MGoPodcast 9.Supplemental: Abdul El-Sayed
42 minutes
Wherein we interview Michigan gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed. This podcast is not and does not constitute an endorsement of the candidate. When a former Michigan athlete (lacrosse before it went varsity) is running for governor and reads the site and asks to come on the podcast we say "Okay, but we're not lobbing softballs".
Abdul did this whole interview without any notes and was very engaged in the toughest questions we could throw at him, so a lot of this interview went off anyone's idea of a script and got into some granular back-and-forth on complicated issues and events. That makes it hard to write up—what do you leave out?—so I'm going to present MGoBlog's questions below and you can get Abdul's answers by listening to the podcast.
Things discussed:
- Abdul's incredibly depressing Wikipedia page. How offering to serve got him thrown into a commission to run the Detroit Health Department after the emergency manager had shut it down. What did he do there?
- (at 7:30) Flint Water Crisis: What's the DEQ gotta do now? If the "money's there" where is it, how much will it cost? Could it have been faster? Will anyone believe them when they say the water's clean? What's Flint fatigue? How were the measurements made?
- (at 12:20) Lead Abatement Report: After Flint stuff his report on lead poisoning was changed? By whom? What level of lead is "safe"? How to operate a bureaucracy, setting culture of serving the public versus "closing the ticket."
- (at 18:20) Single-payer "MichCare" plan? How does it control costs, what's the upfront investment and transition costs, how does it compare to other plans? What are the incentives in the system and how do you change that?
- (at 23:20) Vis a vis recent Supreme Court decisions and a White House that would have substantially different views on, uh, civics: What is under the scope of a governor? Specifically would he as governor use state resources to support ICE and enforce federal immigration policy and political incarceration he doesn't agree with?
- (at 27:54) Brian's YIMBY hour: How do you address the relationship between housing and property assessments caught in an impossible Proposition A situation between rate of housing prices and rate of inflation? How do you decide the mils? How often do you do it? Note: on this question Abdul primarily addressed over-assessment that was leading to tax foreclosures in communities adjacent to gentrification, and education funding, while Brian was asking more about the Ann Arbor housing crisis (where nobody can sell their home). Brian recommends City Observatory dot org. Also SightLine.
- (at 35:31) Education: School of Choice effect on school districts in lower income communities. Promulgation of charter schools? Funding of charter schools?
- (at 37:30) Lightning Round: Regents for Michigan State: can we get two D's who didn't go to Michigan State? Ballot proposal to legalize marijuana? Ballot proposal against partisan redistricting? Plan to reduce the cost of a college education? Favorite Michigan athlete of the last 15 years?
MUSIC
"Across 110th Street"
"Where No Man Has Gone Before" Alexander Courage
THE USUAL LINKS
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link
- What's with the theme music?
Consider the gauntlet thrown down, sir.
Individual rights are foundational to freedom. Everyone should be able to say what they think when not representing others and anyone or group attempting to shut it down is a threat to freedom and liberty.. The U.K. is investigating and prosecuting citizens for posting their opinions, not threats mind you, but opinions. Truly scary and Orwellian. I would hope individual rights and liberties would be something all Americans value. Can everyone agree that preventing free speech because you disagree with what someone is saying is wrong? If not, you are on a very slippery slope.
Ace is someone in a situation where insane healthcare costs directly affect his life. Can you blame him for being passionate (and angry) about healthcare?
I'm a big fan of Ace in general and have had a number of positive interactions with him, but I've seen some of his Twitter interactions go thusly:
Ace: Obviously inflamatory comment about politics.
Other Twitter users: gentle pushback against inflamatory comment.
Ace: Fuck off you shithead Nazi fuck.
It's disappointing and difficult to square with the decent and reasonable dude he seems to be.
I'm not sure that a shared interest in a sports team is enough to have a civil political discussion. Ace has made it quite clear that isn't possible on this blog at least. I'm not a "Republican" nor did I vote for Trump, but I find the name calling and throwing around terms like "Fascist" and "Nazi" careless and discouraging. Not to mention how many people are told to "go to hell". That is the tone for the discussion on this blog, so I'd rather they didn't.
You know, until 2017, I would have agreed with you. But last year we had actual, literal Nazis re-enter the political dialogue and actually had to debate whether some of them were "fine people" or not.
This year you have actual, literal Nazis running for Congress (and winning primaries! Here's lookin' at you, Illinois 3rd District).
So... yeah, the name calling seems unusually, how to say... accurate lately.
The shoe fits, and it is extremely difficult to have considerate discussions with people who support the current clown show. It's careless to deny the obvious, as well.
