August 21, 2025 • 38 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
By from highatop Monroe Center in downtown Grand Rapids. We're
talking about what matters most to you in West Michigan.
Joining the conversation now at six one six seven seven.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Four, twenty four twenty four.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
At six one six seven seven four twenty four twenty four,
it's West Michigan Live with Justin Barklay on Wood Radio Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
That good morning, Man, oh Man, what a day.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Lants to discuss that hurricane out off the coast of
North Carolina, the storm in Texas, it's sort of uh
I crossing over into California, the redistricting underway, and the
real war Grant did Trump gearing up to wage on drugs,
(00:48):
particularly the cartels. I want to give you the stories
that nobody else is willing to share it today in
the context that matters most.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
You'll get it off. Plus some good news.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
On the West US weather and traffic.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
His stories of the day.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
We are talking about what matters most in West Michigan
and beyond. This is the Big Three now.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, the story is a matter most.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
You'd be talking about these around the water, cool the
dinner table, no matter where you are are. Big Three
powered by Hartland Home Mortgage let they want to buy
refile home, make what the line of credit? Now's the
time to do it, as they're starting to predict and
forecasto's interest rates going down in the next month or so,
the Fed making a cut. Some mortgage companies already taking
advantages of lenders rather and Heartland Home Mortgage has access
(01:38):
to those folks. You want to get preposition, particularly if
you're looking to buy refile home.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Make what do you line of credit?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Now's the time hhmlending dot com. Well, it's red states
versus bluestates right now, at least in Texas and California,
where lawmakers are gearing up.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
They're redrawing congressional laps.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Some of those maps are voted on, like in Texas
or the houses past that map, and the Senate do
to take it up, they're saying in the next couple
of days or so, So we'll keep an eye on this.
But California and the Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom looking at
a plan right now the temporarily sideline California's Independent Commission
(02:23):
as they redraw their lines to call back a couple
of GOP seats. The state Supreme Court, clearing the path
for a November vote. They're gonna both of these. I
don't think they're going anywhere anytime soon. This is a
long road and we know that Democrats particularly have been
doing this for years. Trump playing the long game on this.
(02:45):
As we continue to keep an eye on this story
and the latest out of Texas, there's a few other
Republican states that are looking at this too.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
The funny thing is the Democrat states are they threatening
to do that. They've already done a lot of this,
So there's really not much to be gained for this
other than posturing for their one percent tds filled you know,
rage foaming at the out based that's where important. Those
are the folks who are most upset. But when imagine
(03:19):
how I've said there are about this. The Ninth Circuit
giving Trump a win on revocation of legal status on
sixty thousand folks. That means, yeah, they can be sent back.
They can go back to Honduras, Nicaragua, Nepaul. He reversed
a lower court block dis judge in this case. It's
(03:40):
good news as the administration with a forward bedbath and beyond.
As one state they won't be headed to is California. No,
it's not politics, it's just practicality. It's impractical to locate
to California. You may think to yourself, and Gavin new
(04:00):
or whoever's running his Twitter account did the other day
taking shots You do know this is what you want
to do, take shots out of business.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Who has real.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Gripes, real problems with some of the policies in the state,
making it just un feasible for them to do business there.
But they and in that the company that shut all
of its stores down a few years back, well, guess what, Yeah,
they're relaunching. Uh they were. They were about at private
equity bed.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Beth and beyond. The reason it went out of business.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Wasn't fully because nobody wanted to go shopping in the
stores anymore.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Maybe COVID had a little bit to do with that.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Uh. And it wasn't fully because they forgot it, refused
to carry them my pillow.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
No, it wasn't fully because although I would say maybe
that led to it. But there's more too of private
equity I want to get. We'll dig into the store.
I'll give you the ins and the outs.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Called justin now at six one six seven seven four
six one six seven seven twenty four, twenty four West
Michigan Live with Justin Barclay on news radio Wood thirteen
hundred and one oh six nine a f M.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
More testimony on the Hill today as Biden's ex crisis handler.
Here's up the head ind too the committee, but probably
talking a little bit about Hiss State and those you know,
really the oversight on some of those executive arders, the pardons,
and the weaponization things that were signed and done behind
(05:30):
the scenes here. Okay, So the story on bedmath and
Beyond is largely and it's a familiar one. It's largely
what we see happening with private equity a lot of
times these days, in various different industries. They come in,
they buy up a particular business. In this case it's
bed bath and Beyond. There's been several others like that.
I don't know if you heard the Quiznos story, it's
(05:51):
very similar. You remember Quiznos used to be a sandwich shop. Well,
they come in and they suck these businesses dry. And
it really is it's it's actually kind of it's it
shouldn't be legal. It's really horrific if you if you
look at what they actually do. They saddle these businesses
with all kinds of debt, and they've got six ways
(06:13):
of Sunday. Is that's what Chuck Schumer said about the
intel community. It's the same way with the private They
get six ways of Sunday to make money and and
then leave these companies bankrupt and and it doesn't help anybody,
by the way, except for the folks engaged in the
private equity scam. That's that's that's the only folks who
it helps. Bed Bath and beyond set to roll out,
(06:37):
because you know, when they sold this stuff off, they
sold off the property, they sold off all of the
you know, because they had to. They had to do
that in the in the bankruptcy piece of this. But
they kept some of this. It was actually a little valuable.
They kept the what's called IP, the intellectual property, so
(06:58):
the name, the brand and all of that. Marcus Lamona,
so you you might remember he's a guy behind Camping World.
Uh and he had his own TV show for a while.
I think it was called The Prophet where he went
around and helped failing businesses, etc.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Good interesting guy, good guy Canadian.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
But he said, you know, look we're bringing he's the
chair of the this this company so we're gonna we're
gonna bring this back. But tell you one place we're
not going. It's California. And there's reason for.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
That, which shut all its stories more than two years ago.
Is back from the dead with one brick and mortar
store in Tennessee. Customers lined up in Nashville today for
the grand ole opening with coupons in hand.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
What's so exciting?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
That was a thing about Bed Bath and Beyond the
twenty percent off coupons, oh man, and everything you had
to do to try to get to stack those coupons
up to save some cash.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I remember that I had the coupon. We gotta go
to bad beathty. I got the coupon.
Speaker 6 (07:56):
That's right, those old expired twenty percent off coupons, as
famous as BB and B itself, are being accepted again.
The home goods Chained began in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Wow, if you got some of those twenty percent off coupons,
you you may be in in luck. That stuff may
just turned into gold for you. Excel that stuff on
the black market.
Speaker 6 (08:21):
One as Bed and Bath. Later it became bed Bath
and Beyond, with more than fifteen hundred stores in all
fifty States. The news store is called bed Bath and
Beyond Home. The owners planned to open seventy five more
by the end of next year, so check around.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
But not in Commifornia, which is where this all goes
off the rails. Now, the new owners, I would assume
you will see my pillow, don't. I don't think there's
gonna be a carryover. Marcus doesn't seem to be that
kind of at least from what I've seen, doesn't seem
(09:00):
to be that kind of guy that is going to
engage in that sort of shenanigans like bed Beth and
Beyond Dead with my Pillow originally, but this is where
it gets This is where it gets interesting. So they
say they're not going to be coming to California and
gruesome Gavin Newsom or whoever is running his Twitter account besides, oh,
(09:25):
let's jump on this. This is an opportunity, and so
uh what does he what does he do? In fact,
I'm noticing now didn't even have the hood spot, didn't
even have the hornets.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
The Waveos Rancheros to.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Reply to Marcus Lamoniz's actual post or comment online. Instead,
they issued their own and the statement is kind of
is kind of well, this is just there's one from
Governorson's press office that says, expletive you buy. By the way,
(10:07):
I covered this yesterday and I'll dig into it a
little bit further. But what you're watching right now play
out with Newsom and whoever he's got working his online accounts.
