Displaying posts categorized under

POLITICS

Bloomberg Picks up 3 New Congressional Endorsements After Debate By Zachary Stieber

https://www.theepochtimes.com/bloomberg-picks-up-3-new-congressional-endorsements-after-debate_3244660.html

Three members of the House of Representatives announced their support for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg the morning after a fiery primary debate in Nevada.

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, said she’s endorsing Bloomberg, 78, for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“Mike and I have worked together for years in New York, and whether it’s homeland security or gun safety, there’s no one you can depend on more to get important initiatives over the finish line,” Lowey said in a statement released by Bloomberg’s campaign.

“We need someone in the White House who will help secure a bright future for our children and families, free of gun violence, with opportunity for educational success and good jobs, and with access to affordable health care and prescription drugs. That person is Mike Bloomberg, and there’s no doubt about it, no matter how big the challenge, Mike will get it done.”

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) speaks onstage during Global Citizen: Movement Makers at NYU Skirball Center in New York City on Sept. 19, 2017. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Global Citizen)

Reps. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) also announced endorsements for the billionaire.

Aguilar, who Bloomberg said would serve as a co-chair for his campaign, cited Bloomberg’s efforts to restrict gun ownership and combat climate change in his statement of support. Gottheimer, co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, called the former mayor “an experienced, proven leader who has big ideas, will fight to get things done, and knows how to work with—and get votes from—Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.”

Mike Bloomberg’s supremely materialistic, anti-human ideology Timothy P. Carney

www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/mike-bloombergs-supremely-materialistic-anti-human-ideology?

Mike Bloomberg’s supremely materialistic, anti-human ideology
Timothy P. Carney

Mike Bloomberg once pointed to the in utero child of an employee and said “kill it, kill it,” according to two witnesses.

According to another female employee, he would say of attractive women, “I’d like to do that piece of meat.”

“It’s a f—ing baby,” Bloomberg reportedly yelled at another female employee when she was scrambling to find a nanny for her child. “All it does is eat and shit! It doesn’t know the difference between you and anyone else! All you need is some black who doesn’t even have to speak English to rescue it from a burning building!”

It’s easy to assume that Bloomberg, like the man he wants to replace in the White House, is simply selfish, crude, and misogynistic. It’s tempting to see Bloomberg’s cutthroat capitalism as unrelated to, or even at odds with, his social liberalism. But there’s a bigger story here, a pattern that becomes clear when you consider Mike Bloomberg in full.

Bloomberg’s odd apology for China’s authoritarian communist regime is not some weird blind spot. His embrace of stop-and-frisk policing was not just some New York City thing. And his nanny-statism on sodas, cigarettes, and trans fats is not merely an over-enthusiasm for clean living.

Nor is Bloomberg an inconsistent thinker or some nonideological independent. He has a very clear view of the world that underlies his economic policies, his social policies, his personal life, and his behavior. Bloomberg’s ideology is neither left nor right. Instead, his worldview is supremely materialistic, and ultimately inhuman.

In Bloomberg’s eyes, any talk of the dignity of the human person is mawkish sentimentality. Mike Bloomberg doesn’t see people as ends in themselves, but instead as means to ends.

Dems’ Showdown in Vegas Did a strong challenger to Trump emerge from the brawl? Lloyd Billingsley

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/02/dems-duke-it-out-vegas-lloyd-billingsley/

Before Wednesday’s MSNBC Democrat debate, some group calling itself Pigeons United To Interfere Now (PUTIN) released pigeons wearing MAGA hats and at least one with a wig resembling the hair of President Trump. For a town like Las Vegas, it was a rather pathetic intro for what shaped up as a championship fight. As the late Howard Cosell might have called it:

“In this corner, Michael ‘Mini’ Bloomberg, weighing in at more than 60 billion dollars, in the biggest fight of his career.” Bloomberg trained for the bout by running New York City and showing people how to be farmers in five minutes. In this bout, he would be the primary punching bag.

