ll end up doing.
Still, fascism at the state level is a national problem in the sense that it sucks for Americans there who are being oppressed, disenfranchised and denied equal citizenship. Perry Bacon Jr.’s WaPo column today argues that the Biden admin could and should be doing more to oppose Republican radicalism (gift link):
But by far the most important step would be for Biden and his team to use the power of the presidency to help the American public connect the dots and see that Republicans in Washington, conservative judges, state-level GOP officials, and Fox News and other right-leaning institutions are working in a coordinated way to oppose liberal values and, in some respects, democracy itself.
I’m sure when Biden dreamed of being president decades ago that he saw himself negotiating peace treaties and signing sweeping legislation, not casting the other party as being dominated by antidemocratic radicals. Well, I wish my journalism career hadn’t turned into writing over and over how the Republican Party has gone crazy and everyone else (the media, the Democrats, the normal Republicans) needs to combat that extremism.
Things change. Creating more manufacturing jobs in the Midwest is important, but it’s not the defining political issue of today, even if Biden and I wish it were. The issue is whether the Republican Party will destroy what is good about America. I wish President Biden would acknowledge this reality and fight back hard. Time is running out.
Biden has emphasized Republican radicalism to good effect in the past, as Bacon acknowledges before complaining that Biden has focused on selling the benefits of the infrastructure plan lately rather than rebuking Republicans.
We can always do more to oppose Republican fascism, but my impulse is to trust Biden’s political instincts here. Pundits complained that Biden was ignoring the economy and over-emphasizing Republican radicalism in the runup to the midterms, and Republicans underperformed.
The red trickle was probably more of a self-own (especially on abortion) than due to anything Biden said, but Republican radicalism isn’t going away, unfortunately, and there will be plenty of fascism to decry over the next year and a half. I don’t think Biden will back off that fight.
Open thread.
patrick II
It’s always projection with these ass-kissers.
Kay
Dominion trial is a go. They just swore the jury in.
I insist they call Tucker Carlson.
sab
@Kay: Yes. Can he take the Fifth in a civil trial?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Twitter being what it is, who knows if this is actually the former head of Goldman Sachs (dramatic squirrel gif here), but I think it is
Dangerman
If I’m Disney, I’m shutting the Park down for “repairs” effective immediately; within seconds, this prick and the Governor would both be humming a different tune with Mickey
Scout211
Sen. Chris Murphy’s response is spot-on.
waspuppet
What the fuck is wrong with you? What was it about Ron DeSantis and the history of his life that made you think he wouldn’t be this way?
Kay
@sab:
Yes but he’d have to show that his testimony subjects him to a real possibility of criminal charges. They’re horrible, venal lying mouthpieces for billionaires but that isn’t a crime.
Delk
Fired Fox producer has new recordings.
Link
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Seems to legit be Blankfein! Looks like we may be about to see how much anti-business actions oligarchs are willing to tolerate for favorable tax and regulatory treatment.
MattF
Yeah, everyone thought that DeSantis would develop problems once his true character shone through. But… jeeze louizze….
Kay
@waspuppet:
Christopher Rufo is what’s wrong with DeSantis. DeSantis’ first decision as a Presidential canidate was to follow Rufo’s lead blindly on “wokeness”- really dumb decision.
Anti wokeness has not proved effective as a governing or campaign focus outside of Florida. It’s amusing to me because anti wokeness is actually the elite position.
Baud
The worst thing Biden could do right now is visit Wisconsin.
Thankfully, Biden is president because he knows who not to listen to for political advice.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Oh my, as the internet says.
I’m cynical enough to raise an eyebrow at all this finding and remembering, but if Abby Grossberg makes a buck while costing the Murdochs a couple of billion, I’m okay with that
Kay
@Baud:
Its only not the “defining issue of today” because Obama and then Biden invested in it and it’s starting to pay off. It takes a while to recreate a manufacturing sector and we had the 4 wasted Trump years in the middle there.
Butch
@sab: The difference is that taking the Fifth can be used against you in a civil trial. Here’s what I found: The rules are generally different in civil cases. “The Fifth Amendment does not forbid adverse inferences against parties to civil actions when they refuse to testify” in response to evidence of wrongdoing, Justice Bryon R. White wrote for the court in 1976.
Ken
The “wealthy donors” reactions remind me of the M*A*S*H episode where Winchester calls his parents and demands they contact a Senator and get him transferred back to Tokyo. “You paid good money for him!”
HumboldtBlue
What the actual fuck??
THAT’S THE MEDIA’S FUCKING JOB, YOU BACON-FRIED FUCKWIT! BIDEN’S JOB IS TO GOVERN THE FUCKING COUNTRY! HOW THE FUCK IS THIS EVEN A SERIOUS FUCKING STATEMENT?
Eolirin
@Baud: If we turn PA, MI and WI as blue as VA, we never lose the presidency short of a horrific and poorly handled catastrophe under a Dem’s watch. Michigan seems well on its way to that, and PA is looking increasingly solid.
So yes, going to Wisconsin is absolutely the worst thing Biden can do. //
brendancalling
“Pundits complained that Biden was ignoring the economy and over-emphasizing Republican radicalism in the runup to the midterms, and Republicans underperformed.”
THIS.
I’ve basically come to the point with pundits in which, unless you have a track record of being right, you’re just another asshole with an opinion—and there ain’t no reason to pay attention to every asshole with an opinion.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: It’s a false dilemma.