By the way, we'll single handedly tank any sort of
run at anything that he's attempting right now.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Twenty twenty eight is what we do.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
We dove into this yesterday the simultaneously at the same time,
we're looking at and watching what is happening with the
Democrat Party the death of it, And make no mistake,
that's exactly what it is. We talked about this yesterday
in the after show. You can get all this at
the stat justin Barklay dot com. But we talked about
(10:44):
this in the after show. It's on the podcast right
the iHeartRadio app right now or wherever you download your podcast,
look that up. But what you're watching are desperate the
last desperate gaps, gaps of a dying party. That's what
you're actually watching play out right now. Marcus Lamonis says,
(11:07):
it's not about politics, it's about reality. California's system makes
it nearly impossible for businesses to succeed, and I won't
put our company, our employees uh or more at risk.
And there's a full there's a full statement on this
from from bed Bath and Beyond and from and from
Marcus Lamonis. It's a full pay you could read it.
(11:27):
It's a it's like a letter, you go into full detail.
But we might as well just let him tell you
exactly what he said. Why is this important? Because what
you're watching right now is it literally is the culture
colliding politics at the same time. And this this is
Lamona's last night, I believe on Hannity answering some of
(11:47):
these attacks, uh. And these guys, mister Wonderful say, these
are just businessmen. They're not they're not ideologically you know,
set or inclined in some way or the other. But
what they were trying to do is set up their
businesses to be successfully.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Can't do that in California.
Speaker 7 (12:02):
He says, Well, I think the thing that was really
surprising to me is that I tried to articulate in
a non aggressive way exactly why our company wasn't going
to reinvest capital in California. And what I found out
this afternoon is that Governor k Newsom has enough time
to respond to a tweet as opposed to a private
DM or having somebody reach out to remind everybody in
America that in twenty twenty three, before we bought the
(12:24):
intellectual property, that the company went out of business. We
all know the bit Bath went out of business a
few years ago. Now we're trying to make a comeback.
And I would think that a governor would want to
attract investment, attract capital into the state. In fact, he
did the opposite. He rejected it.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
He too busy on Twitter.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Model he's too busy on Twitter right now, or whoever's
running the account for him, going after making these memes,
going after Trump, etc. And by the way, they're falling flat.
I Like I said, I covered that extensively yesterday. I
maybe I'll touch on a little bit here and there,
but the headline is this, they are reject any.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Sort of.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Responsibility for why California is the way it is. And
this guy, it's very similar actually what we're watching play
out in the state of Michigan right now. Sky has
ruined his state. He has completely contributed to the downfall
of COMMI Fornia. Now, I'm not saying he did it
single handedly, because what we've seen play out there has
(13:23):
been decades, but this is he's had a big.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Hand in it.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
And now he wants to run for president. You know
what's interesting to me, And we'll talk about this. James
Dixon's coming up with this a little bit later on today,
nine thirty five. You got a guy who says he's
a former Democrat now running as an independent.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
He's the mayor of Detroit.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
And if one would look at that city on the
surface and ask themselves, how do you think he's done there?
How do you think that is is Detroit? Is is
it the shining beacon, the city on a hill that
you know that we that we want to emulate all
throughout the state? Probably say no. Now, they have done
(14:09):
some things to improve there in Detroit, but as a whole,
I don't think you make that I don't think he
can make that case. So you got to do some
who's ruined California wants to be president. You got Dougan
who really, yeah, similarly, isn't if you look at violent
crime statistics and the murder rate and in Detroit, this
(14:29):
guy thinks he's got what it takes to be the
governor of Michigan and similarly trying to sort of snow
people into thinking he's an independent, Well he's not. He's anything,
but still has a lot of those extremist views still
working hand in hand crony capitalism, et cetera. By the way,
some of the big money's gotten behind him, and the
(14:49):
reason is they know he's going to do what he
did in Detroit, which just give those handouts, those favors
to some of those folks. By the way, I got
more from Marcus la motis more his response on Hannitylight
nine and more on why we're actually watching the death
of the Democrat Party the last desperate gasps out of
(15:12):
their mouths, and Newsom is leading the charge. And you
know what, good I hope they continue this nonsense because
it is.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Well, it's not going to do them well at all.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Ah well, chicken, they've got the guys out on the
coast there in North Carolina with the wind blowing as
a hurricane, Aaron not making landfall but chirting there off
the coast, and the latest on that story.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
We'll get to it and more.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
But first, if you're able, please join us instead for
the National Anthem.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Where the truth, he says, negotiable. It's West Michigan Line
with Justin Barclay on news radio Wood thirteen hundred and
one oh six nine a f M.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Here are your.
Speaker 8 (17:05):
Headlines from the Midwesterner this Thursday, August twenty. First, I'm
Robin Poffman. It's a Midwesterner dot News original story here
in Michigan, Secretary of State Democrat Jocelyn Benson is stuck
on Putin talking points. She tells CNN she will fight
President Trump, who is promising to end mail in voting.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
That we have the president of the United States taking
advice on how to run American elections from a Russian dictator.
And you're exactly right. Donald Trump does not dictate how
our elections work, and neither does Vladimir Putin. Actually, the
states do, the voters do, and in our democracy in Michigan,
(17:44):
the overwhelming majority of voters actually embrace voting by mail
as legal, safe and secure.
Speaker 8 (17:50):
The southern border wall being painted black so it heats
up in the sun and prevents even more illegals from
trying to climb over it and into our country. Here's
homeland secure already, Secretary Christy.
Speaker 9 (18:01):
No, we are also going to be painting at black.
That that is specifically at the request of the President,
who understands that in the hot temperatures down here, when
something is painted black, it gets even warmer and it
will make it even harder for people to climb.
Speaker 8 (18:17):
The black paint will also prevent rust on the steel beams.
For these stories and more, visit The Midwesterner at the
Midwesterner dot news.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Comebuye h watching the videos right now. It's it's wild.
What's happening in the North Carolina off the coast there.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah, hold Lee smokes. This is just nuts some of these.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Some of these hogs, and they're already seeing damage to
a lot of them on the coast there.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
This is the outer banks. They're up on stilts as
it is.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Anyway, more on that Hurricane aeron Is It does seem
like it's going to be headed out to sea and
nothing to see here as far as any real landfall issues.
But we'll get to that bottle the hour news and
mo're all coming up here, folks, don't go anywhere, stick
with us. We'll have the latest coming out. Plus, James
Dixon joins us just moments away right here on news
(19:14):
radio Win thirteen and one o six nine FF. Watching
the hurricane footage come in is kind of wild to
watching as I was down at Florida. I remember people
people love to swim and this stuff, get out and
surfing and everything, and it's always like to hear this
band swimming, Well, who's going to enforce that? It's just
(19:38):
you know, it's like that, Hey, we got to put
the warning label on the coffee. Let people know that
it's hot. It's okay, all right, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Daddy.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Government had no idea that I probably shouldn't get out
and swimming at hurricane.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
I just wild.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
James Dixon, our good friend, joins us on the phone
this morning, and we're going to talk a number of
things here, Michigan centric, but first I got to start
with it. I think we're watching the death of the
Democrat Party. I talked about it yesterday, Gavin Newsom and
his social media escapades. In fact, we're watching the death
of Woke and DEI and everything all together at the
(20:16):
same time. Part of this is going to center around
Cracker Barrel, and I want to talk about that in
a second, because that's another one of these iconic like
sort of like nineties brands. That is at the top
of the conversation today. The other one is bed Bath
and Beyond, which I already sort of mentioned earlier this
(20:38):
morning that they will not be They're going to start
opening stores again all throughout the country, and they will
not be reopening in the People's Republic of Kami Fournia.
