I Got the News: Sorry, but Uncle Walt's not going to save you, either.

I'm shocked ... SHOCKED ... to learn that "Disney is not only underreporting its COVID cases but clearing COVID-positive employees to return to work."

Four sources familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast that Disney has kept the total number of positive cases at the district under wraps, alerting unions only to the positive test results of their members—often days after the fact, risking further exposure—and leaving workers to guess for themselves why colleagues disappeared for days at a time, or why 11 people from the 12-person Horticulture Irrigation team didn’t show up to work for a full week.

All sorts of folks in positions of authority here and throughout the country, most often Democrats locally but in truth it's a bi-partisan thing, absolutely worship Disney for keeping its streets clean.

Of course, they're forgetting that a Disney theme park is not the real world. That's an important consideration, isn't it?

In fact, I reiterate: Veneration of Walt Disney is one of the roots of our current intellectual stalemate.

Grow up, folks.

Verily, I wasn't made for a world this stupid: "Visiting Disney World is the modern version of a medieval pilgrimage."

Like the time Disney's for-profit masterminds proposed a history theme park, including "a new vision of a Disneyland for slavery."

"The weirdness of historical Disneyfication" failed miserably, but it accurately presaged the Dickey Error.

As Charles "Strong Towns" Marohn noted in a 2018 article about crony capitalism, Disney's in it for the money just as much, if not more, than any other power-wielding multinational:

When a company like Walt Disney, which had $25 billion in gross profits last year, can demand—and receive—decades of tax amnesty from a city like Anaheim, a city with a $1.7 billion budget that is struggling to pay pensions, maintain streets and provide basic services, something is broken.

Perhaps it isn't possible to prove categorically that Walt Disney himself was "sexist, anti-Semitic and racist, aside from the backlash against the now-banned Song of the South."

But his successors shouldn't be absolved from fleecing generations in pursuit of obscene profits. Shouldn't we be embracing history's verdicts, not fleeing headlong from them?

The toxicity of crony capitalism: "Instead of extracting wealth, we need cities to focus on building wealth within their neighborhoods."

Crony capitalism? Let's leave the Reisz-Stag out of it.

Rather, it's another interesting take from the founder of Strong Towns. Marohn begins by noting that cronyism is human nature, which in his view isn't itself as harmful as the mutant "capitalism" now part of the equation.

And remember: he's a conservative. This isn't a "libtard" critique.

Crony Capitalism, by Charles Marohn

 ... So, my problem with “crony capitalism” is less about the crony than it is about American capitalism. I tried to make this point delicately because I am a supporter of capitalism—the free market allocating capital based on the profit motive—but question whether we can honestly call our system capitalist.

Fundamentally, a capitalist system requires savings and investment, the balance of which is regulated by interest rates. When there is a glut of savings or reduced demand for investment, interest rates fall. When there is a lack of savings or an increase in investment demand, interest rates should rise. Since most of my adult life has been spent with low to negative savings rates and extremely high levels of borrowing in all aspects of our economy, it’s hard to grasp how this can be called capitalism.

When a company like Walt Disney, which had $25 billion in gross profits last year, can demand—and receive—decades of tax amnesty from a city like Anaheim, a city with a $1.7 billion budget that is struggling to pay pensions, maintain streets and provide basic services, something is broken.

If it’s not the cronyism that’s broken, then is it the capitalism? I think so.

The notion that Disney should be responsive first and foremost to shareholders, that it has an obligation to maximize shareholder value, casually ignores how the centralization of our entire economy has changed social relationships within a profit-seeking economy. This goes back to Adam Smith and his observations in the Theory of Moral Sentiments on the human dimension of economic transactions ...

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: We don't need no education, but try getting by without the cronies.

Photo credit: The Economist

Regular reader DB asks:

"Can you provide some background on the word crony? It seems to be used a lot lately." 

It's my pleasure. The informal (and derogatory) noun crony ('krōnē) dates to mid-17th century English, and is believed to have come into existence as Cambridge University slang, perhaps pertaining to friendly collegiate roommates.

The word derives from the Greek khronios (long-lasting), from khronos, or time. A crony is a close friend or companion: "Increasingly isolated in his palace, the embattled king relied on his cronies for advice."

The list of synonyms for crony is rich and instructive.

Friend, companion, bosom friend, intimate, confidant, confidante, familiar, associate, accomplice, comrade; pal, chum, sidekick, partner in crime, buddy, amigo, compadre, mate, dawg, peep.

As for the reason why the word crony is being experienced more often than before, it might have to with the intimate associations between politicians and their ... well, cronies. If these liaisons come to dominate the process, it's called cronyism.

cro·ny·ismˈkrōnēˌizəm
noun derogatory
The appointment of friends and associates to positions of authority, without proper regard to their qualifications.

Remember: if one's cronies are family members, and these family members are appointed without regard to qualifications, the practice is more narrowly defined as nepotism.

Crony capitalism takes cronyism a step further, all the way from the supposedly free market into the board room at One Southern Indiana for a crash course in the organization's recommendations for economic development at the local government level:

"Crony capitalism is an economic system characterized by close, mutually advantageous relationships between business leaders and government officials."

Here's a recent local example of cronyism; much in the same way as adolescent male masturbation, too many cronies can make a guy go blind.

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ON THE AVENUES: Could that be David Duggins paddling across Jeff Gahan's putrid cesspool? On second thought, I'll take the blindfold.