Kay
@Butch:
That’s true. The jury may infer anything they take the fifth on (ortoherwise dodge or hide) is bad. I don’t think they will.
Baud
@Kay:
The whole genre of “Democrats are doing it wrong” is so tired.
Also, too, it is stupid to let the GOP set the agenda. We obviously can’t completely ignore their actions. That’s why MVP went to Tennessee. But if we’re going to be strong, we should be able to define the agenda and the terms of the debate.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: I used to like Perry Bacon but at some point when a lot (but not enough) progressives were figuring out twitter is not, in fact, representative of the actual electorate, he wandered back in the other direction
And when Dianne Feinstein says, “I don’t wanna”, and Joe Manchin (or Chris Coons, or Angus King, or Sinema) says, “I cannot abide the elimination of a rule that has produced comity and cooperation in our august chamber….” then what?
Mimi haha
What kind of idiot fucks with The Mouse?
bbleh
I swear I don’t understand Pudding Boy’s thinking here. I know he’s willing to screw over Florida for the sake of his national ambitions, but how can he not understand that Disney is far bigger than he is — far bigger than just Disney World — has been around far longer, and will be around long after he’s gone, especially as Gov cuz he’s term-limited, and most of all, that people — especially Nice White Republicans who have Nice White Children — like Disney?
I thought the problem was that he was a competent Fascist. But this doesn’t exactly reek of competence..
@Mimi haha: and that also, too.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
It is. It’s also the “bully pulpit” fallacy and veers close to “only Dems have agency” thinking.
Geminid
I don’t believe Patronis and DeSantis have thought this through. They’re picking a fight they don’t know they can win, and likely can’t win.
I’ll be interested in seeing polling on whether this fight is popular even among Florida Republicans.
Mike S
Oklahoma banned books like To Kill a Mockingbird and others because their white kids might feel guilty. Meanwhile Sherrifs and council members long for the days when they could hang black men by a rope but now they have more rights than we do.
jonas
IANAL, but I assume Fox/Dominion talks broke off yesterday when Dominion demanded a series of total and humiliating walk-backs and apologies from Fox’s top pundit lineup and Fox figured they’d take their chances on a trial and massive damages award over the viewership and advertising they’d lose having to make an unequivocal declaration that their coverage of the Big Lie was wrong, Dominion did nothing wrong, and Joe Biden is the real president. We’ll see how that works out for them…
Miss Bianca
@HumboldtBlue: Word. (And I am adding “bacon-fried fuckwit” to my list of neo-Shakespearean epithets. Nice one!)
Eolirin
@HumboldtBlue: It’d almost make sense if the reporter was talking about using every legal lever of power to go after fascists, but they can’t *say* that out loud without seeming like they were suggesting politicizing the DoJ and the rest of the executive, and then they’d get bombarded by right wing death threats and every right wing media organization would be calling for them to be fired and deplatformed. (Cancel culture is only a problem when applied to right wing voices, y’know)
Steeplejack
@Kay:
I want them to make Rupert Murdoch drag his old ass down there. Delaware! [shudder]
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: you are more concise than I
also related, the stubborn notion that Dems on the Hill are subordinate to Biden.
Kay
@Baud:
I don’t know- it keeps Democrats engaged. You really can’t keep people engaged with just “good job, Biden!”
I personally am pleased with the (successful) efforts of the Democratic Party on manufacturing in the Great Lakes states the last 15 or o years but obviously democracy is important too.
Ruckus
@waspuppet:
What the fuck is wrong with you? What was it about Ron DeSantis and the history of his life that made you think he wouldn’t be this way?
Absolutely this.
These asswipes are having to do so much cleanup because of the shitheads that will run for the rethuglican party these days are, if not the worst, very damn close to getting there. Their only concept of politics is to try and out shit the other guys. Policy? It is to laugh, if it wasn’t so bad. Ethics? They have absolutely no idea what that word means, let alone have any. Humanity? Everyone they will vote for is no different than the filling of a large intestine. They would be insane children in crappy copies of human bodies – except that most children are far better humans than rethuglican politicians. Their entire political concept is that whatever crap comes out of their mouths is some insane version of “god’s will.” They have confused far worse with far better in their concepts of themselves over the rest of the world. I imagine that having your head up the exit port must make the entire world look like shit, but they have no idea that is where they parked their worst appendage. And they act like they think it’s nirvana in there.
Kathleen
@Baud: IMHO Bacon is s professional Dem basher who has no original value added insights, like 98% of the Beltway Professional Pundit Propatainment Complex. And they are tiresome and toxic.
Baud
@Mike S:
In that case, the good people of Oklahoma should lynch these officials by Mud Creek to prove them right.
Kay
@Baud:
Honestly Baud the only reason the “good job, Biden!I Democrats stay engaged is they fight with the “do THIS Democrats” – it’s like a symphony, Baud. We all have a role to play :)
Dangerman
I wonder what percentage of the local economy there goes tits up if Disney shuts it’s doors “for a while”. Let’s see, employees furloughed. Utility bills unpaid. Hotels empty. Restaurants closed.
Disney’s sitting on a fucking mountain of cash.
Baud
@Kay:
Then shame on us for needing fake self flagellation to remain engaged.