Of course, this set off a whole firestorm with ruesome
Gavin Newsom on Twitter x or whoever the intern is.
It's running his stuff for him. And I want to
get to that in the reasons why why Marcus lamontis
sort of laid out for everyone one. But first, let's
(21:00):
welcome in James, James, good morning.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
How are you?
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Good morning? Justin great to hear your boy, you too.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
So here's the clip Marcus laying it out. It's not politics,
it's just reality. We can't afford it.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
Well.
Speaker 7 (21:13):
I think the thing that was really surprising to me
is that I tried to articulate in a non aggressive
way exactly why our company wasn't going to reinvest capital
in California. And what I found out this afternoon is
that Governor k Newsom has enough time to respond to
a tweet as opposed to a private DM or having
somebody reach out to remind everybody in America that in
twenty twenty three, before we bought the intellectual property, that
(21:36):
the company went out of business. We all know the
Bitbath went out of business a few years ago. Now
we're trying to make a comeback. And I would think
that a governor would want to attract investment, attract capital
into the state. In fact, he did the opposite, He
rejected it. It's a very simple model for me as
a capitalist myself. I want to do business in all
fifty states, and I want to do business with all
(21:57):
people of all political parties. That's part of the a capitalist.
But what I don't want to do is put my shareholders,
my employees, and myself in a situation were were regulated
to a zero and we don't want to spend one
hundred million dollars coming into California and then find out
that the state's going to take it all and waste
it all.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
I mean, that's that's not political, that's practical, and it's
it's absolute reality. By the way, Marcus Lamonti is not
a dumb guy. He's you know, been around the block.
He's part of the Camping World a big business. But
he also he has multiple He had that show on
TV for a while to profit. Interesting guy, but I
(22:37):
thought he made really good points.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
You know, I think what's driving this. Obviously Gavin knew
some of the team are obnoxious, right, that's the thing.
But I think the thing behind the thing here, this
business hostility is ad growth mindset that they actually believe
we don't need these guys. We're finding the way we are. So,
(23:00):
you know, politics, business these are games of addition. You know,
you can occasionally have an addition by subtraction situation, but
for the most part, you want to be growing as
opposed to shrinking. The growth says, we only want to
deal with the people who are aligned with what we do.
The growth says, it doesn't matter how much money you
(23:21):
make or you lose, just that you move in locksteps.
It's not business. And so someone like Marcus Lamonis, who
wants to do business has just been told and everyone
who's following and watching was just told not in California.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
You know, it's wild to me.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
It's it's we get that we get some companies try
to do the right thing, and on the other hand,
we get some companies out there that are just stay
disks can't get it right no matter what. I think,
it's a similar so to get into this, I think
what we're watching is the find We're in the find
out era portions of this, and we're finding out that
some of these well, these decisions have consequences. Cracker Barrel
(24:04):
launched a new logo yesterday the internet exploded. But this
is also in line with the remodeling that they've done
inside their stores and restaurants, and people don't like it
at all. They've completely gotten rid of all of the
charm of the old Cracker Barrel, you know, and unfortunately
they've sort of whitewashed the walls. And one look at
(24:28):
the CEO. Who's got the glasses? I don't know if
you've seen the glasses. There's the pictures of meme out there.
There's a meme with all these people. They're on the
left with these glasses, and you're like, what happened? What's
the glasses? Well, one look at her glasses and I knew,
all right, I got asked this question, I think i'd
probably know to answer. What if all the customers are
coming at you hard enough about the look at a
(24:49):
restaurant and they want to go back to the.
Speaker 10 (24:51):
Old way, would you do it? Honestly, the feedback's been
overwhelmingly positive that people like what we're doing.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
That's a lie, that's a CEO. She got to talk
point from PR somewhere.
Speaker 10 (25:01):
I'll give you another SoundBite. I actually happened to be
in Orlando last week with all of our managers. We
bring them together and once every other year, and the
number one question that I got asked Michael was how
can I get a remodel? When can I get a remodel?
How do I get on the list. So, because the
feedback and the buzz is so.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
From the managers, by the way, not the not the
actual uh you know, the folks that are shopping there,
by the way, here's the logo. Folks are watching the
behind the scenes live stream. What they did is they
got rid of the barrel, and they got rid of
the cracker sitting next.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
They got rid above them, which I thought, well, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
And the old country store which is down beneath it, and
they made it this sort of It really is commy barrel.
I mean, if anybody familiar with like the way communist
architecture is and how nasty.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
That's what they've done here. It's just so sad.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
They sucked all the character and essentially the tradition out
of it. That's what they've done. They sucked a soul
out a cracker barrel. And that's what these.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
People do, a strategic mistake for the left because when
they do it in apartment buildings right the building, all
these apartments in ann Arbor, they look just like each other,
with the fake balconies that you can't even actually demand
on right, you might not notice that, or you might
not think it affects you because you drive by it.
It's ugly. I'm not going to live there. But when
(26:22):
they do it the things you love, it draws too
much attention. Yeah, and it makes you say, well, obviously
this is wrong. Obviously this is not business again. This
is the growth. And so it's happening both within the
government sphere with the Gavin Newsom's but also with the
corporate sphere with the cracker barrels, where no one is
here to make the most money possible, everyone is here
(26:44):
to put their politics first and foremost.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yes, yes, my wife asked me about this yesterday and
she said, what is going on? With crag brou So.
It's pretty simple. You know, about ten years ago they
had this this this move in Wall Street to put
in as many women see us, you know.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
For diversity, equity and inclusion.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
To put any in many women's CEOs they could into place,
not because of the merit that they were someone who
earned it and were rock stars. In fact, you look,
I got two daughters, so I'm all for women's empowerment.
But let's not let that be at the expense of
anything else. In this situation, it's going to be expensive
the whole brand. They put this woman in, and I'll
(27:24):
tell you what's happening, James. She's trying to make her
mark and without doing anything of real substance to bring
people in. She said, let's put lipstick on a pig
and that'll do it. And this is the problem. It's
the same as the move is bringing her in to
be the CEO. It's not real. There's nothing of substance there.
Do something to actually bring customers in or make them
(27:47):
love your brand even more, and you'll win. If it's
stuff like this, you're just turning half the people off.
You're not gonna win. And that's why I think again,
it's just like Gavin Newsom and what he's doing right
now on Twitter or what people are doing for him
on Twitter x, whatever they're doing with their social media
push the memes and all this other stuff.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
It's not gonna work.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
They're trying to troll Trump, they're trying to be controversial,
but they're not doing it in an authentic way, and
it's just gonna fall flat on its face. There's you know,
I'm just love to get your take on this, but
you know, I think there's a small percentage of people
who are foaming at the mouth, who have Trump arrangement syndrome,
who are gonna love what they're doing. But the people
that Gavin Newsom really needs to win over, the people
(28:30):
he was trying to talk to when he first came
out on all these different podcasts, tried to talk like
he was middle of the road. Those people aren't buying
this and they're completely turned off by it. He's actually
putting the nail in the coffin of his political career, justin.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Do you remember when you first started to like girls
and he wanted to know what to do and what
to say and what did your mom say? Just be
yourself that's what works for Donald Trump, and that's why
it doesn't work when people try to act like Trump.
I tell people all the time, you know, if I'm
driving around with a family member or something like that,
(29:06):
if you see me pull a move on telegraph, don't
think that you can then do it. Right. Just because
I can get away with it doesn't mean you can
go set out to do it. It's the same thing here.
