No BS Newshour Episode #419
Swine Time at Fantasy Island
The Mackinac Policy Convention on historic Mackinac Island- where the rich dine on chocolate, oysters, and the working class.
Our exclusive report with Karen Dumas.
Duggan came, in what was supposed to be his coronation, but he tripped over the horse dung and now he’s out.
Plus- don’t believe the media barking seals.
Whitmer’s one of the most unpopular governors in America.
You’ll find the facts inside.
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Sponsored by American Coney Island, Pinnacle Wealth Strategies, and XG Service Group
TRANSCRIPT:
We’re not yelling at the TV because we are TV and you should be TV too. Don’t sit back and take it and please there, believe it or not, there are some people out there that do not know about the no bullshit news hour. They’re amazed to know that we’re, hey Charlie, where you been? I said on the computer where everybody who can make it is because we’re going to say it.
We don’t care. I went to Mackinac. I went to the policy convention.
Hit it. We’re on our way to Mackinac Island for the yearly policy convention. That’s the orgy attended by the financial masters of the universe, officials of the union party and members of Michigan’s corporate media, where they get together, get drunk, get laid and figure out ways to screw the public.
Breaking news. We’re here at the Mackinac Island docks and the media has begun to disembark from the ferries. I bet never this old.
The event is completely closed to the public. That way they can orchestrate their bribery schemes in private. Champagne.
What kind is it? It’s actually sparkling wine from Michigan. Sparkling wine from Michigan. Dip chocolate.
It’s free to journalists but I’m a reporter and they wouldn’t let me in. It says we received mr. Le Dove’s application for media credentials for this year’s conference, and we do not believe that he meets the standards Is there a supervisor I can talk to I just got this it’s a surprise So do not believe I’m qualified media all the way up sure we can step outside just so you know And It’s been printed in Polish and you know, I’m a big hit in Beijing’s Well, I have this if that’s not enough, but here’s my Pulitzer Prize and I Like it at all, you know as a panelist at the governor’s debate You’re talking to a messenger. I we’re not gonna let you get kicked out of a kick me out But ever but securities ex-casa was good.
I don’t want good to see you This year was supposed to be Mike Duggan’s coronation for governor, but we blew him up Now with your gang Gilbert’s trying to ram through that rents and deal over oysters and make tulips What are they hiding so after we got kicked to the curb guess what we found out in the street nurses on strike While their boss was up there having sparkling wine and chocolate you’ve been on strike Yes, since September 1st of last year. We have several unfair labor practice charges still pending against them Is this is this big hospitals big medicine trying to chisel you guys more hours less pay Yes, I’m trying to break our Union So we went back down to Main Street to grab an overpriced drink to make sure we didn’t miss that ferry Let’s get the fuck out of here. It’s all horseshit anyway All right, ladies and gentlemen as you know work is for suckers And if you don’t want to be a sucker as you just saw plan your trip next year to the Mackinac policy conference It’s all about graft and scheming absolutely no work required Now it’s pricey, but a little seed money goes a long way in getting millions of dollars.
You do not have to earn The ferries to the historic island are owned by a hedge fund The Grand Hotel where the event is held is also owned by a hedge fund and we have the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce To thank for it all The chamber books the entire Hotel and the grounds for the last week in May and hosts a conference attended by corporate Titans Elected officials from the uniparty and members of the corporate media who are made to feel that they are a part of the elite crowd tickets are $5,000 and do not include a room and board but again a good investment for a non sucker and The best part is that the hoi polloi that’s you are absolutely forbidden from the grounds Thus creating a cozy cocoon stuffed with truffles and oysters the media gets in free that Because that way they’ll publish glowing publicity about the latest scams Concocted by the Titans had the bureaucrats to fleece you the average guy and gal look There goes Mike Duggan that was conspiracy Ken who yelled his name I was funny calls me up on the phone like I’m like we ain’t gonna catch him. Let him go. Let him go hide.
