Ron DeSantis and Walt Disney are locked in a legal battle that could have a big impact on the state of Florida. Is it a fight about corporate welfare, or is it about freedom of speech? And is this a real fight, or just a PR stunt?
00:01:33.000And the operative question in this whole saga between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Walt Disney Corporation is whether this is a true, sincere effort to crusade against corporate welfare or whether it's just virtue signaling and professional wrestling.
00:01:52.000So I'm going to lay out what's going on in this saga and then you decide.
00:01:57.000Is this Governor DeSantis really cracking down with an effective effort against that type of corporate welfare we oppose?
00:02:07.000And is there a willingness to maybe still treat Disney a little different than everyone else gets treated in the state of Florida?
00:02:15.000So, the new theater in this fight is a lawsuit that Disney has filed against Governor Ron DeSantis.
00:02:21.000They've filed that lawsuit against him in his official capacity.
00:02:25.000And the principal claim in that lawsuit is that their First Amendment rights have been violated
00:02:30.000and they are being retaliated against as a company based on their opposition to the legislation that Governor DeSantis signed that the Florida legislature passed that stopped some of this radical gender ideology from being taught in taxpayer funded public schools.
00:02:46.000So, they go through that change in CEO.
00:02:49.000But Governor DeSantis takes note of the fact that Walt Disney actually has a very special privilege in Florida that a lot of corporations don't get.
00:03:01.000The territory they reside in has been designated a special district, the Ready Creek Improvement District.
00:03:08.000And there's a board that typically is but an extension of Disney.
00:03:14.000Typically, the board of the Ready Creek Improvement District where Disney's parks are, they're just vassal states of Disney.
00:03:22.000There's no arm's length relationship between them and the corporation.
00:03:26.000They're there to just perform on what the corporation sets forth.
00:03:30.000So, DeSantis gets the authority, lawfully, to appoint the board.
00:03:36.000And he's going to appoint people that have an arm's length relationship with Disney.
00:03:41.000Now, again, that doesn't sound retaliatory to me to just say, look, this has got to be something where you don't just dictate the terms under your own private government.
00:03:54.000If people don't like who the governor appoints, they can vote against the governor.
00:03:58.000That's the beauty of a system that is just not run by corporate technocrats, but with some sense of political oversight.
00:04:07.000So, DeSantis appoints his new board members.
00:04:10.000And in the final moments of the outgoing board, they totally bind the new board and make an agreement with Disney that gives all the power to the Disney corporation that was supposed to reside in the special district.
00:04:24.000So, what sounds shadier and swampier to you?
00:04:28.000Governor DeSantis wanting appointees on a public board performing a public purpose over a private corporation or a private corporation using its vassal state board members to shred any sense of public oversight of this property and to just allow Disney to do what they want for whatever they want?
00:04:51.000Something that regular landowners don't have.
00:04:54.000We usually have to live under the regulations of our counties, our cities.
00:04:57.000Disney prefers their oversight to be captive like Rapunzel, not responsive like Governor DeSantis would seemingly have it be.
00:05:06.000Now, Disney has had a very large role in the economy, image, brand of the state of Florida for more than half a century.
00:05:14.000They, in many ways, have helped Florida avoid a state income tax by generating so much tourism.
00:05:22.000Tourism that then spills over and creates benefit for other parts of the state.
00:05:25.000So, don't count me among those who simply want to have an adversarial relationship with Disney forever.
00:05:31.000We would like to see Disney be a good corporate partner of the state just like the state wants to be a good partner for all of our citizens.
00:06:03.000For quite some time in the state of Florida, if the Walt Disney Corporation opposed a piece of legislation in the state capitol, it was deemed to have a fatal rodent problem and it was unlikely to become law.
00:06:17.000Disney had enormous power in Florida legislative politics in part because they employed an army of lobbyists to dole out millions of dollars in political donations.
00:06:27.000I'm talking about millions of dollars.
00:06:29.000And in exchange, they expected favorable treatment from lawmakers, maybe a little more than their fair share.
00:06:36.000The lobbyists were there to enforce the implicit deal.
00:06:39.000I mean, look at what Florida did to bend over backwards for Disney over the years.
00:06:43.000Florida created a state agency out of nothing largely to subsidize Disney's vast marketing budget through an entity called Visit Florida.
00:14:34.000There was a New York special agent that gave testimony in this trial and I want to read it to you.
00:14:39.000Quote, criminal organizations cannot function at the level of the Sinaloa drug cartel without the support of corrupt politicians and officials such as Gennaro Garcia Luna, who aid and abet them.
00:14:59.000He is a feature of the system and it is repeatable over and over.
00:15:03.000There's another case I want to let you know about, Emilio Lozoya.
00:15:07.000Now, Lozoya is the former head of Mexico's state oil company.
00:15:11.000He is also under fire now for corruption charges and he has been singing like a bird.
00:15:16.000According to a leaked deposition from this particular case,
00:15:20.000you have this guy, this former head of the cash cow that was the energy entity,
00:15:26.000saying that three former Mexican presidents were on the dole taking bribes and that a lot of those bribes were directly linked to cartel activity,
00:15:39.000And the reason that these three former presidents, former head of public security, former head of the energy entity are able to get away with this for so long.
00:15:53.000The reason they're able to do so much harm is because they get cover from people like Alejandro Mayorkas.