Although it does explain the NYT’s oeuvre.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Rupert Murdoch too.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Also, can’t taking the Fifth in a civil trial be used as a presumption of bad stuff by the jury, unlike in a criminal trial?
rikyrah
@HumboldtBlue:
CLAP CLAP CLAP
Baud
@Kathleen:
I hadn’t heard of him before. Thanks for the info.
Cameron
DeSantis has blown a lot of hot air at Disney, but I haven’t heard anything about him addressing problems in Fort Lauderdale. You know, that city IN FLORIDA that was flooded by rains of Biblical proportions. Maybe I just missed it. Of course, mayor is a Dem, so it’s all good.
bbleh
@Dangerman: there’s that too — IIRC they are THE largest employer in the state, and of course they’re the source for a fkin Magic Mountain of sales tax revenue. But I’m pretty sure he’d do a Bugs Bunny on Florida if it would get him the WH (as if …)
Geminid
@Dangerman: I don’t think Disney has to wage economic warfare by shutting down. They are in a strong enough position already, it seems to me. So far all I’ve seen from their opposition is whining and empty threats. I’m not sure DeSantis can come up with anything beyond that.
The Lodger
@Kay: I can’t wait for Tucker et al. to get caught in Wilmington traffic. That shit is enervating.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Blue slips only exist for district court nominees anyway. Not the appeals court.
And if Biden thought Feinstein needs to resign, he would tell her privately.
Exactly what pressure can you put on a 89 year old woman who is not running for reelection anyway?
bbleh
@Geminid: but why pick a very public fight you’re gonna lose?
Conclusion: he’s not a competent Fascist; he’s just a Fascist. Which on one hand is a relief, but I was kinda hoping he’d bloody up TFG a little more before he cratered.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Hahaha, that’s so true! ;-)
mrmoshpotato
Kid Rock can go suck a Budweiser horse’s ass.
Baud
@Geminid:
Agreed. He’s talked tough, but his actual actions against Disney have been Potemkin.
JPL
@Baud: They used to push Strom Thurmond in a wheelchair when his vote was needed. Maybe Feinstein would let them do the same.
Even if she retires, the republicans won’t let the judiciary seat be filled.
Hoodie
@Baud: Probably too early to do much in the way of agenda setting for 2024 beyond the things the Biden admin is already doing. We’re probably heading into a mild recession, so the biggest issue will likely be how deep that is, how long it lasts and who gets blamed. If the Fed backs off (signs that they are), it could be relatively shallow and start turning around in mid-2024. There is also an upcoming opportunity for the GOP to step on that particular rake with the debt ceiling, so don’t interrupt them. McCarthy will be covered in shit in a few months trying to come up with a way to extract himself from that cesspool. I imagine that, for now, Biden is content to let Trump and DeSantis sling pudding and porn stars and let people get increasingly pissed off at corrupt right wing judges.
Baud
Drip, drip, drip.
Cameron
Since the governor can’t make time to even call down to south Florida, perhaps FEMA could help out and President Biden could appear in Ft. Lauderdale to announce a Federal aid package? I admit I don’t know how these things work, but it would be tremendously entertaining to catch DeSantis’ reaction to something like that.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Bacon used to work for 538, I think. IMO, he’s a pretty good columnist. I don’t necessarily agree with what he’s saying in this particular piece, but I don’t think it’s mindless Biden bashing either. It’s not crazy to think the admin should focus on Republican radicalism more. I mean, you can think the concern is overblown, but it’s not a nonsensical opinion, IMO.
Ruckus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He mistakes lead for dictatorship. His concept is that if the President says it, it must be a true fact and must be accepted and followed. Unless he doesn’t like the idea then it’s all wrong. He’s a self centered human, every concept revolves around what he wants. Now it’s difficult not to like him if he likes most of what you think is good, but how he wants things to get done to get there is in no way reality. He’s likely full of himself, which can seem good given most of the outcome but he likely does not recognize one major issue of humanity, that we do not all see all things the way he does.
bbleh
@Cameron: IIRC, absent something like a military invasion, the Feds can’t step in unless the State asks, because of sovereignty or some such.
Ken
@Geminid: DeSantis has come up with the brilliant “build a prison next to the amusement park” idea, but all that shows is that he’s not played SimCity — or has failed miserably if he has.
(The game only offers you the prison build if you’re doing pretty badly, though not “toxic waste disposal plant” levels of badly.)
Steeplejack
@Butch:
“Adverse inferences”—that’s the phrase I was searching for.
Ruckus
@mrmoshpotato:
I get the impression that the horse wouldn’t like that.
Would anyone?
Kay
@Steeplejack:
Yes. I don’t think they’ll take the 5th because I don’t think they committed crimes.
MazeDancer
If Stacey Abrams had won GA, Bob Iger would be buying nice tracts of land now.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I didn’t click through to read the whole thing. But my view is, if you have an suggestion, make it and explain and defend it. Don’t turn a suggestion into a criticism if you don’t want people to see your piece that way.
Cameron
@bbleh: You’re probably right. I just thought it was a nice vision of President Joe showing up to express compassion and solidarity while Governor Ron is hawking his book at the East Bumfuck Tater & Tractor Convention.
Baud
@Cameron:
@bbleh:
Has DeSantis even declared a state of emergency?
