“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Rule #8 in Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals is “Keep the pressure on.” In Florida, Gov. DeSantis is taking a lot of stick because he is turning that back on the radicals, and for the Left, this is an unforgiveable sin.
The Florida legislature recently fired two salvos against the advancing Forces of Wokeness. House Bill 7 was passed last month to ban “woke indoctrination.”
Today, Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill (HB) 7, to give businesses, employees, children and families tools to stand up against discrimination and woke indoctrination. The bill includes provisions to prevent discriminatory instruction in the workplace and in public schools and defines individual freedoms based on the fundamental truth that all individuals are equal before the law and have inalienable rights. This legislation is the first of its kind in the nation to take on both corporate wokeness and Critical Race Theory in schools in one act. Read more here.
“No one should be instructed to feel as if they are not equal or shamed because of their race,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke agenda take over our schools and workplaces. There is no place for indoctrination or discrimination in Florida.”
The more publicized action was of course to pass HB 1557: Parental Rights in Education, taking a page from Virginia’s parental rights acts. The text of the bill is here. The core of the bill was to add Paragraph 8, which has 7 points under it. Five of them explicitly have to do with parental rights and what parents are to be informed of or give their consent to when it comes to their kids’ health or education.
Unless you’ve been vacationing on Pluto though, which is warmer than Minnesota these days, you know well that these have been overlooked and Point 3 is what set the fox among the chickens.
Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.
The Walt Disney Company, understandably playing by what it thought are the customary long standing rules where conservatives may not oppose any lefty advances on the culture front, lambasted the bill and the echo chamber weighed in with the entirely predictable suite of Dezinformatsiya, that Republicans are the ones driving the culture war, conservatives are hateful intolerant bigots and the rest. In a shocking creative story-telling plot twist, DeSantis did not lie down and grovel.
The Walt Disney Company’s self-described mission statement is “The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling.”
Here’s an example of that “unparalleled storytelling.” Hulu is owned by the Disney Megacorp, and Hulu is home to The Hardy Boys, now in its second season.
I loved the Hardy Boys books as a kid, and still have a box in the basement with all the blue hardcover books in the series. Despite fears based on experience of what the modern day entertainment complex might do to a series of books that celebrated traditional values, I gave it a try. Alas, the Hulu show is the Hardy Boys in name only.
There was a supernatural element in the first season, which was fine, though an obvious attempt by these oh so creative and imaginative minds to go after the Stranger Things fan base.
The show inevitably features the rainbow coalition. The ethnic background of the cast is not the issue, but the casting was not done for story purposes, but for check-the-box purposes, and that is the issue.
The actress who plays Callie, Frank’s girlfriend, has family roots in Ecuador. Chet is black. Biff is now a girl.
Biff’s mom is an Asian woman. Trudy, the Hardy boys’ unmarried aunt, is white, and in the first season there were hints that Trudy and Biff’s mom were in a lesbian relationship. That was made explicit in season two. In addition, in season two there is a new character, a black girl who is shaping up to be Chet’s girlfriend, but she has been revealed to be bisexual. (This was the point where I stopped watching.)
This in a show about and geared towards youth, a show that shamelessly strip mines its namesake in order to attract an audience, then gleefully subverts it.
The culture war is widening. We may want to stay on the homefront and cheer on those at the front, like DeSantis, and send them care packages, but we will all need to do our part and serve in the resistance.
DeSantis is merely getting himself in the news in preparation for a presidential run.
Republicans wanted corporations to be “persons” for the purpose of First Amendment rights to political speech — and we got the Citizens United decision from the Supreme Court. I guess it’s freedom of political speech only if supports the Republican agenda. Under present law, Disney has every right to voice an opinion and not be subject to personal retribution by DeSantis by using the legislature.
A question for SiTD legal scholars out there:
Since SCOTUS ruled corporations are “people”, can the actions of Florida’s government be considered an infringement on Disney’s right to free speech since it was a retaliatory action to the company’s stance on legislation?
Geez, Emery. Can you get anymore hypocritical? What do you think the states run by your communist heroes did for the better part of the last two years?! Their dictatorial edicts that small businesses had to close, but the big boys didn’t? Looks like discrimination to me.
By the way, Citizens United hasn’t had one third the effect on elections that the dark money DemoCommie groups have.
The Disney/Florida deal was struck many decades ago. It’s not being reneged on for business reasons, it’s being reneged on for DeSantis’s presidential ambitions.
Sorry, Emery. As others pointed out to you on other blather that you’ve been putting out, it sucks when the GOP uses the DemoCommie’s tactics against them, doesn’t it? Go cry to your mommy, loser!
Sure, DeSantis may be throwing out red meat to his prospective base. But that noted, I am not quite sure why I ought to be bent out of shape about Disney losing a sweetheart deal that nobody else in the state got.
Sure, DeSantis may be throwing out red meat to his prospective base
I don’t understand this phrasing – nor the little weasel’s use of “merely” – to supposedly denigrate, if not just diminish what a politician accomplishes. Isn’t this what politicians do? In a style of government that permits voting? To please his supporters and and make them want to vote for him (OK, or her).