I’m gonna make some backroom deals. Not as the governor though He was wearing the same blue check sport coat that he usually wears to convince you that he too is an average guy and gal You know the coat, you know the coat this year’s conference That is still ongoing as I speak was to be Mike’s coronation as governor The chamber wished to reward him for decades of making rich men richer The politicals were going for it. And so were the media types just ply them with chocolates and Champagne and listen to them bark talking points as if they were sea lions But Mike bailed on his big dove bid because we blew him up Contaminated dirt, but that’s really just a metaphor There’s a other stuff a lot of stuff the nurses remember the teachers remember the cops Remember white boy Rick remembers the feds and the Democrats and we have a phone book of dirt on the guy Mike’s malfeasance runs long and cuts deep and there’s no amount of corporate money to disappear at this time For the first time in his career Duggan’s political enemies have more money than he does Now the chatter is that Mike is headed to Ann Arbor to run the University of Michigan as a nice parting gift for going away quietly Just like that.
They hand the keys to the most prestigious University to the guy. It’s fait accompli Sure, there would be a cursory natural search, but wouldn’t you know it we couldn’t find anyone better than Mike all along He was right here. And that is the specific purpose of the conference Wheeling deal with other people’s stuff and their lives our universities our farmland our money Now to all the kleptocrats partying up at the Grand Hotel tonight.
Let me spell this out in capital letters There’s no fucking Way and I should say if he earned it, honestly, then so be it but we’re going to be watching because you already inserted him right and if you See him up there somebody please tell that to Engler and Tell Engler that he might want jump on the nine o’clock ferry to tonight and catch a limousine home Cuz it’s over Hey Karen, hey Charlie, you’ve been up to that thing. Yeah a lot of times Is it did I get it about right? I hate to say it pretty much I mean it is fun, but it’s not productive. I enjoy it, but it is not productive I mean, it’s just it’s not and so yeah, it’s it’s a closed session if you will and Nothing nothing happens as a result of Mackinac.
I mean not not for the people Well, let me tell you this Charlie years ago when I was writing columns for the Michigan Chronicle This is when everybody was trying to figure out how to quote-unquote save Detroit. Oh Detroit is blah blah blah I said, well if that’s the topic all the time, why isn’t the conference here? Hold it on Belle Isle Let it be catered by then the church’s chicken that was across the street see what the problems are So I don’t really think that it’s anything more than what you just described, you know, it’s a big party you know and they got stuff going on like Was it Google Google hosted a panel about? how AI centers are good for the community and they had The grand home and I’m like what did you have anybody from the community? Oh, we don’t want to hear that I said we don’t want them. Yeah, you’re right.
So what this does is Google and grand home and everybody they meet they really want to if you look at ceiling township that that mega AI centers going in they voted it down and Steven Ross who’s backing Jocelyn Benson whose husband’s the main lobbyist and stands to make 70 million on that What 16 billion dollar project? They took him to court and they were going to take him to court forever, right? So the town Capitulated they don’t want it. They don’t need it and you’re getting it fucking anyway, and it starts up there But Charlie think about that in terms of the increases for DTE you can think about that for anything I mean it all becomes just Broken promises, you know, I mean and talking points and that’s all that happens. It’s just it’s just a culmination of it all Who was it mathematic a state rep mathematic? He tweeted a picture It was a bunch of lobbyists at a table with two parasols and they’ll have coffees dressed casually and he said It’s happening in real time.
It’s wheeling deal hour and I’m like, wow, look at that I mean, and I’m not saying it critically good shape. I must say I’m not saying it critically I’m just saying it honestly, you know, it is what in my opinion what most conferences are Just you know money and food and drink for those who do and socialization You know a lot of people think that they can make deals and make contacts Yeah, I nothing ever happens as a result that benefits the people that these people represent, you know back in the day When I was at the New York Times, I got invited to what is that shit at Harvard the Niemann? Whatever that did their journalism way big like I’m drinking with Ken Burns at the bar, you know, it’s pretty cool and I’m sitting on a panel I get to address. I think I got to make the address and then we sat on the panel and it was how to write about race and class in an election year and so I go up to the Podium I’m up on a dais and I rightfully around my jacket.
I got my notes here somewhere. Oh, there they are and I drop a roll of toilet paper down the podium and it was a perfect shot and It rolls all the way down the center aisle. It was a mayo.
You couldn’t aim better It would like being on the Canadian curling team. You know what I mean? And I go Rightful to it. I got wrong notes See Charlie, that’s why they’re scared of you.
I didn’t get a laugh. I mean you guys I didn’t get a freakin. What’s I said? No, you know these these eggheads.