Kay
@Baud:
Good for them. He’s such a petty, nasty asshole.
narya
You mean like that speech he did in Philadelphia calling out MAGAts that contributed to stemming the supposed red wave? And, of course, if Biden spent his time “fighting back hard,” he’d be criticized for “not bragging enough about his successes.” I’ve increasingly seen this dichotomy being set up by the Pundit Class: if Biden talks about his economic successes, he should be calling out fascism; if he’s calling out fascism, then he should be talking about his economic successes. Personally, I lean toward the economic successes the vast majority of the time–the ribbon-cuttings, including in red states, to which he referred at the SOTU. People want to feel that we’re “moving in the right direction” (as the pollsters say) or that success for THEM is an actual option.
cmorenc
The current GOP has failed to learn obvious conservative P.R. lessons from Ronald Reagan, who managed to project a warm, friendly face on his right-wing Administration that a majority of the American public willingly bought, even though these policies were awful by progressive standards. George W Bush managed to pull of a similar “compassionate conservative” projection bought by a much smaller majority of the public in 2004 (he did beat Kerry by around 3% nationally). In short, both managed to play favorably to most of their conservative base without repelling too many of the more moderate members of the public on whom their electoral success depended.
Instead, Trump and DeSantis rely for Presidential runs on projecting themselves as heroic bad-ass MFs to hard-core supporters. That may work generally in red states, but not so much in swing states unless they can suppress the electorate down to the point where remaining voters are narrowly GOP.
Almost Retired
Great political instincts there, Pudd’nhead. Going after Disney – a company that manages to simultaneously be both beloved and ruthless. Brilliance, I tell you!
Geminid
@Baud: As far as getting Senator Feinstein to resign, the best way for Biden to effect that might be to write a short letter, and get Senator Murray to hand deliver it along with one from Chuck Schumer and other Democratic Senators Feinstein is close to. This could be coordinated with a visit by Governor Newsom. Under those circumstances, I think that Feinstein would make the right decision if she hadn’t already.
Baud
@narya:
👍
All of that.
Cameron
@Baud: I’m not sure he’s even acknowledged there’s a problem.
Baud
@Geminid:
She might be pissed. I bet she’s someone who thought of the GOP Senators as her friend.
ETA: As mysterious as that seems to the rest of us.
mrmoshpotato
@Ruckus: No idea. But I stand by what I said.
Jackie
@JPL: I read/heard something about her physician not releasing her to fly as her reason for not being in DC.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Like, apparently, Perry Bacon, I don’t really get all the ins and outs of Senate procedure, but it’s not clear that Feinstein’s resignation would be magic bean in the current magic bean scenario
My understanding is those sort of committee assignments are not subject to the filibuster, but the usual suspects would have to agree to a partisan vote.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I suppose what is different is that the lame excuse would be gone and McConnell would have to admit that they are all about obstruction.
mrmoshpotato
@Almost Retired: Probability is that there’s at least one Disney employee somewhere named Ruth.
Baud
@Jackie:
Road Trip! Make it a reality show!
narya
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The Senate is the one place where I want to see some fking payback if the Dems lose the Senate. Fight every last thing, with a smile and talk about a concern of “overreach” and “shoving things down our throats.”
Kelly
Tear gas use during the 2020 Black Live Matter protests in Portland via Oregon Public Broadcasting
https://www.opb.org/article/2023/04/17/study-2020-portland-oregon-protests-tear-gas-concentrations-far-exceeded-safe-levels/
Rolling Stone and the Guardian also have the story. Our local commercial newspapers and broadcasters seem to have missed it.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Is the Gravedigger of American Democracy still alive? Has anyone heard news of him?
MattF
@mrmoshpotato: Returned to the Senate, I’ve read. Looking rested.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
He can go back to bragging about it like he did when Obama was in the White House.
bbleh
@Cameron: I would agree with you, except there would immediately be a chorus of howls (many, but not all, of them disingenuous) about him showing up for a photo-op but not doing anything substantive to help.
@Baud: in a quick search i found only that the city and county had, but nothing about the state.
Cameron
@Baud: I dunno. Given her health, she might ride through DC like Charlton Heston in the last scene of El Cid.
Jackie
@Baud: Heh! That has possibilities… do a Gym Jordan and take the Judicial Committee to her! A field trip!
Ken
@Baud: @Cameron: It’s just widespread weather-related damage to a major city. That happens at least once a month in Florida, no need to call it an emergency.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@mrmoshpotato: he was on the floor yesterday
Cameron
@bbleh: Nothing to stop him from throwing rolls of paper towels at his audience, is there? I mean, that should qualify as aid, right?
Kathleen
@Baud: I subscribe to WaPo and all it took was one column to put him on my Irish/Scorpio Rising Grudge List.
Ruckus
@Geminid:
Considering their monetary position for the state, pudinboots has of course put himself in a rather bad position. He had no idea how to lead, he only knows threaten and has very little to back that up. He is a disaster for FL or any state and would likely be worse than SFB was. And that was very bad. He has zero knowledge of lead, only demand, same as SFB. And demanding rarely works and really doesn’t when the demander has, one, a crappy demand and two, no idea of other, so that they could at the very least trick their opponent. His concept of leading is that everyone has to follow. It’s dictatorial and it only works when you can massively harm those that don’t fall in line. Which is what deathsanta is trying to say but he’s got nothing to back it up, making the process useless.
Steeplejack
@mrmoshpotato:
Oh, Mitch is back and in fine form.
Geminid
@Ken: I saw a clip of DeSantis floating the prison idea. It got some chuckles from the sycophants he packs his audiences with, but it was just big talk. That prison’s never gonna be built.