Bloomberg billed himself as the candidate who could beat Trump, “the worst president we’ve ever had,” and run the country. “I’m a manager, I’m a philanthropist,” Bloomberg said. He had made a lot of money but “I’m spending that money to beat Trump.” Democrats weren’t buying it, and went after Bloomberg on his record with stop-and-frisk.

Bloomberg acknowledged that he was sorry and had asked for forgiveness. He touted the “right to live” and said he cut murders in New York from 650 a year to 300. The Democrats pivoted to his record with women.

“He calls women sap broads and horse-faced lesbians,” said a breathless Elizabeth Warren, like a character in a ’40s gangster movie.

Bloomberg said he had “no tolerance for the behavior the MeToo movement has exposed,” but others wondered about the non-disclosure agreements. Joe Biden said people had been paid to keep quiet. Bloomberg said the agreements had been made consensually and the parties, “wanted to keep it quiet.” On other fronts, the New York billionaire got in some shots of his own.

The surest way to get Trump reelected, he said, was “the ideas on this stage.” They had been tried before, and, Bloomberg said, “Communism just doesn’t work.” That drew gasps from the audience, which cheered the ideas Bloomberg rejected.

During the Democrat debate, they all talked about how to spend your money By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/02/during_the_democrat_debate_they_all_talked_about_how_to_spend_your_money.html

“Despite all the hate, one thing was missing from the debate: Trump’s actual policies. Except for complaining about Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Accord, none of the candidates justified their hatred. Trump is no longer a president with policies. He is a bogeyman who lives in their heads, a monstrous creature whose mere existence despoils the world. They claim that he’s a fraud, as if he hasn’t already proven himself to the American people over the past three years.”

Putting aside the unpleasant personalities and pointless squabbles that the Democrat presidential candidates showed America on Wednesday night in Nevada, what was important was that they shared with us their vision for an American future. They see America as a dark, hate-filled dystopic country that can be saved only if a government under their care collects as much money as possible from its citizens and spreads it around to people whose votes they want.

If you cast your mind back to 2016, Trump did not speak to different racial or economic constituencies. He spoke to all Americans. His vision for America included secure borders, lower taxes, fewer regulations, strong national security, and a withdrawal from the Wilsonian ideal of America as the world’s policemen. To the extent Democrats claimed Trump was a racist it was because they interpolated racism into his words where none existed.

Trump continues to govern for all Americans. Sure, he boasts about low black unemployment, but his point is always that a rising tide lives all boats – and that he is the tide and all Americans, regardless of race, color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, etc., are the boats. His Keep America Great rallies continue to speak to everyone. He sees America as a shining jewel that can become even bigger and brighter in his next term.

Knives Out: A Glorious Wrestlemania of a Democratic Debate By Jim Geraghty

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/knives-out-a-glorious-wrestlemania-of-a-democratic-debate/

Early on, political consultant Mike Murphy labeled the debate “a six way tornado of long-repressed rage, fear and desperation.” For Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and maybe even Joe Biden, the end is near. A lot of these candidates, who would be allies under different circumstances, now can barely stand to be on the same stage with one another.

The non-Bloomberg candidates contend that the former mayor is trying to buy the presidency, and they detest him for waltzing in late and rocketing up to top-tier status by throwing around hundreds of millions of dollars in ads. Within the first ten minutes, everyone had thrown a hard metaphorical punch on him and seemed to gang up on him with glee.

Tonight we saw that Mike Bloomberg the presidential candidate is way less impressive than Mike Bloomberg the advertising campaign. He’s regretful and embarrassed by the way stop-and-frisk turned out. His lawsuits and NDAs were just some jokes that went wrong. He promises to release his tax returns in a few weeks, and everyone has to understand because he’s too wealthy to use Turbo Tax.

