Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Remember Ron De Santis and the Florida Republicans trying to pick a fight with Disney about a year ago because the latter spoke out about supporting its LGBTQ employees & customers/visitors?

Well, it turns out that Disney's lawyers have managed to screw De Santis & Co. over by essentially stripping all but a couple of token powers from the board appointed with De Santis henchmen to look over the lands that Orlando Disneyworld sits on, essentially making Disneyworld as even bigger corporate town than it already was...

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – A meeting Wednesday morning of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board — which replaced the former Reedy Creek Improvement District — opened with members’ statements that there’s not much they’re actually allowed to do.

The board announced that a hired special council discovered agreements were made in February between Disney and Reedy Creek, weeks ahead of the signing of HB-9B, which handed over direct control of the district’s development rights and privileges to the company.

Board member Ron Peri said the group of five that Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed to take control of Disney’s “corporate kingdom” has very little power to govern.

“I cannot tell you the level of my disappointment in Disney. I thought so much better of them. This essentially makes Disney the government. This board loses, for practical purposes, the majority of its ability to do anything beyond maintain the roads and maintain basic infrastructure,” Peri said.

The board was initially given little direction from the state other than to meet at least once a month and that the board may adopt and enforce rules governing the conduct of the board and its members.

...and there's also a reference to the British Royal family in all of this!,.

“I’m going to read to you the term of this restrictive covenant. ‘This declaration shall continue in effect until 21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, King of England, living as of the date of this declaration,’” Peri said.

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local ... oard-says/

IMO a win for the lesser of two evils in this fight, but the ultimate loser in all of this is the Florida taxpayer as De Santis hired a certain law firm on the government dollar that includes a former room mate of De Santis that charges US$795 per hour for their services. Nothing fishy about that all all.

Tr*mp is going to have a field day using this against De Santis should the latter ever announce he's running for 2024 POTUS.

And it gets better:

Donald Trump indictment: Ex-US president to be charged over hush money

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65132553


Obvious crook is obvious.

On the other (tiny) hand.

Crowds which once chanted "lock her up" now incensed that politician is answerable to the law.

Bones McCoy wrote: ↑Fri Mar 31, 2023 11:07 am On the other (tiny) hand.

I know that picking on his appearance is petty when Trump has done genuinely horrible things, but this appeared in a friend's Facebook timeline this morning:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... al-charges

Marina Hyde on the Trump business:

But it’s remarkable that after all the hardcore and extreme political and financial stuff Trump pulled in office and beyond, it’s the fallout from an alleged textbook generic shag that’s left him most exposed. To adapt the calcified cliche about Al Capone, they’re trying to get him on sex evasion.

Taking him at his word (!), you have to wonder how far he’d go to bury something he did actually do, if that’s what he’d pay for something he didn’t.

As so often with Trump, the details are terrible and shameful and another nail in the coffin of American democracy – but unfortunately also funny.

...according to her account, he made her watch some Shark Week content on Discovery, about which Trump became extremely exercised. He wished all sharks would die, he told her, adding definitively that he would “never donate to any charity that helps sharks”.

He may not have finished the wall, but he certainly fashioned the rabbit hole down which we all plunged a few years ago, with no obviously imminent prospect of escape. We still live in that looking-glass place where we can regrettably see why Trump actually wants to be handcuffed for his now-pending court appearance, and to get a proper perp walk in front of the cameras.

We know from experience that up can be down, bad can be good, and that a president being indicted is going to require a mass mobilisation of the Manhattan police force, lest countless other crimes be committed by his incensed supporters. If objective truth is recoverable, we are not a whole lot closer to working out how than we were when Trump left office. Until we do, for a still very significant number of people, “indicated” is closer to “vindicated” than “indicted”.

And ain't that the truth?

A nation famed for cheese in a can thinks it can lecture others about cuisine.

Amazing how the Venn diagram of "Conservative commentator" and "Know nothing gobshite" is an almost perfect circle.

Meanwhile, outside a certain courtroom in New York...

Is that Tim Burton or Jeremy Clarkson on the left there?

‘What the liberals and leftists don’t understand is this could happen to anybody,’ a Trump supporter claimed this morning. So no one should be above the law, I get that you dumb fuck.

Andy McDandy wrote: ↑Wed Apr 05, 2023 6:13 am Is that Tim Burton or Jeremy Clarkson on the left there?

I thought it was Alan Davies

Spoonman wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 11:01 pm Meanwhile, outside a certain courtroom in New York...

trumpanzee.jpg

Why is that woman sniffing Alan Davies's shoulder?

Most of Trump's rant last night seemed to focus on all the things that he had not been charged with or not be accused of, which seems a bit like Fred West arguing that whilst the police may well have found 12 bodies in the garden they failed to find all the other bodies that he had hidden.

Harold Shipman cured most of his patients.

His “only crime is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it”.


Never quite realised that doing that entailed paying hush money to a porno actor.

Great result in Wisconsin Supreme Court Election. Dave Wasserman thinks it may be part of a reallignment in the region.

I wonder if protectionism is playing a role too. Trump basically swung the region with it, so not surprising if Biden might get some results with it.

Protectionism isn't my thing, mind.

Ha ha ha ha. In a state where the Republicans won the Senate race just 5 months ago.

Try not sticking up anti-abortion gerrymandering goons, Scottie.