Donald Trump can get away with things that are crazy,
but if you set out to act like him, it's
not gonna work because you're going to be left with
(29:27):
that question, why are you acting like anything? Why aren't
you speaking from the heart. Why aren't you an honest
person who's just hey, I'm gonna come out here and
be who I am, and you like it or you
don't like it. Why can't you just be yourself?
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Speaking of those problems, Jocelyn Benson that common Michigan, lots
of issues, melting down. I guess this maybe is her
authentic self on the news the other day over Trump's
promise to endmail in ballots. The same time this is happening,
she's also got bigger fish, bigger issue.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Who's going on that She's going to deal.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
With Secretary of State's office. We find out now had
to pay seven hundred and seventy five thousand dollars to
a supervisor who allegedly said that there was a racially
hostile environment. Created Deadline Detroit with that that story, she's
got skeleton after skeleton and going up now not just
(30:22):
against whoever the Republican nominee, but somebody who looks like
they're going to try to be very formidable in Duggan,
the mayor of the current mayor of Detroit.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Wow, she's this is not a great news cycle for
her right now.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
I mean this, And this is why Secretary of State
is not traditionally a platform for governor, because one, it's
a real day job, like it's not just some kind
of you know, no work job. There's real things you
can do. And two it's avoidable and so people can
see the things you do, unlike a lawmaker. And so
Gretchen Whitmer, all you knew about here was kind of
(30:57):
the thing she said about herself. But there wasn't a
ton of scrutiny available because lawmakers were you know, we're
not subject to FOYA back then, and they're still not.
And so This is the real problem with Jocelyn Benson
is that her performance at her job is so bad
that it really speaks against any need for a promotion.
(31:18):
So one of two things is true here, justin with
this lawsuit settlement. Either Jocelyn Benson's department is racially hostile
and that's why they gave out three quarters of a million,
or they're not racially hostile, and they gave out three
quarters of a million of our dollars for fun or
just to an ally or just to help out their
(31:40):
friends who's a trial lawyer. None of those answers are good.
Option two is actually the worst one. In that case,
it would be good news for Benson if she was
just racially hostile.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Yeah, bad news from the entire left, whether you're Democrats
and the party is dying taking its last of gasps
here desperately in trying to attempt to gab backway of
the story of The New York Times yesterday that they're
having a real hard time registering people to vote right now. So,
if you're Joscelyn Benson or maybe even your Gavin Newso
(32:15):
Mountain comedy for you, you're trying to make a run
for the president, and he's got a very similar situation.
I think he and Dougan actually have a there's a
lot of connections to those two who are trying to
both uh. They both ruined the areas that they're in
charge of in some ways. Douggan says he's made Detroit
come back, But James, I don't know anybody outside of that,
(32:38):
you know, sort of like elitist, sort of donor career
that that that sit that feels that way about anything
outside of that little tiny bubble in the city.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
It's about Republican is what I call them. Where all
you experience of Detroit is what you see between when
you park and when you get to the stadium and
the stadium and back to your car and within that
little green zone before you hit the freeway. Man, the
lights are shining and bright. It's gorgeous. You're not going
to be accosted. It's generally safe. Maybe not Greek Town
(33:10):
so much, but most of it is safe. What about
the other one hundred and thirty square miles of the city.
It feels like it's almost rude to ask about that,
because that spits in the face of his whole campaign.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Isn't isn't that something.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
Yeah, it's just and this is another case where we
are so detached from actual facts and actual track records
that the media is essentially taking what Mike Duggan says
about himself as if true. The Midwesterner is supposedly a
conservative website. They just covered the Mike Dugan event. I
kept looking for that disclaimer that said this is like
(33:48):
an advertorial and not a news story. They called what
they did a news story. They covered the dug event
live like it was like, why are you covering it live?
We all know that obviously Dug's gonna throw at Dug
in favorable event. What's the live angle? The live angle
is you're supporting my duggant what.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
I wouldn't go that far, I will say, I think
what they probably were hoping for us to have coverage
and have in case anything happens, they have it and
can use it.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
I know there's no.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Just just from my knowledge of those folks, I don't
think there's any favoritism towards Duggan at all. But yeah, no, no,
like I understand it. Listen, my friend James Dixon always
a pleasure. You can follow him online. James is on
X one of my favorite places to watch and read.
Over there down I seventy five. Hey what about your
(34:44):
new project?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Quickly?
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Yeah, it's called something Else with James David Dixon Tuesday
nights on X at seven pm. This week, I'm having
my friend Jason Lanley. We're going to talk about the
upcoming Michigan football season.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
Looking forward to it. Always a pleasure. Thank you, my friend,
Thank you for taking the time.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Thank you, justin you got it.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
God blessed folks. We're back after this.
Speaker 8 (35:06):
Don't go anywhere, bab you're your headlines from The Midwesterner
this Thursday, August twenty, first time Robin Poffman, It's a Midwesterner.
Dot News original story. Trump derangement syndrome on full display
as Michigan Secretary of State Democrat Jocelyn Benson continues to
push this false narrative that President Trump is taking advice
(35:27):
from Russian President Putin on our election process.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
And in our democracy. In Michigan, the overwhelming majority of
voters actually embrace voting by mail as legal, safe and secure.
Speaker 8 (35:39):
Benson telling CNN she's fighting the president who is pushing
to end mail in voting, which will potentially impact Michigan.
Speaker 5 (35:46):
We're also seeing a president not take advice from states
election officials, professionals in the states who run elections, voters
themselves on what's best for democracy. He's taking advice from
a Russian dictator and then repeating the lies that he
he says that he feeds the president to the American public.
So it's an extraordinary sign for how this president sees democracy,
(36:08):
how he respects or doesn't respect the will of the voters.
Speaker 8 (36:12):
In other news, less and less new illegal aliens flooding
Michigan thanks to President Trump's southern border wall, and now
news the wall is being painted black so it heats
up in the sun and prevents even more people from
trying to climb over it and into our country. Homeland
Security Secretary Christinome in New Mexico.
Speaker 9 (36:30):
That is specifically at the request of the President, who
understands that in the hot temperatures down here, when something
is painted black, it gets even warmer and it will
make it even harder for people to climb.
Speaker 8 (36:42):
For these stories and more, visit the Midwesterner at the
Midwesterner dot news.
Speaker 11 (36:47):
When the National Guard hit the ground in Washington last week,
that city's crime fight went into overdrive. And now we're
seeing the impact and the dramatic reductions in crime. National
Guard rolled into Washington last week. The locals seemed skeptical.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
The crime is minimal here, there's not really a lot
of crime. Here's looked at the window, dress up to me.
Speaker 11 (37:08):
But with the Guard on the ground, crime is on
the decline. For the first time in a long time,
DC has gone seven days without a homicide, true guard, What.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
What seven days without a homicide?
Speaker 3 (37:21):
That is massive news. And as a matter of fact,
I want to get into this.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
It is. It's the good news that I think it's working.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
That and more during the after show, the stories that
you may not have got a chance to hear of
the full context, and we put it all up in
the stack later on at justin barklay dot comes you
can log got to check that out. Car jackings down
eighty three percent, robberies sliced by forty six percent, car
sets down twenty one percent, overall violent crime down twenty
two percent. But how about that seven days, a whole,
(37:54):
full whole week with no homicides. How long has it
been in Washington, DC? Fantastic news, it's the latest. More
in the after show, Facet Taran Radio just flew by,
Back at it tomorrow, back here with you. The Glimmback
program is next. Make it a great one, folks. God
bless
By from highatop Monroe Center in downtown Grand Rapids. We're
talking about what matters most to you in West Michigan.