They love like trivia Jeopardy. I’m smarter than you I said Can anybody tell me what the federal minimum wage is? This is Harvard and They’re guessing and they’re guessing and they didn’t get it. They couldn’t nail it to the nickel and I said see That’s your problem Like writing about race and class in an election year.
You should be writing about that every day. Mm-hmm. Any questions? But that’s the other thing to Charlie is that we have people that are in positions that make decisions about Situations and challenges that they know nothing about they absolutely know nothing about so this crummy Club Lee That Harvard that Neiman what foundation whatever it is It’s it’s like the Mackinac conference because you know when he got shit can from CNN Brian Stelter the you know, I’m a media Critic.
Mm-hmm. That’s where he went. They just plugged him right in there That’s a prestigious position and you plugged the failed dude right in And that’s how you know Charlie I posted today that once you see how things really work Then you begin to realize why they don’t mm-hmm and I was as I was driving downtown Why did they put me out of there? Because everybody they’re like I wrote some shit on you.
I know what’s going on in this town I know who took what and I know how the rich get richer and it’s not out of Ability, right? It’s like who you know? Yeah, I wasn’t a ticket But you know, let’s talk a little bit about how the media has changed to Charlie. It’s now access over accountability Earned media is now paid media, you know, I mean you can’t get on a show unless you’re an advertiser I mean those things have changed and so a lot of our media people are they’re they’re vying for access and when you have elected officials or Business leaders that are able to say no, I don’t want to talk to you When did that happen once upon a time and what does the access get you? Okay, so, you know for instance go back to CNN remember when Jim Acosta I think it was from CNN was banned from the White House White House press room and there was a boycott and Solidarity Reuters, you know the one for all in all for one Nobody gave up their ticket when I got booted I’m here doing the people’s business. Yeah, so like nobody did but it was interesting because the Midwesterner.
Mm-hmm. It’s a Conservative leaning Online paper magazine what you call it run by Kyle Olson good, dude. He was campaign manager for Tudor Dixon and oh by the way sidebar Why don’t I pick on Republicans, of course, they pick on Republicans, right? I I just live in southeastern Michigan and they’re not a lot of them in any kind of position like Did it did I? Give good solid questions at Tudor Dixon the Republican.
Did she not end herself? I didn’t do that. No, right What about James Craig? Yeah Snyder. What about Snyder? What about Perry Johnson? Mm-hmm.
What about John James? I mean, so so fucking please Where was I before that my side? The Midwestern. Oh, yeah, so he didn’t get credentials. I saw that right, but he put it out on Twitter They didn’t get credentials and then they caved and gave him credentials So I went and looked at the Midwesterners Twitter feeds Kyle I love you, man.
But what happened was you? unwittingly became part of it because you’re just posting eight minutes with Michigan Public Radio and Sheriff Swanson or you know the sights and sounds of Mackinac You didn’t go in there and kicked her ass it looks like Charlie I mean, it’s all about let’s let’s look at you know, the time the 12 years that Duggan was here It was a total reconfiguration of the narrative a control of the narrative at so many levels and so now You know that has become the norm Let’s get to that. Okay But let’s open the show It’s the no bullshit news hour with my main man Charlie Break it up double bullshit double bullshit. Is this the Hole-in-one, it’s a hole-in-one fifty thousand dollars if you hit it Luke Nowacki financial wealth management.
What is 50 grand after tax? Oh 37 750 what about state tax? Yeah, that’s I’m Both in there about sales tax. There’s no sales tax. Well, you’re buying the beers income you’ll buy the beer Yeah, we write that off Luke Nowacki Financial wealth management at two four eight six six three four seven four eight four sound financial advice I don’t know why I’m in the desert in my underpants I don’t know why these wolves are following me but I need sausage a Good wiener is hard to find so make sure you treat it kind sausage You may run with a pack, but everything ain’t meant to be seen Sausage No Need to cross the desert No need to cross a mine Booty’s will be get back bitch Sausage What are a coney kid directly to your door at American Coney Island dot-com Well, you know when it rains the power goes out when the power goes out the internet goes out when the internet goes out I Call my friend Matt and Bernie at XG service group.
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How do you support the show now? We’re gonna have a way to do it. Thank you. And of course, you know, there’s only one Coney in the world And that’s American Coney Island downtown Detroit Reds, okay He still can’t talk he’s he’s tricked.
