Ah Texas, I do love you guys. And gals. You’ve given us many great things – oil, The Alamo, Blind In Texas, The Dallas Cowboys’ cheerleaders. And politically, you’re one of the few states (Austin aside) that we can usually count on to get things right. But on Disney you swung and missed. Or to be fair, I’d call it more of a foul ball, because you weren’t entirely wrong. OK, I’ll get to the point.
Texas’ Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (DP) (no, not the dude formerly of ESPN’s Sports Center) had some words regarding Disney a few days ago, First, the good. Patrick sent an email blasting Disney for for trying to interfere in FL politics (remember when The Radical Left was against corporations interfering in democracy? Ah, the good ole days), and he landed a few solid blows against The Mouse House. He blasted Disney for targeting children.
Beyond the company’s opposition to the new Florida law, Patrick criticized the company for ending its practice of addressing people with the greeting of “boys and girls” or “ladies and gentlemen.”
“This crazy ‘woke’ radical agenda is pushed by a few, but rejected by almost everyone in America, across all political spectrums,” said Patrick.
Patrick also shared a link to several videos of senior executives at the company promoting policy changes such as a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda,” “adding queerness” to children’s entertainment produced by the company, and expanding the amount of “LGBTQIA characters in our stories.”
So far, so good. But here’s where DP goes off the rails, emphasis mine:
“So, what can we do?” wrote Patrick. “Until they change their corporate philosophy, stop spending money with them. Cut off the Disney Channel. Cancel your park trip or your cruise if one is planned.”
Of particular note, Patrick also advised, “If you own Disney stock, sell it. Although I did not own many shares of individual Disney stock, I sold them today.”
Among the interim charges that Patrick listed this week, he asked the State Affairs Committee to, “Study the investment practices of financial services firms and how those practices affect the state’s public pensions.”
The lieutenant governor has taken particular aim at BlackRock, a major investment firm, for targeting “Texas oil and gas energy companies by boycotting them in violation” of a state law that prohibits such boycotts.
Personal boycotts of the channel. Check. We’ve been following the model offered by Victor Von Doomcock of only subscribing to channels when there’s something we want to watch and immediately cancelling. According to Doomcock this is destroying Hollywood, which is just gravy. But enough of this aside. Avoiding the parks? No problem. Sister Babe and I were actually talking about possibly going back to Disney, as Little Bob’s only experience there was one day a few years ago as part of a bigger Florida trip. We’d already decided that while we don’t have an issue with the cost of a few days at Disney, for what it costs we can get a lot more vacation for our money elsewhere. And frankly, when we went four years ago I was a bit disappointed. Selling your stock? Don’t own any, though I was condsidering buying some when I saw Nancy Pelosi grab a bunch of shares. Glad I didn’t. And taking shots at Black Rock and any other investment companies boycotting energy? Dead on.
The part I disagree with is DP is basing Texas’ pesnsion plans investments based on “financial service firms’ practices”. Maybe I’m reading too much into that statement, but I’m interpreting it as making investment decisions based on a company’s moral compass. Now this is one where I don’t have an easy answer. Nobody would have wanted to invest in a company that was part of Nazi Germany’s machine. Of course, today not doing business with the Communists running China is not so simple given how interconnected the global economy is. And more significantly, if a state’s investments are based on some moral compass, you’re only one election night marred by a broken water pipe in Austin + 40,000 10:00 PM votes leading to a Beto Male O’Rourke Governorship away from your state’s pensions investing in solar farms and LGBQWERTY publishing companies.
Again, I might have misunderstood DP’s words, but what I would have said in his shoes would have been along the lines of, “We may need to take a look at investing in a company that managed to ruin ESPN and Star Wars, while marketing itself to families while being a danger to their children.” That in itself is a good reason to dump Disney stock, while being wary of any funds that have not done so as well.
Brother Bob is no longer on Facebook (although you can see his archives there), and is winding down his presence on Twitter, but is ramping up on Minds and Gab, as well as Parler and GETTR, and has his biggest presence on MeWe.
Pedo O’Rourke?
— #BlueAnon is Real Brother Bob (@Brother_Bob) March 31, 2022
Cross posted at Flopping Aces
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