Michael Bloomberg Said To Be Considering Run For The White House

Run, Mike, run!

Word from those that know: Mike Bloomberg now seriously considering Independent run.

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) September 26, 2015

A Roger Simon reply to the Bremmer tweet puts this into perspective:

.@ianbremmer Possible, but In the past, "those that know" invariably turn out to be on Bloomberg's payroll.

— Roger Simon (@politicoroger) September 26, 2015

You got that right, Roger.

My new favorite political analyst, the very astute 102 year old Richard M. Nixon, gives us the last word on the Bloomberg trial balloon:

I want this to happen so he's laughed off the goddamn stage. https://t.co/IH0RRzpwRn

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) September 26, 2015

Me too, Mr. President.

Me too.

And I think he'll be quite successful if he runs.

Isn't the country desperately longing for a New York billionaire who wants to take away their guns, Big Gulps and styrofoam?

Too Bad Bloomberg Didn't Run For President

From the NY Post:

Georgina Bloomberg reveals she was relieved that her dad, Michael, didn’t make a run for president, “because it would have been so difficult on him,” she says. “I’ve seen the process of a campaign . . . I know how brutal it is.”

If anybody could use a little brutality - in this case, ego deflation - it's Michael "I Know Best About Everything!" Bloomberg.

Nothing would have been sweeter than seeing Bloomberg outpolled by comedian Pat Paulsen (dead since 1997) in Iowa.

In any case, here's hoping Sheriff Andy Cuomo runs in 2016 or 2020 and gets some similar ego deflation in the Democratic Primary.

In fact, here's hoping Cuomo gets some via Zephyr Teachout in this year's gubernatorial primary.

Bill Gates As Bond Villain

Bill Gates responds to criticism that he's making money off the Common Core:

“This is about giving money away,” he said of his support for the standards. “This is philanthropy. This is trying to make sure students have the kind of opportunity I had . . . and it’s almost outrageous to say otherwise, in my view.

Sure this is about giving money away - and getting an agenda promoted in return

Gates gets a couple things out of his philanthropy:

He gets to call the shots on a whole host of issues - from education policy to global warming response to disease eradication policy.

Gates claimed in today's Post article that he wants "competition" in the R and D efforts around education policy - but it's pretty clear from his past at Microsoft and the present at the Gates Foundation that what Gates likes most is stifling competition and making sure he's the only one strong enough to have any affect on either the computer business or philanthropic efforts.

Which is the second thing Gates gets out of his philanthropy - ego aggrandizement.

This guy's got a messianic complex and he truly believes he's got the answers to the world's problems if people would just let him provide the funding for the R & D to figure out how to make public education better, to mitigate environmental problems, to tackle disease and pestilence around the world.

It never occurs to him that maybe he's wrong about things, never occurs to him that maybe somebody other than him (or one of his funded shill groups) might have a better way to go about things.

In a lot of ways, Gates is like a Bond villain from the 60's - certain of his own brilliance and genius, hell bent on controlling the world and proving his genius and brilliance to us all.

I'll say this for him:

Gates is a genius at one thing - he's a genius at ruthlessly pushing for what he wants, either in the computer software business or the philanthropic world and convincing enough of the public that he's not just another egoist trying to have his way on everything.

But that's been changing, as people on both the right and left start to view Gates's philanthropic monopoly in education policy, environmental causes, disease eradication and other areas with either suspicion or outright hostility because that monopoly pushes out any other solution other than a Gates-funded one.

Jay Greene noted this problem in the Washington Post piece:

Jay P. Greene, head of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, says the Gates Foundation’s overall dominance in education policy has subtly muffled dissent.

“Really rich guys can come up with ideas that they think are great, but there is a danger that everyone will tell them they’re great, even if they’re not,” Greene said.

Let's assume that Gates is being honest with us, that he's really not trying to make more dough off the CCSS and its ancillary reforms (a dubious assumption, as he seems to be worth more every year even as he claims he wants to give away all his money before he dies.)

Even if it's true that Gates is spending billions on education policy out of the goodness of his heart and his desire to do some good, the other two things that Gates gets out of his philanthropy - assuaging his own ego and getting to call the shots on nearly everything - are quite problematic.

