The DeSantis-Disney battle continues Desantis’ swagger is so exaggerated it’s a wonder he doesn’t fall over on his stacked heel boots: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday promised a new round of action against Disney in his ongoing dispute with the entertainment giant, including looking at the taxes on Disney’s hotels and imposing tolls on roads that serve its theme parks. The DeSantis administration is also examining if a recent agreement approved between a Central Florida board that had been controlled by Disney and the company runs afoul of the state’s growth laws, according to senior administration officials. One of those laws explicitly states that development agreements must be modified or revoked to comply with laws even if the law is passed after the agreement was executed. “They are not superior to the people of Florida,” DeSantis said during an evening appearance at Hillsdale College, the conservative liberal arts college in Michigan. “So come hell or high water we’re going to make sure that policy of Florida carries the day. And so they can keep trying to do things.
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It isn’t the first time the right has denied elected representatives their seat. When they have the power they have no compunction about doing it. And it looks like we’re going to see more of it. Jeff Greenfield writes: In the fevered nationalism of World War I, Congress refused to seat Socialist Victor Berger after he won a seat in 1918. He ran again in 1919 and won again, and Congress again refused to seat him. At the same time, the New York State Assembly expelled all five Socialists on general grounds of “disloyalty.” The mood of the time was captured by the Assembly speaker, who thundered: “We are building by our action today a granite bulwark against all traitors within the boundaries of our republic. Our flag of the republic is whipping the breeze in defiance of enemies from without.” A few decades later, a similar attempt to ban an elected legislator was rebuffed. Julian Bond, a key civil rights leader, had been elected to the Georgia House; but in 1966, the legislature voted by an overwhelming margin not to seat him on the grounds that he had opposed the war in Vietnam and expressed sympathy for draft resisters.
Just 50,000 out of an estimated two million voters without ID have applied for the new 'free' voter identification certificate ahead of England's local elections
EXCLUSIVE: "Conspiracy of silence" among NHS Trusts means most NHS employers recorded not a SINGLE Covid death among their workers during the first two waves
The threat of imprisonment for contempt of court again looms over me if I tell you (again) too much of the truth about the arrest of Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell. But I can make a few observations. As I stated on twitter on March 19 (I am not going to repeat all my tweets […]
The post High Level Corruption in Scotland Continues appeared first on Craig Murray.
Philip Bump breaks it down: 1. The 34 charges center on how payments to attorney Michael Cohen were recorded — at 34 different times. The indictment centers on the previously reported effort in 2016 to bury a story alleging an extramarital relationship between Trump and adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. That effort involved a payment of $130,000 to Daniels paid by Michael Cohen, then Trump’s attorney. A statement of facts released by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg details the prosecutors’ case. Cohen, it alleges, agreed in consultation with Trump and Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg that the attorney should receive $420,000 in reimbursement, a sum including enough for Cohen to offset the increase in federal income tax he would need to pay. According to the statement, this total was allegedly recorded on a bank statement (suggesting documentary evidence) and agreed to by Trump himself in an Oval Office meeting with Cohen. The sum was then repaid in a series of monthly checks that were allegedly recorded by the Trump Organization as being a monthly retainer for Cohen. That’s where the 34 charges accrue.
Dan Pfeiffer with an analysis of what went right in Wisconsin: It’s a model for the country. Hopefully people elsewhere are paying attention. (I’d put Florida at the top of that list…) By the way, get a load of the jackass who lost that Supreme Court seat:
Republicans are suddenly concerned about their anti-abortion zealots ruining everything. And in the process they are proving that abortion politics were always about winning and not about any “principle” that life begins at conception. Now that they are losing and they don’t like it:
Trump cannot keep his trap shut Hours after returning to his Palm Beach, Florida compound on Tuesday after indictment in New York, former president Donald Trump no longer appeared chastised. The thirty-four felony charges he faces seemed not to have sunk in. Nor Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan’s warning that he not engage in statements or comments that have the “potential to incite violence, create civil unrest, or jeopardize the safety or well-being of any individuals.” New York prosecutor Christopher Conroy addressed Trump’s social media outbursts during the arraignment. He told Merchan, “We have significant concern about the potential danger this kind of rhetoric poses to our city, to potential jurors and witnesses, and to the judicial process.” “This is a request I’m making,” Merchan responded. “I’m not making it an order.” But he would revisit that decision should circumstances require it. So, no immediate gag order on the voluble, attention-seeking former president.
Reactionaries are playing for keeps in the provinces Under the guise of “election integrity,” Republican secretaries of state held a two-day conference in Washington in February to discuss efforts to restrict voter access to the ballot box. The watchdog group Documented shared documents from the Heritage Foundation-sponsored event with the Guardian. “A list of attendees namechecks the chief election officials of Indiana, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia,” write Ed Pilkington and Jamie Corey: The keynote speech was given by Ken Blackwell, former secretary of state in Ohio. He was an early adopter of Trump’s lie about rigged elections, championing the idea in the 2016 presidential race which Trump won. Blackwell now chairs the Center for Election Integrity at the America First Policy Institute, a rightwing thinktank led by former Trump officials. The center has been touting election-related model legislation. Heritage was careful to organize the conference amid tight secrecy.