Emery is parading his ignorance again.
Corporations have been considered people in the US since the founding of the USA.
1 U.S. Code § 1 – Words denoting number, gender, and so forth
. . .
the words “person” and “whoever” include corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals;
. . .
The entertainment media has been in crazy town for years. They find themselves unable to tell a simple, honest story. HBO could not “Band of Brothers” today, it’s too historically accurate in depicting the ethnic makeup of the troops who beat Hitler in the West.
A year or two ago I saw a horror film about D-Day troops who find a castle where the Nazis are creating monsters-soldiers. Okay, it was a fantasy, but it was jarring to see a racially integrated group of D-Day paratroopers with a black officer. It simply was not possible, it is not an honest depiction of the past, it was deliberately dishonest.
The greatest actor in the world can’t portray Othello, if he is white, but a black man can play MacBeth. Someday this will be seen as repressive and censorious as old-time Hollywood’s rule about never showing a mixed race couple or tappin Warner Oland to play a Chinaman.
I think its great special tax carve outs for large corporations are removed and should be applied across the board — but that’s not what’s happening. DeSantis identified a wedge issue that he can run for president on.
DeSantis identified a wedge issue that he can run for president on
And?
This is DeSantis “owning” a corporate opponent over a cultural issue where the voters (including democrats) are mainly on his side. Whatever else there is to say about it, it’s smart politics.
Poll: Only 52% of Democrats oppose Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ policy
https://news.yahoo.com/poll-only-52-of-democrats-oppose-floridas-dont-say-gay-policy-214144683.html
OK, Emery, so a plurality of even Democrats think Disney is out to lunch on this. So exactly how does this prove that DeSantis has done anything wrong by saying “those who undermine the will of a supermajority of Florida voters have no reason to expect set-asides from the Florida government.”?
Now if only DeSantis administers the same kick in the nuts to the Dolphins, Marlins, Buccaneers, Magic, Heat, Devil Rays…..
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Why are the Dems so nuts? Why is the Dem base so at odds with mainstream America?
The GOP base is not in line with the “average American,” but the GOP base seems to be far closer to the average American than the the democrat base.
Who are the bases of the Democrats and Republicans? I researched this on the internet but came up with only generalities. I think that it is accurate to say that the state and national delegates represent the base of each party. I do think that it is important that the GOP has few rules about who can and who cannot be a delegate. They are a self selected group, for the most part (although of course they are elected). OTOH, the Democrats have hard quotas based on sex, ethnicity, and LBGTQ category.
It would be great to have a good tally of the demographics of GOP vs. Democrat delegates, but all I have is generalizations by journalists. GOP delegates are mostly white and tend to be social conservative activists or businessmen. Democrat delegates tend to be social activists. An awful lot of them are public employee union members, especially they are dominated by public school teachers. There is a reason, other than cash donations, that the Democrat party is sensitive to the demands of public school teachers.
If I was a political scientist or social scientist it would be interesting to look at the different political views of public school teachers and the political views of the parents of public school students.
Emery, just like the rest of your lefty loons, you are lying. There is nowhere in the Parental Rights bill where the wording don’t say gay appears. Just another DemoCommie construct.
Further, left wing biased polls like yahoo! have less than zero credibility. Hey! Just like you! Go figure!
Emery, 2022-Apr-25, 12:00 – “DeSantis is merely getting himself in the news in preparation for a presidential run.”
Emery, 2022-Apr-25, 12:23 – “The Disney/Florida deal was struck many decades ago. It’s not being reneged on for business reasons, it’s being reneged on for DeSantis’s presidential ambitions.”
Emery, 2022-Apr-25, 17:19 – “I think its great special tax carve outs for large corporations are removed and should be applied across the board — but that’s not what’s happening. DeSantis identified a wedge issue that he can run for president on.”
Emery, 2022-Apr-25, 19:09 – “This is DeSantis “owning” a corporate opponent over a cultural issue where the voters (including democrats) are mainly on his side. Whatever else there is to say about it, it’s smart politics.”
Watching Emery try to create a mountain out of molehill and then pivot is at least entertaining. He’s yet to show how Disney being denied a sweetheart deal from the state government amounts to their free-speech rights being infringed.
DeSantis is only doing this to fire up his base!
Disney will win in the long run so it’s a waste of effort!
The whole government of Florida is drunk with power!
“So Grant gets drunk, does he?” queried Lincoln. “Yes, he does, and I can prove it,” the man replied. “Well,” Lincoln answered, “you needn’t waste your time getting proof; you just find out, to oblige me, what brand of whiskey Grant drinks, because I want to send a barrel of it to each one of my generals.”
Ship me a barrel of whatever DeSantis is drinking in Florida. I want to give it to every Republican legislator in Minnesota. The man knows how to fight.
Back in the dark ages, mental illness was treated with frontal lobotomies; it was brutal and didn’t work as advertised.
Today, we treat it in children with chemical castration and with genital mutilation in adults.
Back in the dark ages, pedophiles were put to the sword.
Today, they’re feted at gala events and invited to mix with the kiddies in school.
This is what leftists are fighting for.