Alternative New Media for the Gulf South
Slabbed is putting out this public service notice that everyone should keep an eye out for counterfeiters this coming Second Saturday in Old Town Bay St Louis, the Coolest Small Town this side of Mayberry.
First up is the RollingStone’s Matt Taibbi take down of the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, who likely has no clue how the average American citizen lives their daily lives. Friedman, likely the wealthiest journalist in the country, is an unabashed proponent of globalization that sees the world divided into two factions, those that like the trend towards the globalization of the world’s economy and those that don’t.
The problem for Friedman being the entire topic is far more complicated than simply painting the opponents of globalization as election year losers (think Bernie Sanders supporters and soon Trump’s). To understand where I’m going with this you must first read Taibbi’s piece because the price of globalization is inequality (income, political and other) along the decimation of the United States middle class. These built in inequalities drove the Brexit vote and no doubt plays a role in the thinking of both Trump and Sanders supporters, which I’m going to illustrate with a picture a reader sent me a while back:
Those that follow Slabbed’s twitter timeline have witnessed our coverage of the downsizing of the New Orleans RDS office, which I’m getting from a very well placed source. Shell has not exactly made a secret of what they are doing downsizing its New Orleans office but you can’t view what is happening now through the same lens used to examine previous oil patch bust layoffs. Here is an edited comment from Slabbed’s source on the current happenings in NOLA at RDS: Continue reading “Twofer Tuesday Business”
Kingfish at Jackson Jambalaya profiled Senate Bill 2587 and its impact on Bay St Louis’ perpetual Interim Chief Building Inspector Charles Oliver last Saturday that is well worth the read. Kingfish nailed the situation at the end of the post and as a point of disclosure it was JJ’s coverage of the same situations in Jackson and Hattiesburg involving this exact issue that made us hip to it here at Slabbed:
Kingfish note: Mayors Johnny Dupree, Frank Melton, Chokwe Lumumba and especially Les Fillingane all appointed department heads on an interim basis whom they knew would face confirmation problems. Checks and balances can be such a nasty thing but are a fundamental part of representative government. It is also tempting for Mayors to find any means possible to avoid answering to anyone on anything. The city council apparently had enough of the foolishness and put an end to some of it.
Rafferty can argue all he wants BUT department heads are municipal employees. There are some department heads who are subject to confirmation votes by the city council. Thus the law applies to them as well.
Mr. Rafferty is now the former City Attorney and that brings us to a well written story run under a misleading headline:
Bay Council cancels counsel’s contract ~ Stacey Cato
The term “cancels” carries with it the connotation of the council taking an affirmative action when the reality is the City Attorney’s contract simply expired or an even more precise term “not renewed”, both correct terms contained in the lead off in Stacey’s story. Allowing something to expire or to not renew a contract by not holding a vote on extending it further in reality is not affirmative action at all. It is that very difference where the Attorney General’s opinion that Mayor Fillingame had no statutory authority to veto the non-renewal in June draws its basis for support. Despite the Mayor and former City Attorney’s protestations to the contrary, this is not a unique or new concept in Mississippi’s various governance statutes. However, it is abundantly clear from the quotes Stacey snagged for her piece that Mayor Fillingame remains in deep denial: Continue reading “How about an update for the Bay”
With the tip of the hat to our tipster I’d like to share with everyone the boat DMR Executive Director Jamie Miller authorized for use in the snapper sampling program per Slabbed New Media’s source, who is been granted anonymity as they are not authorized to publicly discuss such matters. The next step was to issue the call for pictures:
Attention Mississippi DMR employees and stakeholders: Slabbed needs a picture and unless you’re under a rock you know what we want. TY.
— Slabbed New Media (@SlabbedNewMedia) August 4, 2016
It is the boat true, die-hard fishermen dream of. The boat that has but one reason to exist: to help you catch the kind of fish that win tournaments – plain and simple.
And with a bigger tip of the hat to a photographer who answered the call and was able to sneak a pic: Continue reading “Slabbed Introduces the newest addition to the DMR Fleet: Ain’t she a beaut!!”
Published on Aug 2, 2016
She hasn’t made it easy for me. Her speaking style grates and she rarely is able to hold the full attention of an audience. Plus, her relationship with the truth is ambiguous at best.
Consequently, I’m definitely not for her in the same way I’ve been for Obama who, in my opinion, will go down in history as a top ten President. But, as between Hillary and Trump … please.
A couple of things have pushed me into her column.
She made a great pick for Vice President in former Governor and sitting Senator from Virginia Tim Kaine. Kaine balances Hillary the same way meat and potatoes Joe Biden balanced professorial Barack Obama. Both Biden and Kaine can go into a working-class bar and pick up some votes and both look like they could hold their own if a fight broke out. The good news is that Kaine is smarter than Joe and unlike Joe, he recognizes that all sentences must eventually come to an end.
She ran a good Convention and gave a solid acceptance speech. Not quite to the level of Michelle and Barack Obama, but workmanlike … consistent with who she is. Plus, she got the infinitely annoying and incompetent Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democratic National Committee Chair, to finally go away … far away. Continue Reading……
Folks this is 2016 and you’d think the days of using the fried chicken analogy as a form of politically motivated coded racism would be long gone but they are not. (H/T) To a reader that attended the River Region Republican Women Celebrity Cook off.
Present when Reynaud made the remarks were State GOP Chairman Roger Villere along with a bevy of other State wide Elected Officials and a certain local Democrat, who witnessed the gaffe:
A reader that was present was kind enough to snap a quick picture of Reynaud adding the crowd groaned when he made the remark: Continue reading “GOP Kenner City Councilman – Mayoral Candidate Keith Reynaud Equates Democrats and Fried Chicken”
A Long Island engineering company and one of its former executives were charged on Monday in a scheme to minimize insurance payments to homeowners whose residences were damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
The full Indictment is available here.
I reckon Nielsen and the rest of the gang has got a sharp eye peeled on this latest turn of events. After Katrina the DoJ, then under President Bushie, preferred not to take on any large campaign contributors insurance companies, even if they defrauded the taxpayers. That really has not changed under Obama with the development of the twin legal theories in “too big to fail” and “too big to jail” so the New York AG’s referral of other potential criminal acts to the US DoJ is certain to die on the vine. Continue reading “Those that dealt with insurers and their pet engineering firms after Katrina can certainly relate”
The tired old saying “Do as I say, not as I do” comes to mind with the story of the Desoto County axe attack by a member of the Mississippi Republican Executive Committee, the same folks that repeatedly try to shove their whacked out religious beliefs down everyone else’s throats. In the case of Axe lady Heather Fox, who is married with small children, jealousy and firewater mixed together are not a good combination.
The incident report stated that the owner of the home, whose identity was “blacked out” or redacted by authorities, told deputies that Fox was “irate,’ because another person, also unidentified, was at the residence.
Fox was said to be angry at the other unidentified person because she had allegedly keyed her vehicle on a prior occasion and “stole her swimsuit.”
The report stated that Fox told the owner of the residence that their “relationship was over” if the other individual did not leave the residence.
This morning has been interesting because I’ve heard from more folks up in North Mississippi than I had in quite some time with all pointing to Kendall Prewett as the victim of the Axe attack gone wrong. Mr. Prewett is the Regional Coordinator and Campaign Committee Member at Donald J. Trump Campaign for President according to his Facebook page. Ms. Fox, the perpetrator per the law enforcement report would share supporting Trump with Mr. Prewett but even better would be a picture of them together: Continue reading “MAGA, with an Axe”