Mike Bloomberg is Dangerously Serious

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Mike Bloomberg is Dangerously Serious

Postby Elvis » Fri Feb 07, 2020 6:41 am

The good, the bad, the ugly, etc.

I'll start with this from today:

https://theintercept.com/2020/02/06/mik ... arization/
Bloomberg Plagiarized Parts of At Least Eight of His Plans

Akela Lacy
February 6 2020, 2:53 p.m.

Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign plagiarized portions of its plans for maternal health, LGBTQ equality, the economy, tax policy, infrastructure, and mental health from research publications, media outlets, and a number of nonprofit, educational, and policy groups.

The Intercept found that exact passages from at least eight Bloomberg plans or accompanying fact sheets were direct copies of material from media outlets including CNN, Time, and CBS, a research center at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the American Medical Association, Everytown for Gun Safety, Building America’s Future Educational Fund, and other organizations. Bloomberg co-founded Everytown for Gun Safety, a political organization focused on gun control, and Building America’s Future Educational Fund, a nonprofit working on infrastructure investment and reform, and has chaired them in the past, and he was listed as a co-author on the educational fund’s reports. He is not clearly affiliated with the other sources. The plagiarized sections ranged in length from entire paragraphs to individual sentences and fragments in documents that were between five and 14 pages long.

. . .more


Campaign says their web software didn't support footnotes. :roll:

As I said elsewhere, Bloomberg appears to be doing commendable work reducing carbon emissions. And the news service he founded, I find to be one of the most 'balanced' among the big corporate media outlets, with relatively rational, even-handed presentations.

But president? No. Bloomberg's a deficit hawk, an indefensible BLOT on any candidate, imo. Says "socialism" is evil. Wants big business to trickle down on us. Federally funded universal healthcare? Forget it.

Edit: Bloomberg does seem to know the climate science, does seem to know what needs to be done to reduce carbon emissions.and so on. But he'll get hung up on "how to pay for it."
“The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.” ― Joan Robinson
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Re: Mike Bloomberg is Dangerously Serious

Postby kelley » Fri Feb 07, 2020 9:43 am

can't post links currently but his op-ed in today's NYT and a corresponding feature re: finance etc are worth looking at
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Re: Mike Bloomberg is Dangerously Serious

Postby kelley » Fri Feb 07, 2020 9:46 am

BTW great thread title ahaha
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Re: Mike Bloomberg is Dangerously Serious

Postby Belligerent Savant » Fri Feb 07, 2020 10:52 am

.

Hard-pressed to see how Bloomberg, however effective he may/may not be at implementing 'change', can get past the stigma of his name/wealth/urban taint when assessed by middle/average Americans.

That aside, per kelley's comment, below is the NYT op-ed he referenced:


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/opin ... -2020.html



Opinion

Mike Bloomberg: Fixing Inequality Is My Priority

Right now, the rewards of the economy are far too concentrated at the top.


By Michael R. Bloomberg
Mr. Bloomberg, a former mayor of New York City, is a Democratic candidate for president.

Feb. 6, 2020

Every Democrat running for president agrees that income inequality is one of the great problems of our time. And we all agree that the wealthy should pay more in taxes.

But only one of us has actually raised taxes on the wealthy by persuading a Republican legislature to vote for them: Me.

When I was elected mayor of New York City, seven weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, we faced a budget crisis and a recession. I had a choice: slash budgets and conduct mass layoffs, which would especially hurt the young, the elderly and low-income communities — or raise taxes.

So I took the politically difficult step of proposing tax increases, including one on those making more than $500,000 a year (about $700,000 in today’s dollars). I persuaded a Republican-led State Senate and a Democratic-led State Assembly to pass the bill, and a Republican governor to sign it. The extra revenue — roughly $400 million per year — allowed us to invest in our future and create jobs and opportunity in the neighborhoods where they were needed most.


That is what leadership is all about: bringing people in both parties together to get results. Over my 12 years as mayor, I also helped persuade Republicans in Albany to pass marriage equality, increase funding for public schools and enact juvenile justice reforms that helped lower the number of teenagers in confinement.

I’m committed to helping Democrats win control of Congress this year, regardless of the fate of my own campaign. And if, for whatever reasons, our party falls short of controlling both chambers of Congress, the next Democratic president will have to reach across the aisle to end the Republican obstructionism that has gripped Washington for so long. That’s not something that most of my fellow Democratic candidates talk much about.

