A man of all seasons: Dave Bing- NBA great, Mayor of Detroit, auto executive and philanthropist talks basketball, Detroit, UAW and charity.
Dave Bing on… Mike Duggan’s side dealing, Gov. Whitmer’s nursing home debacle, UAW demands, crony capitalism, the poisoning of Detroit, the greatest NBA player of all time, fake news, reporters for sale, Detroit’s bankruptcy, Biden & the economy, and Detroit’s abandoned neighborhoods.
Plus- Southern Border Madness update with reporter Todd Bensman.
AND Dumb Dumb Dana- What’d she do now?
Transcript: Good evening. The area around Grat and seven Mile on Detroit’s east side has been invaded by a hoard of suburban dope fiends. Hundreds of them, a veritable drug, bura, a greater metropolitan area if you will, and if City Hall doesn’t start paying some attention around there soon, Detroit very well may become the next San Francisco. The homeless ratio is roughly the same in Frisco as it is in Detroit, but here you don’t see the junkies flopped out on the streets. In Motown, they’ve taken up residents in the abandoned houses, most of which are owned by the incompetent and absentee Detroit Land Bank Authority. San Francisco population 810,000 in falling counted 7,700 homeless people last year. Detroit population 630,000 in falling claims, 5,600 homeless. Surely Detroit’s number is an under count since the data is over two years old and collected at the height of the pandemic.
HUD requires any community that receives federal funding for homelessness to conduct a headcount on a single night, once every two years, and it’s usually on the coldest night. This includes people in shelters or sleeping outdoors in cars, in pallets or other places not considered permanent housing. This would include those living in condemned houses, I would presume, but I’ve never seen a homeless head counter knocking on those doors in the dead of a frosty night. Consider liberal street, which ought to be renamed Laissez-Faire Boulevard. Since the city seems to completely ignore it, the houses are burned up, trash is everywhere, and the junkies have taken them over. And also the abandoned RVs in the alleyways remind yourself, regular people live here, school kids live here. The dope houses aren’t hard to find. Just follow the white women with bruises on their legs or the men picking imaginary insects from their faces.
One tweaker scolded me to get off his land that he was fixing the place up for his father. I checked. The property belongs to the Land bank. The legitimate longtime neighbors complain to the city, they get nothing. Their city councilman Scott Benson is no help. Most people around there don’t even know who Scott Benson is. Those who do remember Scott Benson, remember him as the guy who was raided by the F B I and whatever happened to that, they wonder. Richard Wilson, a retired auto worker, lives on Barona Street next to an overgrown house of horrors owned by the Land Bank. He was forced to take a pot shot at a junkie with his 12 gauge shotgun because the junkie was trying to break into his garage. Across the street from Mr. Wilson is another dope house owned by the Land Bank. You know this dope house. Since the house is across the street from the Pulaski Elementary School, the city was shamed into boarding it up.
Why? The city still won’t tear it down is beyond me. The ceiling has long since caved in and the walls are infected with black mold. Nobody’s lived in it for a decade. In any event, land bank workers forgot to board up the detached garage, which quickly became an impromptu clubhouse for the now homeless. Homeless addicts who once lived in the house, nobody bothered to sweep the sidewalk. And so hypodermic needles still litter the driveway like so many Autumn leaves. A father of one of the school kids took it upon himself to board up the garage last week. He’s considered something of a hero around there. Now people are talking about electing him to city council. Drug zombies, of course, are human beings. They’re somebody’s children, but they don’t live at home anymore because their habits and behaviors have become so grotesque. They had to be put out by their loved ones and now they’ve taken up residence and someone else’s vicinity and make perfect stranger’s lives a living hell. How bad is it? There was a crack house on Saratoga Street where seven people were shot last summer, two died on the lawn. Amazingly, the place was open for business. Two weeks later until again we shamed the city. When the cops came, the addicts simply moved across the street into a land bank owned house. This shit doesn’t even happen in Frisco.
Live downtown.
No boats
Just breaking this double or bullshit double or bullshit.
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He ran out of breath at the call hall first.com. You know what I’m that. Get ’em to redo it.
It’s for emphasis. Charlie
And Carol’s has a nice pair of hands here. So they call basketball hall fame
Basketball catch. That’s exactly what I was thinking when she caught
Those box. And before you go anywhere, this is going to be great. Top 50 N b, a player of all time Hall of Famer, former mayor of Detroit Auto executive philanthropist, and a founder of the N B A Union for retirees. Dave Binging. You’re going to be here telling the truth. Dave tells the truth. Yeah, he does. Except he won’t admit that you are the best staff member he had while he was mayor.
That’s because he’s nice and he doesn’t want to offend anybody,
But you were weren’t. I’ll ask him. But before we get to that, I want to welcome in my good Fred Todd Benjamin, the Senior National Security Fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies Board is wild. I mean we’re getting back up to record numbers. Todd, good evening. How are you bro?
Good man. How are you?
Where are you? Look like you’re in immigration detention yourself.
Well, something like that. I’m in Washington just in my hotel room. I’ve been in DC here for same thing.
Well, that’s the same with all the other migrants that are in Washington and New York and everybody’s in a hotel. 500 a night. What’s yours cost?
Yeah, I don’t know. I’m not paying for it. My company is,
But that’s right now, Todd, so you texted me this morning early this morning. The news right now is about 10,000 people a day are coming. This Biden bullshit didn’t work Then it was announced Wednesday night that 500,000 Venezuelans who have come illegally since 2021 will now be granted temporary legal status. They’re going to be allowed to work and move as they wish. Is this correct?