Kathleen
@Cameron: Or the fact that Insurance companies are dropping Homeowners’ policies like Spinal Tap disappeared drummers.
Baud
@Jackie:
Oh, I like that.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: He did declare a state of emergency. Someone pulled him aside at an Ohio book signing — probably at the behest of one of the fat cats in the Rolling Stone article.
kindness
I am increasingly unimpressed with Perry Bacon’s hot takes. When I read today’s piece it seemed to me Bacon was calling out Biden as ‘The Old Guard of the Democratic Party’ and at the same time complaining that Biden wasn’t waving the Magic Wand he has to make everything as we’d like it to be. Bacon seemed to completely ignore that Biden has done a great job facing off with a Republican Party (and an assisting national media) that has gone full authoritarian. WaPo’s new Op-Ed editor sucks imho. Thankfully, reading the comments under Perry’s piece restored my heart a bit as most the commenters shared my framing and mind.
Ksmiami
@Betty Cracker: they’re all starting to get that these GOP chucklefucks and their poor ass toothless supporters are bad for business
Ruckus
@Dangerman:
It’s power over money. A death match if you will. RDstupid against a company with over 70 yrs of growth and profit, of being a decent employer, of paying well so that people are willing to work there and smile, of making the place they live better, not just exist. RDstupid doesn’t stand a chance, what with all he’s got going for him……
Betty Cracker
@Kathleen: Our insurance has gone up 400% in five years, and we have never filed a single claim in 25 years of homeownership. We’re also not in a coastal surge zone. It’s a crisis situation — I’m not sure what will happen to mortgages when people can’t get insurance at all.
JPL
@Baud: Whatever happened to the olden days when we used trains and automobiles. Even covered wagon would do. Make the republicans hang their head in shame by forcing an 89 year old woman to travel across country in order to vote.
Raoul Paste
@HumboldtBlue:
The media would love it, if Biden used the phrase “right-wing conspiracy”
It’s not going to happen
John S.
@bbleh:
I’m sure we can all imagine the difference in the response if the flooding had taken place in The Villages.
Desantis would be camped out in his white boots.
Jackie
Guess who Faux is throwing under the bus:😂
“Fox News’ legal defense appears to have taken on a new strategy in the company’s fight against a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems for the network’s alleged lies about the company during the 2020 presidential election: blaming Donald Trump.”
https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-blames-donald-trump-2020-election-comments-dominion-voting-systems-defamation-lawsuit-1794860
Looking forward to TFG’s reaction!😁
JPL
@Jackie: Trump made me do it, might not be a winning defense.
Cameron
@Jackie: “And we would have gotten away with it, too, except for those pesky MAGAs and that stupid Trump!”
John S.
@Betty Cracker:
More than anything, the insurance situation is what will likely bring Florida to its knees sooner than later.
I remember when we moved to Washington last year, our insurance agent presented us with some homeowner quotes that he warned us may be a little high (around $1K/yr.).
I laughed and told him our insurance in Florida was $6K/yr. and rising. He was flabbergasted and couldn’t even fathom such a thing was possible.
Kathleen
@Betty Cracker: Wow! I thought I read that the state has a very expensive plan with about zero benefits that home owners could purchase to satisfy the mortgage requirement. But I could be totally wrong.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
And Mittens weighs in:
mrmoshpotato
@Jackie: FOX “News” vs Dump!
Let them fight!
Paul in KY
@bbleh: My son adores Mickey (right now). He is 5. If we had DeSatanis tied up and I told my 5 year old he was hurting Mickey, he would gleefully torture him to death.
Paul in KY
@jonas: I would also assume that.
Anonymous At Work
About Disney and DeSantis. One thing to remember about autocrats, especially fascists, if that NO challenge to their authority can go unanswered. For a fascist to stay in power, they must be seen as the wellspring for all power & authority of The State, with lesser officials serving only to advance The Leader’s agenda.
Disney has now disputed DeSantis as Leader of Florida twice now and is not suffering as a direct consequence. That means that others may defy The Leader and get away with it. Hence, there is no end of the crackdowns attempted, even if DeSantis makes a mockery of the plutocrats backing him.
Whether this is conscious or subconscious, I don’t know but that’s how autocrats and fascists operate generally.
Scout211
I wonder if that is in reaction to this.
(mmmmm, stollen . . .)
Paul in KY
@Cameron: That sounds like a fine idea! DeSatanis would have to show up, I think.
Cameron
@Scout211: I’ve had stollen – never tried rigged, though.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Thanks.
Paul in KY
@Jackie: She can take a fucking train. Or resign.
Roger Moore
@bbleh:
Disney is important to them precisely because the Nice Polite Republicans love it so much. Their goal is to go back to the social views that were dominant in the 1950s. If a huge media force like Disney helps them with that, they’re much more likely to succeed. In contrast, having the most important cultural forces, like Disney, oppose them makes it nearly impossible for them to push their regressive social views.
Anyway
@Steeplejack:
Hey! If it’s good enough for POTUS ….
kindness
Re: DiFi. I’m thinking Diane is mentally diminished and it is her staff that is putting off her return to the Senate. Why? Well, their paychecks. If Diane retires, they have to find new jobs and they have pretty cushy ones right now. I suspect if Schumer tells her staff they’ll never work in DC again unless they get Feinstein to sign the resignation letter, they’d do it. And if DiFi is as far gone as I think she is, she’ll never know she isn’t a Senator any longer.