Some of them prefer to shake their fists and point fingers, particularly when it comes to taxing the wealthy. I agree with the goal of making the system fairer and more progressive, including by increasing taxes on wealthy people like me. But I have a different approach, informed by my experience in both government and business.

Unlike President Trump, I didn’t inherit my wealth, and I genuinely support causes I am passionate about: gun safety, climate change, women’s rights, universal health care, education and yes, electing Democrats — including those in 2018 who helped create a majority in the House of Representatives, which laid the groundwork for holding this president accountable.


I believe America should always be a country where a middle-class kid like me can start a business and succeed beyond her or his wildest dreams. But just as important, America must always be a place where the middle class grows bigger and stronger. Right now that’s not happening, because the rewards of the economy are far too concentrated at the top.

Part of the problem is global and macroeconomic. In nearly every industry, wages are mostly flat. Changing that will require major new investments in our public schools to make sure that all high school students graduate with the skills they need to enter college or start a career. I’ll make that a top priority as president, as I did as mayor.

The tax code is also worsening inequality. We tax income from stocks and bonds at a much lower rate than income from work. We allow great wealth to pass from generation to generation with little or no tax due. And we provide countless loopholes that corporations and the rich exploit to reduce their taxes even more.

The tax plan I released on Saturday confronts these issues head-on. It reverses the Republican tax cuts for high-income individuals. It adds a 5 percent surtax on income over $5 million a year, bringing the top tax rate to 44.6 percent. It raises the corporate tax rate to 28 percent, from 21 percent, which is still competitive with other developed countries. It strengthens the minimum corporate tax on foreign income, to stop companies from moving profits overseas. And it closes loopholes that companies and individuals exploit to avoid paying taxes.

Under my plan, the tax burden on the middle class won’t increase, but for those earning more than $1 million a year, capital gains will be taxed as ordinary income. This will end the unfairness of the wealthy paying far lower tax rates on investment income than working Americans pay on income from their jobs.

My plan also ends the carried interest loophole that allows money managers to categorize their ordinary income as capital gains. And it ends a huge loophole that allows the growth in the value of an estate to escape taxes at death, which benefits the wealthiest individuals.

Unlike other candidates’ plans that are likely to be rejected by Congress or the courts, mine is achievable — and I will get it done. After all, who better to make the argument for raising taxes on the wealthy than me?

Some who are wealthy will call me a traitor to my class. But that’s what they called Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt. Like them, I’ll wear the label as a badge of honor — and I’ll use the new tax revenue, an estimated $5 trillion over 10 years, to invest in America in ways that reduce inequality, strengthen the middle class and restore faith in the promise of the American dream.


[Over 1100 posts in the comments section, and counting]



The 'top-most' comment, thus far, in the comments section:

Mr. Bloomberg is the embodiment of Paternalism as a guiding principle. If you agree with him, you consent to be ruled. If you disagree with him, you chafe with his rulings but make no mistake, he means to rule society, motivations non-withstanding. He's very intelligent; surrounds himself with good, competent people; is not personally corrupt and is generally only influenced by his baked-in biases but he is, by habit and intent, a person who truly does not believe in a community's ability or right to self-govern.

"Our mild billionaire Mayor is now convinced he's a King" -
LCD Soundsystem, 2007.
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Re: Mike Bloomberg is Dangerously Serious

Postby Grizzly » Fri Feb 07, 2020 2:43 pm

Does he have a dual citizenship passport? Anyone know? That in an of itself isn't an issue or maybe it is? Do we want a dual citizen as Resident of the Executive? Is it even legal?
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Re: Mike Bloomberg is Dangerously Serious

Postby kelley » Fri Feb 07, 2020 4:07 pm

lots of issues to unpack here

thanks Elvis for starting this thread

to quickly begin on my part

Bloomberg was very impressive in dismissing Guiliani's failed power grab in the days following September 11

and provided strong leadership at a time when NYC required it

if anything I imagine a similarly authoritative Bloomberg wiping the floor with Trump in these days leading up to November

and possibly if required in the weeks following

and lest this memory be misconstrued as a merely reflexive expression of patriotism

the world itself truly is peering into the edge of an abyss

as noted in another thread Bloomberg certainly has an ego

but admits to being perceived as a 'class traitor' in his approach to this presidential run

I'd be willing to give him benefit of the doubt and turn the entire dismaying 'lesser of two evils' cliche on its head if he indeed steps forward as a candidate more Roosevelt than Rockefeller

it's a very tempting gambit but what's to lose at this point

if anything this guy knows how to lead

and I might assume he's learned a few things since leaving Gracie Mansion

let's open this thread up to exposing the strengths and weaknesses of what's known and what may be considered going ahead
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Re: Mike Bloomberg is Dangerously Serious

Postby Elvis » Fri Feb 07, 2020 5:06 pm

Marxist economist Richard Wolff lays into Bloomberg for razing Zuccotti Park (because it was getting "dirty").


