Taking On The Mouse
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@jon-nyc said in Taking On The Mouse:
This doesn’t seem very hard, Horace.
If they approached this, say, last year and said “these privileges we granted Disney (and something like 1000 other entities) don’t make sense, let’s revoke them” that would be fine and I’d cheer them on.
When they take them away explicitly to retaliate for their having exercised their first amendment rights, that’s a problem and none of us should think that’s a good precedent no matter how much we love or hate Disney or DeSantis or teaching fisting in kindergarten.
You accept the existence of politics and its realities when you accept, without hand-wringing, the special favors done by the government for Disney. Your hand-wringing is only special pleading. These special favors are fair game for retaliatory reversals, exactly to the extent they were fair game to be granted to begin with.
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I have never liked the special carve outs and special deals. It’s the difference between market capitalisms and crony capitalism.
I would love for them the bust the sugar cartel that benefits I think five families in the US (which fund Rubio by the way). I would love to end carried interest exemption to capital gains for hedge funds and private equity. I would love to end the ethanol absurdity. I would love to end the oil depletion allowance.
But motives matter. We should end them because they’re fundamentally corrupt and harm consumers and/or taxpayers. I don’t want one of them ended because the particular interest group opposed the administration on some piece of legislation.
DON’T let them eat cake.
- RFK Jr -
@jon-nyc said in Taking On The Mouse:
I have never liked the special carve outs and special deals. It’s the difference between market capitalisms and crony capitalism.
I would love for them the bust the sugar cartel that benefits I think five families in the US (which fund Rubio by the way). I would love to end carried interest exemption to capital gains for hedge funds and private equity. I would love to end the ethanol absurdity. I would love to end the oil depletion allowance.
But motives matter. We should end them because they’re fundamentally corrupt and harm consumers and/or taxpayers. I don’t want one of them ended because the particular interest group opposed the administration on some piece of legislation.
And meanwhile the rest of us won’t hand wring about the horrible precedent set, when the real precedent was set by the existence of the favors to begin with. There is no evidence of a lack of principles if people observe that long standing political and cultural realities happen to fall their way once in a while.
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@jon-nyc said in Taking On The Mouse:
Rewarding friends and punishing enemies are not really the same thing. One is far more insidious.
This was a public and transparent move to reward desantis supporters. It’s how politics is supposed to work, more so than less transparent sweetheart deals that reward far fewer people in more insidious ways.
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@jon-nyc said in Taking On The Mouse:
Rewarding friends and punishing enemies are not really the same thing. One is far more insidious.
Yes. Rewarding friends is far more insidious as it takes a public good and privatizes it. Punishing enemies is only a private harm.
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You should think this through at some point when the stakes of the debating point de jour are behind us.
As much it seems unfair that cops let their friends off for various offenses, if the local department had it out for me and decided to make me their target it would thousands of times worse.
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@jon-nyc said in Taking On The Mouse:
You should think this through at some point when the stakes of the debating point de jour are behind us.
As much it seems unfair that cops let their friends off for various offenses, if the local department had it out for me and decided to make me their target it would thousands of times worse.
Rewarding friends was your term, not giving them a pass.
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@jon-nyc said in Taking On The Mouse:
You should think this through at some point when the stakes of the debating point de jour are behind us.
I would recommend you re-think this when your conceit of always being the most objective person in the room has passed, but let's not hold our breath.
As much it seems unfair that cops let their friends off for various offenses, if the local department had it out for me and decided to make me their target it would thousands of times worse.
A much better analogy would be when cop no longer let a friend off for speeding tickets, after that person pissed the cop off for some personal reason. That would be accepted as normal, no hand wringing necessary.
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DON’T let them eat cake.
- RFK Jr -
@jon-nyc said in Taking On The Mouse:
You’re the only one who thinks I’m objective. You tell me so at least once a month.
Once a month isn't bad when this thread alone contains at least two conceits about "any honest observer" thinking your way and requests that people wait till their biases have passed before attempting to engage with the subject.
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DON’T let them eat cake.
- RFK Jr -
@jon-nyc said in Taking On The Mouse:
Yes absolutely any honest observer can tell this move is retaliation. All you have to do is listen to DeSantis himself and his cheering section.
Like a cop, no longer letting an ex-friend off for speeding, is retaliation for whatever the ex-friend did to be ex-friended. Sure, use the word if you want. I only reject the notion that it's a troublesome slippery slope, or not how politics is supposed to work, or remotely novel as far as precedent. That's your framing.
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It’s not novel.
Remember Trump stopped a federal AWS contract because the WaPo said mean things about him? He also tried to block the ATT Time Warner merger because he didn’t like CNN.
Elizabeth Warren outlined a whole plan to break up five companies she thinks are mean.
I’m sure there are plenty of other examples actually done by democrats too, not just proposed. I’m kind of surprised George hasn’t already posted a list.
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@jon-nyc said in Taking On The Mouse:
@Jolly said in Taking On The Mouse:
@jon-nyc said in Taking On The Mouse:
Mask mandates are a social issue.
If the Biden administration punished companies for taking a vocal stance against them that would be legitimate in your mind?
Good question, but mask mandates are also a workplace and productivity issue. That's a corporate issue, especially in healthcare.
Recruiting is a corporate issue too.
Social issues affect us in the workplace as well as the home.
So...A mandate that affects everybody vs. less than 5% of possible recruits?
Ain't no way to run a railroad...
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@Ivorythumper said in Taking On The Mouse:
A driver's license is not a privilege,
I believe that might depend on the driver's citizenship.
My understanding is that in at least 16 states undocumented immigrants can just get a driver's license.
But a citizen must earn the privilege.
This is changing and, believe it or not, changing to make it slightly more difficult for illegals to get licensed.
Of course it varies by state.
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@jon-nyc said in Taking On The Mouse:
It’s not novel.
Remember Trump stopped a federal AWS contract because the WaPo said mean things about him?
No I don't, and neither do you.
He also tried to block the ATT Time Warner merger because he didn’t like CNN.
Even CNN concedes that's just a theory
These may or may not have happened as you claim, but you seem quick to make unsubstantiated statements opportunistically as if they were dispostive....
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Maybe Elon can buy Disney? Or the Daily Wire can build their own theme parks and entertainment megapoly.
I can’t wait to see the Ben Shapiro take on Encanto!
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(h/t Cindy)
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/27/us/reedy-creek-disney-florida/index.html
'Disney's self-governing special district, the Reedy Creek Improvement District, says that Florida's move to dissolve the district next year is not legal unless the state pays off Reedy Creek's extensive debts.
... Reedy Creek pointed out that the 1967 law [that created the district] also includes a pledge from Florida to its bondholders. The law states that Florida "will not in any way impair the rights or remedies of the holders ... until all such bonds together with interest thereon, and all costs and expenses in connection with any act or proceeding by or on behalf of such holders, are fully met and discharged."
The amount of Reedy Creak's outstanding bond debt is estimated to be about 1 billion dollars.