Scout211
@Jackie: IANAL, but it only makes sense that Fox News would blame Trump as their defense. Everyone knows that Fox News reports everything a sitting president asks them to. Think of all those times that President Obama directed them to report lies for him. And President Biden is calling daily for editorial review of all of their news.
In fact, why hasn’t Musk branded Fox News state sponsored by now?
//s
Baud
@kindness:
Dems could create a whole Truman Show type of setup for her.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Alllll-righty then!
rikyrah
@Mike S:
The Justice Department needs to come in and investigate any cases with Black folks that he was involved with.
Soprano2
@Jackie: Does she know that cars exist? For someone like her I’m sure a trip could be made comfortable.
trollhattan
@kindness: Honestly think she’s past the point where she, herself can recognize her loss of faculties (or whatever the proper term may be, as would be thrust upon me by my psych major kid) and is in an endless spiral of lost abilities to perform her job and missing capacity to recognize the loss. Suffice to say she’s not holding at some level but is in an ongoing process of loss.
There appears to be no mechanism for addressing it formally.
I heard an interview with a gerontologist who unhelpfully spent her time observing how unfair and sexist it was to focus on DiFi while ignoring Grassley and McConnell and Sanders. I fear the point, she had missed it.
Jackie
@Paul in KY: If she resigns today, the GQP can still refuse to seat another Democrat in her place on the Judiciary Committee at this time. It would still require a 60 majority vote. It has to be done during the next new session – Jan ‘24, I believe.
Barbara
@Roger Moore: Disney, like every other major corporation doing business in the U.S.A., has to keep attracting new customers. Whether it’s publishers or brewers or car manufacturers, they want customers who will start paying out of their own pockets at approximately the same time they finish post-secondary education or start a family. Those people, increasingly, are not white, are not married, and don’t go to church. As a mafia don might say, there’s nothing personal against anyone here in Disney’s failure to embrace “traditional values” as a monolithic cultural norm. Business is business. I know DeSantis and his CFO don’t actually run a business but I assumed that they had some awareness of what motivates businesses, especially publicly traded businesses with millions of shareholders.
lowtechcyclist
@HumboldtBlue:
It’s possible to imagine (with a vivid imagination) that on some issues, the media might go as far in the leftward direction as Democratic leadership goes.
But even my vivid imagination can’t imagine that they’d go further.
So yeah, Biden has to lead in order for there to be any chance that the media follows.
Burnspbesq
@Kay:
if you want a circus, buy a ticket to Ringling Bros. I’d rather minimize distractions for the jury.
cope
@John S.: We paid 5k to St. John’s Insurance for our Central Florida home in 2021. At the end of the year, they went bankrupt and we had to do the Citizen’s Insurance thing through the state. It was cheaper, almost 3k for 2022. When we moved to Colorado last January, our homeowner’s insurance through a national brand fell to $800 a year.
rikyrah
United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. 744 (2013) (@Joseph_Joe_M) tweeted at 2:37 AM on Tue, Apr 18, 2023:
I dare say that the only reason charges were filed is the national outrage that charges weren’t immediately filed after the shooting. He shot the kid once in the head THROUGH a glass door, and again when he was down, for god’s sake. Now they don’t know where the old man is? C’mon
(https://twitter.com/Joseph_Joe_M/status/1648229208341250049?t=vk_OggieivDWuhBKCYL6Qg&s=03)
rikyrah
OutOfTheBox_InToTheWorld (@shermaine_nedd) tweeted at 6:05 AM on Tue, Apr 18, 2023:
The fact that this child survived being shot twice in the head (if I understand this correctly), ran from door to door to find help….AND SURVIVED…..seems biblical. At a minimum, it tells you where the right hand of God was that night.
(https://twitter.com/shermaine_nedd/status/1648281605784457217?t=F0B0KmEUMlZn2bwPnePzAw&s=03)
Delk
Ron’s biggest donor was a groomer
lowtechcyclist
@kindness:
Carrots are better than sticks, if they can be produced. If there’s a way to say that whenever she retires, they’ll continue to get paid through, say, May of next year, then that might be the best approach. A year’s paid vacation if she retires now, but only three months if she retires next February.
Burnspbesq
@HumboldtBlue:
THAT’S THE MEDIA’S FUCKING JOB,
The media’s job is to deliver eyeballs to advertisers. Nothing more, nothing less. You know this, so spare us the fauxtrage.
karen marie
Before today I’d never heard of a state having a “CFO.”
I don’t know what the reason for the change was other than reducing the ability of a Democrat in that position having power over insurance business interests.
Betty, do you remember what was going on at the time?
rikyrah
JC Chasez’s Burner Account (@LightThe_Lamp) tweeted at 11:45 PM on Mon, Apr 17, 2023:
Also thinking about the “why don’t teens go outside” discourse tonight. The possibility of incidents like this is exactly why Black parents, in particular, hold their children close. Being a “free range kid” is a privilege.
(https://twitter.com/LightThe_Lamp/status/1648185903360139264?t=O8dqD401E6ccDUAvZLrpxg&s=03)
karen marie
@Butch: I see this all the time in Massachusetts juvenile court trials where parents lose custody of their children. A parent who is “offered” a drug test and refuses has that held against them.
lowtechcyclist
@Delk:
Sure seems that there’s a lot of that on the right side of the political spectrum.
