A year ago last March, Disney decided to take on the entire government of Florida. The Florida Legislature passed the Parental Rights In Education Act, which prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in schools until the age of nine. Disney, spearheaded by their CEO, Bob Chapek, publicly protested this legislation, presumably in the belief that what Disney’s shareholders want is a company that supports the teaching of gender identity ideology to children under the age of nine, as opposed to a company that will make them money. Disney would phrase this differently, of course. It believes this uber-woke stuff will make the company money as its future customers will have grown up in this environment and will want this kind of stuff embedded in movies, tv shows, parks, etc.
Unfortunately, Disney did not seem to realise that it was taking on a formidable adversary – the State of Florida. And not just any state but the one which has provided Disney with the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID). This is a massive self-governing 25,000-acre property given over to Disney 55 years ago to do with what it likes. And Disney likes theme parks in the RCID – four of them including Disney World and numerous other affiliated businesses. Taking on the state in which you are the biggest recipient of its’ largesse is a strategy that would have given General Custer pause. Especially, as with all Disney movies, there is an arch villain. Step forward Florida’s Governor, Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis is a popular conservative who believes in effective limited government, and maximum individual freedom, and hates all manifestations of the woke cult, from ESG to DEI. And he will be running for President in 2024. The liberal press hates him of course; in fact, he has been compared to Genghis Khan (that last one was courtesy of Vanity Fair), Nazis, Stalin and Mussolini. And that was just in the last few weeks.
DeSantis is the face of the growing amount of ‘anti-woke’ legislation in Florida, and is always up for a fight. This is the guy who, fed up with the Biden Administration’s deliberate opening of our southern border to any and all illegal immigrants, shipped off as many illegals as it could find in Florida to self-proclaimed “sanctuary states” elsewhere, such as Martha’s Vineyard, New York City, and Washington, D.C.
In addition, the Empire struck back and passed legislation stripping Disney of its ability to run the RCID as a self-governing property. DeSantis and the Florida legislature stripped Disney of its RCID control and placed it under the control of a Board appointed by him. DeSantis then turned up on Disney’s doorstep in February in Lake Buena Vista to announce: “Today, the corporate kingdom finally comes to an end. There’s a new sheriff in town and accountability will be the order of the day.”
Meanwhile Disney is on a heart-dropping ride so scary it should plan on making it a ride at one of its’ parks. Surprisingly, not all of this can be blamed on Big Bad Ron. The studio has also given its movie division a woke facelift, with disastrous consequences. Pixar’s Toy Story spinoff Lightyear lost $100M last year. The animated film Strange World released at the end of last year has lost nearly $150 Million. As the gay movie critic, Rob Smith, pointed out: “Disney’s Strange World cartoon, which features a gay teen in love with another boy, FLOPPED with a disastrous $18M opening on a $180M budget. Most adults have NO PROBLEM with gays. They obviously DO have a problem with LGBT propaganda in kids’ flicks.”
But that’s the tip of the iceberg. Streaming services such as Disney+ and Hulu are seriously underperforming as Disney is failing to leverage its massive Covid-era revenues from its hitherto lucrative movie franchises. The Disney Board got rid of Chapek a few months back and replaced him with former CEO Bob Iger. Iger does not seem to want to make it up with DeSantis, and instead is busy channeling Scrooge McDuck. Seven thousand Disney employees are being laid off as part of the plan to save $5.5 Billion in operating costs. Oh, and the stock price has gone all Tower Of Terror and plummeted from $190 two years ago to $98 today.
Disney tried a Hail Mary play a couple of weeks back by having the original RCID Board vote to let Disney have control over all development rights in perpetuity. Usually DeSantis has a very serious business-oriented mien, but this time he relaxed and decided to have some fun. He held a press conference at which he cited many of the things that Florida could do in retaliation. Tolls on all roads into the Disney parks was a good one, but the best suggestion he made was building a State prison on Florida-owned land next to Disney World. The liberal press does not understand jokes and so of course this became articles along the lines of “not even Hitler would think of building a prison next to the sacred site of Mickey!” More prosaically, the Florida legislature instead is busy passing more legislation to nullify Disney’s last minute maneuvering.
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Courts seem to exist primarily to provide income for the legal profession and satisfaction to the political profession.
With the summary provided it is difficult to understand why Simberg should only have been fined $1,000 in comparison to Steyn’s $1 million.