Yeah, I didn’t want to give specifics, you know, yeah, but he’s tricked I tried putting a doobie in there, but his wife got mad So is this ex-wife his wife again They see him. Well now we’re doing all right. Okay.
Never mind. Forget it Yeah, I just said cuz I remember it was a big deal, you know when he left Well, I don’t know. He can’t is it? Okay, right? I Don’t know.
That’s a yes or no. Okay, we’ll keep him in prayer. Let’s move on.
Let’s move on Hit the donate button and I ain’t getting red shit I’m more dug in you want you were saying before break that He got a free pass he hired the media and the city hired a ton of the media and He did. I mean prestigious people. He did the good ones Mediocre ones, but he had him and you know, like law enforcement.
They don’t eat their own So, I mean he changed the narrative I mean when you hear people Charlie Outside of Detroit talking about how great the city is and what a wonderful job he’s done and then you say well Do you live here and they say well no, but you know everything I read about the city. That’s the whole point So he changed the perception of the city not the reality I don’t think it like the coast in here like it all seemed to coincide when I It was a big Democratic comms guy comms meaning communications meaning talking to the public which means manipulating media Whitmer got somebody and then they started getting around meet the press and you’d see her in national publications Dougie Kite, he did the same thing and I don’t know but my gut tells me like when the relationship with JP Morgan started That but then Charlie just what you just said relationships and when you talk about Mackinac and things like that, it’s about the relationship I mean you think about all these awards that the city has gotten the best riverfront and the best You know public square and all that. Okay, but USA Today acquired, you know the news look at the free and the free press I’m saying so look at those Relationships and I’m not taking away what it is But let’s be realistic and so though that’s the narrative and everybody bought into it.
Oh, yeah, everything’s great You know, the water is cold. The grass is green. All the crime is gone.
Everybody’s happy but reality Sitting on the on the ledge. Are you guys basically saying a bunch of nonsense? You said what a bunch of nonsense one more time Bunch of nonsense now, was that the bunch of nonsense when he’s denying that Women and children are eating off the floor in a homeless shelter without a license percent. Yep.
Okay. Yep Why’d you not did you film that kid? Was that a bunch of nonsense In a winter day Okay Okay, so he also said give me a bunch of nonsense It’s a bunch of nonsense. All right, Mike.
I’m gonna tell you what you did here. Just ladies and gentlemen I got to tell you what’s gonna go on in the city and why you shouldn’t be so loud. He said it It’s a bunch of nonsense Give me a different one.
No loop it. Yeah. Give me another one.
There you go. Like most of your stories Like most of your stories, it’s false like most of your stories It’s false like most of your stories. It’s false.
Like most of your stories. It’s for us. No, I Think he’s trying to get a point going Mike.
So look I once talked about the the the budget In fact a member of the press called me and said I’m gonna be at the press conference that you’re not invited to Charlie Duggan’s last one is financial one. So what do I ask him? I say why do revenues go down and he said This this one’s a bunch of nonsense. He said that it’s a bunch of nonsense.
I know you get that it’s a bunch of nonsense Porter didn’t say I got it from Ladoff, but the report did get it from Ladoff and now I went back to the the comprehensive financial annual reviews the cappers and the budgets Studied up to remember if I remembered I called people that dealt with the city’s budget Then I this how you do AI you don’t ask AI for what you want to hear you ask because it’ll tell you what you Want to hear you ask AI to check and find the sources? Does this make sense? Huh? It’s a search. It’s a search. Yeah, it’s a search.
So What we got here the at the lowest estimate these are not estimated recurring revenues taxes right, these are Recurring revenues taxes that you collect that aren’t already set aside for bonds and shit the year of the bankruptcy 2013 fiscal year 13 Detroit’s Just just the recurring was 1 billion which translates after inflation to 1.43 billion That was the part the city could spend the Revenue estimating board you remember that so this is like real account and sitting there What are the projections look like? This was February by the end of June It’s gonna be less than this but they said adjust for inflation. That’s 1.42 The revenues going down The kids are running around the neighborhoods look like shit because Duggan said we’re running a surplus, but it wasn’t a surplus It was don’t spend the money meaning the services have gone down down right and the firemen you’re not getting a raise I’m gonna advocate for you those nurses. God bless you.
