Daly, a big fan of Bloomberg, btw, was offended by the mayor's imperious handling of the Cathie Black matter. He says by agreeing to appoint a chief academic officer,
Bloomberg gave in. And even if the appointment of a No. 2 will make no material difference, Bloomberg did not get what he wanted just because he wanted it. That is good for him and for us.
He is not a king after all. He remains the best of mayors.
The king is dead!
Long live the mayor!
Gee - where do we start with this muddled-headed mush masquerading as journalism?
Okay, first: if you've been paying attention in even the slightest way, you know Mayor Bloomberg has been imperious pretty much since the start.
Even early on, when he would still listen to other people's opinions on issues, he had a stubborn streak that drew lines in the sand on the things.
Remember the whole controversy on where he goes during the weekends? Bloomberg refused to give any details, saying it was nobody's business. Can you imagine if President Obama disappeared on weekends to some undisclosed location and refused to tell anybody where he was? How would the press handle that?
Here in NYC, the press simply shrugged and let Bloomberg be.
Secondly, since that time, all we have seen from Bloomberg is royal policy-making. We have had his imperious rule of the NYC school system, his firing of two appointees of the PEP board because they didn't vote the way he wanted on a matter, his attempt to place a stadium that almost nobody wanted and the city couldn't afford over on the West Side because his real estate buddies thought it would be good for business, his attempt to ramrod congestion pricing through, and his banning of food with transfats in it even as he continues to eat food with transfats in it.
In all of these cases, Bloomberg has acted like king and savior, not some democratically-elected mayor ready, willing and able to listen to the will of the people.
Has Daly been paying attention AT ALL to the last nine years? The imperious nature of King Mikey the Moneybags did NOT start three weeks ago with the Cathie Black matter or a year and a half ago when he had his minions lay the groundwork to overturn term limits JUST FOR HIM.
It's been there the whole time.
The way he treated a reporter in a wheelchair who couldn't turn off his tape recorder when he accidentally dropped it symbolizes just what a arrogant autocrat Bloomberg has been.
With Bloomberg, it is ALWAYS about him and ONLY he matters.
Good God, sometimes I read stuff in the papers and think, "How the hell does this person have a job as a journalist? This garbage is worse than something Tom Friedman would write!"
Today's Daly column sure qualifies as Friedmanesque.
In previous few posts, I established that Bloomberg is a fascist. Mussolini's original term for fascism was "corporatism".And we're all living in a fascist corporatocracy now.
ReplyDeleteThe overall result of what transpired with Black is even more of an affront to the City of New York than the origial hiring. It's even more insulting and demeaning to us all. But all of you sheep that voted for him for a third term are getting what you deserve-if you're concious at all. Given Thompsen was a pantywaist loser, he still should have been elected to counter this POS fascist that runs every facet of our lives now. None of you can really believe you live in a democracy any more in this town after this facsist pig bought a third term.
So, the final result is that Black is supervising the new guy who should be supervising HER! How is this any better than if Black was by herself? It's the exact same situation, except we have all fallen deeper into fascist doublespeak. My,my how we have fallen...very scary.
Can't argue with anything you say, anon. I see no difference between Black herself or Black with the deputy attached to her hip. For that matter, it wouldn't have been any different if Black had been dropped and we only got the deputy raised to be chancellor. The policies - corporate-friendly privatization policies pursued by Bloomberg - would have been the same.
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget the time he told a reporter "You're a disgrace" because the reporter had the audacity to ask a question about the validity of extending term limits (The reporter didn't actually get a chance to finish his question before the Mayor shot him down.)
ReplyDeletehttp://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/politics&id=6837506
One of the frightening things about El Duce Bloomberg is the LACK of dirty laundry about him through the years. No tell alls, or enemies sniping against him...He's almost a mystery man...Something akin to the Tiger Woods pre-fall image...squeaky clean. But every now and then a little gem emerges...like this one...
ReplyDeleteReport: Bloomberg Has $290 Million In Offshore Accounts
Graphic from the Observer
Mayor Bloomberg repeatedly pointed out that taxing rich people isn't great because then rich people might move out of NYC and not contribute to the city's revenue. So maybe it shouldn't be that big a surprise that he may have just under $300 million in off-shore accounts.
The Observer lays it out:
According to an extensive review of the mayor’s financial records by The Observer, even as Mr. Bloomberg was trying to counter the loss of taxes and other income from the richest New Yorkers, the foundation he controls was in the process of shuttling hundreds of millions of dollars out of the city and into controversial offshore tax havens that would produce nothing at all for the city in terms of tax revenue.
