THEY LEAVE WRECKAGE BEHIND WHEREVER THEY GO:

UPDATE: The real question isn’t what will happen to Spirit? It’s where will Spirit’s customers go?

OPEN THREAD: Party on, dudes and dudettes.

“THESE GUYS LEFT NAZI GERMANY, AND MUSSOLINI’S ITALY, TO COME TO CALIFORNIA IN THE 1940s, AND THEY LIVED BY THE BEACH, AND THEY WERE DEPRESSED BY THE RELENTLESS CHEERINESS, the productivity, and the capitalism that they witnessed around them:”

IT’S GOOD TO BE IN THE NOMENKLATURA:

Related:

MINNESOTA: A CAUTIONARY TALE.

Don’t be Minnesota.

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune,

Don’t Minnesota my state: Land of 10,000 Lakes becomes a political punching bag.

The Star Tribune is completely baffled by this development, which they view as wholly undeserved. The Star Tribune blames “conservative candidates” and Trump for the phenomenon.

The Star Tribune tracks down a political science professor who attributes the state’s unwanted status entirely to a Trump “grudge.”

No, I think there’s more to Minnesota’s recent PR decline than that:

UNEXPECTEDLY: Jon Stewart Hearts Nazi-Tatted Pol Graham Platner.

Newsbusters reports that Stewart gave Platner a chummy interview earlier this week on his “Weekly Show” podcast. First, Stewart compared him to a classic movie underdog.

…here’s, kind of, always the fable of a Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, a kind of, you know, an honest man who has real ideals facing off against a corrupt system that is fueled by money and toxicity and all these—so there is an archetype for this.

Later, Stewart brought up the tattoo issue without mentioning its Nazi roots. He did so while thoroughly explaining away the matter, sweeping it under the electoral rug so listeners could see Platner as a changed man.

Platner’s PR team couldn’t have scripted the exchange any better.

Old and busted: “Punch a Nazi.”

The new hotness?

THIS WILL NEVER NOT BE HILARIOUS:

HOW IT STARTED: GameStop rally is warning that market bubbles have gone mad.

—The New York Post, January 27th, 2021.

How It’s Going: GameStop wants to buy eBay in an aggressive pivot to e-commerce. “The size mismatch is hard to overlook. GameStop carries a market value of around $12 billion; eBay sits closer to $46 billion. Despite that gap, GameStop has already been quietly building a stake in eBay ahead of a potential bid – a signal that [GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen] is willing to swing big rather than chip away at e-commerce incrementally. Markets moved fast after the news broke. eBay shares jumped more than 10% in after-hours trading, and GameStop climbed around 5%, as investors registered a mix of optimism and curiosity about what this combination could actually look like.”