A spokesman said that Bloomberg “believes that Donald Trump represents an unprecedented threat to our nation” and that “the current field of candidates is not well positioned” to defeat him. He plans to file for access to the Alabama ballot before Friday’s deadline; deadlines for filing for additional state ballots are looming.
Just what we need, a 78 year-old old white guy to lecture us on how we’re all too liberal.
I remember a conversation I had with a New York Republican businessman just before Trump clinched the nomination. His theory was that Bloomberg would jump into the Republican race and save the Republicans from themselves. That demonstrates the political power of Bloomberg — massive in its potential in the minds of center-right supporters, yet puny in its substance.
It’s more than a little funny that the first state he’s going to file in is Alabama, where he’ll be about as welcome as a pregnant nun in a convent, a fart in church, or a imam at a Trump rally.
cain
Lordy save us from these folks.
JMG
He filed in Alabama because the filing deadline is next Friday, earliest in the country, or so I was informed by Dave Weigel of the Post. I’d be willing to make a prop bet that Bloomberg gets fewer votes than Andrew Yang in every primary both of them are in/
PS: Pence went to New Hampshire to file for Trump today and took his motorcade down I-93 to Logan Airport at rush hour! Authorities blocked BOTH sides of the O’Neill tunnel under downtown Boston. That’s always a vote getting move.
guachi
I guess he and Steyer will split that 1% of the electorate!
Wapiti
So his wiki page says he was a Republican 2001 to 2007, and an Independent 2007-2018. Why doesn’t he run as a Republican? Clearly his party affiliation is very mutable.
Baud
I’d just like to say Fuck You to everyone who uttered the word “coronation” in 2016.
That is all.
rikyrah
Get the ENTIRE PHUCK OUTTA HERE ???
CaseyL
JFC. What is it with these people?
Mary G
He’s not as terrible as Howard Schultz or Steyer, but that bar is underground. All these guys need to stop with the vanity runs and get the Senate to flip.
Ruckus
Just what we fucking need, another rich fuck to protect the rest of the one% from having to actually be a citizen of the country they claim as theirs.
Fucking wankers.
Tom Q
It’s truly amazing, the number of billionaires who think their perspective is what the country, and particularly the Democratic party, is missing right now.
Nate Silver has already noted that Bloomberg’s patch — socially liberal; economically…if not conservative, most definitely not liberal, doing nothing about income inequality — is the smallest piece of turf in contemporary politics. But it does match up with a good portion of the DC pundit crowd, so Bloomberg will get a ton more coverage than he deserves.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Well there goes the rich and useless plutocrat vote who would die rather than vote blue for the Dems.
Tom Levenson
Imma going to go out on a limb to say that this is likely a nothingburger. I don’t think it hurts Warren or Sanders. Conventional village wisdom is already suggesting this is a blow to Biden, but I doubt that as well. It does give political horse race journos something a lot easier to talk about than impeachment or the ongoing degradation of the Republican party, much less the heavy lifting of actually reporting on the substance of any of the meaningful D campaigns. But this is one more plan that will not survive first contact with the enemy/reality.
trollhattan
“Rich New Yorker sweeps to victory in Alabama primary” seems like an inevitable headline now. Can the papers squeeze in “Oowish-jay” somehow?
Can we finagle a Bloomberg, Roy Moore and Jeff Sessions debate?
germy
Bloomberg/Steyer 2020
Let’s heal this divided nation.
And no more crazy talk about taxing the rich, please. (I’m looking at you Professor Warren and Mr. Sanders!)
Mary G
Good grief, another hat may be thrown in the ring;
We need fewer candidates, not more.
Ruckus
We need an actual tax rate that is a percentage of total income, no fucking matter the source. At least then the one% would be paying something.
Make a million, pay $200,000.
Make a billion, pay $200,000,000.
Immanentize
Bloomberg: 78 years old by the first primary.
Sanders: 78 1/2 years old by the first primary.
Biden: 76 1/3 years old by the first primary.
Reagan, infirm and in the throes of dementia, was not quite 78 AT THE END OF HIS PRESIDENCY!
