I mentioned this in the podcast but I think it deserves a post. Kelly Yamanouchi, who covers Delta for their hometown paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is all over the Delta NRA story. Here’s the gist:
Delta offered a “discount” for the NRA. Anyone who travels regularly knows that these discounts are hot garbage. Delta’s NRA discount was only used for 13 tickets.
When the fact that the NRA isn’t simply a hobbyist organization but an extremist cult was brought to Delta’s attention, they axed the discount. The Georgia legislature retaliated by rushing through a bill to take away a tax break from Delta. The governor signed it today.
Delta’s response was essentially a “fuck you” to Georgia. They’re not backing down, and in addition to eliminating the NRA discount, they’re going to get rid of discounts for any other group that is controversial.
As Yamanouchi pointed out in another article, Delta broke a commitment to keep Northwest’s headquarters in Minneapolis after acquiring them. Delta has a long history of being in Atlanta but they could move.
What a shitshow over 13 tickets.
David Fud
Queue the “absolutely stunningly galactically stupid idea.” Republicans in primaries don’t realize that other folks can hear them after all of the dog whistling they have done for so long. I doubt the Delta employees around here are impressed, especially since they more or less can’t carry guns on the job anyway. There is reporting the governor Deal will do something “administratively”, though what that is, isn’t exactly clear.
Anne Laurie
Too lazy to google, but I also ran across an article this morning saying that the Georgia legislators may’ve screwed Atlanta out of whatever chance it had of winning Amazon’s “HQ2” competition. Whether or not you think handing Amazon the key to your town is a good idea (I most sincerely hope they *don’t* pick Boston, which is also on the short list of finalists), Atlanta obviously wanted the business. Jeff Bezos’ ninja MBAs won’t have much respect for a bunch of politicos who’ll screw over a company as big as Delta for fear of a noisy bunch of gunfondlers…
Tenar Arha
Another one to add to my list of things I never thought I’d see a GOP legislature or governor do: drop a tax break for any business for any reason.
I doubt Delta will move since having a southern hub in a non-desert state is convenient, & they’ve probably got a lot invested in airport facilities. Delta might decide on giving donations to Democratic legislators though, just for s&g. And to make a point not to mess with them.
(? GA Dems should probably start working up a plan on how to handle that before the airline tries to roll them).
bluehill
Between the steel tariffs and this, the pro-business party has a strange way of being pro-business. When does the NRA start boycotting Walmart?
debbie
Anne, Twitter is abuzz with rumors about Amazon. Fingers crossed!
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
The party of free enterprise! Except when companies make decisions that are contrary to their cultural beliefs. Then they must be annihilated.
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@bluehill:
The GOP is only “pro-business” so long as they are able to line their own pockets and secure permanent power, as well as beat down their cultural and political enemies.
Adam L Silverman
@Anne Laurie: They put the Amazon HQ at risk by passing a religious freedom bill that prohibits same sex couples from adopting.
Adam L Silverman
This is just weird:
bluehill
@? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?: Yep, as with their other “principles,” it’s just another means to score political points.
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@Adam L Silverman:
Sounds like an attempt to discredit journalists.
Mike J
bluehill
@Adam L Silverman: Lara Trump from Moscow?
Adam L Silverman
@? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?: Phishing attempt.
cain
Delta just saying “We’re looking at other options” is enough to fuck the Republicans over. It will be interesting to see what Republicans would do over such a threat. Watching them back down would be awesome.
Then again, they could pull a NC, and prefer to go down in flames.
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@cain:
And if that happens, that might push GA to be purple.
MisterForkbeard
@Adam L Silverman: So porn-bots are pretending to be Trumps now? I mean, it’s about the same level of business ethics, so I can see why this might work.
RSA
It’s a shit show all around. Right, the Georgia legislature retaliates against a powerful corporation for its socially relevant decision, but my first reaction to the story was about the legislature proposing the tax break in the first place, one with benefits flowing mainly to one specific corporation. That’s so open to corruption… and yet it’s pretty much taken for granted that this is okay for a government to do.
Adam L Silverman
Hmmm…
oatler.
General Sherman come back, we fucked up.
bystander
I’m watching Last Word with Ari Tonight, and I give Susan Page for completely remaking her physical appearance over the years without ever once coming close to speaking the truth.
