Please explain DeSantis and Disneyland to me

[JohnT]

@Chronos

It’s not like these “special districts” controlled by some large business are all that special. Florida has about 1900 of them.

(There’s actually a summary at the bottom!)

In other threads, I discussed how my family was in control of a city (Beverly Beach, FL) because of a large land purchase + development plan we were in charge of. We got out of the arrangement in 1979, 1980 - but because we sold the land. Would not surprise me if it is still in force - our mobile home park was the source for the cities water and sewage treatment, and it still is.

To Disney…

I would like to note that one of the reasons RD thinks Disney is vulnerable to this issue is the change in their business focus as represented on their annual report filings, starting in 2020.

If you look at the 2019 report…

2019-Annual-Report.pdf

“Item 1. Business” (page 1) goes into a list of transactions and then a 27-page discussion of the various business units and investments made by Disney. Pretty standard stuff.

But look at 2020:

2020-Annual-Report.pdf

OK, there’s a COVID disclaimer. But then there’s a 1.25 page talking about human capital… and diversity and inclusion… and other “woke mind virus” stuff (Jesus, I cannot believe I have to speak like this because of these goddamned children).

And this didn’t end, continuing in 2021, with this new section coming close to 2 pages, the specific D&I initiatives highlighted in bold:

2021-Annual-Report.pdf

Lastly, 2022:

2022-Annual-Report.pdf

LOL, they kinda took my advice:

@JohnT

Disney’s Risk Assessment Model needs changing

And, frankly, so does every other corporations in America.

In all 10k’s there exists a section called “Risk Factors”, usually pretty early in the document - in the Disney 10-K it’s Item 1.a, on page 18. Disney’s is pretty significant, going on for 9 pages. I’d like to highlight two of them:

They didn’t exactly do this, but what they did was take the “Forward-Looking Statements” boilerplate which was, up to 2021, in the things around page 60… well, Disney execs expanded this from one paragraph to a full page and put it in the front of the entire document. Making FLS a preamble when it was largely an afterthought definitely indicates that the people in Disney are worried about investor and legal blowback as much as anything I’ve seen so far.

However, they still have the Human Capital/DE&I wording… but there are some changes. For example, you can find the following wording in the 2021 10k which has been removed from the 2022 10k:

Added an Inclusion Key to the core set of values to serve as a catalyst for culture change and strengthen DPEP’s traditional Four Keys, Safety, Courtesy, Show and Efficiency.

So the “Inclusion Key” has been removed. Anything else change?

Oh… under “Health, Family, and more benefits”…

@2021

Healthcare options aimed at improving quality of care while reducing out-of-pocket costs
◦ Child care programs for employees, including access to onsite/community centers, enhanced back-up care choices to include personal caregivers, child care referral assistance and center discounts, homework help and a variety of parenting educational resources
◦ Free mental and behavioral health resources, including on-demand access to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for employees and their dependents
◦ Two Centers for Living Well that offer convenient, on-demand access to board-certified physicians and counselors

In 2022… look at what they added:

Family care resources, such as childcare programs for employees, including access to onsite/community centers, enhanced back-up care choices to include personal caregivers, childcare referral assistance and center discounts, homework help, a variety of parenting educational resources and a family building benefit supporting fertility treatments, adoptions or surrogacy

The 2022 10k does not address the Reed Creek issue, btw. The next 10k will be issued sometime after October 1st, 2023. It may have been addressed in the 8k’s which are filed quarterly, but I’ve looked at this stuff enough for y’all, lol.

In conclusion:

1. There’s now a city with a bullshit fake city council in control of it and this will never end well.
2. There are indications in their SEC filings that Disney is concerned about the implications of this. I mean, the “this all may be bullshit” section led the document!
3. Regardless, it can NOT be argued that “diversity isn’t what Disney does, they make movies, etc…” because Disney itself states explicitly, in their government filings, that diversity is key to their business model and plans for growth.