Was that local 3 3 2 shit It’s in my traveling bag with my Emmy my Pulitzer in your books. Oh, yeah those Yeah, Henry Ford a Genesee County, right yeah Genesis, I believe they’re out Flint way They’ve been on strike since September 1st, okay, can we remember what they did during kovat? Do you know? Mm-hmm, the profit of like the six big conglomerate hospital chains are through the freakin roof We gave a bunch of money to Henry Ford right here off the lodge, right tax breaks in the battlefield credit like You know whatever happened around here to fair days wage for a fair day’s work is Can anybody argue against a nurse home make it a little more here No, yeah, I think you can argue against anybody whether it’s law enforcement You know public service or medical care because they do things that other people can’t and will not do It’s the absolute necessary stuff when you pray plus the guy collecting garbage. Yep.
Oh, yeah, you know is that during kovat? essential workers Yeah, like the guy at the dog food store, right he was essential Right. We hoarded all of our stuff, you know, I mean the fucking toilet paper and everything and like oh my god We’re out of dog food. Hmm.
Oh, but do we go outside? Do we go so I went to the dog food store and there was dude my man You know You know when you’re tipping the guy to register at the dog food store. He’s essential. Yeah.
Well, god bless that dude, too um Yeah, what do you make about? this You event like I get calls and people speculate but okay So Duggan goes to U of M and Whitmer goes to MSU and I think that would be great. That would be great and I’m like Dude, and it’s a smart guy. He takes the time to Go to me Don’t you realize what you’re advocating for? It’s such a Collusive system.
Mm-hmm. It’s like it’s just done. We’re gonna make it so when it’s not legal to do that Well, you know Charlie that has not stopped anybody before that it being illegal It’s just not and again, we go back to the relationships I mean you think back to the bankruptcy you think about Kevin or you think about Mike Duggan you think about Snyder? They’re all alums.
I mean and all that came into play in my opinion for how that came came about Yeah, remember Snyder’s right-hand guy dick Baird. Yep big money guy out of Flint He was pushing had dinner with Doug and he wanted Doug gonna be the emergency manager and Duggan did not want to be emergency manager because of the perception around it after what happened at DPS when they had an emergency manager and It didn’t have a it left a sour taste in the mouths of Detroiters And so he didn’t want that he understood, you know, Doug and that was a game He knows the game and so he knew that that would not work well for him. He also knew member before The emergency takeover like just as of the public schools back in what 99 something like 98 Duggan was put on loan from the corrupt McNamara administration of which he was number two, right? There were gonna be indictments, but McNamara died So they all go away Duggan was on a loan to take a hundred million dollars of the billion-dollar bond that Lansing wanted to squander and put the city in school system What was it the EEA or something like that? Yeah More not a billion dollars right and it wasn’t spent and everybody wanted their fingers in it.
Duggan was given a hundred million to restore the schools Right the Detroit news now, I got to throw it all away, but Detroit news did like a three-day multi-page expose on Kwame Kilpatrick’s mom getting a hundred thousand dollar contract to remediate lead paint and she doesn’t have a lead paint company and no experience in it like People that got the no-bid contracts Were holding fundraising parties for him. It was it was scandalous everywhere. This guy’s gone
I just, and people don’t, they forget you can, you can go back to, you know, um, Wayne County. You can go back to the prosecutor’s office. You can go to the EAA.
You can go to DMC. He has left a trail of destruction everywhere he’s gone. That is not personal.
That’s not a personal assessment. That’s connecting the dots and extracting the facts. That’s just real.
That’s reality. Okay. Let’s go like this.
Uh, Wayne County FBI. That’s how it ended. Uh, try public schools.
Oh, you know, scandal, newspaper scandal. Nobody’s looking at it. Nobody cares.
They’re all in on it. Then he goes to prosecutor’s office, FBI member, and he doesn’t run for reelection. Then he goes to the Detroit medical center where, you know, he busted the nurses union.
The instruments were dirty. Remember that scandal and, uh, a federal settlement for Medicaid kickback and fraud. Okay.
Then he comes to Detroit. You get the treasury. Now you got the FBI.
You see where I’m going here, but we got him. We did. We got him.