For six years, Gahan’s roster of confidants has remained the same, and one needn’t be a persistent critic of Gahan’s cult of personality to see a palpable exhaustion of inspiration and ideas. Rigging undemocratic processes isn't the same thing as altering paradigms, is it?

The problem with nepotism, cronyism, self-perpetuating cliques, yes-men, yes-women, mayor-bots, fluff drones, shameless sycophants, toady boot-lickers and prolapsed time-servers is that maintaining their “in” status inevitably becomes job one, precluding injections of innovative thinking.

There is no one around Gahan willing (or able) to restrain his ever widening megalomania. There is no one to dissent, object, question or freshen his banal ideas. There is no one to suggest his personality cult is bereft of clothing, or that increasingly, people are laughing at him.

By his own choice, and by his choice of lackeys, Gahan’s mayoral milieu resembles a silo. It is a closed loop and a dead-end alley. Forget the ubiquitous anchor "branding" mechanism, because Gahan’s most apt symbol is bizarrely affiliated with Duggins' model-clad Keeneland excursion.

Indiana's Republican legislative leadership: "The one thing, however, that has always stuck in my throat is the devotion of the Mandarins to Crony Capitalism."

Wait -- this is Democratic Party crony capitalism. Oops.

An interesting perspective, and I enjoy Huston's use of the term "mandarins," a noun that originates in China, but has been adapted for wider, more humorous use.

6. an influential or powerful government official or bureaucrat.
7. a member of an elite or powerful group or class, as in intellectual or cultural milieus: the mandarins of the art world.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a train to Indy ready for boarding. Except I don't.

HUSTON: The Statehouse Mandarins push transportation tax, by Tom Charles Huston (CNHI Indiana)

The members of the General Assembly have barely warmed their seats and the fury is already reaching pitched levels on social media. It is over the proposal by the new Republican governor (washed into office by the Trump landslide) and the Republican legislative leadership (known affectionately as the Mandarins) to hike gasoline taxes and impose a number of new fees designed to raise an additional $1.2 billion a year for highway and bridge construction and maintenance ...

 ... I don’t like the mix of taxes the Legislature has fashioned, which in my view impose a disproportionate burden on lower-income Hoosiers, and I have opposed the continuing shift of the tax burden from businesses to individuals. On the other hand, with property tax relief I think the overall tax burden on Hoosiers is not excessive and in some instances is less than what is reasonably required for state and local governments to do the things that need to be done. This is certainly a minority view among those who generally share my political dispositions, but government exists to perform certain vital functions and doing so requires revenue and, thus, taxes.

Everyone has a view of what the budget priorities ought to be and whether some programs are beyond the scope of what our state government is required to do and accordingly should be eliminated. People of good will are going to differ on these matters, and my inclination has always been to cut my fellow conservative some slack on the details. The one thing, however, that has always stuck in my throat is the devotion of the Mandarins to Crony Capitalism. They are incorrigible, and even such common-sense fiscal conservatives (Mike Pence) once in office fall victim to the lure of picking winners and paying off special interests. It is one thing to pay your fair share of taxes; it something else entirely to have those taxes transferred into the pockets of Mel Simon, Jim Irsay and every corporate supplicant that hires a wired lobbyist.

Long before the Mightly Trumpolini, New Albany's Genius of the Flood Plain was tossing bales of taxpayer money at departing corporations.

First, the more topical reference.

1,000 Carrier Jobs Trump Celebrates Are Drop in the Bucket of Manufacturing Losses; Indiana alone has lost over 150,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000, by Josh Zumbrun (Wall Street Journal)

But Mayor Jeff Gahan's been there with the corporate welfare, although there were no mud anchor t-shirts to be handed out 22 months ago because Pillsbury was making like the Eagles.

As an aside, On the Border was a fine album in its day -- so fresh and vibrant, as opposed to "crony capitalism" economic development handouts.

From January 26, 2015.

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Information about the Pillsbury "business retention and factory-modernization package."

Two morsels for thought as we await the outcome.

$7 million works out to $3,500 per worker, per year, for five years (based on 400 employees at Pillsbury and Sonoco). From Charlie White's C-J coverage:

General Mills purchased Pillsbury in summer of 2000 from British food company Diageo for $10.5 billion. In fiscal year 2014, General Mills had global net sales of $19.2 billion.

Indiana economic development officials provided General Mills more than $100,000 in incentives in the last 10 years to ensure kept its workforce of about 480. But over the last three to four years, the company shifted manufacturing of some product lines to its more modern operation in Murfreesboro, Tenn., plant. The food giant spent $100 million expanding there four years ago.

Second, there is no reference to the concurrent implications of negotiations between General Mills and the union, as mentioned previously. Is our $7 million in proposed incentives keeping pay as it is, or does it accompany concessions from the union?

In trying to educate myself about these issues, I've been wondering if there's a Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union local in Murfreesboro. If there is, I can't find on-line references to it.

Readers, do you know?

Worth the dough? New Albany may offer $7 million to keep Pillsbury Plant, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

NEW ALBANY — Last week, several New Albany City Council members pledged to diligently work on solutions to keep the General Mills plant open.

On Tuesday, the council will be asked to give its blessing for a $7 million bond package Mayor Jeff Gahan’s administration hopes will stave off the closure, which General Mills announced Jan. 8 could happen within 18 months ...

 ... "We have assembled a business retention and factory-modernization package for our friends at General Mills to consider,” Gahan stated in a news release issued Friday afternoon.

“Our goal is to keep the New Albany facility in continuous operation for as long as possible.”