Walt Disney Weeps
Its nickname is “The Happiest Place On Earth,” but since March, Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., has been the emptiest place on Earth.
That prolonged shutdown finally took its toll as the Walt Disney Company announced mass layoffs on Tuesday.
The Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday announced that 28,000 employees from the Parks, Experiences and Products segment “at all levels” will be laid off. What’s more, the company placed the blame for the decision on California not allowing Disneyland to reopen at this time.
The news comes exactly one week after Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences & Products, essentially demanded that Disneyland be allowed to reopen. Gov. Gavin Newsom did not respond.
Employees in both Anaheim and Orlando will be affected, although Disney did not provide an exact breakdown.
D’Amaro was very clear as to where he places most of the blame:
“In light of the prolonged impact of COVID-19 on our business, including limited capacity due to physical distancing requirements and the continued uncertainty regarding the duration of the pandemic — exacerbated in California by the State’s unwillingness to lift restrictions that would allow Disneyland to reopen — we have made the very difficult decision to begin the process of reducing our workforce at our Parks, Experiences and Products segment at all levels, having kept non-working Cast Members on furlough since April, while paying health care benefits,” reads a statement from D’Amaro released Tuesday.
As it is the most populous state in America, California has more livelihoods to ruin with COVID panic-porn shutdowns, which Gov. Gavin Newsom has done with tyrannical glee.
From the beginning of the shutdown horror, I’ve been convinced that Democrats were more than happy to have as many people out of work as possible, for a couple of reasons. The first — and most obvious — is that they want the overall U.S. economy in the worst shape possible going into the election. They’re more than willing to destroy lives if it helps them to defeat President Trump on November 3rd.
The second reason is that Democrats are always looking to create as many destitute citizens who are dependent upon a welfare state as they can, even when someone else is president.
What’s really sad is that so many Republican governors were weak and played right into the Democrats’ hands.
Whether or not these petty tyrants will face any consequences remains to be seen, but it’s certainly on people’s minds:
The secondary fallout from this, all of the businesses in Anaheim that surround Disneyland and depend on the park for economic survival. This is going to have a terrible chain reaction effect.
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 29, 2020
The “secondary fallout” Melugin mentions there will be difficult to measure soon because it will be going on for years. It’s a reality that seems to be impossible for the coddled political class that is orchestrating all of this madness to grasp. That’s why the petty tyrants are so cavalier about the havoc they are wreaking on so many lives. Most, like Newsom, Andrew Cuomo, and Gretchen Whitmer have actually convinced themselves that they are doing God’s work and protecting the Great Unwashed.
On the contrary, they are the faces of evil. Forgiveness could be granted for overreacting in the early days of the pandemic, but they are all aware that what they’re doing now has nothing to do with public safety. They are engaged in heartless, ice-cold political calculation.
And it’s ruining people, not saving them.
Lockdown 2, BS Boogaloo Is Upon Us
___
Kruiser Twitter
Kruiser Facebook
PJ Media Senior Columnist and Associate Editor Stephen Kruiser is the author of “Don’t Let the Hippies Shower” and “Straight Outta Feelings: Political Zen in the Age of Outrage,” both of which address serious subjects in a humorous way. Monday through Friday he edits PJ Media’s “Morning Briefing.” His columns appear twice a week.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member