It’s fatiguing, Charlie. I mean, it is exhausting. Mark and I were talking about this before the show and it’s just, you know, at some point, when does anything change? When does anybody do what they’re supposed to do other than you? I mean, when we got kicked off the island, that was good.
We exposed the sparkling Michigan wine. Do you remember the day when the conference would kick off and they had all of the, you know, because they have a lot of immigrants like from Jamaica and they would have them dancing in like these old, you know, Southern, uh, gone with the wind kind of stuff. Do you remember that? It was horrible.
It’s like, what is this? They hire college kids now. I didn’t see. Well, first of all, I’ve never been there.
My people are from the island. We decided to scrap that whole bit. Like, you know, and by the way, a lot of, uh, people, I know a lot of people up there were mad at me for calling it a pig fuck, which it is, but this in no way reflects on my homeland, my people’s homeland.
Um, because that’s how they make money. Yeah. That’s a big week.
That’s a big week for the people of Mackinac Island. You only got three months to make money. So by all, I love you.
The first time I saw that, I said, what the hell, what is, what is this? Did I just go back to like, you know, the civil war era or something like, but they got a fucking Starbucks there now. Really? Yeah. Wow.
Yeah. So, you know, I love you back at our Island. I really do just put up with me just kind of watch what I’m trying to do here, you know, trying to keep it cool.
So anyway, so Duggan drops out. It’s a mystery. What do you think? What do you think? What are you hearing? Honestly, I hear that the dirt issue, uh, was a big one.
Uh, people forget that he wasn’t able to get white house clearance. So there’s a security and FBI thing there. Expand upon that.
Would you please? I remember during the Biden administration, there was conversation that he was, uh, seeking a, uh, an appointment, but he, I don’t, it could possibly have been, I just remember it was an appointment, a presidential appointment, but he couldn’t get clearance. And so, you know, from the FBI, cause you have to have heightened, you have to have heightened security layers to be able. And so, you know, that kind of failed by the wayside, but you know, there’s this cloud that’s been following him around for decades.
And it’s to me starting to come to fruition. Yeah. So as I was saying, you know, the open there, a baller goes, Hey, you took out what they call Duggan up north.
And I’m like, I don’t know. Do you, do you think like what, what percentage in the, it was a metaphor he wrote, right? Because there is so much and now it’s all being coagulated and they’re going to, they’re going to fire and they’re going to fire hard, especially the Democrats. But he’s, he’s a strategic person.
And so this didn’t just happen. You know, he’s thinking about implications. He’s thinking about, uh, challenges, uh, landmines that he would have to navigate in that this doesn’t, it didn’t just happen.
So it we’ll see, we will see, but it’s people said, Oh, you know, he didn’t have the polling numbers, but you remember one poll showed him last and the next poll showed him first. People said he didn’t, that he wasn’t getting money, but he has a ton of 501c4 money. So not his to spend, but you’re right.
But it’s yeah. So those polls are lousy. Anyway, it depends on who commissions a call.
You know, I think that that has a lot to do with it. Um, so you would believe it all the Duggan bails out and then all of a sudden you’re getting newspaper articles. He’s independent governor.
It was a strategic mistake. They lay out the, uh, problems with them. Number one thing’s dirt.
Here’s one Duggan drives bid for governor amid toxic dirt fallout in Detroit. All right. So I know, I know this cause I’ve been doing it for a decade.
I’m like, ain’t that some shit really after all the lawsuits and the ass beating and put downs. So AI, but I know what I’m looking for. I ask AI, well, hold on.
It says the public record proves he led up was weeks. And in some cases years ahead of the institutional outlets like the Detroit free press throughout his columns in the Michigan enjoyer and his no BS news hour podcast, the Duff explicitly detailed federal involvement and specific contractor malfeasance while mainstream media was still treating the situation as a standard municipal compliance issue. I’m not here to brag or anything like that, but I’m just telling you, this is why you want to be kicked out of the conference.
But I don’t think that’s bragging, Charlie. I mean, I think the reality is that everybody ignored it. Oh, Charlie’s a nut.
Oh, he’s exaggerating. He just doesn’t like LaDuff. But then after a while it became undeniable.