Cameron
@karen marie: I thought it was an acronym, “FA, CFO.”
zeecube
@Ruckus: Good use of a thesaurus.
different-church-lady
Kid Rock now runs beer. Noted.
Roger Moore
@Delk:
This is my surprised face. It’s classic Republicanism: every accusation is a confession.
ETA: This gets back to what I’ve said about QAnon’s obsession with pedophilia. They believe the world is run by a pedophile cabal because that’s who they see running their church and their political party. It’s not that big a stretch to think the whole world runs that way.
rikyrah
Kenny BooYah!![]()
(@KwikWarren) tweeted at 7:34 AM on Tue, Apr 18, 2023:
You can’t knock on a door. You can’t turn into a driveway. You can’t go to a Sweet 16 Party. You can’t do shit in gun happy America without the threat of getting shot.
(https://twitter.com/KwikWarren/status/1648304028097314822?t=Y3mf06tsTymwsxc4KT-dTQ&s=03)
different-church-lady
Biden can multi-task. I don’t think the press can anymore.
rikyrah
Looking for the lie. See none.
chris evans (@notcapnamerica) tweeted at 10:14 PM on Mon, Apr 17, 2023:
Somebody called Moms for Liberty “Klanned Karenhood” and I immediately SCREAMED https://t.co/sUTPNZ4aEy
(https://twitter.com/notcapnamerica/status/1648163005165608967?s=02)
rikyrah
Bankrupt them![]()
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Susan Bordson (@susanbordson) tweeted at 8:24 PM on Mon, Apr 17, 2023:
The Gateway Pundit, a St. Louis-based far right site run by brothers Jim and James Hoft, faces a defamation lawsuit for falsely accusing election workers of fraud, instigating threats against them.
https://t.co/LArULoiBWs via @MO_Independent
(https://twitter.com/susanbordson/status/1648135312952918017?s=02)
different-church-lady
@rikyrah: Republicans have gone full “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”. Except they’ve forgotten they’re not Aliens.
Old School
@karen marie:
Not Betty, but there was a referendum on shrinking the cabinet in Florida in 1998.
Bill Arnold
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That Blankfein account is Legacy verified.
The free “Eight Dollars” plugin for properly labeling bluechecks still works. (Paid vs Verified in particular).
different-church-lady
@rikyrah:
It’s all fun and games until you put their bank accounts in a sling.
different-church-lady
@Scout211: Like they were ever interested in anything but trolling?
Roger Moore
@different-church-lady:
I don’t know what you’re talking about. The media can multitask like anything. That’s they only way they can criticize the Democrats for spending both too much and too little time talking about any given topic, all while having their tongues pressed firmly onto Donald Trump’s boots.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Haha. That’s perfect.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: The stupidest men on the Internet!
Fleeting Expletive
“Republicans in D.C.: When have they ever done anything good for you? (Matt Gaetz, etc). They whine and point fingers, plan vengeance and restrictions against people they don’t like, and sometimes against each other. What good is that?”
“There’s so much they could be helping us get done. X District Courts have judicial vacancies, etc. These heartless fights aren’t helping to govern this complex country and sending help to those who really need it, not giving giant corporations anything they want”
I’d like this kind of direct language incorporated into Democrats’ ads everywhere, emphasizing democratic inclusion and breaking chains for the least of us.
OverTwistWillie
It’s a poor workman that blames his tools.
When the money guys say no, you release boilerplate like Pompeo, with the inference you will happily take the next board gig, senate run, or administration position (even a Democratic one) that comes along.
This is career self-immolation, and likely reflects on the dynamics between spud and his wife.
jlowe
Ron DeSantis and Florida State government is the gift that keeps on giving for Disney by reducing Disney’s reputational risk. For many, Disney is not a force for good, but that doesn’t seem to matter terribly when Tiny D and the power of the state (such as it is) is coming at’cha.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Hahahaha! Perfection!
@karen marie: It sounds vaguely scammy to me, but like Old School says at #156, it was part of a reform instituted during the last Dem governor’s term. The scammy connotation probably arises from all the Repubs who have held the office ever since. The current punk in the OP — just openly threatening Florida businesses. WTF?
The Lodger
@rikyrah: Wait. There are brothers named Jim and James?
Whatever that is didn’t fall far from the tree, did it?
eclare
@Paul in KY: I would love to see that!
UncleEbeneezer
Hopefully Adam will cover this tonight but this has everything: Russian Spies/Disinformation, Election Meddling, Florida etc:
U.S. Citizens and Russian Intelligence Officers Charged with Conspiring to Use U.S. Citizens as Illegal Agents of the Russian Government Defendants Sought to Sow Discord, Spread Pro-Russia Propaganda and Interfere in Elections Within the United States
Paul in KY
@Jackie: Then they need to do the Strom Thurmond thing and roll her ass in there to cast the vote.
ian
@Eolirin:
Things will change again, in time. Florida and Ohio used to be swing state ground zero. Now Georgia and Arizona (and others) seem to be the most competitive. As we get closer in Southern states we seem to be moving further away from Midwestern ones. Who knows which states will be competitive in 30, 40 years?
StringOnAStick
@UncleEbeneezer: That is some interesting reading for sure. I suspect there are plenty of other Russian influence ops targeting our elections under investigation right now as well.
Bill Arnold
@Mimi haha:
Technically, a Mouse Fucker.
