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DeSantis, Disney, and King Charles III

matrixman124

By matrixman124
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matrixman124 Elder

matrixman124

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How did Disney do this? They set up something that's been called the "King Charles III clause" that states that Disney will not turn over power until "21 years after the death of the last survivor of Charles III: King of England."

So basically after Charles AND his kids die, then they will hand off power. William is in his 30s. We're talking between 60 and 70 years.

They completely played DeSantis like a fiddle.

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katt_goddess Monster Mutant

katt_goddess

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1 hour ago, Seight said:

"Oh you think we just keep all these lawyers to do copyright claims online? WELL CHECK THIS SHIT OUT!"

Seriously, if Disney can magically appear within half an hour of someone mentioning a showing of 'The Lion King' in a school auditorium looking for a cut of any profits from the bake sale, you'd think someone would have stopped long ago and said the equivalent of 'It's too quiet...'. 

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Raptorpat Monster Mutant

Raptorpat

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op-ed

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How Disney outfoxed DeSantis - and why it’s not all so funny | Commentary

Orlando Sentinel
•

If you look at Mickey Mouse’s hands, you’ll notice he doesn’t have a middle finger. But if he did, he most surely flipped it at Ron DeSantis this past week.

Florida’s governor had told the world that he’d taken on Disney and won. But while DeSantis was busy tweeting, Disney operatives were busy working, quietly rewriting legal papers in an attempt to ensure the governor’s tough talk never amounted to anything more.

Basically, Disney was playing 4-D chess while the governor’s legal team was fumbling with a bag of checkers. And by the time Team DeSantis figured out what had happened Wednesday, its members could do little more than fume and pout.

DeSantis is so used to picking on easy targets — drag queens and transgender teenagers — that he wasn’t prepared to do battle with someone with the power to fight back.

It’s easy for DeSantis critics to laugh and scoff. Donald Trump certainly did, mocking his former protégé for getting bested by a cartoon mouse.

But the reality is that this whole situation stinks.

In fact, allow me to submit a perhaps unpopular take — that there are no purely good guys or motives in this fight.

Ron DeSantis and GOP lawmakers are trying to use bully power and petty politics to punish a private company for expressing opinions they dislike — in this case, Disney’s opinion that LGBTQ families should be treated like human beings.

But the petulant pols are so bad at what they do, they’ve proven themselves incapable of understanding the laws they’re trying to manipulate.

Still, Disney doesn’t deserve to run its own government. Many of us have argued as much for years. Unfortunately, lawmakers in this state have been happy to do Disney special favors for decades — as long as Disney cut them checks.

Just two years ago, DeSantis signed a law exempting Disney from a crackdown on social media companies after the company gave his political committee $50,000.

The ludicrous bill, which was invalidated by a federal judge who noted the special-interest favoritism, included a carve-out that exempted any company that “owns and operates a theme park.” DeSantis signed the bill less than two months after cashing Disney’s check and after records show his staffers swapped emails about the language Disney lobbyists wanted in the law.

[ DeSantis, Florida GOP did favors for Disney – until Disney stopped giving them money | Commentary  ]

DeSantis clearly did a favor for a corporate donor, blowing a castle-sized hole in the tough-on-corporations narrative he tries to peddle. In fact, a big part of why corporate America likes DeSantis is that they know he plays ball.

Still, those of us who never thought Disney deserved its own corporate kingdom might’ve still appreciated politicians doing the right thing for the wrong reason — except they were too incompetent to get it done.

First, lawmakers passed a bill that attempted to dissolve Disney’s Reedy Creek government district. But they hadn’t done their homework to understand current laws or that $1 billion or more worth of bonds were tied up in Disney’s self-controlled government. So they had to try again.

To show how you unprepared these people were, just read the two bills they passed.

The first focused on “dissolving certain independent special districts.”

The second said: “the Reedy Creek Improvement District is not dissolved as of June 1, 2023, but continues in full force and effect under its new name.”

So the second bill explicitly said they had not done the very thing they vowed to do in the first. My cat Leona has a better understanding of state statutes.

Also, the ultimate “solution” GOP lawmakers devised was not what they promised.

DeSantis had vowed to make Disney “follow the same laws every other company follows in the state of Florida.” I actually like that plan. That’s how it should’ve been all along. But that’s not what he did.

