don't say gay bill. it prohibits gender identity through the third grade in florida's elementary schools. on march 7, chapek told employees as we've seen time and again, corporate statements do very little to change outcomes or minds. instead, they're often weaponized by one side or the other to further divide and inflame. he said he did not want the company to become a political football. at that time, more than 150 companies had already signed a letter opposing the legislation. two days later, chapek changed course, amid widespread outrage from disney employees and fans. he called governor desantis to express disappointment with the law. on the same day at an annual shareholders meeting he said our originally approach no matter how much attention didn't quite get the job done. he further apologized at a town hall for staff on march 21. on march 28th, desantis signed the bill into law. we've seen corporate activism, guns after parkland, social justice after george floyd. the perception of infringement on voting rights after a new law was signed in georgia. and a boycott of countries still doing business with russia. jeff eye sonnenfeld is the yale professor with the golden rolodex on matters of public concern. i've often asked professor sonnenfeld whether corporations should be worried about anything other than the bottom line. he's told me certain situations demand a corporate response. >> well, the geopolitical context is currently absolutely critical part, of course, of a business leader's responsibility. you want to have faith in society, trust in free markets. and you want to have social harmony, as alexis detopo as he visited the u.s. back in 1940, quote the book "democracy in america." it was that communities trust each other. it was a foundation that believed in not just the tightness of the legal system, he called it social capital. people think it's a recent term an that's what business leaders have to work on, they say it's as powerful as financial capital. when some people say the business leaders get back in their lane, i'm wondering what lane are you talking about? the breakdown lane? it's absolutely critical for them to focus and 80% of the american public is behind these moves. >> but the editorial page of the "wall street journal" sees a different lesson in disney. quote, there's a warning here to other companies especially big tech and wall street which are mainly based in liberal states but conduct business everywhere. if they try to impose their cultural values they risk losing republican allies on the policy issues that matter most to their bottom lines such as regulation, trade, taxation, antitrust labor law. the disney lesson for ceos is to stay out of these divisive cultural issues. the lesson for political partisans in the workplace is that their bosses run the office but they don't run the country. well, what a shame that today, even disney is subject to the partisan divide. but here we are. whether florida should have ever passed the underlying law i say is open to fair debate. i wouldn't want any teacher instructing any of our children on sexuality between kinder garten and the third grade. then again, the law was poorly drafted in so far as the wore destructive was never defined. to prohibit classroom instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity. the actual bill states classroom instruction on third party or gender identity may not occur. if a young student asks a teacher why a classmate has two mommes, i think the teacher to be empowered to reply family love comes in many shapes and sizes. another debate is whether disney should have yielded to pressure and taken a position on the matter. that's the sonnenfeld/"wall street journal" divide. about this there should be no debate. when a state actor punishes a speaker corporate or individual for expressing a political viewpoint they brought the full force of government on the strong side of the first amendment. and i don't think that will stand if challenged. i want to know what you think. go to my website at smerconish.com this hour and vote on today's survey question. should disney have taken a position on florida's new education law? so, how did disney obtain the special tax status it is has enjoyed for the past 55 year which is is due to end june 2023? a reminder of the time as a family, we took a back lot tour of the disney world when kids were younger and were shown a plane with a fake company name on the side. we were told that walt disney and his brother roy had flown it over florida to anonymously scout the land they were thinking of obtaining for an east coast disneyland. starting in 1964, disney used multiple shell companies to buy huge tracts of land often in cash toed a vow a paper trail. they ended up with 27,000 acres. walt wanted more freedom to develop the land and the company petitioned the florida state legislature to create the reedy creek improvement district which would give them near autonomy. it was signed by governor claude kirk back in 1967, and it this is the law that allows disney to construct new buildings and expand its parks without having to follow state or county regulations. reedy creek includes four theme parks, two water parks, one sports complex. 