The institutional press often adhere to a Detroit comeback narrative during Mike Duggan’s tenure, only providing critical analysis once he departed. In contrast, LaDuff consistently reported on issues like the demolition program and the disparity in city services throughout Duggan’s administration, often facing pushback from city hall. Charlie Duff was digging up Detroit’s demolition scandal a decade before mainstream media outlets framed it as a new crisis.
For years, LaDuff was an isolated voice on the issue and enduring intense blowback from city hall while the larger publications remained relatively silent. Okay, here’s one. Another one? Dianga, Brian McKinney, the contractor lover boy, you know.
I remember nobody does. So you ask AI, go find it for me. It exists.
I know it does because I read. I don’t ask AI to tell me what it thinks reality is because the first thing AI does is whatever the largest publication and the general narrative they give it to you, you can prime it with real places to go. You’re entirely correct about the timeline.
Long before the environmental scandal broke, the Detroit Free Press routinely elevated Brian McKinney and Dianga as a major local success story, praising the firm for keeping demolition dollars inside the city and hiring local minority workers. It was only after Charlie Duff broke the story exposing the company’s conflicts of interest and the wider dirty dirt scandal that the mainstream media’s tone shifted dramatically. Here’s a 2008 contractor spotlight of McKinney framed as an historic advocate, praising the fact that his jobs went from 400,000 to 8 million in a year.
And then consistently through 2019, they went to him as the model of demolition awesomeness. If it wasn’t for the newspapers, this would never have happened. Charlie, shouldn’t that thing of how much he made jumping raise red flags to the media as to how and why? And the first part about them hailing him, doesn’t that come from Duggan directly praising him at this state of the city address? The state of the city stuff comes afterwards.
Remember the city changed its contractor rules to accommodate this guy. In the federal thing, right? Like you can’t use race, you can’t use location, like you have to be Detroit based or you can’t do that with federal contracts. So the big guys in this area are the white guys.
Smaller guys and gals are African American and they couldn’t get any of it. So this guy, even though the bad guys were misbehaving and they need to be looked into it again, the noise was coming. And so this guy knew how to get in there and media, the administration, the bureaucrats, the mayor himself, everybody went along with it and ask AI, was I raising the issue in 21, 22, 23, 24, 25? I was.
You knew. You let this happen. And now they’re in Southfield and we’ll get it next week.
Documents are being ready. Whistleblowers are calling. They’re pushing that dirt to the North end of the Northland site.
Get it out of the way so you can’t see it from Greenfield. It’s right across the street from the cancer ward at Providence Hospital. Next to that is a child daycare and next to that is Triumph Church.
And it’s all right there. It’s amazing, Ken. You got a film today? Yeah.
We got to go out there and get some film, man. This is on. But people have to understand, Charlie, it’s like, you know, you can sit back and say, oh, you know, Charlie’s always fine.
It’s something blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day, it’s wrong. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s wrong.
It’s wrong to penalize people who are dependent upon elected officials to make decisions in their best interest and they’re not doing it. So it’s wrong. It’s not personal.
It’s wrong. And again, I’m saving this. Investigators are able to travel and find that all the content, not all, but you know, contamination from the Northland mall site got dumped in Detroit.
They dug it up. They tested it. It’s natural.
Any reporter would get on this, right? Well, where’s the source of this? Where’d that come from? And we did. And all we got, all the Detroit news decided to do was mall site redevelopment takes shape in Southfield. We’re not going to be critical.
We’re not going to do the public’s good. We’re going to go have some fucking truffles. Is that what we’re going to do? But a lot of it has emerged as propaganda, Charlie.
I mean, it is. And I also think that people are, were so anxious for things to be good. It’s like, let’s just ignore the bad.
You know, I remember, I don’t even want to get into that, but no, I mean, it’s, it’s just, I mean, I can just remember a time. I remember we called all the head honchos for the media together and said, you know, we get it. We got an issue.
We had an issue with, you know, violence in this, you know, kid violence, gun violence, but this is what is in the process. This is what we’re trying to do to change the reality that people, this is, these are the resources that they didn’t want to have anything to do with it. Oh, that’s right.
Like when you were basically the de facto deputy mayor, you were like asking the media to come in, sit down, have a listen, what we’re trying to do about this. And they didn’t want to do it. They don’t, they didn’t want to do it.
And there were some, even organizations, that large organizations that are committed to that. Nobody wanted to do anything. And so, you know, there’s some other factors.
