zaterdag 22 februari 2020

Bloomberg's Democracy



Roaming Charges: Billion Dollar Babies

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Walls (sea) and Bridges (Astoria). Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

   Michael Bloomberg is, of course, the perfect person to lead a party which has been the driving political force behind the neoliberal policies which helped make him the 9th richest person in America. In fact, he may be its apotheosis. Finally, we’ll have some clarity about what the Democratic Party has really been up to for the last 40 years.
+ The Democratic Party has been bought for decades. Now we get to see the owners on stage for once…
+ If true, this is the first compelling reason I’ve heard for backing Bloomberg…
+ Apparently, it may take the DNC several days to fix the results in Nevada…
+ Another debate, another migraine.
+ Like Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg has been destroyed in every debate he’s participated in, most viciously by Mark Green. Unlike Joe Biden, Bloomberg has gone on to win anyway, propelled by his fortune and the fortunes of those he serves.
+ It Elizabeth Warren, not the most skilled debater, all of about five seconds to put Bloomberg on the mat. He got up, staggered, and she put him back down again. He was out on his feet for the rest of the night.
+ This was Warren at her best. But it took a sleaze bag billionaire to bring it out of her.
+ Still, you have to wonder about Bloomberg’s investment smarts after sinking his money into a campaign that seems to have self-destructed on Day One.
+ Biden’s like the guy who wakes from a coma, blurts out a couple of slogans, and lapses back into his bed…
+ Bloomberg is lying his ass off about stop and frisk, claiming to have had an epiphany.
+ Now Biden is lying his ass off on stop and frisk. Obama didn’t stop it, the ACLU did.
+ Warren makes the key point on stop and frisk. This wasn’t a good policy that went wrong. It was a racist policy that did exactly what its authors wanted it to do: harass, humiliate and terrorize young black men.
+ Klobocop knows how many members there are in the Israeli Knesset but doesn’t know who the president of Mexico is…which pretty much sums up American politics.
+ The campaign to scare people into thinking that Sanders and Warren want to take away their health care is one of the PR triumphs of our time.
+ The insurance industry had to put up some fake resistance to ObamaCare to conceal just how much they were making out from a plan that required everyone to buy private health insurance.
+ Bloomberg: the NDAs women signed about acts of non-consensual sexual harassment were all consensual.
+ Bloomberg proves he’s still a Sierra Club guy, defending fracking of natural gas as a “transition fuel”…(And Klobocop went along for the ride.)
+ Why isn’t Biden saying, as he does with every other Obama policy, “I’m the guy, I’m the only guy up here, I’m the guy who helped globalize fracking…”
+ Oregon’s only real senator, Jeff Merkley: “In the debate, people were arguing over whether natural gas is a hazard or bridge fuel. Atmospheric methane has more than doubled due to natural gas leaks. The more we know about massive leaks in nat. gas & hazards of methane, the more we know it’s a menace & not a bridge fuel.”
+ Warren is shredding Bloomberg alive. He won’t even look her in the face.
+ Bernie said the O word. Surprised they didn’t bleep it. “Real change never takes place from the top on down, never takes place from an oligarchy controlled by billionaires. We need to mobilize millions of people to stand up for justice—that’s our campaign”
+ Give PeteBot credit, he shivved Klobocop and drew blood on her atrocious record on immigration and judges…
+ Biden knows all the presidents and prime ministers around the world but he knows President Malarkey of Ireland best…
+ One of Bernie’s best Marx for Beginners lines of the night, delivered after Bloomberg claimed that he “worked hard” to amass his $69 billion fortune: “You know what Mr. Bloomberg, it wasn’t you who made all that money, maybe your workers played some role in that as well, and it is important that those workers share the benefits.” Bloomberg responded pathetically by calling Sanders a communist.
+ PeteBot: I was into Bernie before he was cool. But because I am not cool once he became cool I had no choice but to turn on him…
+ Bloomberg would have done better to show up as a monitor simply running his TV ads. Every time he tries to answer a question, he’s going to have to spend $100 million to wipe the memory from people’s minds…
+ Not one single question on foreign policy tonight. Imperialism wins by default!
+ My pal Jack Shafer over at Politico compiled this clip of Bloomberg’s performance in Vegas…
+ A search of SEC records reveals that Bloomberg owns ACME, Inc…
+ Just how rich is Bloomberg? It’s hard to conceptualize…
More articles by:
Jeffrey St. Clair is editor of CounterPunch. His most recent books are Bernie and the Sandernistas: Field Notes From a Failed Revolution and The Big Heat: Earth on the Brink (with Joshua Frank) He can be reached at: sitka@comcast.net or on Twitter  @JSCCounterPunch . 


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