Month: April 2019

Without doubt the most clueless opinion piece of 2019: King Georges Edition

Our Views: Louisiana has chance to shed car insurance burden; don’t let greedy lawyers kill it ~ Baton Rouge Advocate Editorial Board

Eleven plus years ago Slabbed’s first topic and one that would dominate these pages for years involved the intersection of the insurance industry and it’s favorite taxpayer funded piggie to milk in the National Flood Insurance Program. Our focus was on the property and casualty side of the equation though we covered to a lesser extent auto insurance.

Pricing these financial vehicles are closely held trade secrets but we learned that retail insurers liked writing auto policies because the actuarial data was very reliable in predicting losses and so premiums could be, according to the insurers accurately priced versus property and casualty coverage which is accompanied by large tail risks associated with tropical cyclones. [Those interested in the concept of Fat Tail Risk should buy Nassim Taleb’s newest book or click here] Of course we also learned early on is that the insurance industry has an anti trust exemption that helps shield it from competition. Pricing thus is part an exercise in the arcane and part navigating smokescreens.

According to the Advocate, the problem is greedy lawyers and if the people would just give up more of their legal rights, Uncle Jimbo will wave his magic wand and make everything alright.

It is at this point that I’ll disclose what caused Slabbed to engage this particular issue is a twitter exchange between Lamar White and The Advocate’s lawyer Scott Sternberg over White pointing out the chief propagandist carrying the insurance industry’s message to the Louisiana legislature and that makes it rich on a couple of different levels. So when the Advocate blamed greedy lawyers for the high cost of insurance I immediately thought of the late Louis Nizer:

When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself.

It’s fair to wonder if the Advocate rents out it’s editorial page to the LABI Continue reading “Without doubt the most clueless opinion piece of 2019: King Georges Edition”

Other Voices | Tom Callaghan: Democratic Party Draft Ticket ~ Pelosi-Mueller

Our Country needs an Intervention. We need the best we’ve got. Nancy Pelosi and Bob Mueller are the best we’ve got.

Donald Trump and Sarah Sanders and Stephen Miller and Jared Kushner and Robert Barr are not the best we have. They’ve shown themselves to be a second string collection of liars and opportunists who make us look mean spirited, stupid and for sale to the highest bidder. They have two skills…lying and stoking hate.

There’s some serious stuff going on here, in our Country, and in the World. Business as usual will not suffice. We need honesty, wisdom and courage. We need goodness. Old fashioned stuff, corny stuff…for sure. Most of the time, goodness is part of the background music of the good old USA…America the Beautiful. We had it under Kennedy and Reagan and Poppy Bush and Obama. And, I’m sure, we would have had it under Romney or McCain, if they had won. For much of our history Americans have been thought of as a “good” people with “good” leaders who were generally well received wherever they went.

Wisdom, honesty, courage, goodness made that possible. Can anyone say with a straight face that is what Trump is about? The question answers itself. Be serious.

Yet, even though Trump is who he is, he’s probably a 50-50 shot of beating any combination of announced Democratic candidates composing a ticket on the Democratic side. That’s why we need an intervention. We have to go outside the box. We need a ticket of two people who have shown themselves, over time, to embody the basic virtues of honesty, courage, wisdom and goodness plus have demonstrated skills at government. Two people whose past accomplishments command respect and, by virtue of that respect, allow them to assemble a bi-partisan team of the best and the brightest. Continue Reading…..

County to State Senator Phillip Moran: Tighten up on Mosquito Control…..(Updated)

Earlier this month County Administrator Eddie Favre sent the following letter to Phillip’s Pest Control.

Eddie Favre Letter to Philip Moran by Slabbed on Scribd

Update

Here is the letter Mayor Mike Smith sent to the County on Mosquito Control Continue reading “County to State Senator Phillip Moran: Tighten up on Mosquito Control…..(Updated)”

No good deed goes unpunished but what about the bad ones?

Sheriff Adam Fund Raiser using County EMS Tent | Reader submitted photo
Sheriff Adam Fund Raiser using County EMS Tent | Reader submitted photo

On the use of the Emergency Management Dept. tent by Kendra Necaise for her campaign fund raiser [constitutes an] “improper use of county assets”, as State Auditor’s office said 2 weeks ago. It seems like there are 2 or more County employees and one elected official that were involved in this situation. The employees are subject to disciplinary action by the Supervisors as per the Employee Handbook. The elected officials actions could be brought to the attention of either the State Ethics Commission or State Auditor’s Office. (Edited for clarity}

Being as this is an election year I imagine people have already complained about certain candidates use of the County EMS tent and allegedly trustee labor for their political fund raisers up to Jackson. Pictured above is from Sheriff Adam’s campaign event.

As far as those signs the Rotary club bought and installed without collaborating with the County:

Supervisors voted unanimously to have Bay St. Louis Rotary Club be given notice that the bottom of their signs which advertise their personal, for profit businesses have to be removed. The public information on keeping the beaches clean is okay. The removal has to be done by this Friday, April 19, or County Road Administrator’s beach crew will remove them.

Ultimately a couple of wrenches will solve this problem. Slabbed has no problem memorializing those that made the signs possible so following are some pictures of them taken recently on a gorgeous spring day earlier this month for our out of town readers. Continue reading “No good deed goes unpunished but what about the bad ones?”

Other Voices | Tom Callaghan: Observations No. 1

Posted on April 8, 2019

HAS TRUMP HACKED THE POLLS? How hard would it be to hack the polls? Not very hard at all. Why would anyone want to? Think about where we are now. The Conventional Wisdom holds that Trump can’t be removed from office because his base is still with him. We “know” his base is still with him because “the polls” say they are. In other words, the polls ARE the Conventional Wisdom.

The polls are Trump’s life line. They are key to whatever power Trump has left on Capitol Hill (elected officials watch the polls constantly) and his ability to draw crowds in so called “Trump Country.” Currently, Gallup has Trump at 39% job approval which is on the low side for a normal President interested in successfully governing. That’s not Trump. Trump is in survival mode. Actual public service and stewardship…please, that’s not Trump’s cup of tea. Trump has a desperate need to survive. He has to stay in the White House. Take him out of the White House and he’s looking at lawsuits, back taxes and criminal trials at the State and Federal Level.

If you look at Trump’s Job Approval numbers (Gallup) since he’s been in office they haven’t been above 45% or below 35%. That narrow band makes me suspicious. (Obama fluctuated between 69% and 40% and George W Bush between 90%, right after 9-11, and 25%). Trump’s poll numbers look managed and phony. How would Trump’s people execute a hack? Not my field of expertise…ask Mark Zuckerberg. I do know ethical considerations didn’t (or wouldn’t) stop them. Good poll numbers beget better poll numbers. The subject appears in command and looks like a winner. Bad poll numbers beget worse poll numbers as the subject appears out of control and looks like a loser.

Do you think the guy who gave us Trump University and bone spurs is going to leave his fate in the hands of his fellow citizens responding to poll questions and not seek to doctor the system? I don’t think so either. Continue Reading…..