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Disney snaps back Ronnie D abused his power. So Disney decided to do it too: Gov. Ron DeSantis’ handpicked board overseeing Disney World’s government services is gearing up for a potential legal battle over a 30-year development agreement they say effectively renders them powerless to manage the entertainment giant’s future growth in Central Florida. Ahead of an expected state takeover, the Walt Disney Co. quietly pushed through the pact and restrictive covenants that would tie the hands of future board members for decades, according to a legal presentation by the district’s lawyers on Wednesday. The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District’s new Board of Supervisors voted to bring in outside legal firepower to examine the agreement, including a conservative Washington, D.C., law firm that has defended several of DeSantis’ culture war priorities. “We’re going to have to deal with it and correct it,” board member Brian Aungst Jr. said. “It’s a subversion of the will of the voters and the Legislature and the governor. It completely circumvents the authority of this board to govern.” Oh no! How can this be????
There once was a cosmic seed that sprouted the Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers have discovered its last surviving remnants.
The post Astronomers Dig Up the Stars That Birthed the Milky Way appeared first on Nautilus.
The union revival is gaining ground, with the latest win being the reversal of a "right to work" law in Michigan.
Protesters are hailing Israeli courts as the last bulwark of democracy, but democracy for whom?
The post Protect the Israeli Judiciary — but Don’t Let It Launder War Crimes Against Palestinians appeared first on The Intercept.
Australian voters have collectively risen up and overthrown practically all traces of blue from the mainland, including in five states, two territories and at the federal level. read now...They’re still at it I guess there’s nothing really new about this. Congressional loyalists talking in back channels to the president happened during Watergate too. (The great hero Howard Baker…) And remember Devin Nunes and his Midnight Ride? But I’m pretty sure it’s unprecedented for loyalists to be using the investigative powers of the congress to help a former president, not to mention doing it to help him pressure prosecutors in criminal investigations as a candidate for the GOP nomination. What could be more “deep-statey, swampy” than this? A number of top House GOP lawmakers have disclosed in recent days their efforts to keep the former president informed on the pace and substance of their investigations. Lines of communication appear to go both ways. Not only are Trump, his aides and close allies regularly apprised of Republicans’ committee work, they also at times exert influence over it, multiple people familiar with the talks tell CNN.
Derrick Miller, who works on military policy for Rep. Matt Gaetz, served eight years for shooting an Afghan civilian in the head during an interrogation.
The post Matt Gaetz’s Legislative Aide Is a Convicted War Criminal appeared first on The Intercept.
The economic effects of the massive French strikes are starting to extend beyond France, although so far in a limited way. Is more to come?
Most states have at least considered initiatives to do away with, or to reduce the use of, isolation in their prison systems, according to the latest major report on the subject. But there’s bad news too.
The post John Kiriakou: US Solitary Confinement appeared first on scheerpost.com.
Here’s an interesting leftist perspective on the current crisis: A number of American friends have been asking about my thoughts on Israel so I figured I’d just do a thread. This isn’t some academic analysis or anything, just some things I’ve noticed as someone who follows the news closely and has been to probably a dozen protests. Here we go: 1. The threat was real. American Left is (rightfully) wary of anyone that leans on unelected Supreme Court, but in this case they were final line of defense before dictatorship. Israel has no other checks or balances. No constitution, no separation between exec. and legislature 2.Bibi’s extremist coalition was trying to push reforms that would turn supreme court into rubber stamp. First to suffer would be Palestinians, LGBT and unions. Imagine Trump (who couldn’t even cancel Obamacare) with no obstacles, no challengers. What would he do? 3. If the reforms would have passed, many of the Palestinians with Israeli citizenship would have been disenfranchised because they have become the crucial piece in any non-Netanyahu coalition. As a result, Bibi would never lose an election ever again. Game Over. 4.
Last week, as I was losing my voice, I had a really fascinating conversation with Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times, moderated by Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation, about the state of American democracy. You can watch it here. It was a wide-ranging discussion: we talked about whether fascism is a good model for understanding the contemporary American right, the helps and hindrances of the Constitution, the virtues and vices of returning to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for insights into current events, and more. Bouie is one of those rare political writers who really knows his history; it’s almost never that I read one of his Times columns without learning something I didn’t know about the American […]