Not true, but I thot I would start with a funny. It only took 49 years to figure this out;
Maverik, a rival chain that bought Kum & Go in 2023, announced that it’s in “process of rebranding Kum & Go stores, with the intent to unify our entire combined footprint under the Maverik brand,” marking an eventual end to the 49-year-old naughty name.
So I encourage my readers to Kum up with new names, I’m going with Bum & HO.
The Skab is at it again, being the propaganda wing of the SD GOP;
The Republican president, who last week won back the White White White House in a landslide victory
OK, they didn’t say White 3 times, but they should have. DJT got 1M more votes then he did in 2020. It wasn’t a landslide, it was a squeaker. He pretty much secured his base and Harris did not. To be honest, it is kind of sad, you had 4 years to improve your numbers and this is all you got?! A landslide in my opinion is taking the popular vote by at least 5 points.
The Skab is a Red Meat publication, and little else. I would be embarrassed as a journalist to be this bias. Oh, I am bias, but I am also an editorial blogger who doesn’t have to fight with my sales department. I also find it ironic that after a few years their subscriptions are only 7,000. Pretty sad considering they are doing public notices for over 200K people. I don’t have a subscription on my site, but if I looked at data I have about 10,000 unique visits a month. I make very little money, so I don’t care, but when you try to be the propaganda wing of the SD GOP and only have a teeny tiny subscription rate it makes you wonder if it really matters. Recently someone who advertised in the Skab told me he got no bump in business from the ad. And I said, ‘Why would yah?’ You have a bunch of right wing nuts commenting and reading the site. Extremists in both parties only make up about 20% of the electorate respectively. So why do we tolerate this horse sh!t? I encourage everyone to cancel their subscription, it’s not news, it’s just huff and puff and a bunch of misspelled words from a boozer staff.
I think once Americans will be forced to eat canned sodium filled vegetables for a year they will realize how much of a mistake it was (can’t wait to see the images of rotting vegetables in California fields). When your policy is based on discrimination, nothing good comes from it. I told friends today, enjoy your local ethic restaurants over the next few months, because after DJT takes office our options will be Panda Express and Taco Bell. As Kramer would say;
A good attorney would have told you, you can’t win. So why didn’t the same attorney tell you to file NEW charges in a NEW case?! I have said this is NOT about state law and filing deadlines this is about a MASSIVE conflict of interest. Every single elected official on that dais, including Mayor Poops, received donations and campaign help from the Skab’s main investor, Matt Paulson, then they voted to GIVE a contract to the same person who donated to their campaigns. But it gets even better, they all knew Matt and his Peach colored Lambo SUV was an investor in the Skab before the vote, but the public didn’t know. Probably one of the most unethical and corrupt votes I have ever seen the council take. Quid pro Quo. How can anyone TRUST the council to make a decision based on fairness from now on? They can’t. And here is the kicker, the Argus has more circulation and reach then the Skab, so this tells me the decision by the councilors was based on bias and not facts. I will say it again, I don’t think either paper should have the notices, a gigantic waste of tax dollars. You can see all the notices to your heart’s delight for free online and if you don’t know what the internet is you can always go down to the clerk’s office and get a copy. So wasteful, but not surprising since our state legislature is ran by the stupidest people imaginable. Still waiting for ETC. or 605 Magazine to apply for the notices. I wonder if the AL counsel even knows what a conflict of interest is . . . remember when Randall Beck was gunning for the Denty?
Ironically, if the AL would have reached out I could have provided them evidence of the corruption and lies with some very colorful text messages from one of the Skab owners(?). To which he sent me even more nasty messages before I had to block him. He’s a real Prickly Pear. Maybe the council pricked the Skab because of their enormous professionalism 🙂 and almost Pulitzer Prize winning journalism in uncovering Noem’s hair salon receipts.
GO AFTER THE FRICKIN’ CONFLICT OF INTEREST THE COVER UP AND THE LIES!
Okay, that was my vent. A judge has granted a hearing for the Argus vs. the Scab. I have said that the Argus has a case if they go after the blatant conflict of interest with every single councilor KNOWING in advance of the vote that Matt Paulson was an investor and that he gave to every single person sitting on the dais’ campaigns. The worst part was the council and the Scab hid it from the public. That’s deception on the highest level, not only by council but by the Scab. On top of it, the only blogger covering city politics for 20 years gets told in a nasty text message from one of the owners that him and the other main writers are the only owners . . . until they weren’t.
If the Argus argues this on the original premise of not posting investor info in advance, they will lose the case. Go after the conflicts.
Remember the game of connect the dots? We will get to that in a moment.
It all started with a thot I had Friday night while listening to announcements from the Levitt stage.
Is Matt Paulson trying to build a local media empire to influence city hall policy even more?
It all started over a year ago when a local (seasoned) journalist told me that there are plans in the works to combine all the small local independent or semi-independent media outlets and freelancers into one organization, or at least under an umbrella of cooperation. I don’t need to list these orgs, if you read this blog, you read their sites also. This plan was later confirmed to me from another associate, but told me the plan still has some kinks in it and setbacks. I didn’t blog about this because frankly when I first heard it, I was rooting for them and said it was a great idea, let’s just see if it will work.
While many of these indies have talent, they don’t have a lot of capital, they need outside investors to make this work and they need to sell a butt load of advertising to pay everyone’s salaries.
Then walks in Matt Paulson.
But let’s play that game of ‘connect the dots’ I spoke about earlier;
• Matt Paulson has funded every campaign of all of the current 8 councilors and the mayor and many past councilors.
• Jodi Schwan leaves the Argus to start her own business website.
• Patrick Lalley, Reposa, Ellis and Sneve leave the Argus to start their own independent sites, with a small kink, Market Dweebs owner, Matt Paulson has quietly been investing in the Dakota Scout, something the council and the SOS failed to inform the public about.
• In one of the most unethical moves by city council they approve the Dakota Scout contract for legals without releasing the investors names.
• I learned Friday night at the Levitt that Paulson has hired a local popular TV anchor to work at Market Dweeb.
I’m not sure what shoe will drop next but if I were KELOLAND, DAKOTANEWS or the Argus, (nevermind, they are already a sunken ship), I would be nervous about my advertising dollars and the whole integrity of the media locally. While I like local independent journalists, I’m not sure I care for their investors, who seem to be buying up city hall candidates and now local journalists so he can control the narrative even more.
Art censoring little . . .
As a community we should be very nervous and cautious of how this potential media merger will occur, but like everything else this Dweeb touches, it will all be done in the dark of the night, because that’s how the fourth estate does things these days.
Still waiting for my offer Matt 🙂 The Scab could really use a cartoonist that used a different medium besides crayons.
l3wis