Joining the conversation now at six one six seven seven.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Four, twenty four twenty four.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
At six one six seven seven four twenty four twenty four,
it's West Michigan Live with Justin Barklay on Wood Radio Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
That good morning, Man, oh Man, what a day.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Lants to discuss that hurricane out off the coast of
North Carolina, the storm in Texas, it's sort of uh
I crossing over into California, the redistricting underway, and the
real war Grant did Trump gearing up to wage on drugs,
(00:48):
particularly the cartels. I want to give you the stories
that nobody else is willing to share it today in
the context that matters most.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
You'll get it off. Plus some good news.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
On the West US weather and traffic.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
His stories of the day.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
We are talking about what matters most in West Michigan
and beyond. This is the Big Three now.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, the story is a matter most.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
You'd be talking about these around the water, cool the
dinner table, no matter where you are are. Big Three
powered by Hartland Home Mortgage let they want to buy
refile home, make what the line of credit? Now's the
time to do it, as they're starting to predict and
forecasto's interest rates going down in the next month or so,
the Fed making a cut. Some mortgage companies already taking
advantages of lenders rather and Heartland Home Mortgage has access
(01:38):
to those folks. You want to get preposition, particularly if
you're looking to buy refile home.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Make what do you line of credit?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Now's the time hhmlending dot com. Well, it's red states
versus bluestates right now, at least in Texas and California,
where lawmakers are gearing up.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
They're redrawing congressional laps.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Some of those maps are voted on, like in Texas
or the houses past that map, and the Senate do
to take it up, they're saying in the next couple
of days or so, So we'll keep an eye on this.
But California and the Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom looking at
a plan right now the temporarily sideline California's Independent Commission
(02:23):
as they redraw their lines to call back a couple
of GOP seats. The state Supreme Court, clearing the path
for a November vote. They're gonna both of these. I
don't think they're going anywhere anytime soon. This is a
long road and we know that Democrats particularly have been
doing this for years. Trump playing the long game on this.
(02:45):
As we continue to keep an eye on this story
and the latest out of Texas, there's a few other
Republican states that are looking at this too.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
The funny thing is the Democrat states are they threatening
to do that. They've already done a lot of this,
So there's really not much to be gained for this
other than posturing for their one percent tds filled you know,
rage foaming at the out based that's where important. Those
are the folks who are most upset. But when imagine
(03:19):
how I've said there are about this. The Ninth Circuit
giving Trump a win on revocation of legal status on
sixty thousand folks. That means, yeah, they can be sent back.
They can go back to Honduras, Nicaragua, Nepaul. He reversed
a lower court block dis judge in this case. It's
(03:40):
good news as the administration with a forward bedbath and beyond.
As one state they won't be headed to is California. No,
it's not politics, it's just practicality. It's impractical to locate
to California. You may think to yourself, and Gavin new
(04:00):
or whoever's running his Twitter account did the other day
taking shots You do know this is what you want
to do, take shots out of business.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Who has real.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Gripes, real problems with some of the policies in the state,
making it just un feasible for them to do business there.
But they and in that the company that shut all
of its stores down a few years back, well, guess what, Yeah,
they're relaunching. Uh they were. They were about at private
equity bed.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Beth and beyond. The reason it went out of business.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Wasn't fully because nobody wanted to go shopping in the
stores anymore.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Maybe COVID had a little bit to do with that.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Uh. And it wasn't fully because they forgot it, refused
to carry them my pillow.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
No, it wasn't fully because although I would say maybe
that led to it. But there's more too of private
equity I want to get. We'll dig into the store.
I'll give you the ins and the outs.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Called justin now at six one six seven seven four
six one six seven seven twenty four, twenty four West
Michigan Live with Justin Barclay on news radio Wood thirteen
hundred and one oh six nine a f M.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
More testimony on the Hill today as Biden's ex crisis handler.
Here's up the head ind too the committee, but probably
talking a little bit about Hiss State and those you know,
really the oversight on some of those executive arders, the pardons,
and the weaponization things that were signed and done behind
(05:30):
the scenes here. Okay, So the story on bedmath and
Beyond is largely and it's a familiar one. It's largely
what we see happening with private equity a lot of
times these days, in various different industries. They come in,
they buy up a particular business. In this case it's
bed bath and Beyond. There's been several others like that.
I don't know if you heard the Quiznos story, it's
(05:51):
very similar. You remember Quiznos used to be a sandwich shop. Well,
they come in and they suck these businesses dry. And
it really is it's it's actually kind of it's it
shouldn't be legal. It's really horrific if you if you
look at what they actually do. They saddle these businesses
with all kinds of debt, and they've got six ways
(06:13):
of Sunday. Is that's what Chuck Schumer said about the
intel community. It's the same way with the private They
get six ways of Sunday to make money and and
then leave these companies bankrupt and and it doesn't help anybody,
by the way, except for the folks engaged in the
private equity scam. That's that's that's the only folks who
it helps. Bed Bath and beyond set to roll out,
(06:37):
because you know, when they sold this stuff off, they
sold off the property, they sold off all of the
you know, because they had to. They had to do
that in the in the bankruptcy piece of this. But
they kept some of this. It was actually a little valuable.
They kept the what's called IP, the intellectual property, so
(06:58):
the name, the brand and all of that. Marcus Lamona,
so you you might remember he's a guy behind Camping World.
Uh and he had his own TV show for a while.
I think it was called The Prophet where he went
around and helped failing businesses, etc.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Good interesting guy, good guy Canadian.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
But he said, you know, look we're bringing he's the
chair of the this this company so we're gonna we're
gonna bring this back. But tell you one place we're
not going. It's California. And there's reason for.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
That, which shut all its stories more than two years ago.
Is back from the dead with one brick and mortar
store in Tennessee. Customers lined up in Nashville today for
the grand ole opening with coupons in hand.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
What's so exciting?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
That was a thing about Bed Bath and Beyond the
twenty percent off coupons, oh man, and everything you had
to do to try to get to stack those coupons
up to save some cash.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I remember that I had the coupon. We gotta go
to bad beathty. I got the coupon.
Speaker 6 (07:56):
That's right, those old expired twenty percent off coupons, as
famous as BB and B itself, are being accepted again.
The home goods Chained began in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Wow, if you got some of those twenty percent off coupons,
you you may be in in luck. That stuff may
just turned into gold for you. Excel that stuff on
the black market.
Speaker 6 (08:21):
One as Bed and Bath. Later it became bed Bath
and Beyond, with more than fifteen hundred stores in all
fifty States. The news store is called bed Bath and
Beyond Home. The owners planned to open seventy five more
by the end of next year, so check around.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
But not in Commifornia, which is where this all goes
off the rails. Now, the new owners, I would assume
you will see my pillow, don't. I don't think there's
gonna be a carryover. Marcus doesn't seem to be that
kind of at least from what I've seen, doesn't seem
(09:00):
to be that kind of guy that is going to
engage in that sort of shenanigans like bed Beth and
Beyond Dead with my Pillow originally, but this is where
it gets This is where it gets interesting. So they
say they're not going to be coming to California and
gruesome Gavin Newsom or whoever is running his Twitter account besides, oh,
(09:25):
let's jump on this. This is an opportunity, and so
uh what does he what does he do? In fact,
I'm noticing now didn't even have the hood spot, didn't
even have the hornets.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
The Waveos Rancheros to.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Reply to Marcus Lamoniz's actual post or comment online. Instead,
they issued their own and the statement is kind of
is kind of well, this is just there's one from
Governorson's press office that says, expletive you buy. By the way,
(10:07):
I covered this yesterday and I'll dig into it a
little bit further. But what you're watching right now play
out with Newsom and whoever he's got working his online accounts.