Yeah, that’s correct. They get humanitarian protection so that we don’t have to send them home to a country that is dangerous for them. The problem is, if I can just interject here, is that almost none of them
Who’re interject. That’s why you’re on the show. You were just interjecting on yourself. I’m just busting the
Majority. They’re not coming from Venezuela. They haven’t lived in Venezuela in 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years. The vast majority of them, they’ve been living in 15 other perfectly safe countries. I’ve done a lot of reporting on that because I’ve interviewed so many Venezuelans, none of whom are coming from Venezuela. So we’re giving them temporary protected status to prevent them from having to return to a country that they haven’t lived in eight years. It’s just insane. That’s what we’re Now
Here’s the play here. This on top of a quarter million other people, that temporary protective status in 2021. And once that was given, that’s when you saw the explosion of Venezuelans come, right? I mean basically here’s the translation in the Southern hemisphere, man, Biden’s given an amnesty. Come on up.
It’s true. It’s true. I can’t tell you how many Venezuelans I’ve interviewed on the trail who were coming because the first T P Ss that was provided in 2021 told them that there’ll be another one or two for me when I get in. And it’s the same way with the next generation. I guarantee you there’s a whole new flood of ’em coming because of this. And that’s how it works. They’re smart people.
And let me say this, just get this in order. I’ve met 10,000 Venezuelans in my life and there’s only 10 I didn’t like. And if I was looking for a better life and this was the construct, I’d do it too. So let’s just leave it at that. But this is a national question. It’s a question of equity. It’s a question of bread. It’s a question of room. It’s a question of how much at once you can opportunity. Yeah, you can see what’s happening. The mayor of New York wants this because dude, you got to let ’em work so we can get ’em the fuck out of here, right? Which is a good point. It is a good point if everybody’s here, get ’em working. But now we’re at a time of economic uncertainty. U a W might walk. I don’t know, man. This is just no way to run a border.
But Todd here, you and I, I’m going to give this to you man, because I like a guy that expects his government to tell the truth because it was so bad in May and April, right? Record numbers again that the Biden administration expanded the C BP one. Remember the app I was telling you all about? We’re like, you’re going to claim asylum, just do it on the app. And I went on the app and put my dog’s pitch around there and all that. Remember? Alright, well the numbers, numbers, you missed that. I’ll send it to you, dude, it is great, but I couldn’t get through, so I quit.
Here’s what the government will tell you. The government will tell you how many apprehensions, how many people they’ve apprehended. They can tell you how many people they saw run in and they weren’t able to get ’em. They can estimate how many people they didn’t see. But what they won’t tell you is people apprehended at the ports of entry like border patrol does. The border customs does the ports of entry when they release people, it’s not counted when border patrol or customs gives apprehended people to ice. They’re not counted. And now my friend here is suing the federal government. How many people are you letting in on the app? What have you heard on that, bro?
So we got a little piece of information about it. We’re in litigation, having negotiations and litigation. What we got was as the total number of immigrants that they allowed to fly from foreign airports into American airports directly. There is a program that they announced that where they were going to give a bunch of nationalities the ability to just fly directly into the cities where they want to live, but then they just went silent on it and were hiding. It was like this big state secret. You couldn’t find out how many they let fly into the country until now. So the piece that’s up today says that 221,000 were approved to fly commercially into US airports. And then they were released from the airports. That’s of only four nationalities. There is another five nationalities that I’m after that also were allowed to fly directly into US airports. Who would they be? And I think those are going to be Ukrainians, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans and Colombians. And
What are the four that you have data for? What? Four nations? That’s
The ones I have data for. The 221,000 are Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, and Haitians. So you
Don’t even have to come to the border now, just fly right in and you fly
Right over.
You pre-state your claim of asylum and then come on in. Now how it used to work is this, when they say parole, if you came to the border and you said, I’m seeking asylum, they would detain you, hold you, wait for you to hear a judge, right? And then either send you home or let you in. Parole is for medical emergencies, things of this nature, right?
Yeah. One-offs just a
One-off. So what Biden has done is mass millions, just go ahead in and check in with us. We’re going to give you a phone, we’ll pay the bill, and then when we call you come to court, which could be we know from the guy in the tert, this here in Dearborn. It’s been two years now, nothing. Is that correct?
That’s right. Wow. That’s right. So here’s the thing. They’re sandbagging on us. We want to know, I want to know which airports are you flying them to name ’em. We know there are 43 airports inside the US that they’re flying ’em to from foreign countries. They’re saying that’s a law enforcement tactics and procedures issue. We don’t want to divulge that because it would ruin investigations or something like that. That’s what they’re,
I don’t know. I’ll tell you right now. I’ll tell you right now where they’re flying in. I’ll tell you right now. J F K, Miami, Detroit, probably Dallas or Houston, LA L a
X.
I mean that’s pretty simple. But we’re not talking about this. So we’re talking, I’m rounding up just for math. 240,000 people by airplane. Border Patrol tells me this is what Todd’s got to sue the government for. How many people are you letting in on the app? Our guy, we know him. Chris Cabrera, board of Patrol Union says it’s at least 50,000. So when you do all of that, that’s 70,000 more people a month, right? You’re getting close to 1 million unaccounted for people in the last, well prorated a half a million people in the last four or five months.
So Todd, do you think they don’t know, there’s no accountability there or do they just not want you to know?
I think they don’t want us to know. And think about it this way, in New York right now, you have the mayor complaining loudly screaming about all of the a hundred thousand migrants that are in his city that are for an unfunded burden. They got to take care of ’em. It’s a huge political issue in the cities, and they’re blaming officially Greg Abbott in Texas for busing them in. That’s totally not true. But the point is that they talk about the busing. It’s always about the busing. They’re busing them in Abbott’s, busing them in. DeSantis is busing them in. But imagine if you’re the Biden administration and you had to admit that you enabled tens of thousands to fly into J F K airport, then you have to confront the Biden administration for allowing this and New York,
You’re flying terrible. You’re flying directly from somewhere you land, you get an Uber, you go to the Roosevelt Hotel, right? Yes, there’s culturally appropriate food cook for you. There’s clothing, there’s Xboxes.
And who are you going to blame for that? Who are you going to complain that did that? It’s going to be, you’re going to have to say it’s the White House did
That. Well, it is the White House. Look, I’m going to say this.