167 miles of roadway, 67,000 miles of waterways, hundreds of restaurants and retail stores. it has a permanent population of about 50. and its own fire department and board of supervisors. if the status does get revoked next year there could be a financial consequence for local taxpayers. joining me now to discuss is james clarke, he's a historian at the university of central florida who has written several books about the state including a history lovers guide to florida. dr. clark, thank you so much for being here. i love the story as to how anonymously they were able to do this land assemblage. was their secret ever at risk? >> no, they kept it extremely well. for months and months. finally, a reporter at walt disney could walt be the one buying all the land. he said, no, he had no interest in florida. but there were two things that said that gave it away. one, he knew the annual rainfall for orlando. and, two, he pronounced kissimmee correctly. everybody else in the world pronounces it kiss-simi. and the reporter said something is awry here. >> i know when you walk down main street usa, there's retail on the ground level when you look up there are names of fake businesses and companies and so forth. only now do i know in some of the windows you'll see reedy creek ranch incorporated. bay lake properties incorporated. i-4 incorporation which was apparently a tip of the hat to interstate 4. these are all remembrance, an h homage of what you and i were talking about. >> right. and there are also names of people up there who are who were instrumental in the early days of disney for being a dentist or do doctor's office, so they do tip to the past. >> dr. clark, do osceola and orange county want this to take place? do they all of a sudden want to assume respond for what we're discussing? >> no, this is a gift they do not want for a number of different reasons. first of all, osceola county has some of the acreage, but almost none of the buildings. so it plays a very small role in this. orange county is about 95% of this. and they simply don't want to take over this area. disney does an excellent job. there are no potholes in disney world. their utility is among the best in the country. in fact, in 2004, when almost all of central florida lost power, disney kept going. so, they run a good operation out there. >> are the tax implications clear? because it is a partisan football now sadly. and i've heard each side try and make a tax argument as to what will happen when the dust settles. >> yeah, michael, a month ago, the republicans in tallahassee were giving disney whatever he wanted. and the democrats were criticizing it. now, it's flipped entirely. the republicans are punishing disney. and the democrats are praising it. so, no one knows for sure. disney pays about 60 million a year in county taxes. and they also pay another 150 million or so to support reedy creek. so, that's over $200 million they are paying now. it could be that disney saves money. it could be that disney loses money. no one knows until it happens. the best guess, i think, is that the county, as they have done for others, will set up a special taxing district. and give disney back many of the powers it has. >> it's amazing to me how people suit up in their partisan jerseys. if this were a progressive, a liberal governor, taking on a corporate entity, i'm sure there would be a complete role reversal. here's my final question for you. is this a fait accompli? you have educated me to the fact this doesn't get implemented until what did i say, june of 2023. and that's unusual. explain. >> yeah. florida laws go into effect july 1st. so all the laws passed in the legislature this year will take effect july 1st. except this one. it has to wait 14 months. and my guess is that during those 14 months, remember, disney has 38 lobbyists in tallahassee. they're going to be working to put this kind of back together again orange county is going to be working to get off the hook. and so, i feel that by next july 1st of 2023, all of this will be behind us. >> dr. clark, that was excellent. thank you, i really appreciate it. >> thank you, mike. >> to be a disney lobbyist in tallahassee, that has to be like the epitome of job security these days, right? what are your thoughts? tweet knee at smerconish, go to my facebook, youtube page, i'll read during the course of the program. from the social media world. disney chose its political path and will now pay the consequences. well, i mean, to hear press sonnenfeld say it, what choice did they have, right? if there aren't guard rails for us as a society, then there's no environment in which to do business. i'm more of the opinion, we can have the argument about the merit of the law. i already told you my view about that. we can have a separate argument as to whether disney should have yielded to the wishes of its employees. but what about the first amendment implications? this is retaliatory, would governor desantis have signed into law what he did but for disney speaking up? why are conservatives wedded to the constitution, not discussing that point? that's all i want to know. all i want is consistency. for goodness sake, just be consistent. go to my website at smerconish.com answer this week's survey question, should disney have taken a position on florida's new education law. while there register for the daily newsletter. still to come, the head of the russian orthodox church patriarch kirill is in full support of putin's war besides the fact. >> and president biden considering issues of ending article 32, and defending a judge who ended mask mandates. he's not the only one trying to square with mask mandates with border patrol. and i'll explain. waxed. natural. sensitive. new dove ultimate antiperspirant. our unique water basedormula and 6x more glycerin. hes restore skin to its best condition. new dove ultimate. 