Let’s just move Disney World out of fascist dictator Rhonda Santis’ Florida already, shall we? We’ll close down a massive, multi-themed set of parks — Magic Kingdom, EPCOT Center, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom — and set them up somewhere nicer. Somewhere with a more reliable and friendly government. Somewhere like Puerto Rico.
Easy-peasy.
There’s so much to unpack out of the latest anti-Ron DeSantis idiocy that we’re going to have a whole lot of fun with this one.
Join me, won’t you?
First, allow me to explain the “Rhonda Santis” thing. I noticed a few days ago that referring to Florida’s Republican governor as “Rhonda Santis” is the big new thing on Twitter. His name sounds like a girl’s name if you say it or spell it wrong! Ha-ha, get it? Why aren’t you laughing?
I don’t know if that started with not-so-clever Lefties or with the personality-cult wing of the Trump base because, when it comes to DeSantis, the two groups are basically indistinguishable.
But that’s just one minor quibble in what’s becoming this week’s logistical-farcical tour-de-force of unthinking wishcasting: Move Disney World.
In case you hadn’t read, at DeSantis’ urging, the Florida legislature recently rescinded the special legal status — unprecedented and unequaled, really — that the Walt Disney Co. enjoyed with its lucrative Orlando properties. The Reedy Creek Improvement District was established by the Florida legislature in 1967 as a special tax and regulatory zone, effectively controlled by Disney, to facilitate the development of Disney World and, eventually, EPCOT. Disney’s promise — never fulfilled — was that EPCOT would be an actual experimental city. Nevertheless, Disney’s control of Reedy Creek continued until this year.
When the company “went public with a pledge to oppose Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act,” Johnathan Turley wrote this week, Florida disestablished Reedy Creek and replaced it with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District with no special status for Disney to run its own affairs.
Instead of taking the L, Disney doubled down on stupid last month and tried an illegal move to undo the Florida legislature’s undoing. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that nothing will come of Disney’s ploy. Nothing good, anyway — if they’d hoped to ever repair relations with Tallahassee, they did an excellent job of taking that option off the table.
Before we get to the whole “Move Disney World” madness, let me be clear about what has our lefty friends so upset.
They are frothing at the mouth because visitors to Disney World are now protected by the same building and safety codes as visitors to non-Disney parks in Orlando, like Universal Studios. Disney, one of the largest and most profitable corporations in history, will be subject to the same taxes and regulations as little Fun Spot America.
Oh, the humanity.
In fact, Lefties are so upset about this that a hint of a shadow of a whisper of a good idea entered some of their tiny little minds: Let’s move Disney World.
“Cut a better deal with a non-fascist government (ask Puerto Rico),” says unemployable über-loon Keith Olbermann, “tear down DisneyWorld, and watch Florida impeach this stupid SOB Rhonda Santis.”
Here’s New York Times Big Brain Stuart Elliot:
Who else thinks Disney should call DeSantis' bluff and announce it's closing Disney World and re-creating it in another, more welcoming state, whose residents will get first crack at all the jobs? https://t.co/uLocxOBxeG
— Stuart Elliott (@stuartenyt) April 18, 2023
Maybe Stuart will be the wise investor who buys Disney Moving Bonds to finance his bone-headed suggestion.
There must be something in the Manhattan water because New York Times opinion columnist Farhad Manjoo had the same idea:
Long term Disney has to find a warm-weather alternative to Florida without job-killing anti-business government
— farhad manjoo (former bluecheck) (@fmanjoo) April 17, 2023
Job-killing? Anti-business? Where have you BEEN the last three years, Farhad?
ASIDE: Manjoo is also willing to consider Las Vegas… practically next door, in terms of the American West, to Disney Land in Anaheim. Also, I assume Disney World Vegas will be built under an air-conditioned dome the size of Manhattan, because have you ever been to Vegas in August?
And Puerto Rico? They can’t keep the lights on even without a Magic Kingdom sucking down 1.21 gigawatts per hour, and the unemployment rate is about double Florida’s.
Nevertheless, when another Tweep suggested to Farhad, “Maybe Puerto Rico,” he responded, “That’s a good idea.”
No, it isn’t. Even the wokesters rapidly running Disney into the ground don’t think it’s a good idea. Disney, in fact, announced plans in 2021 to move 2,000 jobs from California to…
…Florida?
Florida: Disney to relocate 2,000 California jobs to central Florida.
That’s because Florida is a great place to do business, even when your business suddenly has to follow the same rules and regulations as Universal Studios and Bob’s Midtown Orlando Water Slide Thrill-O-Rama.
UPDATE:
🚨Donald Trump sides with Disney over @RonDeSantisFL, frets that Disney wont invest more money in Florida.
Trump conveniently glosses over the fact that Disney pulled an unlawful stunt and is not being hauled to the mat for it.
Trump World has gone full leftist. pic.twitter.com/yctLAVDOHy
— Cryptid Politics 🇺🇸 (@CryptidPolitics) April 18, 2023
It’s an exaggeration in the extreme to say that Trump World has gone “full leftist,” but taking sides with Disney on an issue so popular with conservatives is a disappointment at the very least.
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