It is beyond the time to start questioning the so-called "good" that philanthropy does - Gates obviously still thinks it's a decent enough defense because he runs to use it when he's pressed over the CCSS.

But as men like Gates and Michael Bloomberg run around the world using their billions to buy the policies they want in their pet issues, it is becoming clearer and clearer that "philanthropy" is no longer a public good.

There's no difference than a Bond villain wanting to own the world and run it his way or Bill Gates wanting to fund solutions to every problem and make sure that whatever gets tried is a Gates-promoted solution.

Behind both the Bond villain and Bill Gates is a fevered ego in need of control - and it's time to dump some water on that fevered ego and cool it just a bit.

TIME Magazine: Neither Retirement Nor Death Shall End The Reign Of Bloomberg

 You only think he's going away:

Mike Bloomberg is about to be unemployed for the second time in his professional life. The first was in August of 1981, when Saloman Brothers fired Bloomberg from the only full-time job he had ever known. The second time will be January 1, 2014, when he hands control of New York City over to the next mayor.

The cover story of this week’s TIME magazine is about what Bloomberg will do next, with a clear focus on his enormous wealth and his determination to spend it down changing the world to fit his vision. We live now in a new age of mega-philanthropy, when newly minted billionaires have enormous powers to influence politics and how we live our lives.

Mike Bloomberg, the man with so fragile an ego that he must put his name onto everything he owns, plans on continuing to influence politics and shape how we live our lives long after he leaves office, indeed, long after he shuffles off this mortal coil.

In three or four hundreds years from now, if the human race hasn't destroyed itself through its own arrogance and stupidity, people will look back and say, "Can you believe they let these people with billions of these little pieces of paper with faces on them make all the important decisions around health, education, welfare and the like?"

Democracy - American style, 21st century brand.

Looks an awful lot like plutocracy, doesn't it?

Bloomberg Says He's Cleaned Up NY's Air Like Nobody Else

From the Times:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said on Thursday that his administration’s efforts at reducing air pollution had resulted in New York City’s having the best air quality in more than 50 years.

Sulfur dioxide levels have dropped by 69 percent since 2008, and the level of soot pollution has dropped by more than 23 percent since 2007, according to a new city survey. 

The mayor said the reduction was largely the result of the city’s effort to get buildings that used the most polluting kinds of heating oil to convert to cleaner fuels. 

Since pollution exacerbates lung and cardiovascular disease, the mayor said, the city estimates that the reduction in pollution is preventing 800 deaths and 2,000 emergency room visits and hospitalizations each year. 

“The continued health benefits of this conversion to cleaner heating fuels will make it the single biggest step to save lives since we began our comprehensive smoking control program,” Mr. Bloomberg said, at a news conference at Chelsea Piers. 

“City government’s number one responsibility, I’ve always thought, is protecting the health and safety of our people,” he added. “And when you look at the results like that, at the lives being saved and the illnesses being prevented, it tells you that we’re definitely doing something right.”

As usual with Bloomberg, everything he does is the "best ever".

But it's all lies.

As I noted in a previous post:

Highest test scores under Bloomberg - until they were exposed as inflated.

Sky-rocketing graduation rates - except the numbers are inflated by credit recovery programs that give semester credits for tasks like watching movies.

Best crime stats ever - except there is ample evidence the police are manipulating the stats.

Quickest emergency response time ever - except they don't count the time callers spend on the line with 911 operators, thus making the stats look better than they are.

News stories abound of NYPD cops shooting lots of people in the last calendar year - but Wolfson says the approximately 70 police shootings will be "the lowest since records were kept."

So many of the statistics and so much of the data that Bloomberg and his minions hawk to prove Bloomberg is the bestest thing ever are phonied up.

The tortured ego this man has, the need to constantly be the center of attention, to tell everybody that everything he does is the "best ever," the need to put his name on everything he owns - he's a little child who never grew up.

That many other New Yorkers don't see through his tired act has always surprised me.