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>> yes. so, the difference between latin christianity, and eastern christianity, is that in eastern christianity, decisions are made by a council of patriarchs. and there are more or less national or regional churches. so, for example, you have the greek orthodox church, the romanian orthodox church. the ukrainian orthodox church. the russian orthodox church and the sort of equals among equals, the ecumenical pate arc, the former of constantinople, now the city of istanbul. >> the parishes from ukraine, are they taking direction from kirill, in moscow, or from bath bartholomew? >> we shouldn't focus so much on kirill. kirill is clearly someone who is slightly deranged. and most of the churches have expressed their discontent with his leadership. and the fact that he's making all of these states in support of putin. so what you're having is individual parishes and priests and parishioners leaving the church. what we would want to see more of these heads of churches, 67 condemning the war actually step out against him and expel him from the role of the council of churches. but the situation in ukraine is that we actually have an an autoseplis church, it received its independence which is formally recognized the ecumenical patriarch, the orthodox greek church, the alexandria church, a number of other churches. and the head of -- i'll stop in a second -- the head of this church does not answer to kirill. he answers to the patriarch in constantinople. so to bartholomew. >> right, so is the motivation, i understand what you're saying hey, don't give this guy too much attention, but he's playing an important role as we speak, is his motivation a land grab like putin? putin wants ukraine. does he similarly want that territory back to the church? >> yes. so kirill has -- what we're dealing with is a dying empire where we have the leader putin in close association with the church, right? there's almost no separation of church and state, and kirill is putin's right-hand man. and he sees all of the territory of ukraine as conically his. what he's trying to do is land grab the parishes in ukraine, because if you have patirishes ukraine, you have more money coming in. so the situation is complex because the only legal church in the soviet union was the russian orthodox church. and it renamed its the ukraine orthodox church. many ukrainians when they went to their churches didn't even know if they were giving money to moscow, to the moscow patriarchy or head of the church in ukraine. now there's the orthodox church of ukraine. and then the ukrainian orthodox church of the patriarch -- sorry, but it's losing parishes by huge numbers right now during the war. >> i think you've done an excellent job synthesizing a very complicated subject. i'll just take the final word because i want to make this clear, the orthodox church in america and the russian orthodox church outside of russia have both condemned the invasion. thank you, dr. pevny, appreciate your time. >> you're welcome. ahead with mask mandates morphing. this week, president biden mistakenly confused the idea between the border and mask mandates. and with ford with the f-150 pickup could it allow ford to zoom past tesla. the company's chief engineer is ready to discuss the gamble. and also go to smerconish.com and vote. should disney have taken a position on florida's new education law? different how? you sell high h commission investment products, right? (fisher investments) nope. fisher avoids them. (othther money manager) well, you must earn commissions on tradedes. (fisheher investments) never at fisher. (other money manager) ok, then you probably sneak in some hidden and layered fees. (fisher investments) no. we structure our fees so we do better when clients do better. that might be why most of our clients come from other money managers. at fisher investments, we're clearly different. with angi, you can connect with and see ratings and reviews. and when you book and pay throug you're covered by our happiness check out angi.com today. angi... and done. it's mask confusion. here in the city of brotherly love, the city has reversed its recent decision to require masks indoors. meanwhile, in los angeles county, masks will again be required on all public transit, including buses, trains, taxis and ride hailing service vehicles. that's not the only inconsistency. on thursday, president biden was asked about whether he's open to delaying the rescission of title 42, the trump era limitation on asylum seekers based on concerns about covid. instead, he responded on the subject of masks and public transit mandates recently struck down by a federal judge. >> on title 42, sir, are you are considering delaying? >> no, what i'm considering is continuing to hear from my -- first of all, there's going to be an appeal by the justice department. because as a matter of principle, we want to be in a position where if in fact it is strongly concluded by the scientists that we need title 42. that we'd be able to do that. but there has been no decision on extending title 42. >> on fox, that mistaken biden response gets played on a loop along with the handshake to nowhere and the easter bunny rangeler. on msnbc, it doesn't get played at all. here's the thing in this case, i get biden's mistake. for politicians it's hard to know how to respond on these issues. yes, science changes but covid demands consistency and that has been in short supply. title 42 was implemented by president trump in march 2020 in direct response to the pandemic. it's justified as a public health measure w