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Does Detroit Have Home Rule?

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The concept of "home rule" is the idea that a colony or a territory has the power of self-government, rather than being subject to the will of an imperial ruler. In the case of Detroit, we really have to wonder. Let's break it down by the numbers... 1) "Livonia Mike" Duggan is a write-in mayor who still does not apparently live within the boundaries of the city that he is in his third term of governing. Neighbors to the Manoogian Mansion claim to never see him, and after he was elected his now ex-wife Mary Loretto Maher reportedly remained living in Livonia. Surveillance of Duggan's movements during his extramarital affair with Sonia S. Hassan (a Novi resident) made it appear that he did not seem to reside within Detroit, and the city has been obstructive in releasing any Manoogian Mansion security footage that would prove otherwise: www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2018/11/19/lawsuit-claims-duggan-doesnt-live-city Duggan lived in Livonia be...

Duggan as the Modern Jerome Cavanagh, in the Summer of George Floyd

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This post will serve as an account of Mayor Duggan's record on the Black Lives Matter era. When the history books are written, they will not look kindly on Duggan's reign; the corporate media currently portrays him as a Maybury or a Pingree, when in actuality he is closer to a Bowles or a Miriani, historically speaking. I would like to correct that perception, by stringing together a series of stories on negative incidents, which taken separately may seem isolated and harmless, but when seen as a cohesive whole are a damning indictment of the mayor's moral standing. At very best, Duggan can hope to be compared to Mayor Cavanagh... As early as March 6th of 2019, columnist Bankole Thompson wrote,  "Despite the racial reckoning that is taking place inside Detroit’s police department, which could possibly set this city on an ugly and perilous course, Mayor Mike Duggan seems to have taken a back seat. He has yet to convene a press conference or media briefing to fully addre...

A Political Coward

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You may recall the minor media kerfuffle over the Jones Day law firm calling Mike Duggan a "political hack" back in February of 2017, due to the mayor's threats to sue the firm "for allegedly misleading him" during the city's infamous bankruptcy. Well, in this post I intend to take it a bit further, and call him a coward as well. In a 13-page letter sent to the city, Jones Day's managing partner pointed out that Duggan's comments were meant to distance himself from the bankruptcy, while using the threat of a vendetta lawsuit as intimidation: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2017/03/20/explosive-jones-day-letter-slams-detroit-mayor-mike-duggan/99427040/ Jones Day also observed that "If this case goes forward, we will prove that it does not—and cannot—serve the interest of your real client, the city of Detroit, but instead is designed only to serve the venal interests of a political hack who has placed personal animus and se...

The Duggan You Forgot About

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This article is excerpted from the Facebook page, " Exposing Uncle Toms, House Negros and Sambos ." "THE DUGGAN SOME CONVENIENTLY FORGOT ABOUT" It's time to turn the page from leadership that misuses the public’s trust and tax dollars to give tens of millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to his friends, and then have those same friends finance his campaign. Someone who tried to cover-up a sexual affair to save his own skin. Someone who used his office to enrich his wife. And someone who the Feds caught in a kickback scheme. But this someone is NOT KWAME KILPATRICK. IT’S MIKE DUGGAN.  "Say wha?" The following provides a historic picture of what Mike Duggan’s 30 years of “service” has produced. A history that has been ignored by all media outlets, and those who claim to support “change.” And while the vast majority of these incidents were taken from Detroit’s two daily newspapers, none of these issues have been revisited during this mayoral campaign. M...

Duggan's Amazon Scam

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People are giving Duggan credit for the "Amazon Deal" where the city gives away the old state Fairgrounds to an out of state developer, who will then lease the property to Amazon for a warehouse. Here's why that's bull: >>142 acres of prime public land given away for peanuts, on a no-bid public contract. $9 million sale price was kept low in order to avoid giving tax abatements, which exempted the deal from having a legally required community benefits order. Duggan tried to puff up the figure being touted in the media to $16 million by combining the price of the $9 million Amazon parcel and the $7 million transit center parcel, which is to remain public land. >>1,200 jobs TOTAL, not guaranteed for local Detroiters, as Duggan is touting. Amazon has the second highest turnover rate of any Fortune 500 company, guaranteeing that even if Detroiters got those jobs, they wouldn't have them for long enough to get out of poverty. Amazon is well known as a sweat...

Duggan tried to cover up Malice Green murder

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While we're all feeling warm & fuzzy about Mayor Mike Duggan's smiling platitudes about the police accountability movement, here's a reminder that in 1992 when he was the Wayne County Deputy Executive, Duggan was the one who pressured the Wayne County Medical Examiner (Dr. Kalil Jiraki) to change the autopsy report on Malice Green, who had just been infamously beaten to death by Detroit Police, mere months after Rodney King's beating touched off the LA Riots.  Malice Green memorial Mike Duggan pressured Dr. Jiraki to say that Malice Green died due to cocaine in his system rather than due to the head trauma he received from DPD Officers Budzyn and Nevers. When Jiraki refused to falsify his autopsy report, Duggan led efforts among his colleagues to ruin Jiraki's credibility, intimidate, and fire him.  Click to enlarge: "Ex-Morgue Worker Alleges Conspiracy," Detroit Free Press , April 15, 1997, page 1B That last paragraph..." and Deputy County Execut...

KWAME vs. DUGGAN: The Double Standard

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Since Kwame Kilpatrick getting out of prison has been such a hot topic lately, let’s review the differences between him and the current sitting mayor, Mike Duggan, who was elected in a bid to supposedly clean up the corrupt image of Detroit government that Kwame tarnished. And maybe someone can explain to me why only one of them has been to jail for misusing their office to enrich themselves or their cronies. I'm definitely not a Kwame lover, but can we please get SOME of the same intense scrutiny that was leveled against him put on Mike Duggan? Interesting how quick the media and everybody was to pounce on Kwame's scandals, but with Mayor Duggan all I hear is crickets from the local peanut gallery. Kwame was on the hook for $8.4 Million; Duggan's overtaxation scandal is worth at least $650 Million, and his other scandals are worth hundreds of thousands, to millions more. Duggan's time as the head of the DMC was also rife with impropriety.  However, it is worth mentioni...