The Mouse Goes To War

Oh it's on.

Via Greg Allen at NPR:

The Walt Disney Company has filed a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other officials. Disney accuses DeSantis with orchestrating a "campaign of government retaliation" against the company and violating its protected speech.

It's the latest action in a feud that began more than a year ago when Disney's former CEO said he'd work to overturn a law banning discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the schools. The law, the "Parental Rights in Education Act," is called "Don't Say Gay" by critics.

At DeSantis' urging, Republican lawmakers passed a bill that stripped Disney of its self-governing authority. But before the law took effect, Disney signed a deal with its outgoing board allowing it to retain development rights on the 40-square mile district. It also included covenants that give Disney final say on any alterations to the property.

At a meeting Wednesday near Orlando, DeSantis' handpicked board voted to invalidate that agreement. Moments later, Disney filed a 77-page lawsuit in federal court, charging DeSantis and other officials with violations of the contracts clause, the takings clause, due process and its First Amendment right to protected speech. In its lawsuit, Disney says, "This government action was patently retaliatory, patently anti-business, and patently unconstitutional." The company is asking a federal judge to declare the board's action "unlawful and unenforceable."

And it's turning out a lot of the evidence Disney is presenting is coming from DeSantis' own hagiography that's he been shilling on his "Almost Presidential" campaign (he can't openly announce he's running because current Florida law would force him to resign the governorship... so he's getting the State Lege to invalidate that law only for himself).

I mean, not only DeSantis but every one of his allies in Florida's government have been open about their actions against Disney as retaliation for Disney's pro-gay stance:

It has been said before, but Florida Republicans are marvelously stupid. pic.twitter.com/GA0SZdW4kp

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) April 26, 2023

Other than DeSantis failing to promise barricading all of I-4 so that nobody can get to the Magic Kingdom, Disney's got an open-shut case of retaliation here.

We're at one of the craziest moments in the modern Republican / Conservative movement, one that had been supercharged by a fundamental(ist) belief by the Far Right in the sacred rights of large corporations to Do Whatever Thou Will. That cornerstone belief in Capitalism and supporting businesses to be as unregulated and free of government restraint as possible... is now burned to ash as DeSantis wages a Scorched Earth campaign using government power to punish a business. It turns out that businesses making trillions are still liable to the totalitarian fantasies of Far Right political leaders who demand loyalty and meekness from their corporate allies when it comes to Culture War Supremacy.

It turns out that being pro-gay and friendly on other civil rights issues is a great business model as it attracts more buyers than boycotters, but it undercuts the fearmongering and sadism that the Far Right seek to impose on the nation (if not the world).

And so, DeSantis made attempt after attempt to bring Disney to heel, to force them to renounce their gay-friendly activities at the theme parks. He's not just trying to seize control of the Orlando-area theme park and the surrounding properties, he's trying to use his hand-picked board of lackeys to impose control of Disney's own corporate policies and marketing (with threats to censor Disney for everything in opposition to the Far Right's Christianist agenda) outside of Florida.

Disney, trying to avoid getting into a political dogfight, used the legal system however they could as a large corporation - with a literal army of lawyers at their command - to work around every stunt DeSantis pulled. When it looked like DeSantis was going to succeed getting the legislature to revoke the older Reedy Creek special district board with a stack of business cronies and wingnut allies, Disney got ahead of that effort by getting the older board to create a business plan that negated any future attempts by the new board to undermine Disney's operations, and tied it into the British Royal Family as a way to rub it in (God Save Lilibet of Sussex of the House of Windsor, long may she reign as a Dinsey Princess!).

DeSantis should have taken the hint then that Disney could outfight and outlast him. But like any bully - like the Culture War absolutists among the Far Right convinced of their destiny to rule and ruin - DeSantis could not back down.

So now it's a legal battle, where the bloodshed gets nastier.

The Battle of Reedy Creek just escalated. All of central Florida is at risk now.

Stay safe out there, folks. You might get caught in the crossfire (DeSantis shuts down the Disney Village shopping area for asset forfeiture) OH SON OF A BI---