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxv4pcssIiQ
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Re: Mike Bloomberg is Dangerously Serious

Postby kelley » Fri Feb 07, 2020 5:22 pm

this link is to a sort of companion piece which appeared today in the NYT with Bloomberg's op-ed cited above:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/us/p ... Position=1


Bloomberg Pursues Wealthy Donors, but Not Their Checkbooks

Michael Bloomberg has sworn off taking money from other people for his presidential campaign. But in private, he is courting rich Democrats, potentially posing a challenge for his moderate rivals.
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Re: Mike Bloomberg is Dangerously Serious

Postby Grizzly » Sun Feb 09, 2020 4:45 pm

Fuck these bazillionaire Gods. Curse them *raises fist*
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Re: Mike Bloomberg is Dangerously Serious

Postby Elvis » Mon Feb 10, 2020 3:00 am

Check this out. I'll amend the subtitle: Nobody should consider Michael Bloomberg as a candidate. Bloomberg has been a Republican for the last ten years, with a few months as an "independent," and only switched to Democrat in 2018. (And to many, this is somehow more acceptable than a progressive frontrunner who's not technically a Democrat.)

Long article—so many outrages to detail—follow link for full piece:

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/02/ ... omination/


A Republican Plutocrat Tries To Buy The Democratic Nomination

No Democrat should consider Michael Bloomberg as a candidate.

Nathan J. Robinson
filed 09 February 2020

The idea of Michael Bloomberg becoming the Democratic presidential nominee should be too absurd to even consider seriously. For one thing, he is a conservative who openly believes that the poor should be ruled over by the super-rich and is trying to buy the nomination outright. He has a history of saying monstrously offensive things about women and transgender people, and oversaw an infamous racist police regime that terrorized Black and Hispanic New Yorkers. If he did somehow manage to spend his way to the nomination, bypassing the democratic process, it would be such an outrage—and so demoralizing to the Democratic base—that it would guarantee Trump’s reelection. If the choice were between two sexist billionaires who hate the poor, how many young people would drag themselves to the polls to support “our side’s” billionaire? It would permanently disillusion an entire generation and vindicate every cynical theory of politics as a domain where money rules absolutely.


...READ
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Re: Mike Bloomberg is Dangerously Serious

Postby Elvis » Fri Feb 14, 2020 12:00 am

'We had spent all our budget hiring James Brown and the Flames to play and then Kennedy got shot and we canceled the dance and couldn't get our deposit back. Never got the deposit back.

'It was like the death of Princess Diana....nothing changed, no matter what anybody else says'.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... mpire.html
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Re: Mike Bloomberg is Dangerously Serious

Postby Elvis » Fri Feb 14, 2020 12:01 am

Image
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Re: Mike Bloomberg is Dangerously Serious

Postby 8bitagent » Fri Feb 14, 2020 5:29 am

Bloomberg terrorized Black and Latino communities for years, was a fervent champion of war criminal neocon Bush positions, and set up a massive invasive spy network on New York Muslim populations. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's pretty sad, almost scary that the MSNBC establishment "Democrat" side has open arms for any neocon who tip toes into "Orange Cheeto Man Bad" territory. Already am sick seeing fawning "democrat" think pieces over John Bolton, and even GW Bush himself...the lonely innocent "painter". Hell Trump was an establishment big donor Democrat til he realized he could easily grift the Tea Party/GOP wingers in 2011.
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Re: Mike Bloomberg is Dangerously Serious

Postby Elvis » Fri Feb 14, 2020 12:00 pm

Hilarious. Bloomberg helped flip the Senate to GOP. Now he's asking Democrats to vote for him. :starz:

https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/02/14 ... ankroller/

Democratic Presidential Candidate Michael Bloomberg Is a GOP Bankroller
Alex Kotch

By Alex Kotch
| February 14th, 2020
“The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.” ― Joan Robinson
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Re: Mike Bloomberg is Dangerously Serious

Postby chump » Sat Feb 22, 2020 8:37 pm

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