What the holy fuck are we thinking?
germy
germy
@Immanentize:
78 is the new 77.
zhena gogolia
I wish Sanders would get out and take care of his health.
I wish Gabbard would get out period.
I wish no one else would get in.
Mary G
TS (the original)
@Tom Q: Money in the USA always gets a ton more coverage than deserved. When I grew up I had NO idea as to the names of the CEOs of large organisations unless perchance I had a personal relationship with one of same (and that was extrmely rare). Today we hear of them non stop as they plunder the world & influence governments to give them more and more of the world’s resources.
dr. bloor
Yeah, he’s a Jew, but that will pale in comparison to his efforts to ban supersized Coca-Colas while running NYC.d
zhena gogolia
smintheus
So Bloomberg is running in the Dem primary, is that the implication?
zhena gogolia
@smintheus:
Yes, I had to go to the link to find out for sure.
TS (the original)
@Ruckus: That is a regressive tax and beloved by republicans. There is no problem with a progressive tax, low at the bottom and at least 50% at the top.
Marcopolo
I find it hard to believe that it is a coincidence that Warren’s campaign dropped their online wealth tax calculator and within a matter of hours, Bloomberg is saying he’ll be filing papers for the D primary in AL.
It could not be clearer how terrified these rich old white dudes are of her.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: No Ruckus, what you just described is Steve Forbes wet dream, the Flat Tax. We need a Progressive Tax on all sources of income.
VeniceRiley
This is way more fun when it’s Tony Jay talking UK politics. FFS. Too many Ross Perot 2.0 types already!
OzarkHillbilly
Kill the rich. That is all.
Mary G
@Mary G: About Holder:
Suburban Mom
@trollhattan: Don’t forget “divorced.” Alabama doesn’t seem like his sweet spot, really.
germy
smintheus
@zhena gogolia: Hmmm…when I read the link it didn’t say so explicitly.
Kraux Pas
@JMG:
I’m beginning to think Trumpence may not carry Boston. They’re in trouble now.
Hey, maybe they have footage of the chaos this undoubtedly created and plan on using it in an ad with the tagline “Suck it, libs!”
Nah, they don’t know how to use punctuation.
Kent
@TS (the original):
Well, they were famous, but not for being Dicks necessarily. And some of them were very political too. Remember
Lee Iacocca
Sam Walton
John Rockefeller
Andrew Carnegie
J.P. Morgan
Jack Warner
Conrad Hilton
Ted Turner
Walt Disney
Henry Ford
Andrew Mellon
etc.
trollhattan
@dr. bloor:
“R.C. Cola and a Moon Pie.” He’s bicultural and all that.
How would banning Coca-Cola play in Georgia?
zhena gogolia
@Marcopolo:
I’ve been skeptical about Warren, but all this billionaire whining is making me feel more positively about her. Can’t believe I’m alone.
NotMax
Meh.
Personal financial wealth is so far down on the list of potential concerns I hold regarding candidates that it vies for space with “hates lime Jell-O” and “once photographed wearing mismatched socks.”
CaseyL
I’m with OzarkHillbillty. Feeling some major Madame Lafarge rage right now.
trollhattan
@Mary G:
Eric Holder? That Eric Holder? Has he had a personality transplant since he was last in the public eye?
Millard Filmore
@OzarkHillbilly:
I have been led to understand that “Eat the rich” is the politically correct way to express this sentiment.
Kent
What I don’t even understand is that anyone with a modicum of knowledge about the legislative process in this country has to know that Warren’s wealth tax is basically going to be DOA under any conceivable Congress that might be serving in 2020. What are they scared of? They know they can stop it dead in its tracks.
I think what they are actually afraid of is having the conversation at all. And that maybe Warren will set the stage for her predecessor to actually get something done with a better Congress.
satby
@Baud: so glad you’re back. Thank you!
Amir Khalid
@Tom Levenson:
I’m right there on that limb with you. Steyer isn’t exactly lighting up the campaign, and Mr Coffee (whatever his name was) has already sunk without trace. The bajillionaire candidates have a shit-ton of money, and their peers in wealth probably do think they’re just awesome. But they haven’t distinguished themselves as candidates in any way. They don’t stand out as having more than other candidates of the knowledge and skills required of a POTUS, or of an appealing personality. They’re just lousy candidates. Granted, a horrible candidate with zero knowledge and zero political skills won the last election and is now befouling everything he touches, but do they want to be that guy?