They don’t want that out. They don’t want to talk about that.
I’m on the record in this program of saying this. Listen, if we want a liberal immigration policy, okay, let’s discuss it, right? We vote on it. Majority rules. We should probably start the process in the home country instead of letting the cartel profit off of this, right? It seems to me that they’re doing it. But here’s where I have issue. You’re doing it in secret. We’re not discussing it. The laws are not in place. You’re countermanding what the law currently says. I hate sneaky fucking government.
Me too. You ditto on that. And that’s really what the problem is here, is that this administration created a brand new avenue for mass numbers of immigrants to enter the country. And that is expressly a job for Congress. That is Congress’s job. They pass those laws and they are elected by us. So this is the people make the new avenues through our representatives in Congress. And that didn’t happen here. What happened here is somebody over at the White House said, let’s come up with this thing where we just fly ’em in or walk ’em in over the ports of entry and just let ’em in.
You think about people, think about Cuban Americans trying to get their loved ones over here. Think about Yemeni Americans trying to get their loved ones over here, being in the process for that long and then all of a sudden there is no process.
But so then what? You have all these people come here and where are they? And I’m saying, so then what? Because if in fact there’s no documentation allegedly for them flying in, then there’s no means or method of accountability once they’re here.
Here’s Todd. Hey Todd, do we know where these people are?
No, because there’s a requirement that they give an address and that the government verify that address before they get released. But D h s Office of Inspector General last week released this incredible report. They investigated that and found hundreds of thousands were let through without giving any address at all or giving fake addresses to car lots and burger stands 1, 2, 3, 4 Main Street they put in there. And so that’s what
Mike Doug gets his dirt.
So we have absolutely no idea where most of them are. And then furthermore, when they become illegal, they just disappear into the ether and you come and get me. Come find me. And that’s kind of where we’re, and Donald Trump is campaigning out there saying, when I’m president, we are going to track down every single one of the people that came into this country under the Biden administration and we’re going to deport him, but not so fast because you don’t know where they are. They set it up on the front end so that there’s no address information.
What’s the political value of them doing this? I mean, who’s saying, oh, that’s a good idea. Who’s giving brownie points for the Biden administration for just opening the floodgates? What’s the point? What’s the value?
Yeah, there is, in the Democratic left in the coalition, there is a very substantial and powerful progressive left that actually believes that borders and border security and deportation and detention are inhumane, cruel, and unusual and should all be done away with, we should have no borders. They say it. This is their mantra. It’s a whole theology of a chapter in my book titled The New Theologians, because it is a theology of no borders. Thanks for doing that, Charlie. You got
That overrun how Joe Biden unleashed the greatest border of crisis in US history by Todd Benjamin. It is an excellent book and it’s not cranky or partisan.
That’s what I was going to say. This isn’t about partisan politics, this is just about what makes sense. What is both humane and I guess structurally.
Sorry, you brought
Me it makes sense. I was trying to see what was going on here. Thank you for that,
Bro. Oh, okay. So Todd, I know you got to prepare. You’re giving a lecture tonight. Keep contacting me. I want to do a story. I want to work with you on something. Just go to YouTube, put Todd Binman there. Center for Immigration Studies. This guy’s been to the dairy and Gap. This guy’s been to the mountains of Guatemala. This guy has been to the trains in Mexico. The man knows his business. Okay, thanks man. And Christ, you look awesome.
Just one last thing is Charlie, what are you saying?
Don’t even ask. Keep going, Todd, go ahead. You were saying
I want to know now. He
Said you look great. Go ahead. What were you saying? I said you look
Off and you look like you’re being interrogated. What the
Hell is he’s talking to you. Charlie, what do you think?
Go ahead, Todd.
Anyway, there is a mass migration spike underway right now. Huge, huge numbers crossing. So when you go down to the border or if you go down to the border, this is kind of a good time to do it because they are doing what’s called safe street releases at this point. They can’t fit everybody into the processing centers, so they’re just releasing ’em to wander around all along the borderlands. We are in crazy town. Again,
I might’ve fucked up here though. I might’ve fucked up because when we went down to Texas in December, it made that video that went kind of viral now. And we walked across the Rio. That’s where everybody’s crossing now. I got a feeling
They were watching
You. I got a feeling a lot of likes in South America. Where do we go? Go where the gringo went?
Yeah, it’s It’s terrible right now. Anyway, I’ll let you go. Thanks.
Alright, thanks man. Be well. Alright. Alright, listen. Todd Benjamin, he’s a Senior National Security fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies. He’s brought to you by a d r experience overseeing more than a quarter billion dollars in private and public construction projects since the turn of the century. A D r competent, reduce your cost creature. Bottom line, cut the governmental red tape, call Barry Ellentuck at (248) 318-9424 for a consultation and get your shit fixed. When I think about all this stuff and I
Get stressed out,
Get stressed out, I feel anxious, a little trouble sleeping. I go to next. Divo Naturals, C B D products, judge. C B D products, right? Legal, completely legal. You don’t test for T H C, none of that, right? Do you take ’em, help you sleep or the judge does? I’m not going to say who the judge is, but the judge is over there. He takes them every chance he gets. They help you relieve the stress and anxiety of running that docket of that major town. Making hard decisions. Making hard decisions. So don’t take it from me, take it from the judge. Next Evo Naturals. Go to next evo.com/nobs and get 25% off a free bottle of premium pure cbd. Remember, they’re stress or sleep complex. That’s limit one per customer because the judge, I mean,
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For how much off now are we up to 50% every week? 25 Still 25%. 25%. Okay. That’s good.
How’s yours? Are you taking them yet?
Yes, I do take them. I’m cool. Oh, well, I just sat here from, I
Don’t know next to you. Oh, I mean, I got the judges, got relatives. I got my part. I got narcoleptic mark over there. He got a lot of stressing anxiety. Say
Something. I was sleeping. See, because of my next Evo, he’s calm.
Does the next Evo help you stay awake or if you’re a narcoleptic?