By the way, we'll single handedly tank any sort of
run at anything that he's attempting right now.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Twenty twenty eight is what we do.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
We dove into this yesterday the simultaneously at the same time,
we're looking at and watching what is happening with the
Democrat Party the death of it, And make no mistake,
that's exactly what it is. We talked about this yesterday
in the after show. You can get all this at
the stat justin Barklay dot com. But we talked about
(10:44):
this in the after show. It's on the podcast right
the iHeartRadio app right now or wherever you download your podcast,
look that up. But what you're watching are desperate the
last desperate gaps, gaps of a dying party. That's what
you're actually watching play out right now. Marcus Lamonis says,
(11:07):
it's not about politics, it's about reality. California's system makes
it nearly impossible for businesses to succeed, and I won't
put our company, our employees uh or more at risk.
And there's a full there's a full statement on this
from from bed Bath and Beyond and from and from
Marcus Lamonis. It's a full pay you could read it.
(11:27):
It's a it's like a letter, you go into full detail.
But we might as well just let him tell you
exactly what he said. Why is this important? Because what
you're watching right now is it literally is the culture
colliding politics at the same time. And this this is
Lamona's last night, I believe on Hannity answering some of
(11:47):
these attacks, uh. And these guys, mister Wonderful say, these
are just businessmen. They're not they're not ideologically you know,
set or inclined in some way or the other. But
what they were trying to do is set up their
businesses to be successfully.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Can't do that in California.
Speaker 7 (12:02):
He says, Well, I think the thing that was really
surprising to me is that I tried to articulate in
a non aggressive way exactly why our company wasn't going
to reinvest capital in California. And what I found out
this afternoon is that Governor k Newsom has enough time
to respond to a tweet as opposed to a private
DM or having somebody reach out to remind everybody in
America that in twenty twenty three, before we bought the
(12:24):
intellectual property, that the company went out of business. We
all know the bit Bath went out of business a
few years ago. Now we're trying to make a comeback.
And I would think that a governor would want to
attract investment, attract capital into the state. In fact, he
did the opposite. He rejected it.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
He too busy on Twitter.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Model he's too busy on Twitter right now, or whoever's
running the account for him, going after making these memes,
going after Trump, etc. And by the way, they're falling flat.
I Like I said, I covered that extensively yesterday. I
maybe I'll touch on a little bit here and there,
but the headline is this, they are reject any.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Sort of.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Responsibility for why California is the way it is. And
this guy, it's very similar actually what we're watching play
out in the state of Michigan right now. Sky has
ruined his state. He has completely contributed to the downfall
of COMMI Fornia. Now, I'm not saying he did it
single handedly, because what we've seen play out there has
(13:23):
been decades, but this is he's had a big.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Hand in it.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
And now he wants to run for president. You know
what's interesting to me, And we'll talk about this. James
Dixon's coming up with this a little bit later on today,
nine thirty five. You got a guy who says he's
a former Democrat now running as an independent.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
He's the mayor of Detroit.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
And if one would look at that city on the
surface and ask themselves, how do you think he's done there?
How do you think that is is Detroit? Is is
it the shining beacon, the city on a hill that
you know that we that we want to emulate all
throughout the state? Probably say no. Now, they have done
(14:09):
some things to improve there in Detroit, but as a whole,
I don't think you make that I don't think he
can make that case. So you got to do some
who's ruined California wants to be president. You got Dougan
who really, yeah, similarly, isn't if you look at violent
crime statistics and the murder rate and in Detroit, this
(14:29):
guy thinks he's got what it takes to be the
governor of Michigan and similarly trying to sort of snow
people into thinking he's an independent, Well he's not. He's anything,
but still has a lot of those extremist views still
working hand in hand crony capitalism, et cetera. By the way,
some of the big money's gotten behind him, and the
(14:49):
reason is they know he's going to do what he
did in Detroit, which just give those handouts, those favors
to some of those folks. By the way, I got
more from Marcus la motis more his response on Hannitylight
nine and more on why we're actually watching the death
of the Democrat Party the last desperate gasps out of
(15:12):
their mouths, and Newsom is leading the charge. And you
know what, good I hope they continue this nonsense because
it is.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Well, it's not going to do them well at all.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Ah well, chicken, they've got the guys out on the
coast there in North Carolina with the wind blowing as
a hurricane, Aaron not making landfall but chirting there off
the coast, and the latest on that story.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
We'll get to it and more.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
But first, if you're able, please join us instead for
the National Anthem.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Where the truth, he says, negotiable. It's West Michigan Line
with Justin Barclay on news radio Wood thirteen hundred and
one oh six nine a f M.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Here are your.
Speaker 8 (17:05):
Headlines from the Midwesterner this Thursday, August twenty. First, I'm
Robin Poffman. It's a Midwesterner dot News original story here
in Michigan, Secretary of State Democrat Jocelyn Benson is stuck
on Putin talking points. She tells CNN she will fight
President Trump, who is promising to end mail in voting.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
That we have the president of the United States taking
advice on how to run American elections from a Russian dictator.
And you're exactly right. Donald Trump does not dictate how
our elections work, and neither does Vladimir Putin. Actually, the
states do, the voters do, and in our democracy in Michigan,
(17:44):
the overwhelming majority of voters actually embrace voting by mail
as legal, safe and secure.
Speaker 8 (17:50):
The southern border wall being painted black so it heats
up in the sun and prevents even more illegals from
trying to climb over it and into our country. Here's
homeland secure already, Secretary Christy.
Speaker 9 (18:01):
No, we are also going to be painting at black.
That that is specifically at the request of the President,
who understands that in the hot temperatures down here, when
something is painted black, it gets even warmer and it
will make it even harder for people to climb.
Speaker 8 (18:17):
The black paint will also prevent rust on the steel beams.
For these stories and more, visit The Midwesterner at the
Midwesterner dot news.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Comebuye h watching the videos right now. It's it's wild.
What's happening in the North Carolina off the coast there.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah, hold Lee smokes. This is just nuts some of these.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Some of these hogs, and they're already seeing damage to
a lot of them on the coast there.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
This is the outer banks. They're up on stilts as
it is.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Anyway, more on that Hurricane aeron Is It does seem
like it's going to be headed out to sea and
nothing to see here as far as any real landfall issues.
But we'll get to that bottle the hour news and
mo're all coming up here, folks, don't go anywhere, stick
with us. We'll have the latest coming out. Plus, James
Dixon joins us just moments away right here on news
(19:14):
radio Win thirteen and one o six nine FF. Watching
the hurricane footage come in is kind of wild to
watching as I was down at Florida. I remember people
people love to swim and this stuff, get out and
surfing and everything, and it's always like to hear this
band swimming, Well, who's going to enforce that? It's just
(19:38):
you know, it's like that, Hey, we got to put
the warning label on the coffee. Let people know that
it's hot. It's okay, all right, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Daddy.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Government had no idea that I probably shouldn't get out
and swimming at hurricane.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
I just wild.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
James Dixon, our good friend, joins us on the phone
this morning, and we're going to talk a number of
things here, Michigan centric, but first I got to start
with it. I think we're watching the death of the
Democrat Party. I talked about it yesterday, Gavin Newsom and
his social media escapades. In fact, we're watching the death
of Woke and DEI and everything all together at the
(20:16):
same time. Part of this is going to center around
Cracker Barrel, and I want to talk about that in
a second, because that's another one of these iconic like
sort of like nineties brands. That is at the top
of the conversation today. The other one is bed Bath
and Beyond, which I already sort of mentioned earlier this
(20:38):
morning that they will not be They're going to start
opening stores again all throughout the country, and they will
not be reopening in the People's Republic of Kami Fournia.