Mary G
@trollhattan: I was tempted to say Holder has the personality of a piece of cardboard left in the gutter for a week.
debbie
@Mary G:
I think Biden’s made more than a few people nervous.
germy
@Mary G: I thought Holder was supposed to be busy fighting for voting rights?
Marcopolo
@NotMax: Hey, hey don’t color outside the lines when it comes to worrisome issues: it’s wearing mom pants & using fancy mustard we need to lose sleep over.
Miss Bianca
@Amir Khalid:
There are so many things to hate about Trump, but as I was saying the other day, one of the things that really makes me feel stabby is that literally any white guy in America can credibly claim to be *at least* as qualified to run for POTUS as Donald Trump was, and they wouldn’t be wrong.
Needless to say, that is, or ought to be, a subterranean bar to cross.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I have personal reasons to hate Bloomberg and believe he has no business in national office. I don’t perhaps hate him as much as Trump, but he’s up there.
Timurid
@Mary G:
He’s not a white male, so centrists won’t bite. The moderate lane in the primary is smoking rubble right now, with the centrists only looking at the two most broken candidates in that group because they happen to be white males. And benign despotism by white males is a core component of the centrist platform.
Kraux Pas
@Miss Bianca: I care about people and I can read. Maybe I should run!!!
trollhattan
We report, you decide.
Jeffro
Remember when Gabbard went all GoT and declared that the race was between her and “Empress of Lies” Hillz? Wasn’t that like six months ago?
Kraux Pas
@trollhattan: So she reported this weapon to authorities and wasn’t carrying it at the time. Then she was arrested.
This is strange.
MoCA Ace
OK Boomer
Did I use that correctly? Since I’m a social media disconnected Gen-X’r I just heard the term a few days ago… I kinda like it.
Lauryn11
Aw, give the people in Alabama credit. Roy Moore had a lawyer who was a Jew.
Karen
I don’t get it. Isn’t there no primaries and the RNC only recognizing Trump? I don’t want him running third party because it would only hurt us.
Matt McIrvin
Socially liberal, economically plutocratic rich guys continue to think they are the great American center. Dog bites man.
trollhattan
@Kraux Pas:
Yup, weird.
“Hello officer, guess what I have in my car!” Since dad says she’s a Trump supporter it’s established she’s not right in the head. Dad may want to check around the house for more surprises.
NotMax
@Marcopolo
The tenor of many comments in this thread lead one to believe the people making them would have wasted no time spitting on (if not outright eviscerating) FDR for being a member of the fat cat phalanx in 1932.
From a trivia/bar bet perspective, of some interest:
The Complete Net Worth Of The American Presidents: From Washington To Obama
Martin
Here’s the real risk of the wealth tax. Let’s say I’m worth $10B and could lose $200M a year for the next 4 years if Warren wins. Why wouldn’t I give that entire $800M to Trump’s campaign instead?
Dorothy A. Winsor
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Pence wants the chair.
Martin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Hmm. So, is that Pence cutting his losses and twisting the knife into Trump, or is that Pence getting lashed to the mast as the professional staff continue to hack holes in the bottom of the ship?
Karen
@trollhattan: Thank you for recognizing that “New Yorker” or “New York ways or values” is often code for “Jew.” I’m Jewish so I know this too.
Jeffro
@Martin: wealth taxes are dumb
Steeply progressive income tax rates, threading interest/dividend/capital gains the same as income = much smarter
Baud
@Martin:
Can’t do it directly because of campaign limits. Have to set up a superpac or something like that.
Chyron HR
@Martin:
“If we let you keep that money, you’ll just spend it on penny candy and nazis.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Maybe Pence has been told he won’t be on the ticket by Floriduh Man.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jeffro: Yup, a wealth tax could well be unconstitutional.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Not to be all mysterious. It was during the 2004 Repub convention when Bloomberg ordered the cops to preemptively lock up thousands of protestors before they had a chance to march. They were kept locked up till W spoke. No hearing. No attorneys. Court orders from increasingly furious judges were ignored one after another.
