Monday Morning Smile

 

Karma, Mr. Desantis

 

Heather Cox Richardson 

8m  · 

May 18, 2023 (Thursday)

Citing “changing business conditions,” Disney leadership today canceled plans to build an office complex near Orlando, Florida. The construction was estimated to cost about $1 billion, and the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity projected it would bring to Florida more than 2,000 jobs with an average salary of $120,000. In his email to employees, Disney’s theme park and consumer products chair Josh D’Amaro made it clear that even more was on the line. He noted that Disney has planned more than $17 billion of construction in Florida, bringing about 13,000 jobs, over the next ten years but suggested that, too, was being reexamined. “I hope we’re able to,” he said.

Disney is locked in a battle with Florida governor Ron DeSantis that began when, under pressure from employees, then–Disney chief executive officer Bob Chapek spoke out against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act. This law, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law because its vague language prohibiting instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation seems designed to silence any acknowledgement of LGBTQ Americans in grades K–3, was DeSantis’s pet project.

In retaliation, DeSantis led Florida Republicans to strip Disney of its ability to govern itself as if it were a county—as it has done since its inception in 1967—putting the board that controlled Disney under the control of a team hand-picked by DeSantis. But before the new board took over, the old board quietly and legally handed control of the parks over to Disney.

Apparently furious, DeSantis suggested he would build a competing state park or a prison next to Disney’s Florida theme park. In April, the new board set out to claw power from Disney, while the company announced it will hold its first gay-themed pride event in California and that it will build an affordable housing development in its Florida district, a move that Floridians will like. Meanwhile, with DeSantis’s blessing, the Florida state board of education approved expanding the ban on classroom mention of LGBTQ people to include grades 4–12.

On April 26, Disney sued the governor and those of his top advisors behind the attacks on Disney. The lawsuit noted that for more than 50 years, Disney “has made an immeasurable impact on Florida and its economy, establishing Central Florida as a top global tourist destination and attracting tens of millions of visitors to the State each year.” But, it said, “[a] targeted campaign of government retaliation—orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney’s protected speech— now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights.”

The lawsuit called out DeSantis’s actions as “patently retaliatory, patently anti-business, and patently unconstitutional. But,” it said, “the Governor and his allies have made it clear they do not care and will not stop.” The company said it felt forced to sue for protection “from a relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint unpopular with certain State officials.”

The fight between DeSantis and Disney illustrates the dramatic ideological change in the Republican Party in the last two years. No longer committed to keeping the government weak to stay out of the way of business development, the party is now committed to creating a strong government that enforces Christian nationalism.

This is a major and crucially important political shift.

From the earliest days of the Reagan Revolution, those leaders who wanted to slash the federal government to end business regulation and cut the social safety net recognized that they did not have the votes to put their program in place. To find those votes, they courted racists and traditionalists who hated the federal government’s protection of civil rights. Over time, that base became more and more powerful until Trump openly embraced it in August 2017, when he said there were “very fine people on both sides.”

As he moved toward the techniques of authoritarians, his followers began to champion the system that Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán called “illiberal democracy” or “Christian democracy” in his own country. Orbán argued that the principle of equality in liberal democracy undermines countries by attacking the national culture. Instead, he called for an end to multiculturalism—including immigration—and any lifestyle that is not based on the “Christian family model.” He seized control of universities to make them preach his values.

Today’s Republican leaders openly admire Orbán and appear to see themselves as the vanguard of a “post-liberal order.” They believe that the central tenets of democracy—free speech, religious liberty, academic freedom, equality before the law, and the ability of corporations to make decisions based on markets rather than religious values—have destroyed national virtue. Such a loss must be combated by a strong government that enforces religious values.

Right-wing thinkers have observed with approval that DeSantis’s Florida is “our American Hungary.” Indeed, DeSantis’s “Don’t Say Gay” law appears to have been modeled on Orbán’s attacks on LGBTQ rights, which he has called a danger to “Western civilization.” DeSantis’s attack on the New College of Florida, turning a bastion of liberal thought into a right-wing beachhead, imitated Orbán’s attack on Hungary’s universities; on Monday, DeSantis signed three more bills that undermine the academic freedom of all the state universities in Florida by restricting what subjects can be taught and by weakening faculty rights.

DeSantis’s attack on Disney is yet another attack on the tenets of liberal democracy. He is challenging the idea that Disney leaders can base business decisions on markets rather than religion and exercise free speech.

There is another aspect of the Republicans’ turn against democracy in the news today. If democracy is a threat to their version of the nation, it follows that any institution that supports democracy should be destroyed. Today, the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, led by Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), continued its attack on the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Ranking member Representative Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) pointed out that Jordan was violating committee rules by refusing to let Democrats on the committee see the transcripts he claims to have from a whistleblower. Other committee members noted that two of the witnesses have been paid by Trump loyalist Kash Patel.

