Month: November 2018

@CindyHydeSmith acts out on twitter and is now being #ratioed to hell…….

Words We’re Watching: ‘Ratioed’ ~ Merriam Webster

Ratioing (yes, it’s really a word) is common enough on Twitter that it has its own hashtag: #ratioed (also really a word). It refers to the negative response that a tweet gets.

Welp folks, evidently you can take the girl outta Lincoln County but you can’t take the chaw outta her mouth:

This led me to wonder what, if anything, Melissa Scallan had to do with that tweet since she runs Coms for Hyde Smith. While her time as an editor for the Sun Herald is best described as undistinguished, I never figured her for one that hated the media given her background. Whoever thought using Cindy Hyde Smith’s twitter account this way was a good idea is clearly a cyber-simpleton. Now for some reaction which shows how badly Smith has been ratioed:


Continue reading “@CindyHydeSmith acts out on twitter and is now being #ratioed to hell…….”

What is going on with the Sun Herald? A Microcosm of the impacts of too much leverage in a declining industry

Over the past 6 weeks or so I’ve been asked by numerous folks what is going on at the Sun Herald and besides another layoff to go with the one earlier this year the answer is not much.  The complaints I’ve heard from older readers that grew up reading the daily newspaper do not seem very encouraging.

I had a chance recently to spend a few minutes chatting with a member of the media, who told me about canceling their Sun Herald subscription because it had become so expensive while the content of the newspaper seems less and less.  This was a productive exchange of information because I found out that those who canceled are offered far better renewal rates to come back on board.

Not two days after I spoke with a nice lady in her late 70s who volunteered to me she too had just canceled her subscription because of the combination of price and lack of content.  I assured the lady she would be getting a phone call to renew her subscription at a discounted rate, which I later confirmed did happen.  The telemarketer promised this person that with the new Publisher in place content would be increasing.  I took that promise as long term counterproductive sales puffery because it takes people to generate content and the paper isn’t expanding its workforce, the opposite is true. The next time the lady cancels, getting her back will not be nearly so easy.

To be clear, the Sun Herald is not completely devoid of  talent. Anita Lee is still around as is Karen Nelson, Robin Fitzgerald and Margaret Baker. The sports department was cut earlier this year with Patrick Ochs ultimately leaving for sports Coms at PRCC leaving Patrick Magee as a one man sports band.  The coverage of local high school sports has suffered as a result.  For example WXXV did profiles of the coast football teams this past July/August, something the Sun Herald used to roll out in a special section. Cutting sports is huge in my mind because the sports section is typically the most trafficked part of online news sites, so I am not sure what McClatchy accomplished there cutting the second sports reporter. Continue reading “What is going on with the Sun Herald? A Microcosm of the impacts of too much leverage in a declining industry”

Ethics Commission Dismisses Open Meeting Complaint Against Bay Mayor and Council

They sure did folks involving two separate incidents, the first involving the Delta water contract and the other involving lunch with developer Jim Macphaille at his restaurant 200 North Beach. This document is not yet online at Mississippi Ethics so Slabbed’s readers get the sneak peek.

Click to Obtain 6 page pdf
Click to Obtain 6 page pdf

I am aware of several other ethics complaints that have been made against the City, I suspect each is very close to a resolution. Stay tuned.

Other Voices | Tom Callaghan: Nancy Pelosi gets a life

In 1987, the Congresswoman in the Northern California District where Nancy Pelosi lived, Rep. Sala Burton, died of cancer. Before she died, Sala asked Nancy to consider running for her congressional seat when it became vacant.

At the time, the youngest of Nancy’s five children was a senior in high school. Nancy decided she had to ask her youngest daughter for permission to make the run. Her daughter’s response was, “Mother, get a life.”

Nancy got the message. She ran and won the first of seventeen winning races for congress. In her thirty one year congressional career she has been a force for liberalism and peace on every major issue or legislative initiative that has come before the congress. She’s served on the Appropriations and Intelligence Committees and occupied virtually all the leadership positions in the House plus four years as the only woman Speaker of the House in our history.

Of the 10,947 individuals who have served in the House of Representatives since the founding of our country it would be hard to name five members who have had a greater impact on their time than Nancy has had on hers. Plus, it’s not over for Nancy, not by a long shot.