Well, the sleep stuff will knock you out because when you’re narcoleptic, you take medicine to keep you awake. Ah,
But
Do you notice, remember,
And you want, I’m sorry, I’m go ahead. But you want a natural counter about you don’t want to take another pharmaceutical to bring you down.
I don’t want to be like Elvis. Right? You took one to wake ’em up, one to put ’em down. I know, baby.
But do you notice that Mark, remember how Mark used to get all flustered and I thought he was going to have a cardiac arrest and he would Aneurysms? Yeah. I mean, I’d be like, mark, calm down. We don’t have to tell him that anymore.
Next Divo. Now listen. Mike, mark, you got life insurance?
Yes.
Is it term life insurance?
Do you have a term life insurance policy? You
Have more than one. You have two life insurance. Where do you get those? Who shop those for you?
Legacy. Legacy. And they also shop my home in auto
Bundled it.
Well,
I mean, it’s not like you got to watch pro football to know you get Bundle Legacy are doing it for you. Save money. Everybody in this room except the judge is doing legacy. That’s a fact. Yep. Is that a fact, Bernie? It is. There you go. I’m telling you. I don’t know what else I got to tell you. Legacy partner keeps an eye on your rates and continuously shops all carriers to make sure you have the best program. I saved money. I got better insurance. That’s all I’m going to tell you. Except 5 8 6 2 0 9 4 1 0 6. Or go to Legacy Partners, i n s. That’s short for insurance. Legacy ins.com,
Not immigration.
All right, now we got to get to Bing, but the mayor, but I just got to, I got to, it’s Dana Nestle, the incompetent Attorney General again, what do we call this segment? Roll the tape. Well, dinos, geez, you know what? I’m just thinking back. Matt Deno, he’s now been charged for voter booth voter machine tampering. That was our Republican candidate for Attorney General. And this dope was the Democratic incumbent. This is going to be like Trump Biden nothing here, man. Okay, so anyway, dumb dumb. The Michigan Watchmen? No, the Wolverine Watchmen, right? Yes. Okay. The guys that we’re going to kidnap Whitmer
Allegedly
Put her in a boat, take her to Wisconsin, try her in a barn and imprison her for five years in a dog cage. Okay? And how are they going to kidnap her dressed as pizza guys knocking on the door, maybe blow up the bridges around her. And all the while the guy that supposedly had the dynamite and the guy paying all the bills for these people to meet was the F B I. Okay, you guys remember now? Alright, what was it? 14 people were charged. Five have now been acquitted. Two had to be retried because of a hung jury. And I think there were two plea deals. So it was a 50 50 deal here. But no, Dana Nessel. Now judge, you tell me if you ever heard of an attorney General or anybody, a defense attorney, a US attorney. Here’s what she said. She criticized the jury saying, quote, atrium County jurors. It’s a very, very right leaning county, and they’re seemingly not so concerned about the kidnapping or assassination of the governor. It’s actually perplexing, confusing, terrifying. Have you ever heard of an attorney general criticizing a jury? No. No, no. You know what is perplexing, confusing, and terrifying. What Dana Nessel
Now, dumb, dumb over here is addressing an audience of very liberal people. That’s where these quotations were taken from. And at the same time, she says she’s charged 16 for being fake electors. They said we were the Democratic elected and we signed this and we put the electoral votes for Trump. So 16 of ’em were charged by her. Here’s what she told the crowd. She said these 16 were brainwashed. That quote, genuinely believed that Trump won. Quote. They legit believed that. They genuinely believe. That says the Attorney General. So you may have just fucked up your own case because if this was a conspiracy to defraud and you’re publicly saying there was no conspiracy to defraud, they actually believed it. Judge, how dumb is this? Is it? Go ahead. Give me the dumb
Man.
Oh, but that’s not all. There’s more Flint. Flint. The Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of
Dumb, dumb,
Refused to hear dumb dumbs appeal that she used a one man grand jury. We happened to be a judge. I know the judges over here going, what the fuck? Yes. Look at the look face is from out of state. I mean, this doesn’t go on anywhere else. He’s going, what? Use the one man grand jury to bring criminal charges on six people involved in Flint and then misdemeanors on the governor and another other guy. You can’t do that. The Supreme Court ruled it’s unconstitutional for the judge to indict you and to sit over you in the trial. That’s ridiculous. Separation of power. But she thought she could do it. They said get lost. Now, you’re going to remember way back when I started this podcast, and Dana wasn’t even the nominee for the Democrats. She said, publicly, I’m going to throw that case out. There were already charges.
The emergency managers of that town were charged. They were cooperating. And when she opened her big mouth, they stopped cooperating, waiting to see if Dumdums going to blow it up, which she did. That could be obstruction of justice. I know that they’ve been on the show. Top flood and the arena. They had racketeering charges lined up in Flint. Dumb dumb, let it go because dumb dumb wanted to be political, but dumb dumb was told by the court, you dropped the charges. I’m not giving you six months. You got six weeks. Get it done. So they used the secret grand jury unconstitutional. Nobody did a day in jail. Nobody’s going to now dumb. Dumb was trying to make a move. We would like to release the reports and the evidence to the public. What fuck, what does that do? Well, like foia, the fucking report, the racketeering report that was written for you from the last administration, and you told me it’s ongoing. Well, you better give it to me. Now, that’s dumb,
Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb dumb.
And finally, you said there’s no reason we needed to look into the nursing homes. You said, what could have been done? I don’t know. That’s why you investigate. I’m not saying Joe Biden’s corrupt, but there’s stump. You need to investigate, right? That’s what you do. Get to the bottom of things. But I’m going to whisper this. I’ve got an atom bomb coming. I’ve got a neutron bomb. Oh, you’re going to look into those nursing homes. And that’s all I can say about it. And that is what’s dumb and Nestle land.