Plaskett warned: "The rules don't apply when it comes to the Republicans.... It's all part and parcel of the Republicans' attempt to make Americans distrust our rule of law so that when 2024 comes around and should their candidate not win, more and more people will not believe the truth. The truth matters."

And so does power. Although House Republicans are trying to protect Representative George Santos (R-NY), who was just indicted on 13 counts, by sending his case to the Republican-dominated Ethics Committee rather than allowing a vote on whether to expel him, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced articles of impeachment against President Biden.

Also today, the far-right House Freedom Caucus has called for an end to any discussions of raising the debt ceiling until the Senate passes its bill calling for extreme budget cuts. Forcing the nation into default will cause a global economic panic and, asked if they should compromise with the White House, Representative Bob Good (R-VA) said: “Why would we? We have a winning hand.”

Monday Morning Smile

 

Tom on Mothers' Day

 Today's Subject Line Song was actually the B-side of Elvis's hit 'The

Wonder of You'. Mama Liked the Roses was believed to be about his late
mother, Gladys, with whom he had a seriously weird relationship. Most
boys love their mamas, but like so much else in Elvis's life, his love
for his mother was way over the top. When Gladys Presley died in
1958, she was only 46 years old. Parents sometimes die young and while
their spouses and children are often emotionally devastated, few
people take their mother's death as hard as Elvis did. Elvis was in
basic training in the US Army when his mother died after a short
illness. Gladys's funeral was something of a spectacle because in 1958
anything that had to do with Elvis was the subject of tremendously
comprehensive news coverage, and his mom's funeral was no exception.
By all accounts. Elvis was inconsolable and he tore his garments and
gnashed his teeth, so great was his sorrow. He addressed his mom as if
she still lived in what must have been a truly cringeworthy
spectacle. Perhaps the defining anecdote involved Mrs Presley's
favorite Gospel group, The Blackwood Brothers, who Elvis had hired to
perform at his mom's funeral. Elvis refused to let the group stop
performing after the one set that he'd hired them for, insisting that
they continue to perform until cooler heads prevailed. Elvis also made
a spectacle of himself at his mom's gravesite where some observers
worried that he might throw himself into her graveElvis may have been
childlike in many ways but his appetite for he pleasures offered by
female flesh as fully adult except for the belief that females ho had
given birth were somehow damaged and unworthy of his attentions and
this distaste was apparently a factor in his separation and divorce
from his wife Priscilla, as you might imagine

But Elvis as in no sense normal Normal people have a relationship with
their mothers that is both unreservedly loving and maddeningly
complex When we are small children our mothers were like Gods all
knowing and all powerful They knew how to make us feel better when
we're sick and taught us how to operate our bodies Moms oversaw and
encouraged the necessary transformation from feral savages which is
the natural state of small children into miniature adults who're
reasonably attuned to what it takes to function within the larger
universe of society as opposed to the cozy nest that is more tolerant
of our foibles

But once we go off to school we begin to realize that our moms are
fallible. We become acquainted with all sorts of competing authority
figures who seem more powerful and more knowledgeable than our hapless
moms. Teachers rule our days, and policemen rule the streets. How we
relate to our peers becomes increasingly important as we grow older.
We eventually develop societies and activities that largely operate
without a mother's input, (think of the societal crucible that is the
modern high school). We value independence over guidance and demand
the freedom to make our own mistakes, and we make them early and
often. We break our mothers hearts on a daily basis but a wise mother
understands that this difficult and chaotic transition from childhood
to adulthood is developmentally necessary and she tries like hell to
not take it personally

When we become adults in our own right we realize that our moms have
always had our backs; that they've always sacrificed their own needs
for ours. That's what a mother does. So let us honor our moms today,
and everyday, for their unstinting devotion on our behalf

Happy Mother's Day

Monday Morning Smile

 

Tom on Americans' Take of Mexican Food

 

Happy Cinco de Mayo! It's a holiday that Americans use to celebrate
their Mexican heritage by folks who are not themselves Mexican. It's
comparable to St Patrick's Day in that respect. It's just another
excuse for folks to party and drink to excess. The people who consume
vast amounts of tequila and Mexican beers like Corona and Dos Equis,
among others, eat vast amounts of what purports to be Mexican food,
although much of such food is more Tex than Mex. Probably much of what
we think of as Mexican food suitable for consumption on Cinco de Mayo
will actually be the sort of dreck served at the nation's Taco Bell
drive-ins and Chipotle's Mexican Grilles. I can honestly say that I've
never crossed the threshold of either chain. Both of my kids enjoyed
Taco Bell But I've never been tempted. Perhaps it was the smell of
rotting horseshit that escaped from the bags containing their
take-out orders that they would consume in the darkness of their
bedrooms, which would therefrom be lit by the fluorescence of decay.

