Jackson Jambalaya

KF, you providing the Tshirts or music?

Oh, this is PRICELESS!!! There's even a PROGRAM, with the classic Mississippi listing of absolutely everybody who participated. All that's missing is "Entrance of the Mother of the Bride".

I can't be there on a Wednesday morning. I have a job. What do all these protesters do for a living?

Economics 101: How to make sure a business fails.

1) DEMAND minority participation no matter the contract price or skillset of set workers/contractors.

Lesson over.

5-6 people, in a line, filmed by local media. more reporters than 'protesters'...

There already is Minority Participation and many have signed up. Is this more about Unions? I heard Hillary putting down "Right To Work". This is one of Mississippi's best drawing cards for industry. We are a "Right To Work" State. Keep the leeches out of here; IMO that is all a Union is: Legalized Leeches.

If I were in charge of the plant, I would take a serious look at what is going on here. This is just the first shakedown, believe me there are others to come. If it is not too late, pull out and go where you are appreciated and can run your own job hiring, tax paying, community involved company. How long are we going to have to listen too self serving leeches while trying to grow and improve this state?

This IS their job. The handful of protestors that actually showed up will be paid $20 and given donuts. That's the way every Kenny Stokes type "protest" works. The sad thing is that the 10 protesters will get more media coverage than the 800 citizens (black and white) that showed up for the town hall meeting a few weeks ago.

why are the "sponsors" covered up???

If Benny is involved, when and where is da fish fry?

Antonio is organizing this? Good. Maybe y'all can finally leave black folk out of it and spew yo' vitriol towards the I-talians this time.

Yeah Im with 12:33... Lets see the sponsors!

As usual they will march in the streets and demand that other people and organizations actually do something, instead of themselves compiling a list of minority people and businesses that can do the required work and obtaining a meeting with their contractors and admin people. But at least (the very least) he started a conversation.

Continental Tire will regret moving to Mississippi. Dollar General put a distribution center in Indianola several years ago and now the upper management makes statements like "WE WISH WE HAD NEVER SEEN THIS STATE". I suggest Continental Tire re-think their move to this failing state. WOW !!!! ARMPIT OF THE SOUTH !!!!!

Why do so many blacks keep falling into these traps? I know several black contractors who make a living out of being black contractors. 'Incompetent' is the best way to describe them as a group. Some have been at it for 20 years or more and are still poor contractors. Why don't blacks want to compete and be good at what they do? Why do they follow leaders who lead them down these paths instead of leaders who tell them they can do anything that anyone else can do, but they have to earn it.
If your child was on an all white basketball team and every time they played an all back team, the white team was spotted 10 points before the game started, would you be in favor of that? I would not.
Signed - Puzzled.

"Inspirational Music"? Cool....

BS!! As soon as this plant opens the employee parking lot will be filled with DUBs ridin' on 24s.

yeah--mississippi is a real draw for industry..said no one ever. we have a few nice plants and we're some sort of economic powerhouse? get real. industry does not flourish in places without skilled labor..aka education of the masses. you just have to look over the border at alabama to see how much more they have, and thats only going up from 50 to 47...

i might be able to take off work and go, but that depends on who is handling the donuts and lunch. i will have to pass if it's mama's eats & sweets. but if donut palace and mcalisters are in, i'm there. think they will be passing out those cardstock fans, too?

NewsFlash - -

BLM is rumored to hold a protest rally at 3:30 at Smith Park.

Who is Antonio Pope and what if any business or scam is he affiliated? Who are the hidden sponsors?

Before I commit, I gots to see the lunch menu.

And the reporter will be Ross Adams from WAPT that loves shoving his microphone in peoples faces asking stupid questions then running to Stokes to get his opinion

I can probably make it for the donuts...

1:43 is full of it, I know people with the Dollar General dist. warehouse and they are satisfied with Mississippi. You may not like it but other companies just might think Mississippi is a nice place for a warehouse or plant. I believe Nissan has added production, labor and is satisfied. Since you don't seem to live here just STFU.

Wonder if Mayor Fisher will attend since its in Clinton at his city hall.

Attn 1:43
How do you think Nissan liked the current Madison county board of supervisors trying to revoke tax incentives because when granted the board had different members than the current members. So what the current supervisors were saying was "We give you 10 years of tax incentives "UNLESS" the current membership changes. Fortunately it didn't work, but look what companies are having to deal with.

4:31 - when did the MDBOS attempt to revoke the tax incentives?