Of course, this set off a whole firestorm with ruesome
Gavin Newsom on Twitter x or whoever the intern is.
It's running his stuff for him. And I want to
get to that in the reasons why why Marcus lamontis
sort of laid out for everyone one. But first, let's
(21:00):
welcome in James, James, good morning.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
How are you?
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Good morning? Justin great to hear your boy, you too.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
So here's the clip Marcus laying it out. It's not politics,
it's just reality. We can't afford it.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
Well.
Speaker 7 (21:13):
I think the thing that was really surprising to me
is that I tried to articulate in a non aggressive
way exactly why our company wasn't going to reinvest capital
in California. And what I found out this afternoon is
that Governor k Newsom has enough time to respond to
a tweet as opposed to a private DM or having
somebody reach out to remind everybody in America that in
twenty twenty three, before we bought the intellectual property, that
(21:36):
the company went out of business. We all know the
Bitbath went out of business a few years ago. Now
we're trying to make a comeback. And I would think
that a governor would want to attract investment, attract capital
into the state. In fact, he did the opposite, He
rejected it. It's a very simple model for me as
a capitalist myself. I want to do business in all
fifty states, and I want to do business with all
(21:57):
people of all political parties. That's part of the a capitalist.
But what I don't want to do is put my shareholders,
my employees, and myself in a situation were were regulated
to a zero and we don't want to spend one
hundred million dollars coming into California and then find out
that the state's going to take it all and waste
it all.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
I mean, that's that's not political, that's practical, and it's
it's absolute reality. By the way, Marcus Lamonti is not
a dumb guy. He's you know, been around the block.
He's part of the Camping World a big business. But
he also he has multiple He had that show on
TV for a while to profit. Interesting guy, but I
(22:37):
thought he made really good points.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
You know, I think what's driving this. Obviously Gavin knew
some of the team are obnoxious, right, that's the thing.
But I think the thing behind the thing here, this
business hostility is ad growth mindset that they actually believe
we don't need these guys. We're finding the way we are. So,
(23:00):
you know, politics, business these are games of addition. You know,
you can occasionally have an addition by subtraction situation, but
for the most part, you want to be growing as
opposed to shrinking. The growth says, we only want to
deal with the people who are aligned with what we do.
The growth says, it doesn't matter how much money you
(23:21):
make or you lose, just that you move in locksteps.
It's not business. And so someone like Marcus Lamonis, who
wants to do business has just been told and everyone
who's following and watching was just told not in California.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
You know, it's wild to me.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
It's it's we get that we get some companies try
to do the right thing, and on the other hand,
we get some companies out there that are just stay
disks can't get it right no matter what. I think,
it's a similar so to get into this, I think
what we're watching is the find We're in the find
out era portions of this, and we're finding out that
some of these well, these decisions have consequences. Cracker Barrel
(24:04):
launched a new logo yesterday the internet exploded. But this
is also in line with the remodeling that they've done
inside their stores and restaurants, and people don't like it
at all. They've completely gotten rid of all of the
charm of the old Cracker Barrel, you know, and unfortunately
they've sort of whitewashed the walls. And one look at
(24:28):
the CEO. Who's got the glasses? I don't know if
you've seen the glasses. There's the pictures of meme out there.
There's a meme with all these people. They're on the
left with these glasses, and you're like, what happened? What's
the glasses? Well, one look at her glasses and I knew,
all right, I got asked this question, I think i'd
probably know to answer. What if all the customers are
coming at you hard enough about the look at a
(24:49):
restaurant and they want to go back to the.
Speaker 10 (24:51):
Old way, would you do it? Honestly, the feedback's been
overwhelmingly positive that people like what we're doing.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
That's a lie, that's a CEO. She got to talk
point from PR somewhere.
Speaker 10 (25:01):
I'll give you another SoundBite. I actually happened to be
in Orlando last week with all of our managers. We
bring them together and once every other year, and the
number one question that I got asked Michael was how
can I get a remodel? When can I get a remodel?
How do I get on the list. So, because the
feedback and the buzz is so.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
From the managers, by the way, not the not the
actual uh you know, the folks that are shopping there,
by the way, here's the logo. Folks are watching the
behind the scenes live stream. What they did is they
got rid of the barrel, and they got rid of
the cracker sitting next.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
They got rid above them, which I thought, well, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
And the old country store which is down beneath it, and
they made it this sort of It really is commy barrel.
I mean, if anybody familiar with like the way communist
architecture is and how nasty.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
That's what they've done here. It's just so sad.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
They sucked all the character and essentially the tradition out
of it. That's what they've done. They sucked a soul
out a cracker barrel. And that's what these.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
People do, a strategic mistake for the left because when
they do it in apartment buildings right the building, all
these apartments in ann Arbor, they look just like each other,
with the fake balconies that you can't even actually demand
on right, you might not notice that, or you might
not think it affects you because you drive by it.
It's ugly. I'm not going to live there. But when
(26:22):
they do it the things you love, it draws too
much attention. Yeah, and it makes you say, well, obviously
this is wrong. Obviously this is not business again. This
is the growth. And so it's happening both within the
government sphere with the Gavin Newsom's but also with the
corporate sphere with the cracker barrels, where no one is
here to make the most money possible, everyone is here
(26:44):
to put their politics first and foremost.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yes, yes, my wife asked me about this yesterday and
she said, what is going on? With crag brou So.
It's pretty simple. You know, about ten years ago they
had this this this move in Wall Street to put
in as many women see us, you know.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
For diversity, equity and inclusion.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
To put any in many women's CEOs they could into place,
not because of the merit that they were someone who
earned it and were rock stars. In fact, you look,
I got two daughters, so I'm all for women's empowerment.
But let's not let that be at the expense of
anything else. In this situation, it's going to be expensive
the whole brand. They put this woman in, and I'll
(27:24):
tell you what's happening, James. She's trying to make her
mark and without doing anything of real substance to bring
people in. She said, let's put lipstick on a pig
and that'll do it. And this is the problem. It's
the same as the move is bringing her in to
be the CEO. It's not real. There's nothing of substance there.
Do something to actually bring customers in or make them
(27:47):
love your brand even more, and you'll win. If it's
stuff like this, you're just turning half the people off.
You're not gonna win. And that's why I think again,
it's just like Gavin Newsom and what he's doing right
now on Twitter or what people are doing for him
on Twitter x, whatever they're doing with their social media
push the memes and all this other stuff.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
It's not gonna work.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
They're trying to troll Trump, they're trying to be controversial,
but they're not doing it in an authentic way, and
it's just gonna fall flat on its face. There's you know,
I'm just love to get your take on this, but
you know, I think there's a small percentage of people
who are foaming at the mouth, who have Trump arrangement syndrome,
who are gonna love what they're doing. But the people
that Gavin Newsom really needs to win over, the people
(28:30):
he was trying to talk to when he first came
out on all these different podcasts, tried to talk like
he was middle of the road. Those people aren't buying
this and they're completely turned off by it. He's actually
putting the nail in the coffin of his political career, justin.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Do you remember when you first started to like girls
and he wanted to know what to do and what
to say and what did your mom say? Just be
yourself that's what works for Donald Trump, and that's why
it doesn't work when people try to act like Trump.
I tell people all the time, you know, if I'm
driving around with a family member or something like that,
(29:06):
if you see me pull a move on telegraph, don't
think that you can then do it. Right. Just because
I can get away with it doesn't mean you can
go set out to do it. It's the same thing here.