Perhaps because the press dutifully reports what Bloomberg and his fellow plutocrat-owning media buddies want reported and only that keeps people from seeing the "real Bloomberg."

You can bet de Blasio, if elected, won't be given a similar pass from the media plutocrats.

Ever flaw will be magnified and focused upon.

But Bloomberg?

Given a pass.

Bloomberg: Keep My Education Policies In Place Or NYC Goes Back To The "Taxi Driver" 70's

Because only Bloomberg and his policies can keep NYC running:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg today warned that should his successor, whoever that might be, not follow his lead on education and crime, the city risked a return to the bad old days.

"All I can say is, whoever follows us, if they don't continue improving the school system and giving the parents choice and letting people who want to start schools like charters, you're gonna see people saying, 'Wait a second, if I can't send my kid to school here, I'm gonna move," said Bloomberg today, during his regular Friday morning radio appearance on the John Gambling Show.

"Same thing happens if crime goes up, same thing happens if the school system doesn't get better," he continued.

Bloomberg was referring to the sort of demographic movement that doomed New York City in the 1970s.

Several of the candidates running for mayor this year are doing so on an explicitly anti-Bloomberg premise, promising to soften, if not reverse, several of his education and crime policies.

All of the Democratic candidates, for instance, have called for slowing down the proliferation of charter schools, and some have called for a moratorium on locating them alongside regular public schools in city-owned buildings.

All of the Democratic candidates have also promised to lessen the NYPD's reliance on stop-and-frisk. Some are also supporting bills that would also create an inspector general for the NYPD and allow New Yorkers to sue the NYPD for racial profiling in state court.

"And you say big cities will be resilient," said Bloomberg. "It took us a long time to come back from something that we destroyed pretty quickly in this city...You don't have to wait around to destroy it. You just have to convince people you're going to destroy it."

There you have it - keep charterizing the city school system or beware a return to 70's.

Juan Gonzalez Reports Bloomberg Is Racing Against Clock To Get Midtown East Torn Down For His Real Estate Cronies

The Times reported the other day that Bloomberg is racing against the clock to complete his "legacy" and get the city completely remade before his Reign of Error finally ends:

The mayor appears increasingly preoccupied with his legacy, and recently hired two public relations advisers — a former Times editor, Arthur Pincus, and a former television reporter, Andrew Kirtzman — to shape the public perception of the Bloomberg era. 

Asked on Monday if he was concerned that a drawn-out legal battle over the soda limits could spill into the administration of a successor who does not favor them, Mr. Bloomberg, sounding a bit irked, muttered, “All of our time is running out,” before saying, “I don’t know who is going to be my successor.”

One piece of unfinished business for the mayor is getting some more of the city torn down, rezoned and made into a tax giveaway for his real estate buddies.

Juan Gonzalez reports he's working on that problem, however:

New York’s priciest business district — and one of the most iconic on the planet — will go on steroids, if City Hall gets its way.

Mayor Bloomberg is racing before he leaves office to rezone more than 70 blocks of midtown between E. 39th and E. 57th Sts.

His proposal, avidly backed by the real estate industry, would allow property owners in and around Grand Central Terminal and along Madison and Park Aves. to demolish their buildings and replace them with a raft of new skyscrapers — some nearly as tall as the Empire State Building.

The plan would literally transform Manhattan’s skyline while adding tens of thousands of commuters to an area where transit stations are already strained to capacity.

That’s why community leaders keep asking: Why the hurry to approve this before the next mayor comes in?

“The future of New York is too valuable to be rushed for political timetables,” said Wally Rubin, district manager of Manhattan Community Board 5.

“The rezoning of Hudson Yards (on Manhattan’s far West Side) took five years of public discussion,” Rubin said. “This is far bigger and even more important.”

Nothing is more important than a Bloomberg vanity project.

We know that Bloomberg is consumed by his "legacy" and we know that he sees all the rezoning and rebuilding that has gone on in the city during his 12 year Reign of Error as a big part of that legacy.

Clearly they want to rush this rezoning plan through before he leaves office as the crowning achievement of the Rezone/Rebuild program.

Who cares if the transit system can't handle the new commuters to the area?

This is about Bloomberg's legacy!