If Mann’s lawyers intentionally deceived the court, have they been arrested? Has Mann been charged with perjury?
Good luck to Mark Steyn and I hope he gets all his legal costs back, and more, and that his health steadily improves.
Courts seem to exist primarily to provide income for the legal profession.
I recall the tale of the 2 lawyers in a case concerning a contested will. Bumping into each other in the court’s toilets, one of them said: “Let’s spin this out for a few more weeks; after all, if we settle now, the money will only be frittered away by the beneficiaries”
That was exactly the case with my late grandfather’s estate. He had intended to leave equal provision to his stepson, son, and daughter, but the daughter chose to dispute her step-brother’s entitlement to an equal share. The case rumbled on, to no-one’s benefit other than the lawyers, with the legal costs being deducted from an already modest estate.
My daughter is a lawyer. I had hoped she would pursue something more honourable such as used car salesman, traffic warden or pole dancer – but no such luck.
Or estate agent?
I once saw a painting of two farmers arguing over a cow, one pulling at its horns, the other at its tail, with a lawyer sitting on a stool between them milking it. Sums them up.
Good news.
Mark Steyn one of life’s most intelligent Good Guys
This case should now start to crumble the rest of project Climate fear !!
The Climate Con. Mann is no scientist. To rephrase what the judge wrote – Mann is a liar and a charlatan.
Steyn was taken to court, not on the ‘science’, but in comparing Mann to a child predator. The case had zero to do with ‘science’.
That Mann lied is of no surprise at all. That seems to be what ‘the science’ is – an industry of liars, thieves, self promoters, totalitarians and self worshippers.
TheScience™
Roger Pielke Jr, The Honest Broker’s take…
https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/in-bad-faith
“…A Washington DC court sanctions climate scientist Michael Mann and his lawyers for misconduct extraordinary in its scope, extent, and intent.”
New administration in Washington, new verdict. Justice seen to be done.
The times they are a changin’.
Even back in the 17C the approval of the legal profession was not high. I present Dick the Butcher from Henry VI Part II who advised, “The first thing we do is, let’s kill all the lawyers”. A tad extreme, I agree, but a useful first step in the general push to improve our society.
Agreed. Also to note that in Shakespeare’s time, “lawyers” meant lawmakers, i.e. politicians.
Are lawyers over-represented in the UK House of Commons, at the expense of engineers and scientists? Judging from the “debate” over the Climate Change Bill, I would not be surprised if some backbencher were to introduce a Bill To Repeal The Second Law of Thermodynamics in order to Save The Planet. (As today is International π Day, we could reflect on the 1897 attempt in Indiana to “adjust” the values of π.)
And he also blocked Steyn on X when he got news of the 5K fine, reduced from around 1 million.
Protestors storm the BBC amid anger over funding to Syria, with the persecution and murder of Christians and other minorities like the Alawites.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cd0sFtooj8
Mann said “….. research is distorted and the truth about the climate threat is dissembled”.
He hit the nail on the head but not in the way he intended.
One of the funniest distortions was when Mann used the Tiljander proxies upside down (the age of some lake sediments went the wrong way). That is, owing to a silly slip, a slide was presented upside down at some conference of The Climate Faithful, yet the obvious blunder was downplayed. The joke is easily understood by non climate scientists. Perhaps Macavity Mann has finally been nailed to the crime scene!
Apperently there is no comment from Gavin Schmitt on his Real Climate blog which was one of Mann’s cheerleaders.
Oh dear, how sad, never mind.
Perhaps he’s writing a detailed explanation of why he supported a lemon.
It would seem that Mann is a serial liar. I’ve just checked the Guardian and can’t find anything about this, however I did quickly find an article there about Mann winning the original $1m. They mention the hockey stick but nothing about it being discredited.
Perhaps an aspiring poet could pen something on deniers v liars in the style of The Great McGonagall.
The image of Michael Mann makes my foot itch.
Perhaps now we will see an end to Mann made climate change.
I wouldn’t be so sure. The Minnesotans thought the Mann era was over in 2011, yet he’s still around. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMqc7PCJ-nc
Here is some commentary on the original Mann defamation claim. https://junkscience.com/michael-mann-defamed-or-defined-by-hide-the-decline/
There is far more behind this article than a defamation suit. One starting point might be YAD06 – the Most Influential Tree in the World – and its part in Mann’s downfall.