00:16:01.000When he says that Mexico is a great ally, it gives cover to a lot of the very operations that are going to benefit one cartel against another or all of them against us.
00:16:12.000Now, as a proof of this dynamic, I can just tell you when I went to Yuma, Arizona,
00:16:19.000we saw the cartel caravans of people and the military ATVs going back and forth at times within a few feet of each other.
00:16:28.000Everybody knows the deal. Everybody knows that the cartels are moving people through.
00:16:34.000The military provides a permission structure for that to occur.
00:16:38.000And it's our country that has all of these terrible challenges that result from millions of people coming in without permission or process.
00:16:47.000Also, I think, indicative of this corruption and this lack of focus on partnerships that would work.
00:16:55.000AMLO, the current president of Mexico.
00:16:58.000We detailed on a previous episode of Firebrand how when he met with Secretary Blinken,
00:17:03.000they talked about eroding borders between the United States, Mexico, Canada, just creating one unified North America.
00:17:15.000Well, now what AMLO is saying about the fentanyl epidemic is that it results from, quote, a lack of hugs.
00:17:23.000So if you're one of the parents out there who's had to revive a child,
00:17:29.000maybe you didn't get the chance to revive a loved one who died from a fentanyl overdose.
00:17:34.000AMLO is saying it's your fault for not hugging them enough.
00:17:38.000How utterly disrespectful and how detached from the actual role Mexico is playing as a turnstile with these Chinese component parts,
00:17:50.000manufactured in Mexico, moved across the border to every community in our country.
00:17:56.000And now we see the result in our morgues, in our ERs, and in the future consequences of all of our lives.
00:18:04.000Right now, these cartels are a very difficult dynamic to control.
00:18:10.000And they've been able to get larger because U.S. leaders go down to Mexico, meet with these Mexican officials, act as though everything is hunky-dory.
00:18:18.000And the reality is the Mexican government is in unity government with the cartels in far too many cases.
00:18:26.000So we'll continue to call out Mayorkas and hope that in the future he's able to call out America's enemies rather than describing them as allies.
00:18:36.000So in Northwest Florida right now, it's festival season.
00:18:40.000Don't think Coachella or Bonnaroo or Burning Man.
00:18:43.000Think more seafood and art and culture and wine.
00:18:47.000You see, in the spring months of April and May and in the fall months of September and October,
00:18:55.000in Northwest Florida, we don't have the usual rush of summer-driven tourism.
00:19:01.000And so we call those times in the spring and in the fall our shoulder season.
00:19:06.000And during shoulder season, a lot of entities come together to put on a songwriter festival or a seafood festival
00:19:13.000or a wine festival or an art festival because that brings people in when the weather is warm, when the fish are biting, when life is great.
00:19:21.000And there are hotel accommodations and lodging accommodations usually at a bit of a deal.
00:19:26.000And our world-class restaurants are able to show off and they've got plenty of tables available while people are here.
00:19:34.000This past Saturday, my wife Ginger and I attended the South Walton Beaches Wine and Food Festival at Grand Boulevard in San Destin in Walton County, Florida.
00:19:44.000And we were enjoying catching up with new friends and old and folks recognized me.
00:19:50.000And so we were taking pictures and having polite conversations.
00:19:53.000And as I was chatting with one gentleman, a lady threw a drink on the both of us and she was promptly arrested.
00:20:01.000I want to thank the great folks at the Walton County Sheriff's Office who ensured that this did not escalate and that everyone is kept safe.
00:20:08.000And I want folks to know why we press charges in circumstances like this.
00:20:13.000It's quite all right for folks to let their voice heard with an opinion or a comment.
00:20:18.000Folks can shout and scream all they want.
00:20:21.000This is America and people ought to be able to say what they believe, what they desire, even offer criticisms or critiques of people in public life.
00:20:30.000But if we start allowing stuff to be thrown or hurled, if we allow people to be harmed, there is a severe risk of escalation and accident.
00:20:42.000And we don't want to see anyone in harm's way, whether it's family members, supporters or even our detractors.
00:20:52.000But when they really cross the Rubicon beyond just words to throw and stuff and striking me and striking a gentleman I was speaking with with a drink.
00:21:02.000Well, then that really has caused harm to our community.
00:21:06.000And it's something that we want to contain and extinguish and not see going forward.
00:21:10.000So as I understand it, the person who was arrested is Selena Chambers.
00:21:16.000She was charged with two counts of battery.
00:21:19.000And of course, she is a left wing author.
00:21:27.000It seems after the 2016 election, based on some of her writing, she became very obsessed with Donald Trump and she began engaged in something called a resistance expression.
00:21:38.000And I'm quoting directly from one of her works here.
00:21:40.000Quote, resistance is expression that can take a physical form.
00:21:45.000She's also a donor to the Joe Biden presidential campaign.
00:21:50.000She talked about her emotional turmoil following the 2016 election and just going through some of the stuff she's written.
00:22:28.000Whenever there's a conservative who acts out of line, it's like the biggest story in the world.
00:22:33.000But when you get a radicalized leftist breaking the peace in my community who traveled here, by the way, from Tallahassee, Florida, I doubt it will get the same pickup.
00:22:43.000But we'll make sure that there are appropriate consequences through the legal system, because that's what the safety of our community demands.
00:22:52.000Thanks so much for joining me on Firebrand.
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00:23:01.000And we'll be back soon with more Firebrand.