Instead, he put a group of hand-picked political appointees in charge of the private company. No other company in America works like that. DeSantis didn’t put Disney on the same footing as everyone else. He tried to put Disney under his own personal thumb. And Disney seems to have found a way to at least temporarily thwart him.

If these guys actually had a desire to do the right thing — before Disney cut them off financially — they wouldn’t have tried to twice ram through poorly thought-out laws. They would’ve asked a team of smart government-law experts to devise a way to sunset Disney’s special status in a logical, legal matter.

But logic has taken a beating in Tallahassee over the last two years as book-banning, pronoun-legislating and drag-queen-bashing has become the rage.

[ Disney suspends political contributions in Florida as CEO apologizes for silence on ‘don’t say gay’  ]

I don’t begrudge anyone who laughed at DeSantis last week for getting out-brained by a mouse. It was cringe-inducingly amusing to watch his campaign team stage a meltdown on Twitter, claiming that the governor’s clear loss was really a big win because (just you wait) the governor is always thinking “10 steps ahead.”

The governor’s own appointees had just admitted Disney had outsmarted them. Yet Team DeSantis was claiming it was all part of the master plan. Sure.

[ DeSantis’ Reedy Creek board says Disney stripped its power  ]

The reality is that taxpayers and good government are the big losers here.

The DeSantis appointees have already vowed to hire four different law firms to fight Disney, paying the politically connected barristers as much as $795 an hour. And at least for now, Disney gets to keep its special status.

So sure, laugh at DeSantis. But I’m still not rooting for Disney.

While the company has done some great philanthropic things in this community, it has also used money, power and even free park tickets to warp public policy in this state for decades. Everything from secret text messages with county commissioners to try to deny sick time for local workers to back-channel messaging with the governor’s staff to request special favors.

I’m not cheering for the powerful corporation or the pandering politicians. I’m rooting for good government that doesn’t cater to special interests — the one thing neither side seems to want.

http://os-op-disney-desantis-reedy-creek-scott-maxwell-20230331-fvg7sd32krhkvlwofyj42wvfhi-story.html

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Raptorpat Monster Mutant

Raptorpat

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In slick opening video, standing relaxed and debonair in front of Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, the CEO took a few benign swipes at DeSantis’ attempts to strip Disney of long-held jurisdictional rights in the Orlando area. “This has always been one of my favorite spots,” Iger said, noting that it used to be “remote swampland” before Disney stepped in, “thanks to those who dare to dream.” He added, “I am so proud of Disney legacy in Central Florida and around the world.”

But during a Q&A with shareholders, Iger stepped right up to the political plate and took a big swing.

“A company has a right to freedom of speech just like an individual does,” the CEO said of Disney’s criticism last year of Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law. Acknowledging that the company’s response under previous chief executive Bob Chapek wasn’t handed as artfully as it could have been, the past and present chief hit back at the Florida governor with some of the GOP’s own talking points. DeSantis “retaliates against us — in effect to punish a company for exercising its constitutional right,” he said. “And that seems really wrong to me.”

He later noted that “diversity is a real priority for us” and expressed his desire that Disney continue to create content that promotes “greater understanding, greater acceptance.”

https://deadline.com/2023/04/disney-ceo-bob-iger-retaliation-by-florida-gov-ron-desantis-anti-business-anti-florida-1235316451/amp/

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scoobdog Monster Mutant

scoobdog

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I kind of wonder what DeSantis' end game here is.  It seem highly unlikely that Disney will shutter any of its theme parks over this, but it also brings in cruises out of Florida.  That's not to mention that they could just as easily renege on moving employees into of the state.  Granted this is all unfeasible, so the point isn't to suggest a next step, just to figure out what DeSantis hopes to accomplish other than to alienate one of the states biggest and most visible employers.

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Raptorpat Monster Mutant

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He knows they're too pot-committed to ever leave Florida. So he's trying to assert his dominance over a "woke corporation" to please the base/burnish his street cred in advance of his run.

And while the army of lawyers are running his team around in circles and buying time on RCID, Iger is publicly declaring Disney's intent to continue prioritizing diversity in its content.