Throughout American history, there are several examples of resentment, increased racism, and Supreme Court rulings in favor of unjust laws following African American progress. I believe it's no coincidence an unqualified birther, who "both sides" a neo-Nazi killing a woman, was elected after the first African American president.
Anyway, interesting podcast. I wish Abdul would've elaborated on Flint; tackled the awful road conditions; shared his thoughts on appointing dictator-like emergency managers; and discussed state officials who deny science and ignore EPA warnings. Sadly, it's hard for me to imagine Abdul garnering enough support from Michigan voters during the current toxic political climate.
I must have missed the podcast interview they did with Jay Riemersma when he was running for Congress...I wondeR why he wasn’t bRought on?
Probably because he isn’t an avid reader of this blog and/or didn’t contact Brian asking if he could be interviewed...
So it’s too much to expect from the authors of this website to reach out in what would have been the dead of ‘the off season’ to a major contributor to the football team in the 90’s? Do you really think Jay wouldn’t have done an interview/podcast on a very popular, Michigan-centric website while he would have been trying to gather votes?
Maybe they tried and he didn’t want to give an interview. It is certainly possible. But I have never heard of any sort of blog or website that doesn’t request interviews from anyone and only takes them from people that contact them first.
Used the British spelling of “Guv.” Do not want.
I wasn't expecting to see this here, but it was a great and informative interview - thanks!
I thought that was a great conversation. I wish there had been more time. It's nice to hear a candidate for public office offer some specifics. Thanks for doing this. It'll be interesting to see if any other candidates take you up on your offer.
I know El-Sayed was a U-M student, and is a U-M sports fan. If you have another candidate on, it'd be neat to hear their ties to Michigan at the top. Just to satisfy my personal curiosity.
Not surprised the comments are a hot mess, but I just wanted to say this was a good and informative interview.
If anybody that's upset about the interview knows any Republican candidates that would be willing to sit down for a similar interview, Brian makes it clear that they'll gladly do one.
"the Ann Arbor housing crisis (where nobody can sell their home)."
Wut.
It's not my preference to come here for policy and/or politics discussion.
I still listened to the podcast.
I like listening to smart people discuss important topics.
During some of that discussion I found myself nodding along. During other points, I was less agreeable.
I have more information than I did yesterday and have gone on with my life.
Can the offseason die now?
No. Not until you admit there's too much white space on the discussion boards.
I appreciate Brian's willingness to interview candidates and discuss local (whether city or state level) politics. Especially since it sounds like he's willing to interview anyone who asks.
I don't always agree with his views, but it's hard to argue that he hasn't thought about the things he has opinions about.
I don't live in Michigan anymore, so i don't have a dog in this fight, but Patrick Colbeck, Republican candidate for Governor is also a graduate of the University of Michigan. He worked for Boeing and was involved in a project for the International Space Station. Also, Bill Cobbs a write-in Democratic candidate for Governor attended the University of Michigan after graduating from Detroit Cass Tech, curious to see what he says about that football power in Detroit. Bill Gelineau the Libertarian Candidate for Governor also attended the University of Michigan. He is the first-ever libertarian to be on the ballot for this position to be decided at a statewide Libertarian convention. Unless you reach out to these candidates it seems you are endorsing or at least giving al-Sayed this platform as a candidate and that is disappointing to me. Go Blue!
It's my understanding that al-Sayed reached out to MGoBlog, and Brian says that he'd be happy to interview other candidates if they did the same.
I don't think it has as much to do with al-Sayed being a UM grad than al-Sayed's camp contacting MGoBlog. If Colbeck et al. contacted the blog to do an interview, Brian has said point blank that he'd interview them.
two things.
first, "if you're not interested, don't @ me." it's right there on the tin, people.
second, i think i post this about once every summer, but here goes.
when i was younger, i read every copy of bill james' baseball abstracts, repeatedly, every year. in his last edition, he closed with an essay he called 'breaking the wand,' which was an explanation that a) this was the last one, and b) why that was the case.
he wrote, essentially, that he had loved writing it for all those years, and loved many of the relationships that came from that; people that wrote him and with whom he started long-term correspondences. but, once in a while, he'd get a letter from someone that said "you shouldn't write about this, you should write this." he'd shrug a few of those off, but at some point, he'd lose his patience and write back with a "read or don't, but DON'T TELL ME WHAT I SHOULD WRITE ABOUT" letter. as he sold more books, he got more and more of the letters that (and he used this exact phrase) "irritated the living shit" out of him and treated him (again, exact phrase) "like a goddamned public utility."
yes, he was and will always be something of an ornery crank, which is almost certainly a big part of why i loved him so much, if i'm being honest with myself.
in any case, there are two correct responses to this particular podcast episode. those responses are a) listen, or b) don't.
if you don't like it, or any other content on this here free goddamned site, then by all means pick up a shovel and start digging. write or record your own stuff. there are, believe it or no, many many outlets where you can publish that stuff, blessedly free (or not) of politics.
or you can just turn the dial and move on to the next post.
