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Showing posts from 2021

Who funds Duggan?

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It can be said that if you want to know what a politician's true values and priorities really are, look at who donated to his campaign fund. Let's take a closer look at Duggan's campaign chest. He is perhaps the only city mayor in the nation to have a Super-PAC (something usually reserved for national-level candidates). Granted, thanks to the controversial “Citizens United” U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed for the creation of Super PACs in 2010, it is not possible to see all of Duggan's Super PAC donors, or how much they gave. But perhaps it is enough for us to know that he does not want us to know . Because of that ruling, a politician's Super PAC may receive unlimited donations from corporations, unions, nonprofits and individuals, without having to make their records public. Nonetheless, some of Duggan's campaign contributions are public, and **spoiler alert** they are mostly from people and corporations from outside of Detroit, with mostly conservati...

Duggan and the Tow-Truck Mafia

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By now, everyone must have heard about the big raids at City Council, and how four council members connected to Mike Duggan are apparently embroiled in the towing company bribery scandal that has been simmering in the city since the Kwame years. The local media are allowing Duggan to stay quiet and act like he is not involved, but I know better. All of those council members (Ayers, Benson, Spivey, and Leland) are Duggan's loyalists, and the mayor has staunchly endorsed all of them in every election including this November. In this post I will weave Duggan back into the story. These council members are small fish, and clearly none of them are the head of the organization. Every circus has to have a ringleader, but even with all of them snitching on him it is highly unlikely that the FBI will pinch Duggan for this, because of the political fallout that it would pose for the Democrats at the national level, and because Duggan is so good at surrounding himself with fall guys, deleting ...

Who Is In Charge Of The Land Bank?

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If you know anything about the Detroit Land Bank Authority (DLBA) you know that they are now infamous for their mishandling of public funds, numerous scandals regarding demolition practices, ongoing federal investigations, playing shell games with vast amounts of public land, blocks of addresses of vacant Land Bank houses showing up on absentee voter ballots, and of course, at the center of it all, puppet-master Mike Duggan. But have you ever wondered who is directly in charge of the DLBA? It has a CEO and a board of directors, although four of the five board members are appointed by the mayor, so we all know what that means. Here is a roll call of the board members, CEOs, and other notable past members who have been at the steering wheel of this clown car... Board Chair Erica Ward Gerson Corporate lawyer from Skadden Arps (the law firm credited with spearheading the tax inversions boom allowing corporations to pay less), former DMC trustee chair (where she was very close to Duggan), ...

Top Duggan Myths, Debunked!

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( I don't know who made this photo, but it's so perfect! )   Myth #1: Duggan Brought Business Back Downtown Myth #2: Duggan Got Detroit Government's Image and Finances Back in Order Myth #3: Duggan Got the Streetlights Back On Myth #4: Duggan Saved the DMC Myth #5: Duggan Tore Down the Abandoned Houses and 'Cleaned Up' the City Myth #6: Duggan is Down With the Civil Rights Struggle Myth #7: Duggan Stopped The Water Shutoffs Myth #8: Well, At Least He Did A Good Job Handling Covid, Right? Myth #9: Duggan Fixed the Auto Insurance Rates Myth #10: Duggan is a Leader in Times of Disaster Myth #11: Duggan Got People to Move Back Into Detroit Myth#12: Duggan is a Democrat