Donald Trump can get away with things that are crazy,
but if you set out to act like him, it's
not gonna work because you're going to be left with
(29:27):
that question, why are you acting like anything? Why aren't
you speaking from the heart. Why aren't you an honest
person who's just hey, I'm gonna come out here and
be who I am, and you like it or you
don't like it. Why can't you just be yourself?
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Speaking of those problems, Jocelyn Benson that common Michigan, lots
of issues, melting down. I guess this maybe is her
authentic self on the news the other day over Trump's
promise to endmail in ballots. The same time this is happening,
she's also got bigger fish, bigger issue.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Who's going on that She's going to deal.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
With Secretary of State's office. We find out now had
to pay seven hundred and seventy five thousand dollars to
a supervisor who allegedly said that there was a racially
hostile environment. Created Deadline Detroit with that that story, she's
got skeleton after skeleton and going up now not just
(30:22):
against whoever the Republican nominee, but somebody who looks like
they're going to try to be very formidable in Duggan,
the mayor of the current mayor of Detroit.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Wow, she's this is not a great news cycle for
her right now.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
I mean this, And this is why Secretary of State
is not traditionally a platform for governor, because one, it's
a real day job, like it's not just some kind
of you know, no work job. There's real things you
can do. And two it's avoidable and so people can
see the things you do, unlike a lawmaker. And so
Gretchen Whitmer, all you knew about here was kind of
(30:57):
the thing she said about herself. But there wasn't a
ton of scrutiny available because lawmakers were you know, we're
not subject to FOYA back then, and they're still not.
And so This is the real problem with Jocelyn Benson
is that her performance at her job is so bad
that it really speaks against any need for a promotion.
(31:18):
So one of two things is true here, justin with
this lawsuit settlement. Either Jocelyn Benson's department is racially hostile
and that's why they gave out three quarters of a million,
or they're not racially hostile, and they gave out three
quarters of a million of our dollars for fun or
just to an ally or just to help out their
(31:40):
friends who's a trial lawyer. None of those answers are good.
Option two is actually the worst one. In that case,
it would be good news for Benson if she was
just racially hostile.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Yeah, bad news from the entire left, whether you're Democrats
and the party is dying taking its last of gasps
here desperately in trying to attempt to gab backway of
the story of The New York Times yesterday that they're
having a real hard time registering people to vote right now. So,
if you're Joscelyn Benson or maybe even your Gavin Newso
(32:15):
Mountain comedy for you, you're trying to make a run
for the president, and he's got a very similar situation.
I think he and Dougan actually have a there's a
lot of connections to those two who are trying to
both uh. They both ruined the areas that they're in
charge of in some ways. Douggan says he's made Detroit
come back, But James, I don't know anybody outside of that,
(32:38):
you know, sort of like elitist, sort of donor career
that that that sit that feels that way about anything
outside of that little tiny bubble in the city.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
It's about Republican is what I call them. Where all
you experience of Detroit is what you see between when
you park and when you get to the stadium and
the stadium and back to your car and within that
little green zone before you hit the freeway. Man, the
lights are shining and bright. It's gorgeous. You're not going
to be accosted. It's generally safe. Maybe not Greek Town
(33:10):
so much, but most of it is safe. What about
the other one hundred and thirty square miles of the city.
It feels like it's almost rude to ask about that,
because that spits in the face of his whole campaign.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Isn't isn't that something.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
Yeah, it's just and this is another case where we
are so detached from actual facts and actual track records
that the media is essentially taking what Mike Duggan says
about himself as if true. The Midwesterner is supposedly a
conservative website. They just covered the Mike Dugan event. I
kept looking for that disclaimer that said this is like
(33:48):
an advertorial and not a news story. They called what
they did a news story. They covered the dug event
live like it was like, why are you covering it live?
We all know that obviously Dug's gonna throw at Dug
in favorable event. What's the live angle? The live angle
is you're supporting my duggant what.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
I wouldn't go that far, I will say, I think
what they probably were hoping for us to have coverage
and have in case anything happens, they have it and
can use it.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
I know there's no.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Just just from my knowledge of those folks, I don't
think there's any favoritism towards Duggan at all. But yeah, no, no,
like I understand it. Listen, my friend James Dixon always
a pleasure. You can follow him online. James is on
X one of my favorite places to watch and read.
Over there down I seventy five. Hey what about your
(34:44):
new project?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Quickly?
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Yeah, it's called something Else with James David Dixon Tuesday
nights on X at seven pm. This week, I'm having
my friend Jason Lanley. We're going to talk about the
upcoming Michigan football season.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
Looking forward to it. Always a pleasure. Thank you, my friend,
Thank you for taking the time.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Thank you, justin you got it.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
God blessed folks. We're back after this.
Speaker 8 (35:06):
Don't go anywhere, bab you're your headlines from The Midwesterner
this Thursday, August twenty, first time Robin Poffman, It's a Midwesterner.
Dot News original story. Trump derangement syndrome on full display
as Michigan Secretary of State Democrat Jocelyn Benson continues to
push this false narrative that President Trump is taking advice
(35:27):
from Russian President Putin on our election process.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
And in our democracy. In Michigan, the overwhelming majority of
voters actually embrace voting by mail as legal, safe and secure.
Speaker 8 (35:39):
Benson telling CNN she's fighting the president who is pushing
to end mail in voting, which will potentially impact Michigan.
Speaker 5 (35:46):
We're also seeing a president not take advice from states
election officials, professionals in the states who run elections, voters
themselves on what's best for democracy. He's taking advice from
a Russian dictator and then repeating the lies that he
he says that he feeds the president to the American public.
So it's an extraordinary sign for how this president sees democracy,
(36:08):
how he respects or doesn't respect the will of the voters.
Speaker 8 (36:12):
In other news, less and less new illegal aliens flooding
Michigan thanks to President Trump's southern border wall, and now
news the wall is being painted black so it heats
up in the sun and prevents even more people from
trying to climb over it and into our country. Homeland
Security Secretary Christinome in New Mexico.
Speaker 9 (36:30):
That is specifically at the request of the President, who
understands that in the hot temperatures down here, when something
is painted black, it gets even warmer and it will
make it even harder for people to climb.
Speaker 8 (36:42):
For these stories and more, visit the Midwesterner at the
Midwesterner dot news.
Speaker 11 (36:47):
When the National Guard hit the ground in Washington last week,
that city's crime fight went into overdrive. And now we're
seeing the impact and the dramatic reductions in crime. National
Guard rolled into Washington last week. The locals seemed skeptical.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
The crime is minimal here, there's not really a lot
of crime. Here's looked at the window, dress up to me.
Speaker 11 (37:08):
But with the Guard on the ground, crime is on
the decline. For the first time in a long time,
DC has gone seven days without a homicide, true guard, What.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
What seven days without a homicide?
Speaker 3 (37:21):
That is massive news. And as a matter of fact,
I want to get into this.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
It is. It's the good news that I think it's working.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
That and more during the after show, the stories that
you may not have got a chance to hear of
the full context, and we put it all up in
the stack later on at justin barklay dot comes you
can log got to check that out. Car jackings down
eighty three percent, robberies sliced by forty six percent, car
sets down twenty one percent, overall violent crime down twenty
two percent. But how about that seven days, a whole,
(37:54):
full whole week with no homicides. How long has it
been in Washington, DC? Fantastic news, it's the latest. More
in the after show, Facet Taran Radio just flew by,
Back at it tomorrow, back here with you. The Glimmback
program is next. Make it a great one, folks. God
bless
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