2:11 - You're obviously a topwater lightweight. I was involved in staffing Grand Gulf when they first broke ground in '73. Community colleges came together and provided the needed skills and educational training. A year later and a humongous hole in the earth began what is now one of the premier nuclear power plants in the southeast region.

The same was true when Boeing Military Airplane Company 'landed' in Greenville and when Nissan chose Canton fifteen years ago. Training is available in this state for those who are serious about work and their future.

All is not a shit-house here as you want to believe.

If this project turns to dung, it will be because of the naysayers, the black demanders, the flag protesters, the cop haters and the front porch sitters. But, they are not a majority. Turn your cap around, Boy!

5:46 PM

Like

2:35, didn't know who he is until I looked up the nonprofit profile on the SOS office website. Looks like he is the CEO of a couple of minority businesses (with 1 employee). One seems to haul off garbage maybe and the other sells pumps? I guess he buys them from Grainger, puts the small disadvantaged business premium on top and sells the to businesses required to do work with such establishments. This is based on the address listed on the nonprofit filing. Both those businesses have the same address. Looks like a rental house, not sure.

Just a few weeks ago, the CL published an article about how the Nissan plant had exceeded all expectations in terms of employees, output, tax receipts, etc. Continental will be the same. Let the morons have their day in the scorching hot sun.

I would like to see what small contractors sign their name to this protest. They will be signing off on any future contracts for any state project in the future. Most of the "contractors" involved in this don't even own a shovel. They just want their share of the pie for showing up. That may be how its done in Jackson, but look at Jackson.

When I think of minority contractors getting a piece of the pie when they are not qualified the first thing that comes to mind in the Hinds County Penal Farm. It has been falling apart since before it was ever occupied. Awarding a contract to someone based solely on his/her skin color has proven to be a disaster time after time. Get the best to build it (whatever "it" might be) and the cost in the long run will be less.

"4:31 - when did the MDBOS attempt to revoke the tax incentives? "

I don't think they did. I think the City of Canton or its city council tried to do that.

4:31 - when did the MDBOS attempt to revoke the tax incentives?

Please catch up and stop commenting until you do.

Hinds County jail was a white contractor.

Correct about Blackmon and Canton trying to goose $$$ out of Nissan. Nissan said "speak to the hand."

11:34 General contractor was white but the design team and general contractor had to sub parts out to specific firms that did not produce but had to be paid. The is a early text book example of what not to do. Blacks need to just learn how to get job done rather being just being paid.

How is it good for anyone when there is preference given to minority contractors?
It isn't good for the project as it usually ends up with shoddy work done by inexperienced contractors and workers.
It isn't good for the people paying for the project (tax payers) as they will have to pay more for less quality.
It isn't even good for the contractors if they are real contractors.

I get sick and tired of these racist nuts who generalize everything ever done by Black people so they can appear perfect. In Mississippi like South Africa there are damn few black people who have remained in this hellhole if they have the experience and capital to contract a major project. But the state is full of majority black districts and cities where black people have political clout but little else. Enter the contract hustler whose only skill is getting "minority" contracts and getting paid. The same game was played by every white ethnic group in America until it was played out. Go to New York and New Jersey and see what you had to do to get a major contract. It had nothing to do with your skills. But somehow Black people can never do right. Jeez.

For Jeez @ 9:29: Successful completion of a project requires several things; among them - tools, employees, capability, work ethic, personal responsibility, pride in performance and expectations of self and others.

It's really not rocket science.

Any contract let by Hinds County between 1996 and 2014 was an inside deal. White and black alike. Where do you think the black supervisors learned to do it?

10:19, how racist can a person be. Imagine asking a contractor for tools, employees, work ethic, personal responsibility, pride in performance and expectations of self and others. You should know the only question that is ever asked is what color are you.

Of course before Black people entered the picture in the 80's there was never graft and corruption. Especially in Mississippi.

2:41
YOU are the race-obsessed asshole in this thread.
If you really think that the only question asked is what color are you, then you are an ignorant fool. The only question asked by the people I know (having been in the design/construction field for 25 years) is, can you get the job done. In the time frame proposed, and on or under budget.
It's morons like you, that refuse to leave the 1960's, that are dragging everyone else down.

Of course before Black people entered the picture in the 80's there was never graft and corruption. Especially in Mississippi.

Yup. The white Democrats were corrupt as hell until then.