Warren just tore Bloomberg apart on his former female employees who can’t talk about their disputes with him because of nondisclosure agreements. Bloomberg looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights, utterly unprepared for this, other than to insist that he had many female employees over the years and most of them hadn’t sued him or contended that he created a hostile working environment. Biden got in a good shot: “If people who signed NDA’s want to come forward, just say ‘yes they can.’” When Joe Biden is verbally body-slamming you over treatment of women, you’ve made a critical error.

The 7 most dramatic, eye-popping moments from the Democratic debate in Las Vegas Everybody piled on Mike Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg went after Bernie Sanders, and much more. By Dylan Scott and Li Zhou

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/2/19/21144763/nevada-democratic-debate-highlights-warren-bloomberg

But it was Warren who landed the biggest blow, with a clever bit of misdirection:

I’d like to talk about who we’re running against. A billionaire who calls women “fat broads and horse-faced lesbians.”

At the Democratic debate in Las Vegas, Nevada, Mike Bloomberg took a lot of heat, Elizabeth Warren looked feisty, and Bernie Sanders started to get the frontrunner treatment from his competitors.

Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, was the target early and often for the other Democratic candidates; they attacked him for his billions of dollars in wealth, the sexual harassment allegations he’s faced, and his record as mayor, particularly his continuation of the stop-and-frisk policy that disproportionately affected nonwhite New Yorkers. Warren was his most relentless foil, going after him again and again on a range of subjects. Sanders faced plenty of scrutiny, too, from his opponents and from the debate moderators, befitting his status as the tentative frontrunner with voting finally underway.

With three days before the Nevada caucuses, Wednesday night’s debate performance was pivotal for several candidates. With votes already cast in Iowa and New Hampshire, Sanders has established himself as the early frontrunner, but the race still seems very volatile.

Pete Buttigieg narrowly won Iowa and finished a strong second in New Hampshire, but he might struggle as the primary moves to more diverse states. After dismal showings in the first two states, Joe Biden is still betting he can turn his campaign around in Nevada and then South Carolina before having a big Super Tuesday on March 3. Warren and Amy Klobuchar have done enough to keep their campaigns afloat, but they need to break through soon to make a serious run at the party’s nomination.

South Bend Residents Have a Message for America: Don’t Elect Pete Buttigieg By Rick Moran

https://pjmedia.com/election/south-bend-residents-have-a-message-for-america-dont-election-pete-buttigieg/

South Bend, Ind., is a grimy industrial city of 100,000 people located on the St. Joseph River. It’s known for being the “home” of  Notre Dame University — which isn’t really true since Notre Dame is technically located in Notre Dame, Indiana.

But South Bend, whose second claim to fame is the Studebaker National Museum downtown, is the home of Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. The highly ambitious Buttigieg is seeking the presidency despite serving two terms as mayor of a small city.

A job that most would see as entry-level employment in politics as a stepping stone to the presidency? That’s sort of like a burger flipper applying for the CEO position at McDonald’s.

There are many South Bend residents who wonder about that too.

New York Post:

When residents of this city’s impoverished West Side reflect on Pete Buttigieg’s two terms as mayor, a few things come to mind:

A spike in violent crime, development that largely ignored the African American community and how their only well-lit street is the one that leads to Notre Dame University.

So how, they wonder, can Buttigieg possibly be trusted to run the country?

“If he’s the next president, I fear for our country. He couldn’t run our city. How can he run the United States?,” said Michelle Burger, 42, a stay-at-home mom who lives in South Bend’s impoverished and predominantly black West Side.

Much has been made of Mayor Pete’s trouble with “people of color.” There appears to be something to that criticism as economic development during Buttigieg’s tenure in office seems to have been lagging in the black community.

Another West Side resident, Cornish Miller, 62, said of Buttigieg, “Rating him 1 to 10, I’d give him a 2.”

“Buttigieg talked about all the improvements he made, but he hardly made a dent,” said Miller, who works for a military supply company.

“The West Side is the most neglected part of town. The street I live on is the only street around here that has lights. That’s because we’re a gateway to Notre Dame.”

