ShowsBrian Calley
Leader of SBAM, Small Business Association of Michigan, and former Lieutenant Governor of Michigan Keith Gave Author of "The Russian Five", and Detroit Free Press writer March 27, 2019 HOLY SMOKES! This one covers a lot of ground!
Right off the bat Fish takes on yet another wild misrepresentation about Flint that's been set in print..a book claiming that General Motors was built when Billy Durant 'hijacked' the talent of Dave Buick and Louis Chevrolet to build GM...YEESH...when will this stuff stop? Read a book people....before you write your own! Not content with fomenting controversy right off the bat he shifts gears in to a wide ranging discussion that has tremendous potential impact for not only all of Flint and Genesee Country, but indeed the entire state—the issue of dramatic gas tax increases, pension taxes, bad roads, and crazy small business tax increases. To discuss this he brings in former Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley, no stranger to controversy, politics, and discord himself. But this time it's in his role as the leader of the Small Business Association of Michigan that he opines. SMAM is the largest small business association in all of America with 27,000 members and growing so this is the perfect person to offer thoughts on the impact to small business at large. "Michigan is an innovation pipeline, and that's why many large companies want to come here," Brian says . "Job growth comes from existing companies adding new jobs,” he adds. That’s key to the future of Flint and Genesse, and certainly to the state of Michigan going forward so it's a timely discussion. However....the first part of the interview was mysteriously cut off when the power to the entire studio and building was interrupted. The station went BLACK leaving Fish, Jim, and Steve sitting in darkness. Was the discussion to HOT TO HANDLE? Was the question of taxes and small business too....subversive? Are thoughts on job growth and innovation too..underground for the main stream? Was BIG BROTHER to blame? Eh...probably just a power surge. Another of the regular weird and usual technical glitches that seems to happen on Fish and The Flint Chronicles on a weekly basis. We view it as a metaphor in our ongoing struggle to tell the relentless truth about our community! But…sadly...the middle part of the discussion with Calley is lost to the winds of time. So unless you heard it live, you'll have to take our word for how great it really was. But the second half of the interview is here and it's terrific, and Fish pulls it right back to the topic at hand (after the 'power surge' hung up on Brian and we had to call him back). Finally, at 19:00 minute mark Keith Gave joins the show and we shift gears from the fight over small business and gas taxes, to discussion of a real live bloody, bare knuckle fist fight for the ages! Gave is, as some of you know, the former Detroit Free Press writer, and author and screenwriter of the phenomenal book and movie "The Russian Five." He's also the former CIA agent and Russian speaking operative of Mike Illitch and the Detroit Red Wings largely responsible for bringing the Russian Five (and three of Lord Stanley's Cups) to Detroit. He directly passed information under the eyes of the KGB to Sergei Federov and Vladimir Konstantinov leading to them landing in Hockeytown...quite a feat during the Cold War! But in this show Keith is here to talk about that fight. One day removed from the anniversary of the revenge Darren McCarty exacted on the cowardly cheap shot artist Claude Lemieux of the Colorado Avalanche for his dastardly blow that broke Chris Draper's orbital bone in his face, shattered his cheekbone, and destroyed his jaw. Oh it was sweet revenge too...and Keith tells us all about it in the interview that ends the show. No one packs more local FLAVOR in to an hour than Fish and The Flint Chronicles so listen in and join the fun! |
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