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@RSA:
Is Delta the only airline with tax breaks? I would think it wouldn’t be corrupt (from the perspective of favoring one corporation) if all airlines operating within the state were given the same tax breaks.
B.B.A.
@? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?: Delta is basically the only airline in the state.
Brachiator
Georgia is serious about their love of guns. Serous. There’s a city that once passed a law requiring gun ownership. What’s extra nuts here is that the governor is bending over backwards not to protect guns, but to protect a special interest group, the NRA. This is as unhinged as a Trump Twitter rant.
The big lie from a state legislature is that Delta gives discounts to Planned Parenthood. This is insane, but it tells you a lot about how these idiots’ minds work. Killing babies, bad. Kiling teens, not as bad and protected by the Constitution.
Jay C
It seems to me like the GA lege’s decision to yank Delta’s fuel-tax break over the NRA-discount crap has little (or nothing) to do with the actual business decisions, but is a sort of ostentatious “virtue-signaling” (“depravity-signaling” is more like it IMO) to the gunhumper lobby that the GA GOP has their backs – at least as far as making quasi-empty gestures is concerned. It still remains to be seen what they’ll get for standing up for those 13 flyers….
Anne Laurie
@Adam L Silverman: Oh, right, I’d forgotten that!
So today’s BS was just arguing, once they’d cut off their own noses, how much better it made their faces look.
satby
@Adam L Silverman: hmm indeed. Wonder how they got those records.
Adam L Silverman
Well this explains a lot.
Another Scott
@Jay C: Yup.
I haven’t read the links, but IIRC there was a story on the radio that said the tax break was only $40M or so (out of $41B in annual revenue, $5.7B after tax last year). It’s money, but not a huge deal. Good publicity is worth much, much more to them.
Cheers,
Scott.
James E. Powell
But it’s not over 13 tickets. This is a battle to save White America and Freedom and Manly Culture!
Anne Laurie
@Adam L Silverman: Somebody hacked Donny Jr’s wife’s phone?
She’s been in the news, at least locally, because the geenyus who sent a threatening letter with ‘white powder’ in it got busted. And I’d assume her electronics were supervised a little less scrupulously than that of her spouse. So some basement scammer may’ve figured, why not, tinker with the address book?
Another Scott
@Brachiator: The city was Kennesaw, GA. There were various exceptions, IIRC – see Wikipedia for the details.
Cheers,
Scott.
Feebog
Delta is a huge employer in Atlanta. But they aren’t going anywhere. The Atlanta metro area is pushing six million. There simply is no other comparable population center anywhere in the Southern U.S. shit show indeed.
Adam L Silverman
@satby: Here’s Eichenwald’s rundown on the story:
Adam L Silverman
@Anne Laurie: Any background on that deep thinker?
efgoldman
@RSA:
Steve (from ATL, natch) and i talked about this, very late last nite. Apparently the krazies (both RWNJs and the union people he talks to) throwaway logic for no discernible reason. See also the proposed railcar plant that Snotty Walker nixed in WI.
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: Zooks. That would explain a few things…
Kinda weird that (roughly) “Hope Hicks acknowledged that Trump used it in the 1980s…” when she is now, what, 29? Google tells me her birthday is October 29, 1988. Funny to see her “acknowledge” something that happened before she was born…
Cheers,
Scott.
Tenar Arha
@RSA: I’ve been super torn bc I think this “let’s give tax breaks to corporations for more jobs” is race to the bottom fuel for a while. It’s one of the many reasons I hope Amazon doesn’t end up in Massachusetts, like @Anne Laurie said.
satby
God, I’m liking this guy:
Adam L Silverman
Hoocoodanode?
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
It’s an annoyance, but the tax break that Delta and other companies are getting from Trump more than makes up for this.
On the other hand, Georgia may be conforming to the new federal tax law. The fantasy is that this will make the state more competitive and attract investment.
The reality may be altogether different.
Anne Laurie
@Adam L Silverman: He’s not a global mastermind:
Kind of a grab-bag of grievances. The local tabloid Boston Herald says he’s the archetypical specimen who actually still lives in his parents’ basement —
Beverley’s a nice upper-class enclave. More proof, if needed, that getting help for someone with mental-health issues can be complicated even for people with money and education.