Young, articulate, attractive — and gay. Is that why Democrats are taking this guy seriously? To go from being a mayor of a city with at $350 million budget to running a country with a $5 trillion budget would seem to be a leap too far.

But he’s a Democrat and he’s gay so he’s got that going for him.

Taking credit for the work of others is part of politics but Buttigieg appears to have taken the concept a bit too far.

But Indiana Republican Party Chairman Kyle Hupfer countered that while Buttigieg “certainly had a few economic development wins,” he actually had “little, if anything, to do with that.”

“I found it ironic that when he announced his presidential run, he did it in front of Studebaker Building 84, which had sat vacant since 1963,” Hupfer said.

“But it was $3.5 million from then-Gov. Mike Pence’s Regional Cities Initiative that made that project go.”

Hupfer said increased employment in the area covering South Bend — where the unemployment rate dropped from 9.3 percent in 2012 to 3.6 percent in 2018 — was largely a function of “statewide economic strength under Republican leadership.”

Revolutionary Bernie Sanders By John Stossel

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/revolutionary-bernie-sanders/

Bernie Sanders leads the race for the Democratic nomination.

He may become America’s first self-described “democratic socialist” president.What does that mean?

Today, when Sanders talks about socialism, he says: “I’m not looking at Cuba. I’m looking at countries like Denmark and Sweden.”

But Denmark and Sweden are not socialist. Denmark’s prime minister even came to America to refute Sanders’ claims, pointing out that “Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy.”

Both Denmark and Sweden do give citizens government-run health care and have bigger welfare programs than America has. However,  recently, they’ve moved away from socialism. Because their socialist policies killed economic growth, they cut regulations and ended government control of many industries.

Sanders probably doesn’t know that. He, like many young people, just loves the idea of socialism.

For my new video this week, Stossel TV producer Maxim Lott went through hours of Sanders’ old speeches. What he found reveals a lot about what Sanders believes.

How The Ruling Class Might Elect Bloomberg and Realign American Politics Angelo Codevilla

https://amgreatness.com/2020/02/18/how-the-ruling-class-might-elect-bloomberg-and-realign-american-politics/

The Democratic Party’s establishment might well succeed in making Michael Bloomberg president of the United States—not on Election Night 2020, however. But it could happen if a third party were to win some electoral votes and, with no candidate receiving a majority of them, the House of Representatives was called upon to choose between the top-two electoral vote-getters.

Today’s civil war within the Democratic Party makes it possible that two candidates will come from it: Bernie Sanders for the Woke Left, and Bloomberg for the establishment. In that case, enough establishment Republicans in the House might join their establishment Democratic colleagues to defeat Trump. This would realign U.S. politics: a consolidated, single, left-trending establishment party would rule, opposed by the extreme Left as well as by the Right.

Here is how it might come about.

Today, the Democratic Party establishment is realizing that, in its present condition, it cannot win the 2020 presidential election and is likely to lose Congress as well. That is why it is scrambling to grab onto Michael Bloomberg, who is scrambling to adapt himself to the Democratic Party’s unpresentable wokeness. But integrating Bloomberg into today’s Democratic Party won’t work.

Study Shoots Down “Voter Suppression” Myth Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/02/study-shoots-down-voter-suppression-myth-daniel-greenfield/

A crucial part of the Dem narrative is that the Republicans have spent decades engaged in a vast conspiracy to suppress the votes of minorities. Dem judges routinely shut down voter ID requirements, claiming that they represent a voter suppression plot. When Democrats lose, they routinely blame voter suppression. Stacey Abrams has virtually locked in a V.P. slot with that line.

Meanwhile a new study shoots down this particular political myth. 

Only 8 percent of nonvoters said they don’t vote because they don’t have the time to get to the polls — fourth on the list of reasons they cited. Only 5 percent of nonvoters said they don’t vote because they aren’t registered.

In other words, people who value voting, will vote. Those who don’t, don’t.