My daughter was one of the people in that filthy holding cell. She was 17.
anarchoRex
@NotMax: unless Bloomberg is running on his own version of the Four Freedoms, I don’t see how the comparison is apt.
Matt McIrvin
@NotMax: FDR was an aristocrat but on economic policy he was the guy pissing off the sober centrists.
Ladyraxterinok
@TS (the original):
Billionaires used to be satisfied ‘pulling the strings’ and being the ‘power behind the throne’. Now they want to BE the throne.
I blame Romney. They figure he came close.
And then Trump showed even the dumbest rich guy can buy/con enuff media attn to win.
So I have a billion$, am bored, and say well why not. It might be entertaining
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I doubt he’s been explicitly told that. Trump isn’t the type to tell.
Just Chuck
@NotMax: Good thing FDR had FDR as president, as opposed to one who just continued to enrich the super rich. FDR knew the pitchforks were coming out and did things about it.
Matt McIrvin
@JMG: Good thing today was my don’t-bother-going-downtown day.
Mary G
@Dorothy A. Winsor: She said that Pence did not know anything about the extortion. She may need to revise her testimony like Sandland did.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Maybe it was the visit from Ivanka measuring the drapes in the VP’s office that was the clue.
Matt McIrvin
@Martin: I’d say go ahead! Trump has effectively infinite resources anyway, because he’s the President and a complete crook. More cash on hand probably isn’t going to change whether he wins or loses.
TS (the original)
@Kent: Somebody might just convince enough people that there is an alternative to
1. going bankrupt via health costs
2. going to an grave saying – at least I didn’t vote for a wealth tax
I live in hope.
Any why call it a wealth tax – simply have a progressive tax system that the richer you are, the higher marginal tax you pay. Just call it a “fair & equitable tax system” – same as trump talks about his wonderful health care system that is open to all.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Whoever she is, good for her.
Ladyraxterinok
@Mary G:
Establishment Ds want Holder?!? Does not compute. Does not compute.
Uncle Cosmo
I loves me some Mike Bloomberg…because ever since he started dropping 8- and 9-figure bundles of ca$h on our mutual alma mater, even the utterly unprincipled rapacious mofos who run it are for the most part too embarrassed to come whining to alums like me pleading poverty & begging for my money. At odd moments I find myself hoping JHU might sic some sophomore coed onto me (telephonically) to whimper about how their scholarships are going to be cut – just so I could reply, “Y’know, honey, I bet Mike Bloomberg could find a full ride for you stuck in his pocket lint, why don’t you have the Admin call & ask him?”
As a Presidential candidate…not so much.
I wonder if Bloomer’s entry isn’t prompted by a sense that the Biden campaign is like a woolly mammoth that the rest of the field has been shooting so many arrows into that it’s now about to collapse from blood loss – & that there’s no one else in the field who Trump wouldn’t beat. Even without Rooski help. (That, & the overweening vanity of the superduperrich, of course….)
Cheryl Rofer
We few, we happy few, we band of billionaires! Owning it together!
JMG
@Kraux Pas: Do you know how many New Hampshire voters work in Boston? It’s a lot. Clinton won New Hampshire by a thread last time. This was a dumb political move, period.
Kraux Pas
@trollhattan: You’re right, but what I thought was weird was the SS penalizing someone for notifying them of a potential, but inactive, threat.
That’s something someone might do to protect themself. “Hey, officer, I have a gun safely stored away.”
Martin
@Baud: That’s one way. Or could buy that buy those $800M golf shoes at Trump National.
Uncle Cosmo
@Baud:
Fine by me. AC or DC?
debbie
@Cheryl Rofer:
Bet those tees are pricy, real pricy.
NotMax
@anarchoRex
I was not and am not trying to equate Bloomberg with FDR in any manner other than the fact of great personal wealth, which is the measure seized on by many here as being disqualifying in and of itself.
smintheus
@trollhattan: A commenter at LGM said on a thread there (apropos of something else) that he/she had come across a recent issue of a bowhunting magazine that portrayed Trump as a friend of bowhunters because (?!) he’d done it himself. Maybe this weirdo showed up trying to impress her orange savior.