Now hit me with those. We got to get to mayor on here. Mayor Dave binging coming up, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, great human being, philanthropist, businessman, auto executive, and of course, tried to land this town when it went bankrupt. Will we be going bankrupt again? Let’s find out. But let’s hear a word from our sponsors. This message of uplift is brought to you by business and personal wealth advisor, Luke Acki, who reminds you that What does a prophet, a man to gain the whole world but never enter the kingdom of God. But while you’re waiting, Acki wants you to remember that overreaction is not a sound financial strategy. So call Luke Acki at (248) 663-4748 for sound, financial advice. Well, you know when it rains, the power goes out. And 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.
Look at Bernie here on his hands and knees, giving it everything he’s got. Look at that man. Crack so busy. He forgot to wear a belt. There’s Matt right there getting the board together. That’s 7 3 4 2 4 5 4100. If you need Matt and Bernie to come take care of your voiceover internet, your security cameras off campus, access control, wifi, and cameras for homes and business, they’ll design it for you. You got restaurants. They do drive through systems, railroad cameras for public safety, total wireless camera systems for your home and business. Yeah, that’s right. Call xg Services at (734) 245-4100. Okay. As promised by the magic of tv, former Detroit Mayor, Dave Bing, a top 50 all time N B a player and former automotive magnet. How are you sir?
I am great doing well. How health is good. That’s really important.
When you were the mayor until 2014 of Detroit, correct? 10 years ago, correct. You looked better. That job must’ve been the worst job on the planet.
It wasn’t a good job. I could tell you that. It was tough to have.
Why don’t we just get topical here? I want to go to your automotive experience. The u a w, they’re out. They’re asking for the moon. And if they’re out for very long, what ramifications does it have for an economy that’s kind of teetering anyway?
Well, unemployment is going to go sky high. I think a lot of the small and medium sized suppliers will probably go out of business. And from the typical big three, they’re going to be hurting for a long time. They can’t get product out. And I think it will not only hurt the automotive industry, but there are several industries that are very dependent upon the automotive industry. I mean, you talk all of the technology that’s out there now. You talk glass, you talk steel, you talk leather. I mean, there’s so many different products that go into the vehicle. All of those enders are going to be hurt.
What about market share? I was supposed to do Fox yesterday and they stood me up, but I did a little research. Biden was going to stick his nose in it and come to the picket line and I’m like Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, during the steel strikes of the fifties, right? They brought people to the White House. But that was the beginning of the end for a lot of manufacturing in the United States because we started for the first time importing steel. So if you shut down the big three’s capacity to make vehicles, do you see foreign competition coming in and taking more market share?
Yeah, I think it’s a major risk. There’s no doubt about it. You got so much competition from a global standpoint that all we are concerned about is what’s happening in our country. But the market is global. And I’m sure that there would be foreign companies that would want to come to the US because it’s a very fertile market.
Flooded maybe
Could be. Should that be a guilt factor on those who are picketing right now and who are striking? I mean, should they carry the guilt of the peripheral impact of a strike? Or should they continue to be focused on what they’re asking for?
I think they’re asking for too much. Number one, because if they got what they’re asking for, it would cripple the OEMs and some of the major suppliers. So I think they deserve a nice bump, but not what they’re asking for.
They’re saying would it add a hundred dollars an hour onto the cost of an auto work? Do you believe that? I mean, they’re asking for the moon here.
Yes, they
Are. And they haven’t come to the table. Alright, here’s a counter. They just, right? Yeah.
Well, they’re not going to get that. I mean, I think the OEMs are smart enough that they’re not going to put themselves in a death noll. And so they will keep trying to negotiate. But the problem is I don’t think Fayne is listening. He hasn’t been to the table personally, I understand for quite some time. And that’s not a good sign. In order for them to break through this strike, the top people have got to be at the table.
But I see the point. I see the U A W just took it up the ass since 2008. We all know. I mean, you
Suffered. I’m there.
You were definitely there. And all the concessions that were made, we can have the newer workers can work at half the price and no more cost of living and no more pension and no more medical. And with inflation, I believe their wages have fallen 20% since 2008. I mean, when we’re handing billions over to GM and to Ford and to STIs. And now the Chinese, what position would you take if you were Sean Fanny?
Oh, I think he’s dug in pretty good. There’s no question about that. And he’s taken a hard position, and I don’t think he really felt he was going to get what he was asking for, but he’s going to hold out long enough that the workers themselves are going to get hurt because they can’t afford to stay out for a length of time. And the suppliers are going to get hurt. I mean, everybody’s going to get hurt here. And I do believe that they deserve a nice bump for what they gave up back in the 2000.
I just don’t know where we’re going because
I like his negotiation strategy though. I mean, nobody ever asks for what they’ll settle for when they’re negotiating. So I mean, he’s either a psycho or he’s a genius in his approach. And I guess that’ll be seen based on the outcome.
Yeah, what they end up getting, right. Yeah.
Let’s see what they end up getting.
I don’t know, because I’m looking at the economy and interest rates have been jacked up like 6000% in the last two years. And when you measure inflation, one of the big items is a used car. So if there aren’t any new cars to buy and you got to buy, then here we go again.
And they’re expensive.
These are not good days for Biden. I don’t think. They’re not. And let’s go to your political hat. You had to crash land, this plane that was on fire, right?
Yep.
How do you compare today, nationally? I know then you were looking at Detroit, but that was also a national issue. I believe that without all this runaway government spending over the last 15 years from Bush till now, all four of those presidents, that would’ve been a constant recession without deficit spending. How bad is it in your view?
I think it’s pretty bad. I really think it’s pretty bad. And what
Makes you say that?
I agree that it’s going to have a very negative impact on Biden and the Democrats. I believe that. And I think we’ve got, at some point in time, we can’t continue deficit spending. It can’t, won’t work.
We’re there. There’s no more tricks. Now, I never asked you, and now you don’t have to care. Are you a Democrat or are you a Republican? Old school Republican, new school Republican or
I guess I’m a Democrat, but I am open-minded to a lot of things that there are a couple of Republicans that I do like
And some of their positions.