RSA
@? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?, and others: You’re right, of course. The tax break could have been a well-reasoned economic decision in the state’s best interest (and I mean that without irony). It can be hard to tell, which I guess is why people try to avoid the appearance of bias.
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: Hey, he’s just a “performance artist” “playing a character”. Of course that “character” is Harvey W, but …
:-/
Yeah, whoocouldaknowd?!?!
Cheers,
Scott.
frosty
@Tenar Arha: “I doubt Delta will move since having a southern hub in a non-desert state is convenient”
Old Southern saying in the railroad days: I don’t know if I’m going to Heaven or Hell but I know I have to change in Atlanta.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Probably just another character.
Steve in the ATL
@cain:
Historically, in Georgia commerce has trumped cultural issues. That seemed to change a bit when culture warrior David Perdue won the senate nomination over the pro business dude. It’s getting weird here.
Corner Stone
Sigh.
Anne Laurie
@Steve in the ATL: Me, I’m hoping it’s what the behaviorists call an extinction burst. When a behavior that was previously rewarded suddenly fails to elicit the expected reward, an organism will first respond by increasing the frequency and urgency of that behavior (e.g., when pushing the button no longer means a food pellet drops out of the chute, the lab rat will start pounding on the button furiously, or even attack the chute). “Normally”, after this increase in response energy fails to work, the organism will stop pushing the button. It takes some organisms longer than others to figure out, though.
WaterGirl
@Adam L Silverman: What does he mean by “I’ve left Newsweek?” Has he really left newsweek? (google says no.) Is the implication that he left newsweek because of this story?
Adam L Silverman
@Anne Laurie: Sounds like he’s all over the map. Fortunately it was just a hoax.
efgoldman
@Steve in the ATL:
All of a piece with the mouth breather flying monkeys taking over the party.
Steve in the ATL
@Anne Laurie: that’s my hope too!
Adam L Silverman
@WaterGirl: He was on an extended medical leave of absence after some alt-righter/4Channers tweeted gifs at him to induce an epileptic seizure. Which it did. A very, very bad one. They were able to track down who sent the gifs and they’ve been charged with a variety of crimes.
Newsweek has also, as he’s discussing, gone under a radical, negative publisher and editorial change. So I don’t know if he’s going to make a full and formal break.
Steve in the ATL
@efgoldman: ayup
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: I assumed that was one of her “little white lies”.
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman:
But if he’d lived in one of the ammosexual states, say FL or TX, it could have been a lot worse. It’s relatively difficult to get an assault weapon on MA
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: Yep.
Anne Laurie
@Adam L Silverman:
Or, as the Cato Institute might describe it, a free market failure!
Young white man with grievances can’t even buy ricin or anthrax through the mail, thanks to big-government nanny-ism! And if he should grow frustrated and resort to placebo mailings in an attempt to open a free and fair exchange of views, then jackbooted government agents will strongarm Glitterbombs.com for his address and sift through his garbage, seeking retribution under color of law! Even when that address is in a very white community of people with money, instead of some tenement hellhole teeming with brown folk and immigrants!
WaterGirl
@Adam L Silverman: That’s very helpful, thanks. That’s awful about the seizure. I hope they get some serious jail time. I don’t know about in humans, but one of my earlier dogs started getting seizures and if he had a really bad one, he was never quite the same. Do we know if this did permanent damage to Kurt E? Even thinking about this makes me sick.
Raven
Everyone who knew shit about this was against it until these dumb fucks 86d it.
Steve in the ATL
@efgoldman:
Can you not just buy one in live free or die NH and drive back to MA?
Raven
And Jorma was fucking awesome!
Adam L Silverman
@Anne Laurie: I’m going to have to get a tinfoil hat to make sense of that comment.//
Steve in the ATL
@Raven: Clayton County is heavily black. Shocking that the Georgia legislature would try to screw them over bigly to help a giant corporation littlely.
