A "62-year lifelong resident of New York City" named Harry called into Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Friday morning radio show today and expressed his deep displeasure with the apparent breadth of corruption in politics.
"I've never been more depressed over the level of corruption and the failures of government at the state and federal level," Harry said. "What hope is there that this overwhelming mess will be cleaned up and not just completely overtake us?"
First, Bloomberg sought to put this week's mass arrests of elected officials in some sort of context.
"If you go back to the Boss Tweed days, New York City politics were probably worse and more corrupt than they are today," he said.
Then he got to the meat of it.
"I think the basic answer to your question is you have to have a revolution among the voters," said Bloomberg. "You cannot expect, at a state, federal or city level, the elected officials to go and to do something that will keep them from being able to feed their families. And this is a job for them. It's just not gonna happen. There's no chance whatsoever. So where you can have a referendum, that's where you have a chance of changing things."
Bloomberg said the recent phenomenon of voters passing state referenda in favor of gay marriage illustrated his point nicely.
Uh, wasn't there a referendum here in NYC that limited mayors to two terms?
Wait, I think there was!
And I think voters voted on that TWICE!
Why yes - yes, yes they did.
And then somebody wanted to break that limit, overturn the will of the people and become Mayor4Life.
That certain somebody, who has more money than God, threw some of that cash into getting those changes approved by buying off City Council members and ramming the changes through - but just for him!
Future mayors of NYC cannot be Mayor4Life the way our current Mayor4Life can.
And yet now Mayor4Life is talking up voter referendums as a way to break political gridlock.
As he well knows, if there's a politician with enough money, enough arrogance, and enough power, voter referendums can be ignored, watered down, or overturned.
One million referenda would not be enough when corrupt criminal politicians like Bloomberg are protected by U.S. Attorney Preet Bahrara and the rest of the legal system. The complicity of the legal system in the culture of corruption is the root of the problem. Bloomberg should have been sent to jail long ago for contempt, fraud, giving false testimony.... What uber-the-top hubris by Bloomberg! The legal establishment needs to step up to the plate and do the forensic audits right now; the overdue prosecutions right now; the audits recommended by John Liu long ago.
ReplyDeleteWhat a joke. If NYC held referendums on everything then we would still have large sodas, porn shops would stay open, more people would have the ability to purchase a gun to protect their homes, there would be more food carts in NYC. In other words, NYC would be fun again! All of the above items were taken away by Bloombucks over the past 11 years. He says he wants referendums but if that were the case his BS political agendas would be thrown out the window. And please don't think that I am for referendums on everything. As much as I hate Bloombucks I understand that we live in a representative republic where we elect people to make the majority of choices for us. NYC picked Bloombucks in the last election and now they have to live with his BS.
ReplyDeleteUnrelated but relevant...Google "Skilling to be released. Seems like A.G. Holder is planning to get Jeff Skilling to be released 10 years early from his country club jail...Skilling was only responsible for the financial destruction of thousands of Enron employees lives...Why is this man being released early by Obama?
ReplyDelete....and he was doing "easy time" in a minimum security place...
ReplyDeleteIt is all about the political complicity of corrupt politicians with corrupt business leaders and a corrupt legal system. The only thing that exceeds their collective hubris is their abject hypocrisy!
ReplyDeleteAgain I state with all sincerety that the mental stability of the mayor needs to be questioned. This comment indicates a distortion of reality when Bloomberg proposes a referndum thus allowing him to escape his own act that was the opposite. Psychologists have a term for such denial and delusional acts' schizophrenia.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right about Mr. Bloomberg's mental instability. Tragically, dozens of New Yorkers lost their lives during the Blizzard of 2010 and Hurricane Sandy due to his Hizzoners' bravado and hubris. N Y. city residents were not prepared for the chaos and destruction that followed during these disasters as the city was mismanaged as the Multi-Biliionaire mayor flew off with Diana Taylor to his hidaway in Bermuda.
ReplyDeleteNow the mayor is engaged in a fascist race based attack on black and Hispanic youth. The data shows that this policy is ineffective in stopping crime, but highly effective at creating an atmosphere of intimidation and racism. The end result is a high level of distrust of the NYPD and authority. N Y. city residents were nopt prepared and the city was mismanaged as the Multi-Biliionaire mayor flew off to Bermuda.
Yes it is a joke when Bloomberg himself can buy an illegal election. I have to wonder how much this $1/year mayor actually profited as mayor through all those real estate deals, charter deals, and no-bid contract deals. He even bought Quinn to be his puppet by paying off her debts. Somewhere down the line some investigator reporter will write a good book on this guy.
ReplyDeleteMayor Bloomberg, you made a statement, " If you go back to the Boss Tweed days, New York city politics were probably worse and more corrupt than they are today." OK, Mayor Bloomberg, let us resolve this uncertainty in your statement. Mr. Mayor for life, we need accurate data to set the historic record straight. So, let John Liu, State Comptroller
ReplyDeleteDiNapoli and a team of FBI forensic auditors have all the financial data that you have concealed, let them all work together and do a complete forensic audit of New York city finances during the Michael Bloomberg reign of corruption. Then we can set the historic record straight and put your tainted legacy of corruption in historic perspective with relation to Boss Tweed.