Paul in KY
@eclare: I would actually hope it wouldn’t be ‘gleeful’. More like with sorrow as how bad DeSatanis is, etc.
karen marie
@Old School: Do you know if this outcome was achieved?
“The passage of Revision 8 by the 1998 CRC is a nonpartisan effort to improve the structure of government. It is offered to the public to correct the imbalance of power between the branches of government and reduce the influence of large monied interests funding elections for their singular gain rather than to the overall public welfare, while at the same time retaining the checks and balances of collegial control over law enforcement, land usage and disposition, bonding, and the state retirement system.”
Instead of multiple offices needing to be bought, the “large monied interests” need only buy one.
karen marie
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, I looked at who held the governorship before and during but I don’t know what the composition of the legislature was. It sure looked to me like it was a move designed to consolidate power.
Seems more than a bit weird to have the “CFO” doing arson investigations but that part at least appears to have been the arrangement previously when it was a comptroller.
karen marie
@The Lodger: I’m guessing they’re not full siblings but products of a broken family. Certainly would explain a lot.
Matt McIrvin
@Roger Moore: For decades Disney positioned itself as the safe, square force in mainstream American culture… and, really, they still are. If the bigots have lost them, they’ve really lost the culture and they know it. That’s why they’re so traumatized by “Woke Disney” and why DeSantis isn’t going after, say, Universal/Comcast/NBC for pushing some property with a “woke” message, though I’m sure he could find one if he tried.
StringOnAStick
@Matt McIrvin: The bigots can’t stand that some Disney cartoon leads and movie stars are no longer all lily white. My sister the RW nutjob Southern Baptist was anti-Disney back in the 1980’s but it has only been recently that the “mainstream bigots” have gotten into the anti-Disney act and it sure ties into the first sentence of this comment.
FelonyGovt
@Roger Moore: Oh, like an official Pride Nite finally coming to Disneyland?
Roger Moore
@Matt McIrvin:
My impression is that Disney is being pressured by their employees. It was the employees far more than the customers who forced Chapek to respond to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, and my feeling is that pressure is moving Disney from being a follower of cultural changes to being a leader.
That said, I think Disney is getting a lot of the attention because they’re the biggest entertainment company out there. They were big back in the 1990s, but buying Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel makes them huge. They’re also a good target for Ron DeSantis because Disney World gives them a huge presence in his state. Universal has a theme park there, but it’s nothing like the size of Disney’s holdings.
Betty Cracker
@UncleEbeneezer: Ah, the Uhuru Movement people! Those dumb kooks have been operating in the Tampa Bay area since I was a child. They are or at least were loudly Marxists and likely one of the few non-right-winger groups Putin’s operatives could co-opt in the U.S.
UncleEbeneezer
@StringOnAStick: Agreed.
JGreen
@Bill Arnold: Well, really technically, it’s a Mouse Fuckin’ Idiot
Suzanne
@Roger Moore:
Yes exactly. And it is related to the educational divide. Companies in many fields that need a large workforce of college-educated people (who are, of course, more left-liberal and LGBTQ-friendly) are currently competing for workers. There is much research indicating that much of the younger cohort of college-educated workers want to work where they feel their values are in alignment.
The social conservatives like to stereotype college-educated people as Woke Studies majors who will be baristas forever, but the reality is that most college students in this country study pretty practical things and get jobs.
WaterGirl
@Jackie: Then fucking drive her across country.
JML
I wonder how many of the people who keep claiming DiFi’s staff are somehow keeping her from resigning and cynically “making’ her keep service to preserve their supposedly cushy jobs have ever worked on the Hill? Every worked for a Senator or someone similar?
BECAUSE IT DOESN’T WORK LIKE THAT.
Let’s start with the fact that outside of a couple of people, the staff jobs on the Hill pay dreadfully badly. Turnover is often very high because the hours are awful and pay is worse. but the other part is good luck anyone on staff “making” a Senator do something they don’t want to do. I’ve literally seen staff have to do a total 180 on a plan that was worked on for weeks and meticulously crafted because the elected walked in at the end and threw the whole goddamn thing out. (besides, odds are very high that if DiFi resigned right now a caretaker would be appointed to fill out the term, since you have multiple candidates already running and whomever ended up in there would likely retain most if not all the staff anyways. That’s how this works unless there’s a party switch)
The reason DiFi ain’t resigning is she’s a stubborn old bird who is convinced she knows best and wants to serve out her full term. She’s refusing to acknowledge her cognitive decline (not unusual for people with the issue, especially of her age), or the idea that her health no longer allows her to serve. She’s clinging on the the idea of returning to senate like a lifeline…which it might be.
Age is undefeated, and something like this is really hard. DiFi came to the Senate as one of a very few women and during a time when California was still seen as a place for republicans and was an important leader (along with people like Jerry brown & barbara Boxer) in transforming California into a Democratic stronghold, away from the very conservative politics that dominated much of the state. It seems nigh-impossible now for a Republican to win state wide in CA, but that wasn’t the way all through the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s. She’s hasn’t kept pace with progressive politics in her own state over the last decade or so, but she was there holding the line during some brutal times. It’s a shame to see her a shadow of herself, and like so many she’s tried to hold on too long.
But let’s not confuse things here: she hasn’t resigned because she doesn’t want to quit.
Paul in KY
@JML: I don’t want her to resign now. I want her ass in DC casting votes in Judiciary Committee.