Uncle Cosmo
@anarchoRex: Except that
IOW Roosevelt had already won his first 3 Presidential elections before even mentioning the term.
It’s probably also good to note here that in the 1932 election FDR’s major policy promise was to balance the Federal budget. Hah.
Msilaneous
Mnemosyne
Does anyone outside of NYC give a shit? Seriously.
secret Russian anarchoRex
@NotMax: fair enough.
Patricia Kayden
Yep.
secret Russian anarchoRex
@Uncle Cosmo: is that completely accurate? He’d already been touting the New Deal in his first election. Fair point about the Four Freedoms though, I was just trying to illustrate the difference in substance between FDR and Bloomberg.
MomSense
@Baud:
Word.
?
Uncle Cosmo
@Uncle Cosmo: I should note FTR that when I matriculated at Johns Hopkins (long enough ago that the only way anyone lacking a Y chromosome could enroll as an undergrad was if her parent was on the faculty) the financial aid the school offered me was less than the General Scholarship I got from the State of MD – because my father (a semi-skilled machine operator) made too much money. We took the State’s $500 & told them to go pound sand.
Kraux Pas
@NotMax:
That’s not how I’ve understood the nature of the criticism of billionaire candidates. It’s more that these billionaires see themselves as so self-evidently qualified. Almost an inversion of what you say here.
misterpuff
Or Liz Warren in a Boardroom.
Rob
Bloomberg, nooooo. Aieeeh.
NotMax
@Kraux Pas
I shy away from engaging in
armchairdesk chair psychological analysis. But if I did I’d posit it a plus when the hard reality hits that they are not “self-evidently qualified.”J R in WV
@Kent:
I agree that they are afraid of the conversation about their ill-gotten billions of dollars.
But your last sentence:
Makes little sense — IF Senator Warren is elected President, her predecessor will be Trump… what were you trying to say instead of what you typoed?
Baud
@J R in WV:
Fixed.
Ohio Mom
@Marcopolo: Warren’s tax calculator is a hoot, thanks for the link.
For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, it lists what various billionaires would pay under her plan.
All the big names are there: Gates, Bezos, Zuckerberg, the DeVos family, Charles Koch, etc., and Mike Bloomberg heads the list.
So I can see why he might take Warren’s candidacy as a personal affront. Heh.
secret Russian anarchoRex
@J R in WV: pretty clearly he meant succesor ?
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
SHOCK POLL
Iowa — Quinnipiac Poll — Nov 5, 2019
Warren………….20%
Pete………………19%
Wilmer…………..17%
Biden…………….15%
Amy………………..5%
Kamala……………4%
Holy cow! Just 6 weeks ago Pete was at 9% to Warren’s 22%
I always thought Biden’s collapse would open the door for Warren, but looks like it’s opening the door for Pete.
Mary G
Mike may also have sort of a MeToo problem:
That makes me furious. Who the fuck brings along an unimpeachable third party when he feels like raping someone? “Sister Mary Joseph, can you come out to the alley for a minute?” smdh
Baud
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch:
Fascinating. Too bad Wilmer is still sticking around.
Mnemosyne
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch:
We keep trying to tell you dudes that misogyny is a problem, and you keep being shocked to find out that there’s a sizable percentage of voters who want their presidential candidate to have a peni$ and don’t really care who it is.
Steeplejack
@smintheus:
Chris Hayes just came on and seemed to indicate Bloomberg would run as a Democratic. “What does this mean for the Democratic field?”
Baud
@Mary G:
People with butlers.
Kent
@Martin:
Because they wouldn’t really be giving it to the Trump Campaign, they’d be giving it directly to Trump. The entire campaign is a front for graft. If an $800 million contribution rolled in (assuming that was even legal) they would just figure out how to skim off $799 million in fees and rents to the Trump Tower and catering costs and consulting fees to the Trump clan and what not. You give to the Trump Campaign, you are just giving the money directly to the Trumps.