If Taco Bell is an excretable version of Mexican food most often
enjoyed by drunks and homeless people, Chipotle Mexican Grill is the
best place to go if you enjoy the excitement of explosive diarrhoea in
a 'Fast Casual' setting. You would be well advised to have an ample
supply of moistened towelettes on hand when you visit, because should
you suffer from he 'Chipotle Cha-Cha, be advised that contact with
this diarrheal exudate has been known to cause serious burns if left
untreated. Chipotle is well known for the disturbing incidence of
food borne illnesses that it is found to be responsible for. The chain
has actually attempted to open outlets in Mexico City but has faced
universal criticism and quickly closed

Besides it's role in putting the children of gastroenterologists
through college, Chipotle is famous for the inauthentic appearance of
the models used in their ads The young folks depicted in said ads are
so White and Aryan looking that they bring to mind the old
recruitment posters for Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) to mind. None of
them would be mistaken for Mexican, ever.

Monday Morning Smile

 

GUNS

 A thought from an email from my brother Tom dated
April 16, 2023

Louisville Kentucky was once again the locale of a shooting this time in a park about a mile away from where Mondays shooting took place Two dead and 4 wounded It hardly seems worth mentioning anymore We're getting so inured to stories of on the news about blood running in the streets in of American cities and towns that it takes a extraordinarily high death toll or some seriously grotesque aspect to the event to make us take notice.

 It's gotten to the point where you have to always have situational awareness You have to always know where the exits are lest somebody decide that today's s a good day to die and is resolved to take a few people with them Random death at the hands of angry strangers has become the norm and anyone venturing outside is well advised to not only carry ID on all journeys outside the home but that such an ID include your blood type.

Monday Morning Smile

 

Karma in Tennessee

 From WaPo

Tennessee state Rep. Scotty Campbell (R) was walking to the Capitol in Nashville when a reporter stopped him to ask about allegations of harassment brought against him by an intern.

Campbell told NewsChannel 5 he “had consensual, adult conversations with two adults off property.” Six hours later, the lawmaker — who two weeks ago voted to expel three Democratic colleagues over decorum violations — submitted a letter of resignation, Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R) announced Thursday afternoon.

According to documents obtained by The Washington Post, a bipartisan ethics subcommittee reported to Sexton on March 29 that it found Campbell had violated the Tennessee General Assembly workplace policy on discrimination and harassment after reviewing the results of an internal investigation.

SOURCE: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/04/21/tennessee-lawmaker-scotty-campbell-resigns/

Tom on African History

 It's another day in what seems to be an unending torrent of depressing stories, and the story at the head of the list involves the situation in Sudan, where the death toll is up to 74 the last time I looked. I don't agree with Donald Trump on most things, but his crude assessment of Africa as a 'shithole' was spot on. I am well aware that it is unfair to paint the entire continent as such, but significant portions of the continent are not success stories by any stretch of the imagination. For the most part, the people are just just trying to get along and the vast majority are adaptable in ways that North Americans and Western Europeans will never be. Most Africans enjoy the same things that folks everywhere enjoy. There's a vibrant music scene in many African regions, and many African cuisines are as sophisticated as anything you'll find in the West. Many Africans are religious in a way that Europeans and North Americans ceased being a long time ago. From what I've read the Catholic Church is experiencing its most dynamic growth on the African continent and it's only a matter of time before we have a Black Pope .

But Africa's curse is bad governance, coupled with unending civil conflict. The origins of the civil conflict can be traced back to the colonial era, during which the European powers divided the continent amongst themselves without regard to the realities on the ground. Ethnic groups that had been mortal enemies for hundreds of years were thrown together for the convenience of the colonial powers, rather than the needs and desires of the indigenous population. If you put two scorpions in a bottle they're going to fight; that's just the way it is. As long as the various colonial powers maintained suzerainty over the continent, these mutual dislikes among the natives stayed largely in the background, but during the post-colonial era, these various conflicts came to the fore. And in the patriarchal societies common in Africa, tough times demand a "Big Man'. The trouble with big men is that they often operate as if the entire nation is their personal property and they act accordingly. Most large African countries are generally corrupt, some spectacularly so. Money that should go toward making the lives of a nation's citizens and mitigating the effects of climate change, is instead squandered on shopping trips to the fashion boutiques of Europe by the big man's Wife or concubine, or used to purchase Lamborghinis for the big man's son and heir, with much of the rest being diverted to a numbered bank account in some Caribbean hideaway. 

But all of these are relatively young counties, and the hope is that in time they will mature and develop proper oversight of the national exchequer and develop a robust rule of law. One can only hope. Clean and fair elections would help as well....