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Raptorpat Monster Mutant

Raptorpat

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A WHOLE NEW WORLD — ‘Buckle up’: DeSantis escalates Disney dispute, eyes hotel taxes and road tolls, by POLITICO’s Gary Fineout: 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

 

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katt_goddess Monster Mutant

katt_goddess

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He wanted Disney, he wanted to control all the things. He got the Disney bill - now the state of Florida has to pay to maintain all the things that Disney was paying for themselves instead of paying extra taxes to the state. If he tries to choke out actually getting to and from Disney, he's just choking himself and the state of revenue. :|  

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Seight Monster Mutant

Seight

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44 minutes ago, katt_goddess said:

He wanted Disney, he wanted to control all the things. He got the Disney bill - now the state of Florida has to pay to maintain all the things that Disney was paying for themselves instead of paying extra taxes to the state. If he tries to choke out actually getting to and from Disney, he's just choking himself and the state of revenue. :|  

But how does he owns the libs by NOT doing that?

Think about it, he hasn't.

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katt_goddess Monster Mutant

katt_goddess

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On 4/7/2023 at 8:26 PM, Seight said:

But how does he owns the libs by NOT doing that?

Think about it, he hasn't.

You know what would really own those libs?

Auto-erotic asphyxiation. 

...

Holy crap, I spelled that right without auto-correct. I think I might need an intervention. 

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Raptorpat Monster Mutant

Raptorpat

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A federal judge who has a history of ruling against Ron DeSantis is stepping aside from presiding over a high-profile case where Disney sued the Florida governor.

The state previously pushed to disqualify U.S. Chief District Judge Mark Walker based on comments he made in court about the ongoing dispute between the entertainment giant and Republican governor. DeSantis, who mounted a presidential bid, has made his fight with Disney a key part of his political brand.

Walker on Thursday called the motion filed by the state “meritless.” But he said he’ll remove himself from the case because he discovered last week that an unidentified “third-degree” relative of his owns 30 shares of Disney stock.

...

The result of Walker’s decision is that the Disney lawsuit has now been reassigned to U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor, an appointee of former President Donald Trump who once worked as Florida’s solicitor general under then-state Attorney General Pam Bondi.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/01/federal-judge-drops-desantis-disney-case-00099823

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katt_goddess Monster Mutant

katt_goddess

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ITN : Florida judge appointed by the Orange Lard [ and who prior to that huffed the taint of a someone who happily made millions in Medicare fraud ] has no problem with discrimination as long as you discriminate against the right people votes to continue to 'punish' anyone that doesn't hate the right people. 

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1pooh4u Monster Mutant

1pooh4u

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Can that decision be appealed because idu why Disney didn’t have standing to bring a suit that was directly impacting Disney?  The SCOTUS hears cases that aren’t even real in the first place so I definitely don’t see how the ruling that Disney had no standing could possibly be final 

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scoobdog Monster Mutant

scoobdog

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Besides all that, it doesn't really change the core dynamic.  Disney is going to continue doing what Disney does and it's not going to listen to a lame duck district council.

Like I asked, who's eating crow here?  I guess the council members can say "I told you so" as WDE metaphorically rips their balls off and force feeds said balls to them.

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Raptorpat Monster Mutant

Raptorpat

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Seems like there was a bit of a settlement last week

Quote

The board appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to oversee Disney’s former special taxing district agreed Wednesday to a settlement with the entertainment giant, capping a legal feud over who should control development at the sprawling theme park complex.

The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, made up of DeSantis appointees, agreed to drop its lawsuit against the company in exchange for Disney relinquishing some control over its 25,000-acre property. Disney will also drop a lawsuit of its own over public records from the district.

Both sides on Wednesday made statements indicating they’re ready to move on from the political battle that started in 2022, when Disney’s former CEO criticized a DeSantis-backed law that critics dubbed “don’t say gay.”

Disney is still appealing a federal lawsuit dismissed in January that alleges DeSantis violated the company’s First Amendment rights but has agreed to hit pause for now. The future of that case hinges on “pending negotiations” between the company and the district over new development, according to the settlement.

...

The settlement did not include an admission of liability from either side, nor did it include any money changing hands. The board relinquished control of several permits “as a material inducement” to Disney, according to a copy of the settlement agreement.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/03/27/desantis-disney-lawsuit-settlement-tourism/

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