Kent
@J R in WV:I meant successor, obviously.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@David Booooooo Koch: Anecdotal but when I was in Iowa earlier this week, the only presidential signs I saw in my friend’s neighborhood in Waterloo were for Mayor Pete. I think he has a good organization in IA.
Mary G
Rick is a dishonest ratfucker, but he isn’t wrong.
NotMax
@David Booooooo Koch
Iowa is notoriously difficult to poll and famously fickle when it comes to polling results. Seem to recall that Ben Carson was a favorite in Iowa polling at about this point four years ago.
Also too, as always never take any single poll as indicative of a trend.
Kent
@Patricia Kayden:
Well, each state certifies its own results state by state and the House of Representatives certifies the Electoral College vote. There really isn’t any avenue through which he could contest the overall result with the Dems in control of the House, just individual state results as in Bush v. Gore.
Redshift
@Patricia Kayden: Conceding is a courtesy thing, it doesn’t have any legal weight. As has been pointed out, Roy Moore has never conceded. (Nor, I think, did Stacy Abrams; she accepted the result but didn’t concede because it was clearly unjust.)
So concession is irrelevant, the only thing that matters is whether he tries to stay in power. And I really doubt anyone would story him in that, the personal risk would be high with little chance of reward.
Matt McIrvin
@Redshift: Depends. Is it a close election with crazy recounts and judges weighing in, like 2000? Then all sorts of horrible things have a chance of a payoff. Maybe they can even make it be like that, whether it’s close or not, just by gaslighting everyone enough.
Steeplejack
@debbie:
The T-shirts are only $20.20. Get it? Get it?!
I’m tempted to get one just for “historical oddity” purposes.
Also interesting, there is no indication of party affilation on the Bloomberg 2020 site.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
However, a bunch of KY Rs are urging him to put up or shut up, so we’ll see. KY Senate President Stivers’ comments disturbed me when he basically argued the Legislature could declare Bevin the winner simply because the Libertarian’s votes would have likely gone to Bevin if the (L) hadn’t run.
Steeplejack
@Mary G:
Wait, Pence has an aide who is a woman?! That cannot be. They might accidentally end up alone in the same room together! What would Mother say?
Gravenstone
@Kent: They’re afraid that if the sentiment resonates with enough people to get her elected, it will lead to a change that adversely affects their wealth. Not immediately, as you noted a Congress during a Warren administration would still be too conservative. But that first step is the one they’re terrified of. What the second, and all the following steps would mean to them.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
WP thought my original comment was spam for some reason, so here’s the original link: Could Matt Bevin Steal the Kentucky Governor’s Election?
Dan B
@Mnemosyne: I believe there are lots of voters who believe the Presnit must be a warrior and wimmens are not. They go for a woman if that woman is a hawk from a very conservative party, the Thatcher effect. It’s a twist on misogyny, sorta misogyny 2.B. or 1.B.
Okaaay, it’s misogyny. But there are many flavors like the type too many women buy into. Fish don’t notice the water either.
We should be so lucky to get a woman in the White House by hook or by crook and in charge of the Senate and put the US back on track and every citizen blissfully happy.
Gravenstone
@Baud: Let’s make sure we wire it up properly before we give it to him.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Baud:
Sore is the ass that sits on the gold-plated porcelain throne
Steeplejack
@Msilaneous:
Fixed your link. “Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg Blocking Press from Attending RI Event.”
You have to close the FYWP link after you insert the hyperlink. Mash the “link” button again, which should be showing up as “/link” until the link is closed.
Martin
Alternate headline: Rich, self-important old NY white guy seeks presidency.
And someone thinks this would be appealing to Democratic voters?
SiubhanDuinne
@Karen:
IIRC, the first episode of The West Wing had an exchange between Toby and Josh making this very point.
Miss Bianca
@Kraux Pas: go for it!
Another Scott
@Ruckus: “There’s one for you, 19 for me…”
As long as there are real, significant, needs to be addressed, it’s hard for me to get upset about marginal rates as high as 95% for the stratospherically high income people. For them, it’s not the money that’s important (they’ll never ever be able to spend it all), it’s that they have more than their near peers.