The Hinds county jail project used a minority engineering firm, I believe their main office was in Detroit. They made major errors. One that I knew about was they left out all of the floor drains. I owned a construction business in Jackson at the time. I was much too small to be involved in this project, but I heard about the floor drains BEFORE the job was bid. If I knew about it, a lot of people knew about it. Still, no one corrected the error. The contract was awarded and work started. If my memory is correct Dunn Construction, in an effort to maximize both their profit and sleaziness, waited until after the foundation was poured to ask for a change order to install drains. I believe this same engineering firm did mechanical and electrical. According to press reports electrical systems have certainly been a nightmare and continues to be so today.
One problem is that when people who are not contractors, people who make decisions like mayors, councilmen, and supervisors read comments from actual contractors about how incompetent most minority contractors are in the Jackson area, they take the easy way out and decide that the people saying that are just old racist white guys. They refuse to believe the truth. I read it on here almost daily. What a sham this is. If they would stop these illegal set asides, the free market would weed out the real contractors from the pretenders.
Certainly in 1960 there were real forces working against minorities in the market place. It it not 1960 anymore. Let everyone stand of their own feet. The industry would benefit and more importantly the tax payers would benefit.

When a prisoner can open a cell door with a towel there is a problem. There is nothing a person can say that will excuse this. A contractor that makes a cell door that can be opened with a towel should loose their license.
It doesn't matter if the contractor is a minority company or not. Any company that cannot build a door that cannot be opened with a towel should not be in business.

Any links available to show that white general contractors were producing shoddy public-building work in the sixties and seventies?

Take your time....

There well might have been 'corruption' but it was not due to set asides and incompetence and poor workmanship.

The problem here is, "What color are you? Black? OK, you got the job. Send us a bill."

For those of you who think people are exaggerating about minority contractors, all of these things happened to me in the past six months. These were minority contractors who have contracts to work on commercial projects that are more than $10,000,000 in size. If you are not familiar with construction some of this may not ring a bell, but it is all amazing.
1. A contractor who claims more than 30 years experience did not know what a submittal was or how to prepare one.
2. An earthwork contractor who claims 40 years experience did not understand the difference between a Proctor test and a compaction test.
3. A contractor submitted a bid and included a copy of his cost estimate. The estimate was hand written. The total price was about $30,000 too low because the numbers were incorrectly added. After I allowed him to correct his error, he resubmitted the estimate. In the second estimate these numbers were also incorrectly added.
4. I asked a contractor for submittals. The next day I got a call from a material supplier who said the contractor asked him to prepare submittals for the project but never gave him a copy of the plans or specifications.
If I had been making a list I could list another ten or twelve amazingly incompetent things. These are just off the top of my head.

Who wants to bet this group is sponsored by Socrates Garrett to put pressure on the Continental Tire folks to get some bogus minority contract so he can subcontract the work out to protesters.

What are the chances these protests are simply a knee-jerk reaction to the suggestion that the 'tar plant' is just a Trump Scheme to make black folk go to work?

From the famous book "Community Organizing", in Chapter Six, these organized responses to intrusion are discussed. Quoting from the text, "When your societal comfort zone is threatened in any way, an immediate protest must be undertaken. If you delay, you are accepting the intrusion".

After all, we do tend to express a degree of alarm at the prospect of our apple-cart being over-turned. Don't we?

9:26, sadly these "contractors" will end up getting the job. If the job is completed it will be another jail with tin foil doors.

Question: In Jackson, aren't whites actually the minority now????

11:37, doesn't matter who is the minority. In Jackson when minorities are mentioned it means only blacks should apply.
Sort of reminds me of many years ago when there were no blacks allowed signs. Wonder if we will ever see a law stopping the minorities only signs?

Will Bennie G. look into this? Or, more important, will there be a fish fry$

9:19 - thanks for correcting the b/s statement of 4:31. There is a lot of difference between the 'leadership' of the City of Canton - under its prior Mayor and the legal guidance of Ed Blackman - and the Madison County Board of Supervisors.

Yes, Canton and the Blackmans tried to hold up Nissan and take back the deal struck when Nissan located. I realize that DO and friends don't like anything done by the new BOS in Madison County, but there is just so far you can go with trying to spread the manure and stay believable.

Sorry for the digression about the minority set-aside crap that controls Hinds County politics because it is something that needs to be exposed. Just wanted 4:31 to have to stand up and defend his b/s statement.

"Economics 101: How to make sure a business fails.

1) DEMAND minority participation no matter the contract price or skillset of set workers/contractors.

Lesson over.

July 8, 2016 at 11:20 AM"

JT read this comment verbatim on the air, is supertalk now combing JJ for content?