Some of their positions. But I’m a Democrat.
Have you ever voted for a Republican?
I voted for here in the state. I voted for John Engler. Did you? When he was running for governor
Rick Snyder?
No, I did not vote for Rick. And maybe he remembers that because
Out there’s what I was going to
Say. He brought in a manager while I was in office.
Did, yeah. Why’d you take that job? Here’s the reporter. Water cooler scuttle. But only you two would know. By the way, was Karen your best cabinet member?
She was one of them for
Sure. Oh, he didn’t say the best’s. She
Was one of ’em. For
Sure. The mayor is tactful and he is inclusive. He’s a good leader. He would never say that because it alienates everybody else. And he wouldn’t do that. Although I’d say I probably would. That would just be me. I’ll
Ask him after. I’ll post it later. You were supposed to get help. I think you were promised a lot of help by the business community in order to manage. I mean, we were borrowing just to make pensions. Right. And you didn’t get that, did you? No.
I would tell you though, the business community was supportive. Luckily, I knew Obama before he became president, and his administration was very supportive. But we were so deep in the hole that the business community nor Obama could really save us. And ultimately we had to file for bankruptcy, obviously. And Governor Snyder, I don’t think he felt very comfortable with, maybe it is my leadership, maybe it was our administration, I don’t know. But he sent in an emergency manager when the city council and I, and a lot of people here in the area didn’t think it was necessary. If we had gotten the kind of help that was provided by Lansing for or if we had gotten that kind of help, we could have managed it. There’s no doubt in my mind
About it. Without going bankrupt.
No, I think we would’ve had to go back. I think we would have had to go bankrupt. I believe that. But I think we could have managed our way through it.
How much were you brought in? Did they put you over to the side or were you there making decisions? I had
A good relationship with or smart guy. Yeah. He was an outsider coming in, didn’t know anything about the city of Detroit. It’s politics. And he basically said to me, I’m going to take over the financial end of the business. You run the city. I’m not ready to do that. And so we met consistently almost every day, every other day and talked about the issues, what I was supposed to do and what he was going to do. So we had a good relationship.
That was a historic time. Yes, it really was. I mean, one of the top three.
Do you think we lost or gave up too many of our assets? The water authority, bell Isle, the convention center, the cultural, we lost what a lot of people consider to be assets for the city. Were those losses or were those just transitions that were necessary?
I think they were transitions that were necessary. I know that we did. Beal made it a regional asset. We did at that time. Cobo made that a regional asset, the lighting authority, who was a regional asset. The water became a regional asset. So we didn’t have enough money, nor did we have the borrowing capability to get the money that we needed to run the city. So we looked at this as a regional issue. And I think where we are today, a lot of those things have proved of to be the right thing.
What do you think about now dug in post-bankruptcy. I’m looking at development, but no one’s in the buildings I’m looking at. Last time we talked about the STIs makeover, the Jeep Complex on the east side of town and was promising all these jobs that aren’t there. How do you all of these things at once? Look at the state of the city now
When people say they’re two Detroits, they’re right. I think there are three or four areas where they’ve been huge investments made and they seem to be working. But that’s a very small footprint in the city of Detroit. I mean, you’ve got 138 square miles and you’re lucky if you got 15 to 20 of those square miles where there are people where there are things that are happening, good things that are happening. When you go back to the neighborhoods. We’ve done a little or nothing in a lot of the neighborhoods, and that’s where the majority of Detroiters live. The people who’ve been here for the last 30, 40, 50 years and they’re hurting. They need help. They need somebody to reach out to them and see what the needs are. I think in a lot of cases, it’s more than just money. You got to pay attention. It’s a huge investment that’s necessary. And that most of the investments are not in our neighborhoods
Down here. And there’s no revenue share. I did some work pre pandemic. We haven’t got the jobs back. We don’t have the wages. People aren’t back to work. The revenue for the city is not keeping pays with inflation. I’m like, where’s the miracle? You know what I mean? I see a hockey arena that doesn’t share the hotdogs anymore. Oh, you were there for that.
I was
Back when Thes used to share the parking and the tickets and the jury. Correct. And now we pay for it all. And the money’s pulled from the schools. That’s former mayor Dave Ming saying that. Not me. It’s important. Somebody’s got to say this. Yeah,
I agree. I agree wholeheartedly. When you look at what’s happening with our kids, the school system is still in dire need of help. Our kids are in dire need of help. And then we’ve got a population in Detroit probably with 50% of our households are single parents. The woman is the head of the household. And my foundation, which focuses on boys coming from a single family, whether the woman is the head of the household. I’ve learned a lot in the last seven or eight years in terms of how their kids have to manipulate their lives. And I mean, it’s not a normal thing. I was very fortunate. I grew up in a two parent home. I grew up, I mean, I wasn’t born in Detroit, but I’ve been in Detroit the last 50 plus years. So I’ve seen a lot that’s going on. And right now, if we don’t do something to help childcare, which is really expensive, but necessary, we’re not going to get out of this anytime soon.
What is that something now? Because I mean from the state, from the city, everything is a lot of process. It’s a lot of programs that seem to either go over the head or avoid the actual people who need the help. So when we say something needs to be done, what is that something? Because I don’t think people that are making decisions either know what to do or care what to do.
Well, that’s a good statement. I think, I don’t know what the something is because it is not easy. But you got to try things. I mean, you got to think out the box. And if you make mistakes, you make mistakes. You can’t sit back and continue to do the same thing that you’ve been doing forever and ever and expect a different outcome. Not going to happen. So we really got to focus on the school system. We got to focus on education. We’ve got to focus on what we can do to make our kids feel good. They are the future.
I tear down a dope house across from the
School. Hey, okay, we got all that demolition money. What happened to that? What dirt did they throw in the ground? Right? Yes. Right. You’re aware. Yeah. We got an issue there, don’t we, sir? We
Absolutely do. Fortunately when I was in the administration and my team was there, we never had a big negative problem in the demolition side.