On November 28, 2018 Democratic members of the House of Representatives will caucus to select their leadership team. The conventional wisdom holds that Nancy Pelosi will be the choice of an overwhelming majority of Democratic Members to be the next Speaker of the House. That’s the conventional wisdom. I’m a Nancy Pelosi fan so I hope the conventional wisdom will prove to be true. Continue Reading…..

It’s called the silly season for a reason. A quick primer for tomorrow’s run-off elections (Updated)

Tomorrow is the run off elections and while most folks are paying attention to the US Senate race here in South Mississippi there is also a Chancery judge runoff between Sandy Steckler and Margaret Alfonso. You do not find too much analysis of the nonpartisan judicial elections here in Mississippi and it is interesting in what one finds when the political affiliations are removed from the equation.

Steckler took Stone County outright and won a plurality in Hancock County while Alfonso won a plurality in Harrison County. What each County had in common is the precincts with the highest numbers of African Americans broke consistently for Alfonso. For example Alfonso won the Bay City Hall precinct 250-111 over Steckler. Here in Stone County, New Hope went for Alfonso 228-149. In Harrison County Alfonso won North Bel-Aire 857-565. Overall, eastern Harrison County was Steckler’s core base of support while western Harrison County supported Alfonso.

If the 6200 Harrison County votes for Diane Herman Ellis turn back out to support Alfonso this race is done with Alfonso winning. But since it is a run-off election turning out your supporters is key. Based on the voting patterns from November 6, having Mike Espy on the same ballot should help Alfonso.

Next up is the Senate race. First we need to stop pretending this race is competitive because it isn’t. Should Mike Espy win such would be a monumental upset of the kind that rarely happens in southern politics. But since Donald Trump has polarized the Nation like no President since Richard Nixon that calculus goes out the window because all of the extra blue wave money came to Mississippi and that, coupled with an extremely weak candidate in Cindy Hyde Smith, who evidently was born with a rubber farm boot in her mouth has created a side show circus:

Dear Senator, the Camera is always rolling – Jackson Jambalaya

I highly recommend also reading the comments to that post. The fact is Cindy Hyde Smith was not the crowd’s choice for Thad’s old senate seat and her inability to think on her feet is a major handicap for a national politician. It’s a gift for the progressive side of the media and the unflattering news coverage is not hard to find. Continue reading “It’s called the silly season for a reason. A quick primer for tomorrow’s run-off elections (Updated)”

Mid-term election special: Trumpy and the Wingnuts got their asses kicked

Just not quite as bad as Bush did in 2006 or Obama did in 2010 but an ass kicking is an ass kicking. Ironically the reason Obama got his ass kicked in 2010 seems to have come around full circle:

Red-State Voters Opt for Obamacare – Mattie Quinn

Making sure the working poor have access to health insurance pays for itself, unlike tax cuts, and the unwashed masses appear to have figured this out. If you believe exit polling and I think there is a kernel of truth to what the exit polls found last week, health care ranked number 1 on the list of issues that were most important to those that voted. In Arizona, Wing-nut Senatorial Candidate Martha McSally resorted to lying about her record of trying to gut access to health insurance in a vain attempt to run from her past votes on that issue. You wonder who the hell these Wingnuts thought they were representing trying repeatedly to increase the ranks of the uninsured over the last two years but it wasn’t their constituents. Back to healthy workers being more productive, from Quinn’s article in Governing magazine linked above:

While the price tag of Medicaid expansion can come with some sticker shock, independent analyses have found that states often save money by insuring people — there are fewer instances of uncompensated care, and people are healthier when they have insurance. According to a 2016 report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 11 states experienced some savings from Medicaid expansion.

2016 studies showing healthy populations pay for themselves are fine and dandy but is there more recent data? How about from next door in Louisiana:

Medicaid expansion created 19,000 new jobs in Louisiana, according to study ~ Marcia Clark

Phil Bryant’s mishandling of this issue will be the biggest stain on whatever legacy he leaves the state and the refusal of Phil and the GOP to take Medicaid expansion to cover the working poor has contributed to some very real problems in Mississippi such as community hospitals breaking under the weight of having to eat the cost of uncompensated care along with the sheer human misery of not being able to have sufficient access to the health care system.

It is against this backdrop that an idea from the far left has gathered significant traction even among the right wing: Continue reading “Mid-term election special: Trumpy and the Wingnuts got their asses kicked”