February 21, 2020

Not surprising: Bloomberg's claim abut his taxes was false

snip
Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg lied on Wednesday night when he said during the Democratic debate in Las Vegas that he had "put out" his "tax return every year for 12 years in City Hall."

I have the proverbial receipts for this assertion, in the form of audio files and extensive reporting from my years covering him as a reporter at WNYC, New York's largest public radio station.



https://www.salon.com/2020/02/21/despite-his-claims-bloomberg-didnt-disclose-taxes-as-nyc-mayor--and-i-have-the-receipts_partner/

February 20, 2020

What would a debate attacking drumpf tell Democratic voters?

The awful Brian Williams began with the theme of "they didn't spend the debate attacking drumpf" and one on CNN continued that. Some on here seem to want the same thing: let's just talk about drumpf, not fight against one another.

So what would that tell us. We ALL hate drumpf and know how bad he is. In polls, drumpf is below 5 percent with Democratic voters. Maybe they could spend some more time talking about the POS to reach the few undecideds watching but how much will that gain us in the GE.

I think the candidates need to differentiate themsleves from one another, and they needed tonight to respond to Bloomberg's $400M ad blitz. They did that.

February 19, 2020

How Bloomberg buys silence from criticism

The plan was shocking even in Mike Bloomberg’s New York: At the height of the Great Recession, with the number of homeless people approaching record highs, the city had quietly begun charging rent from working families living in its rundown shelters.

“People were just outraged by that policy,” said Patrick Markee, then a senior policy analyst at the Coalition for the Homeless. Social services advocates had already found a lot to dislike about Bloomberg’s personal responsibility approach to homelessness, and Markee figured that organizing a swift and unified backlash would be no problem.

But almost immediately, reliable allies in the nonprofit world declined to take a public stand against Mayor Bloomberg, for fear of alienating their most important donor: Mayor Bloomberg.

“We would find it very hard at times to get these other groups to stand up with us,” Markee recalled in a recent interview. “When we were doing a press conference in front of City Hall, or engaged in a legal action, or whether we were doing rallies, I talked to my colleagues and pretty frankly they would say, ‘Look, we agree with you, we’re on your side. But he’s a critical donor. We can’t afford to lose that kind of money.’”

snip
As Markee’s experience shows, Bloomberg’s vast extracurricular philanthropy bought him not only allies in key political moments, but the illusion of political consensus and a lack of serious opposition to the billionaire’s personal policy preferences.


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mike-bloomberg-philanthropy-silence_n_5e4c23fbc5b65f25da502fa5

It is just so obvious how this guy operates. I can't believe how many people are either falling for it, or just don't care (you know because he's not as bad as drumpf). We not only can do better, we can do a LOT better.

February 19, 2020

Obama campaign vets push back against Bloomberg

snip
Barack Obama is staying quiet as the 2020 Democratic primary heats up, so his former campaign aides are speaking up to correct the record about his relationship with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

snip
Jon Favreau, a co-host of Pod Save America who worked as Obama’s speechwriter, said Tuesday that he remembered being “annoyed” by the “tepid” endorsement when it was published. “It basically could have been a fucking Romney ad,” he added in a podcast this week.

snip
Bloomberg did not endorse a candidate in the 2008 presidential election. In 2012, he endorsed Obama over his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, citing the president’s commitment to combating climate change. But he also took shots at the Democratic incumbent, writing in an editorial that he “devoted little time and effort to developing and sustaining a coalition of centrists” to enact his agenda. He also said Obama “engaged in partisan attacks and has embraced a divisive populist agenda focused more on redistributing income than creating it.”


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mike-bloomberg-obama-2020_n_5e4d4a43c5b65f25da52884b

From Obama's 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe:
https://twitter.com/davidplouffe/status/1228354858224431106?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1228354858224431106&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffpost.com%2Fentry%2Fmike-bloomberg-obama-2020_n_5e4d4a43c5b65f25da52884b

February 14, 2020

Choose a Bloomberg 2020 campaign slogan

February 11, 2020

Sorry, but the Bloomberg quotes are accurate and reflect his true feelings

The efforts to paint Bloomberg's own words as an attack from RW sources is a pitiful deflection from what he actually said, as recorded by the Aspen Times and reported on here by Slate. Neither of which are RW sources as some are trying to falsely claim that he is being "smeared". He said it, so deal with that. The text of a 2013 interview echoing those thoughts is also included:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/02/leaked-audio-bloomberg-aspen-institute-racial-profiling-stop-and-frisk-policing.html

"Ninety-five percent of murders- murderers and murder victims fit one M.O. You can just take the description, Xerox it, and pass it out to all the cops. They are male, minorities, 16-25. That’s true in New York, that’s true in virtually every city (inaudible). And that’s where the real crime is."

February 5, 2020

Lonely are the Brave was Kirk Douglas' favorite film of all the ones he made

And mine too.

Based on a novel by the great Edward Abbey. Douglas loved the book and spearheaded the film, recruting equally talented writer Dalton Trumbo for the screenplay. It is about trying to live a life of freedom in an increasingly ordered world. A beautiful movie, made in 1962 in New Mexico.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_Are_the_Brave

February 4, 2020

Iowa: Take a chill pill, everybody

snip

"A good rule of thumb in life is to assume that whatever Trump says, the opposite is true. In this case, this is not a disaster, but rather a weird event that will be forgotten by Super Tuesday, if not by the New Hampshire primary next week.

Arguably, this minor snafu has a bright silver lining, as it may increase pressure to replace the outdated Iowa caucuses with a modern and much fairer primary election."


https://www.salon.com/2020/02/04/everyone-calm-down-iowas-caucus-snafu-is-a-minor-bump-not-a-world-ending-conspiracy/

January 9, 2020

Hawks star Trae Young donates over $1M to pay off medical debt of those in need

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/trae-young-donates-over-dollar1-million-worth-of-medical-debt-to-those-in-need/ar-BBYKHqq

snip:

“The city of Atlanta has welcomed me with open arms,” said Young. “Giving back to this community is extremely important to me. I hope these families can find a bit of relief knowing that their bills have been taken care of as we enter the New Year.”

Young has been a bright spot on the court for Atlanta as well. Averaging 28.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and 8.4 assists per game on 44.8% shooting from the floor and 37.5% from behind the arc, Young is definitely a cornerstone of the franchise in Atlanta.


Dude is just a class act and only 21 years old. In addition, Young and Houston star James Harden set an NBA record tonight with each posting a triple double while scoring 40 plus points.

November 20, 2019

Whom would you favor in a potential 2024 NY Senate primary matchup?

I chose these three but feel free to mention others.