I remember because I was on your ass. You remember? Yeah, you were. I was. That’s how I was an expert. I was bird dogging it.
Yep. And there were too many side deals cut. And I had about 13 small to medium sized companies in the demolition area. And when we changed the administration, most of those companies were kicked out the program altogether. And they’re the ones that the business were in Detroit. Their workers were in Detroit, and they needed that revenue to grow their businesses. But then it became now they’re too small. They can’t do this, they can’t do that, so let’s go. They don’t
Contribute to me.
Yeah, let’s go with the big guys. Right. Donors, we see what’s happened. We see what’s happened.
And then they threw shit in the ground. Yes.
Well, whatever they threw in the ground. I agree.
Well, I’m talking to federal authorities and there’s no record of what they put in there. So see, when I see Democrats in a democratic city talking about environmental racism, you committed it. You committed. And it’s going back to these dope houses because this land bank thing that went on, okay, you own all these houses, all these suburban dope fiends have moved into it. It’s in a neighborhood around an elementary school, and the kids have to walk over needles and nobody wants to take these houses down for the life of me.
From a demolition standpoint, we were more focused on tearing the homes down because a lot of those homes were
And you prioritized them. Yeah. Around the schools.
Exactly. Schools and churches is what we looked at. And that was our focus.
Mr. Mayor, do you think the scrutiny is different of this administration than administrations of the past? Including yours?
Absolutely. Yeah. No doubt about it. I will give Doug and discredit,
We’ll edit this out later. Okay.
Look who we hired. You had a certain segment in the media that was there when we were there. They’re no longer in the media. They’re working for the city of the government.
He hired all of them.
Hey, all of them have got jobs in the city of government. That’s crazy. It’s crazy.
He’s got a ministry of propaganda, and I know a lot. He got at least, least a dozen former media people. And where’s that money coming from? We don’t have any money.
Those people are paid extremely well.
Better than they were. Well, better than they were in the media. And they have positions, but no problem.
They’re paid what you were paid.
Yes.
Yeah, you’re right.
Now that I think about it, yeah.
They’re making a lot of money.
Well, and it’s a snow job. Do you see this tax plan he’s got? Are you aware of it at all?
No. No. I can’t say. I know a lot about
That. I’m going to give it to you next week. We’ve had a Marxist economist, Grover Norquist, the conservative tax revolt, Perry Johnson, the self-made co billionaire, whatever. You can call the guru somebody. Well, that’s a lot. So now we’re going to have the libertarian, oh, the mayor, the former progressive mayor of Pittsburgh who got rid of this tax plan. Nobody thinks it’ll work. Here’s the deal. We’re now going to split your taxes. There’s your house and there’s your property, and we’re going to value your property and the house and call it the property. So from now on, anybody that’s got a gigantic skyscraper is going to pay less. Anybody that builds a gigantic skyscraper won’t be taxed on the skyscraper. And if you’ve got a little shitty piece of property, right, your house, if your house is shitty and your land is more of the assessment, your taxes are going up. So it’s for the ultra rich again. And the media
Says nothing.
No. What they do is they put little ole Ms. Jones who dug and pushed up there and go, I’m going to save a hundred dollars. Nobody asked what the billionaire’s going to say.
Well, he’s doing that. He did the insurance, the whole carrot before the horse. And I think people in Detroit are so starved for any degree of savings that when they hear a remote percentage of savings, they jump on it. But then you had Crane say, we don’t understand this plan, but Duggan is such a great cheerleader. We support it. That’s literally what they said in their editorial.
Well, it goes back to, once again, our media has brought into a lot of the verbiage, a lot of the lip service, as opposed to being very critical in their thinking and what they print and what they put out to the public. You need truth, you need honesty. And right now, nobody knows how that program is going to work.
I don’t think they know either.
No big city does it. And you know, all the ambulances are smashed up. Again. We had to rent ambulances from Macomb County. Where’s all the money?
Well, let me say this. Mr. Mayor is here. Because I always say this
Here. You can’t call him Mr. Mayor.
I call him Mr.
Mayor, then we’re going to get flamed on Twitter. Oh, I call because the woman on meet the press called Trump, Mr. President, and it just went crazy. Okay,
Well that’s okay. But
You have to give the title back
To who? I dunno. I would not call him mayor. I refuse to do
That. Call him Dave.
Okay. Well, anyway, so we talk about the things that you did that this administration came in and just assumed responsibility for. And I want to make sure that I’m correct. The lighting authority, when this administration, we did
It, we started
That. Yes. Walked in and all he had to do was flip the switch. You got the business community to get new police cars and ambulances because they were running. You brought them in the parks and recreation. You got some corporate dollars to commit to because you’re a big proponent of making sure that recreational facilities are accessible to people in the neighborhoods. Correct. And the new transportation, because we went to DC and got the money for the new buses. I mean, in those you go
An electric car.
I’m not there yet.
I’m not getting electric. I’m not there yet. That shit’s not going to work. We don’t have the grid.
No, we don’t. We don’t.
The infrastructure. That’s Dave being the auto magnet. It’s true. What the fuck is going on? Now, having said that, we haven’t talked about Dave binging the basketball. Great. Sir. In your mind, and I think you played in the heyday, who for you was the greatest, besides yourself, was the greatest basketball player of your era?
I think the most talented player was Oscar Robinson. I think the most dominant player was Wilt Chamberlain. The most successful player was Bill Russell. He won, won 11 championships out of 13 years. That’s never going to happen again in any sport. But the kids today, forget about the history because everybody wants to be the rock stars today. Everybody talks about curry, and he is the greatest shooter that I’ve ever seen. I give him that credit. He deserves it. He’s earned it. Michael Jordan a great player, no doubt about it. LeBron people ask me to compare LeBron and Michael personally. I’d rather play with LeBron. He’ll give you the ball and he runs the lane like nobody, he can finish at the basket. Michael was a better all around score, no doubt about it. But you can flip a coin and have either one of them and you’re going to win a championship.