There is perhaps some irony in your post about someone not liking being told what to write about concluding with that there are only two responses to this we can write.....
Everyone who has written that you can "just not read it" is correct. I've said that to posters on here myself in regards to Draftageddon.
Where I think a lot of people have a problem with this is the blatant disregard of a site rule that posters have always been asked to follow, and have lost points or been banned for. If the site rule is "No politics", then its hard to rectify a Political post on the front page in the eyes of many.
Abdul has a wicked poke check. Appreciate the content. Thanks Brian!
This is my first and last post. I have been lurking here since the days of Varsity Blue. I come here for sport content, not politics. It is apparent to me that the no politics, no religion rule is not a rule at all. It is just a hypocritical attempt to gag opposing viewpoints. Brian you are a hypocrite. Feel free to beg, ban or whatever you do. From now on I will be getting my news from somewhere else.
For the last time, "no politics" applies to MgoBoard and comments, not the site's creator. It is so so SO easy to not clink a link, not listen to a podcast, and not read the comments if that is what your heart desires.
Since politics are fair game now, the whole "you can't say or do this, but I can do what I want bc I'm in charge" thing is how a lot of problems start.
But...they're not fair game, and that's the point. This isn't new. If Brian wants to editorialize on his platform, he can. The rule applies the way it always has, to the comments.
Seth went so far as to leave comments open for people to opine as long as it didn't get ugly, and people like the commenter above (whose contributions will be sorely missed) are mad online about a podcast that they can ignore. If people take exception to politics putting its peanut butter in their sports chocolate, they are well within their rights to stop reading and clicking- but they should understand that "no politics" is a guideline for posters and commenters in the MGo community, not creators and moderators.
Honest question....where does it say "No politics" only applies to the commentators. I looked in the FAQ, and it just says No Politics.
Look, like I said in a different post, people can say you dont have to read it, and they are right. But to some, even those who don't have differing political opinions...its a bit strange and off-putting.
This is from the "Ethics" section of the About on the site. And yes I realize parts of it are said in jest:
I will maintain focus. Appropriate topic areas for mgoblog in descending order of relevance:
- Michigan sports.
- Sports media; print, broadcast, and blog.
- Opponent news.
- General NCAA news.
- Other sports of interest (Pistons, USMNT soccer mostly)
- Dancing bananas, Walken 2008, etc.
Things I wont post on:
- Politics
- Karate Kid
- The White Shadow
- Musical groups that were last relevant in 1986.
LOL. Physician, Heal Thyself.
This is how it ends. It's so easy to say don't read it but the whole point is there was a ban on politics for everyone including Brian and this ends it. To the detriment of the board.
I love these drama queen "exit stage left" posts. It's right up there with Roseanne quitting Twitter (j/k, she just can't quit you, Twitterverse).
Don't say it, just do it. No one's going to give you a hug and a "keep in touch." If you're not coming here anymore, why would Brian need to ban you?
This is not my first post, but I am with you Reblued. Brian is a hyprocrite of the highest order after this post. Just hugely disappointing from what used to be my favorite sports site. All things change I suppose.
This WAS one of the few places you could come without politics a while back. It could almost be forgiven if they were any good at it. But while Brian has a great talent for sports writing, he could not be worse at politics. And poor Ace - the less you read his twitter the better off you are.
I sure hope MGoBlog got paid for the front page political ad. I must say it is a clever way to do an end around on the Ad Blocker. :)
No politics. I see that shit too much. I need relief. Not here. Not ever.
Double Down. NO POLITICS!
He played for the Denver Nuggets.
I enjoyed listening to El-Sayed. You guys did a good job of interviewing him. I hope that other candidates that ask are also interviewed in this format. It was a good podcast and gave insight into some of the key issues in Michigan right now.
This podcast has No business being on this site.
Based on the sites Stated policy. No Politics.
Total bs.
I have refreshed my podcast player/catcher (whatever the apps are called generically) several times and I can't pick up a new MGoPodcast after the last one on May 31. Is this podcast not being pushed out through the usual channels?
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