Wag
@Adam L Silverman:
Interesting. The drug in question, diethylpropion, is a stimulant used primarily for weight loss. It is a pharmacological cousin of the amphetamines. Per the NIH;
Adam L Silverman
@WaterGirl: Here are the details:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/technology/social-media-attack-that-set-off-a-seizure-leads-to-an-arrest.html
https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/17/14959168/kurt-eichenwald-fbi-arrest-strobe-epilepsy-twitter
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/man-arrested-for-allegedly-sending-newsweek-writer-a-seizure-inducing-tweet/
And from when the attack occurred.
Adam L Silverman
@Wag: Yep. Speed freak.
Raven
@Steve in the ATL: And when they decide not to like they are? I know, it’s their intention but I still find it ironic.
WaterGirl
@Adam L Silverman:
What the fuck is wrong with these people?
Wag
@WaterGirl:
Time to get the hell off Twitter. Twitter is a cesspool. Nothing on Twitter is positive enough to balance out the shit that flows out of its intertubes.
Adam L Silverman
@WaterGirl: We really don’t have enough time for a comprehensive rundown.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: You know who else was a speed freak.
chris
@Wag: Whoa! EffinBirds!
Steve in the ATL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Jackie Stewart?
Cheryl Rofer
@Adam L Silverman: “Metabolic imbalance” – I love the way these very general phrases are used for…whatever.
I recall a situation many years back when a locally rather well-known person was picked up running naked down the street. The cause, it was said, was a “chemical imbalance in his brain.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL: Austrian fellow, big back in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Had a funny mustache.
cain
@Wag:
Depends.. I follow a lot of Free Software/Open Source developers and my twitter is just fine. So is my facebook. Gotta hang with the right people.
efgoldman
@Steve in the ATL:
Sure. Or you could drive to PA or VA or GA or a gazillion other places. The key word was “relatively.” Takes some real effort. Also for the shlub in question, it would require leaving his mother’s basement.
magurakurin
ever flown Delta? Georgia GOP vs. Delta… I am rooting for injuries
clay
@Adam L Silverman: Weirdos all around. From the link in that tweet:
efgoldman
@efgoldman:
Also wouldn’t surprise me if MA state troopers lurk in the parking lots of well-know, close-to-the border death dealers in NH and stop the cars w/MA plates when they cross back over the border. That’s what they do w/MA registrations they spot in the (much cheaper) NH state liquor stores.
NH’s business model is based on getting non-residents to pay as much as possible.
Adam L Silverman
@clay: Dr. Feelgood.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yep.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: Bruce Banner has a metabolic imbalance.
J R in WV
@magurakurin:
Actually, reading about United staff repeatedly attacking customers of color, American flights with major problems, we quit flying with any airline domestically but Delta, if they can get us where we’re going.
Abroad we go with Air France, which is a completely different experience.
frosty
@Steve in the ATL: Earlier. Jim Clark. Some Scottish farmer or other.
clay
@Adam L Silverman: Trump being exposed to gamma radiation would explain SO MUCH.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV: I’ve had really bad experiences with Air France.
Citizen Alan
@clay:
Surely it would be some form of anti-gamma radiation. Instead of green and physically powerful, it turned him into a bloated, sickly orange slob. And while the Hulk may be cognitively impaired, he remains kind to and protective of the weak instead of turning into a degenerate sadist.
PaulWartenberg
I live in Florida.
I actively avoid flying Delta because of the Atlanta Hub, an utter nightmare that nearly every flight out of my state has to go through (at least Southwest provides flights straight to where I need to go).
With this move, I can see Delta relocating their Hub to say Nashville or Birmingham or Charlotte in order to retain control of the southeastern markets. But none of those airports are currently large enough to be THE Hub for the entire region, meaning Delta would have to “break up” their Hub and start thinking outside that box.
SO DO IT, DELTA. DESTROY THE ATLANTA HUB. DO IT! DOOOOOOO EEEEEEEETTTTTT!
Bobby Thomson
@Another Scott: pillow talk.
Daphne Black
@James E. Powell: 13 tickets symbolizes the 13 original colonies. Freedom!
BruceJ
@Adam L Silverman: Here’s the rest of the email: I, Lara Trump, the esteemed wife of President’s Son Eric Trump have acquired a Strongbox full of $18 (millions) USDollars that I wish to transfer out of
LagosWashington DC and earnestly request your help”