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Posted on 04/21/2022 11:18:12 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida House of Representatives on Thursday gave final passage to a bill that would dissolve Walt Disney World’s private government, handing Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis a victory in his feud with the entertainment giant over its opposition to a measure that critics have dubbed the “ Don’t Say Gay ” law.
The move could have huge tax implications for Disney, whose series of theme parks have transformed Orlando into one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, and serves to further sour the relationship between the Republican-led government and a major political player in the state.
For DeSantis, the attack on Disney is his latest salvo in a culture war waged over policies involving race, gender and the coronavirus, battles that have made him one of the most popular GOP politicians in the country and a likely 2024 presidential candidate.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
I’ve never been a Disney fan and to this day still consider them carnival people.
“Disney originally wanted to build his new park near the beach, a natural magnet for tourists. Disney’s search for a large tract of undeveloped beachfront led him to the Florida Panhandle.
In 1959, if you wanted to buy land near Northwest Florida’s white sand beaches, there was only one man to see: Ed Ball, CEO of The St. Joe Paper Company.
Ed BallBall was the brother-in-law of Alfred I. DuPont, the black sheep of the DuPont family, who had been banished to Florida after divorcing his first wife and marrying his second cousin.
Ball was a notoriously tough businessman, and he would end each day with a whiskey and a toast: “Confusion to the enemy!”
When DuPont died in 1935, Ball took control of the family business and spent the next 45 years acquiring land in Florida. Eventually Ball controlled more than a million acres, most of it concentrated in the Florida Panhandle.
As the story goes, Disney had his sights set on a Florida beachfront location for his new park, so he dispatched lawyers, lobbyists and friends to negotiate a land purchase from Ball, but Ball rebuffed every approach.
Finally in March 1959, in a last ditch effort, Disney made an appointment to meet Ball at his office. He was determined to buy a piece of beachfront property near Panama City Beach, Florida.
Disney arrived at the St. Joe Paper Company offices promptly at 9 am. The office was quiet as a tomb; the only sound was the tick-tock of a grandfather clock in the corner of the reception area. Down the hall he could see the door to every office was closed.
Irene Walsh, Mr. Ball’s secretary, took Disney’s coat and asked him to have a seat. Mr. Ball was busy, she said, and he would see Disney when he could.
As the day passed, every hour, on the hour, Ms. Walsh would take printout from the company’s stock ticker to Mr. Ball’s office. And each time she returned she brought Disney the same message: “He’s still busy.”
At noon, Ms. Walsh told Disney: “Mr. Ball asked me to go out and get you lunch.”
The afternoon passed in utter quiet, broken only by the tick-tock of the clock and Ms. Walsh’s hourly treks to Ball’s office.
Finally, at 4 pm, after she had taken the day’s closing stock prices to Mr. Ball’s office, Ms. Walsh returned with a note for Disney. The crumpled piece of paper had been folded eight times.
Disney opened the note: “Mr. Disney, I’m not going to see you today – or any day. I don’t do business with carnival people.”
Source: http://thewidewideworld.com/blog/carnival-people/
“Disney probably did a better job with these things than the adjoining counties.”
Okay, so say the government takes over and does a worse job. Who is affected? Disney. What is their recourse?
Well, I suppose they could close the park.
“But those days are now gone, with Disney going hostile on the family“
They’ve been attacking the fam since 1968 or so
No. Those days are now gone, with DeSantis in the governor’s seat.
People talk about Cruz obliterating some leftist or Jim Jordan really speaking out but they’re all talk.
DeSantis gets it done.
Disney wasn’t a perverted political entity back then.
They should never have been granted this governing power in the first place. They are not government, they are a business. And they have come to believe they are entitled to this power without responsibility, they are certainly not.
Yeah. I was wasting time saying something that did not even need to be said. Sorry about that. I’m getting punch drunk from all the outed deep staters in the R party.
Walt built Disney World with more than a little help from the CIA. To think that the relationship started and ended there is unrealistic. Their current extreme globohomo push confirms this. Desantis is actually fighting the deep state and winning.
He wants this gone, he’s going to sign it.
Disney can’t even govern their demons, so forget governing itself at all.
Yeah that’s a good point the copyright should’ve expired on that mouse back in the 20s
Queers and dykes hardest hit
i wonder if universal studios florida are watchingthis?
I’m old enough to remember when the left was in favor of eliminating favored tax status for multi-million dollar corporations.
Sniff sniff smells like ASS.Press💩
You know, that raises a very interesting point. Like an Indian reservation or the Vatican wrt Italy, it's to some degree an autonomous independent carve out that's less "Florida" than say, downtown Gainesville, so they should have LESS opinion about Florida policies and politics than if they didn't have this special deal.
Wait, what? How would the CIA be helpful building an amusement park? Money? Dirt on pols they needed to leverage to get what they wanted?
Corporations are considered people under the law.
Make them be treated as people, or allow people to be treated as corporations.
As a long time Floridian I am so OK with this!
Yep. To go down that rabbit hole, search on
Walt Disney Bill Donovan Paul Helliwell
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