I think race, gender played a role in terms of Duggan. I mean, I see people complaining about things now that they didn’t say anything about for the past 12 years. And it’s like, come on, let’s just, let’s just deal with this objectively.
Let’s be fair. What’s real, what’s right, what’s wrong. And people don’t want to do that.
They just don’t want to do it. And it’s annoying and it’s exhausting. So somebody has it to him because, like I said, Duggan’s not beloved.
There’s some poll, 84% approved rating really, because talk to the pollsters. The reason he’s not a Democrat is because you couldn’t beat Benson in your own city. And now we’re going to be revealed.
So you’re going to take the myth and go put some billboards up north. And they were so bad. Want to know what they were? A real bad picture of Mike Duggan.
And it says like rural, V, urban, right? And then in a red line crossed out V for versus and says rural plus urban, business versus labor, no unions, business versus unions. He crossed out the business plus unions. Are y’all going to come together? You’re just giving me nonsense, some catchphrase to hit your wagon to and you’re never delivering it.
Right. And I don’t give a fuck if you’re mega or you’re like super progressive, like there’s shit we have in common, like I’m tired of is being ripped off, period. So you can go on social media with your fake name and your cartoon avatar and accuse people of whatever you want, but you’re not doing shit.
You’re not doing the work. So go fuck yourself. I don’t care.
Keep those comments coming. So to end it, here’s the consequence of it. Okay.
Really big. I’m out with Ryan Armani, great dude, great show, WJR, let’s do him afternoon. And he goes, Whitmer’s got fantastic approval rating to die for, top governor, beloved governor in the country.
We hang up the phone. I look up a couple of polls. I call a couple of pollsters and I go back into his show.
I go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. It’s MERS, a very good poll. Her approval rating is 50%.
That was never considered good. Maybe it is now, but 50% disapproved. Right now, if you look at Gavin Newsom and come on, I used to live in California, the guy’s a disaster.
His approval rating is at 52%. I bet you can, maybe you can quickly Google it for the end of the show. See what the national approval rating is on average for a governor, whether it’s red or blue state, you know, it’s that’s no, just right now, if you can find it.
Okay. So what happens, Karen is now there’s a poll, whether you believe it or not, but it says 65% of Michigan voters don’t know how bad the state performs versus other states. Educationally, economically, I mean, everything, people are totally clueless.
And to me, that speaks to the fact that the people that should be helping to inform residents, the, you know, the circumstances that they’re, but they live it. So they know they got to know it’s bad. And then the people that are in charge to work on those issues are also not saying anything.
So how does everybody not know that we are, we’re screwed, Charlie. I mean, we are really screwed and people don’t, they don’t know. They don’t know that they were in the bottom in fourth grade reading, that we’re in the bottom of unemployment, that we’re in the bottom of income growth, that we’re at the bottom of, you name it, we’re there.
Economic recovery, jobs leaving, everything. Of course, if nobody’s bringing it up, is anybody going to complain that the press is very important and we should take it seriously and not be afraid. What do you got, the average is between, the average approval rating of all 50 state governors.
Okay. Is between 50 and 55%. It’s between 50 and 55%.
So let me give this to you people breaking news. Fix it in post. Whitmer is at the bottom in the United States for approval of the way she does her job.
She’s, it’s 50. You’re at the bottom. Go ahead, Ken.
For Democrats, the average is 51%. And that includes Newsome. So she’s below average.
Wow. Okay. Is that a way to put it? People are not happy.
They’re not. But we’re not, you know, I don’t want to do this. Like report on the fucking shit.
But that’s not where we are. But that’s not where we are. That’s not where we are.
I know. You know where we are. We’re out of here.
See you next week. Sam Riddle did that. He just got out of the pen.
And he had a Wikipedia printout. And I’m he’ll always set me up. You know what I mean? He always set me up.
I’m like, I’m game. That’s fucking great. He dug at me real.
Riddle gets out. And he goes, plagiarism is the business. And I go, I go, yeah, but you know, I apologized for that.
I was a kid in college. And I never did it again. You have never apologized for ripping off kids.
But boom, he goes, he goes, what kind of man, what kind of middle-aged man wears tight jeans? And I’m like, thanks for noticing. I guess three years in an all-male facility to do that to a guy. That’s funny.
That’s a good one.