Nothing matters more than that.

And besides, haven't all the other rezoning plans worked out for the city?

I mean, it's not like Bloomberg has ever been wrong about his rezoning plans and how they're always a windfall for the city and its taxpayers, right?

Bloomberg's Last State Of The City Speech

It was a self indulgent speech from the mayor, who touted his "accomplishments" throughout, continually referring to himself in the "Royal We" first person plural after entering to a pre-speech show that was described as "Some kind of post-apocalyptic Les Miserables re-enactment".

What else would you expect from a little man so devoid of esteem that he has to put his name onto everything he owns?

John Liu put Bloomberg's speech into context:

“Obviously, Mayor Bloomberg can point to some accomplishments after 11 years, especially in improving New Yorkers’ health through reductions in smoking,” Mr. Liu said. “But his selective retelling of history leaves out some troubling facts: near record unemployment, record numbers of homeless, record income disparity, record stop and frisks, record claims against the NYPD, record numbers of school closures, and a failed education record that has only one in five high school students graduating from college.  How can we be satisfied with that? No one can say that New Yorkers of all walks of life shared equally in the accomplishments he claims as his legacy.”

But Mr. Liu wasn’t finished there. He concluded by sharply criticizing the “hubris” Mr. Bloomberg displayed by temporarily overturning term limits to secure his third and final term in office.

“Bloomberg’s third term was a great mistake,” Mr. Liu jabbed. “[A]nd this entire City is paying the price for that act of hubris.”

The last State of the City speech was a perfect encapsulation of the Bloomberg legacy - full of noise, spectacle, phonied-up statistics, and arrogance.

Bloomberg To Buy New York Times, Use It As Platform To Run For President In 2016?

This rumor's been out there for a while, but it showed up again this morning on TV as the Morning Joe clowns talked about Bloomberg's presidential ambitions:

On Wednesday, the Morning Joe panel turned its attention to writer Gabe Sherman‘s new New York Magazine article looking at New York mayor Mike Bloomberg‘s goal of ultimately becoming “mayor of the world,” overseeing and deciding issues such as, as Sherman listed, where people can smoke, what they should eat and drink, how much companies can pollute, and how schools educate their children.

“How badly does he want to be president of the United States?” asked host Joe Scarborough.

“I mean you see it,” said Sherman. “There is no love loss between the Mayor and the White House and, you know, they try to set up meetings. The golf game, you know, meetings back channel. Bill Daley reached out to the Mayor to see if he wanted to be president of the World Bank. I mean, there have been efforts to kind of bridge these camps. Mike Bloomberg has the ambition and believes he has the skill to be president of the United States. ”

“And the other side of that is, he just doesn’t think Barack Obama has the skill to be president of the United States,” Scarborough added.

“It’s the experience question,” said Sherman. “This goes back to people who look at the President, people in Mike Bloomberg’s circle who say Mike Bloomberg has much more business experience, he has more political experience than this President.”

“He has an infrastructure in place as well,” added host Mika Brzezinski. “And, I mean, a staff and political experts.”

Sherman also made note that “the big unanswered question” is that of whether Bloomberg will purchase the New York Times, referring to it as “a trophy that Mike Bloomberg wants that would give him instant credibility and cache on the global stage.”

You can see more analysis of the potential Bloomberg buy of the Times here.

If Bloomberg gets to buy the Times, you have three union-busting oligarchs owning pretty much all of the print media in town.

Murdoch owns the Post and the WSJ, as well as FOX 5, FOX News, FOX Business, and whatever the hell they're calling Channel 9 these days.

Zuckerman owns the News (which is fast becoming an even bigger embarrassment than it already was as new editor/hacking criminal Colin Myler turns it into a British tabloid like the Daily Mirror) and US News.

Bloomberg owns Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg Views, and Bloomberg Businessweek.

Add the Times to that stable and that leaves NY1, the NBC, CBS, ABC affiliates, and Channel 11 as the only major print/TV media outlets not owned by Murdoch, Zuckerman or Bloomberg.

Welcome to the Neo-Feudal 21st Century.

All the news the oligarchs want you to read and see.