But in Michael Jordan’s day, I mean, they’d knock people to the floor. Yeah, it was a whole different, no hand
Check. Different game, different game.
Yeah. Okay. Isn’t it? Yeah. Who gave you the most stress?
I would say either Oscar Robinson or Jerry West. They were the dominant players in my era. I mean, we had a lot of guards that are in the top 50, the top 75, who came from that era? There was Erman Road, it was Clyde Frazier. There was Pete. I mean, I just go on and on. Sam Jones,
Dr. J in there. Did you guys overlap?
We overlapped, yeah. Yeah, we overlapped. But Doc was ahead of his time also. The game has changed so much. Now, I don’t enjoy basketball as much today as I did. And I’m biased because of the era that I played in. We played the game the way it was supposed to be played. It wasn’t Bird Against Magic, it was the Celtics against the Lakers. And now they have individualized everything. And I don’t think that’s good for the sport. And now it’s become a global sport. When I played, we didn’t have to worry about foreigners coming over here and play. But now they’re coming and they can play.
The Germans won the World Championship. They can play the Germans. Yeah,
They can play. So now it’s more than basketball. It’s a global business. And the kind of money these guys are making today is, I’m happy for ’em. But it’s outrageous. I don’t think anybody deserves the kind of money that some of these players are making today. But the owners are making it so they got to, well,
It’s good for you. You get a pension and if you go see Nile, the league will pay you have your ass wiped for you. So there’s that.
Yeah, it is that. Right now, as a matter of fact, I’ll be going out. I was just elected to the board of directors for the Retired Players Association. So we started that 33 years ago. Oscar Robinson, David Busher, Dave Kyle went, Archie Clark and myself. And the reason we started that was because the pre 66 players, the guys who started in 1946 had no pension. Pension didn’t start until 66. So they got nothing for all that they gave to the game. So we felt that we got to do something to include these guys in the pension plan. And we fought for that. And now they participate. They also had no health plan.
You sort of built the union movement.
Yeah. For the N B A.
For the n b a wow. Look at you. So you also are a labor guy?
Yes, I am.
But you missed my, forgive the the layup when I said, when you get old and someone will be there to wipe your ass. I didn’t miss
That. He heard
You. Lynn Barney. I wanted you to speak about your old friend Lynn. What’s going on there?
Not good. Not good
Lion’s. Great. Len Barney.
Yep. Lynn was one of my very best friends. 53 years together.
You guys both got drafted, showed up in town. Yep.
Yep. Loved the city. Did everything that we could place. Went out drinking together another place. We did a lot of stuff together. No doubt. I became a guardian two and a half years ago for them. And Lim has no family in Michigan. His family is now in Houston. His two children, his three grandchildren, his ex-wife. I asked the judge, I don’t think I bring any value to the table. I’m in Michigan and Lemon is now in Houston. We need a guardian in Houston to help and take care of them.
So there’s a dispute between, it’s two families, right? It’s first place family and his second wife son. And he’s with whom?
He’s in hospital now. Oh yeah. And not doing
And they want you to be the guardian just to look out for his affairs. Correct. Or do they want you to look out for him? Both. How’s he going to do that?
I can’t. It has to be, you could
Barely get up those
Stairs. It has to be transferred. Her has to be transferred to Texas and lamb’s bedridden now. And because they’re not doing everything that they should be doing for him, he’s got bed sores and that’s not good. Oh no, that’s not good at
All. Just like elder abuse.
Hey.
Yeah, no way.
But it’s just tough. It’s tough for me. I’m sorry. Yeah. Tough for me. It’s my guy.
But it’s your integrity that they want to oversee it. It’s not a matter of your presence. It’s a matter. It’s a level of character and integrity that they know that they can’t get any place else.
Thinking about somebody constitutes a prayer, I’ve already given them one. I’m sad to hear that. I wish him well. I hope you could work that out now. We’ll let you get out of here and get to your dinner, but real quick, last one, if that’s okay because it came up. How did you like the state of Michigan’s, the governor’s treatment of the elderly in the nursing home during Covid? What’s your opinion on that?
Negative. This guy’s honest, negative things were glossed over. Things were hidden and a lot of the elderly people died unnecessarily.
People weren’t counted. They didn’t made us all stay home to protect them. And then we found out they weren’t even looking out for ’em. Yeah. Okay. Well, anytime you want to come back or if you want to be fill in hosts, because we seem to agree on everything.
Well, look, I appreciate you all and what you do for the citizens here in the city of Detroit and this area, because you may not always be right in some of the positions that you take, but you’re honest and you say what you believe. You say what you think. You guys, we need more podcasts. We need more media people like you all. Boy, he’s
Changed his tune because look at, no, no, no.
Oh,
It says not a fan of the show. Mayor Dave Bank. Not this
Show, Charlie.
No, my
Whole
Show. That wasn’t this show. See, that was before I joined you. That was before that. But no, the mayor used to always say, Charlie does his homework. That was what we always said internally. When you came to the table, when you came asking for something, you had done your homework. You weren’t cherry picking, you weren’t reaching for anything. You knew what you were
Looking for. I’m going to make,
I’m
Going to agree. Thank you for that. No, you did. I do do my homework. I might not reach the right conclusion, but I’m trying to get there and if you can show me where it’s at, I’ll go there. Yeah, that’s, that’s
All you can ask. That’s all we can ask. Correct. That’s all you can ask. I
Agree with that. Otherwise we don’t have a society. That’s true. Alright, thanks for being here, sir. Thank
You. Thank you. Always good to see you. Okay. Thank you
Mr. Mayor. Good to see you. See you next Thursday. Look for me on Chris Cuomo Tuesday night. We’re all going to East Palestine and see what the hell’s going on. I’m his therapist. Oh my God. I’ll put him on the phone if he’s starting to crack. Okay. I want to make sure he’s okay. All right. We’ll see you next week.