By the end of 2008, the Bloomberg Family Foundation had transferred almost $300 million into various offshore destinations—some of them notorious tax-dodge hideouts. The Caymans and Cyprus. Bermuda and Brazil. Even Mauritius, a speck of an island in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Madagascar. Other investments were spread around disparate locations, from Japan to Luxembourg to Romania.
The Observer also notes that while Bloomberg has donated $1.8 billion to his foundation, about $67 million was donated in 2007 and 2008 and "No grants went to organizations directly benefiting New York City." This could get tricky if he decides to run in 2012!
And the NY Times reports that Bloomberg still counts on Steve Rattner, whose firm is under investigation for allegedly paying kickbacks to be included in pension funds, to manage his fortune and the BFF: "At Mr. Bloomberg’s urging, Mr. Rattner has taken a hands-on approach in helping to build the new company, despite his legal problems, these people said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of angering the mayor and Mr. Rattner
For the image, go to link below...And one other thing...since it's been proven that Google only paid 2.4 % tax rate last year...I wonder what tax rate Bloomberg News, and all other subsidiaries of his empire paid last year...? Funny...since he refuses to take a NYC salary for his mayor job..that means he doesn't pay any NYC or any other taxes from being mayor ....(hehe)...I wonder how much in taxes El Duce II REALLY pays from his empire...Do you think he pays the rate you or I pay...which is upwards of 50 % ? ? ?
ReplyDeletehttp://gothamist.com/2010/04/21/report_bloomberg_has_290_million_in.php
What is equally frightening about Michael El Duce and his relationship with the press is how potentially damaging stories like the following one of bribery, tax dollars and elitism just vaporize into the ethernet. Here, El Duce got bagged trading millions in tax free bonds and city property for NY Yankee luxury suites...a little coverage, VERY little, then it goes away forever...just like this Black affair...? Also, has the public park been built adjacent to Yankee Stadium been built so the poor kids can play some ball...? That was part of the deal , ya know...
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2008/11/the_yanks_suite.php
"It was buried about as far as you can bury something without hitting Jimmy Hoffa -- the Saturday edition of Thanksgiving weekend -- but the Daily News' Juan Gonzalez revealed yesterday that the Bloomberg administration traded 250 free parking spaces and city approval of tax-exempt bonds for a luxury suite in the Yankees' new stadium for the use of city officials.
According to records obtained by Assemblymember Richard Brodsky via the Freedom of Information Law, after Yanks COO Lonn Trost initially e-mailed the city, "No seats, no suites, no tickets and, as they say in Brooklyn, 'No Nothin'," City Hall agreed to sign off on $940 million in tax-exempt financing for the project, plus kick in an extra 250 free parking spaces at new taxpayer-built garages...
And little things like El Duce bribing Bill Thompson's wife to the tune of $43 MILLION dollars of public and private funds DURING their mayoral campaign...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.villagevoice.com/2010-01-05/news/bloomberg-and-thompson-the-really-odd-couple/2/
"Here, then, is the story about Bill Thompson that Mike Bloomberg didn't want you to know when he was running against him.
It starts with a single, unsettling fact: The mayor has directed or triggered between $43 million and $51 million in public and personal subsidies into a museum project led by Thompson's current wife and longtime companion, Elsie McCabe-Thompson, dumping $2 million of additional city funding into it as late as September 30, in the middle of the mayoral campaign.
Thompson was so involved with his wife's Museum for African Art that he may have violated the city charter by using his office to solicit state and city funding for its grand new home now under construction, with marble floors and walls, at the end of Museum Mile on Fifth Avenue and 109th Street. While the project sounds admirable, the museum has attracted this funding at a time when it is little more than an office in a warehouse in Long Island City, with no permanent art collection of its own, no gallery, no accreditation from the American Association of Museums or the Association of African American Museums, and no connection or history with Harlem. It is so out of compliance with state legal requirements for museums that the best it could do, after weeks of Voice questioning, was shake "a letter of existence" out of education department officials, which it misrepresented as a "letter of good standing." Other outstanding African-American museums in the city, like the fully accredited Studio Museum of Harlem, which has a 1,600-object permanent collection and, unlike McCabe-Thompson's, has trained 90 artists-in-residence, receive a fraction of the public assistance showered on this monument to political connections."