“Oh, Muffy dear, we only took home $837,572,108.05 this year. That extra 95% tax over $1B was a killer!!”
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin: No, conceding still has no legal weight.
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Oh for fucks sake.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Omnes Omnibus:
I don’t think it’s particularly likely, Omnes, just a possibility. Though it’s disturbing that the KY legislature stealing the election is even a semi-plausible scenario, but the last few years have been crazy. My comment at 124 has a link to an article where KY Rs are urging Bevin to put up or shut up
Omnes Omnibus
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: It isn’t even semi-plausible.
Mnemosyne
@Dan B:
As I was saying on Facebook today, in 2016 white women made a choice between supporting women and supporting white supremacy, and WAY too many of them threw their lot in with white supremacy.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Omnes Omnibus:
Look, we’re not fundamentally disagreeing here. I think it’s very unlikely it will happen
mrmoshpotato
@JMG:
It’s an asshole move by an asshole.
Ken
If Bloomberg did somehow become the Democratic nominee, who’d win New York’s electoral votes? Because there’s no way either Trump or Bloomberg could win their (one-time) home state, everyone there knows them.
Gvg
@NotMax: no what is disqualifying is not having any other qualifications.
And actually Bloomberg has governmental experience. I would rank his as above the other rich white guys except Biden who also has experience. I do not like idiots thinking anyone can be President. I don’t care for Bloomburg’s Policies though. He also owns a real news site which is an advantage over most of the others. I just don’t think he is in tune with this time, so I expect him to lose pretty quickly. Also anyone entering this late, is not a good planner IMO.
I want the field to narrow to “real chance” candidates soon, so people can hear real informative debates. But if wishes were horses Trump would have never even run…
Uncle Cosmo
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I don’t understand why you “don’t think it’s particularly likely.” This is the political party that had their pet Extreme Court justices steal the 2000 presidential election for them. And after the theft was consummated, they governed as if they’d won a landslide, without even paying lip service to the rights of the losers. (ETA: I know this is ancient history for you – were you even out of kindergarten when that happened?)
Power is all they want. All well & good if they can win it fair & square, but if they can’t, they will steal it if they can rather than concede it.
I get this sinking feeling that the best-selling Democratic bumper sticker of 2020 will read REMEMBER KENTUCKY.
J R in WV
@Baud:
Good point; we all hope so! Thanks ;-)
NotMax
@Gvg
Look, I’m not arguing the presence or lack of merit re: Bloomberg and have no intention of doing so. All I’m saying is the knee-jerk brandishing of pitchforks and torches when wealth is a factor is both tiresome and unfruitful.
Msilaneous
@Steeplejack: Thank you!
J R in WV
@Kent:
Many people have told me that… but such a easy target! ;-) And baud’s “fixed” to my somewhat snotty reply was so good~!!~
No offense taken I hope!
tomtofa
I liked Bloomberg’s comment that he wouldn’t be going on an ‘apology tour’ for being a white man ‘over 50 years old’. How about for being a white man almost 80 years old?
J R in WV
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
You guys didn’t see the election Gore won, but Bush became President, right?
Peale
@tomtofa: and just how exactly is mayor stop and frisk planning on convincing our most loyal voting block to come out to the polls? Magic?
Omnes Omnibus
@J R in WV: Do you think that it is likely to happen?
bemused senior
NotMax: Beware!
Jay
Ron Pearlman is a treasure.
NotMax
@bemused senior
Different island altogether.
Not the optimum choice of a verb there.
Zinsky
Michael Bloomberg is as irrelevant as a screen door on a submarine. The ego on these rich old white men is horrifying to witness!
mrmoshpotato
@Jay: TV scumbags? Looking at you Mark Burnett!
Tell me, how does one host a TV show from the gallows constructed to hang you in Central Park?
mrmoshpotato
@Zinsky:
I’d think a screendoor on submarine would be very relevant. As in, “Why the fuck did you build a submarine with a screen door?!” :)
Jay
Speaking of submarines, ( made of cheese)
Jay
Stuck in moderation for hashtags,
Jay
@mrmoshpotato:
You are counting on a sweeping clean of the festering rot,
You might not want to do that.
tomtofa
@Peale:
In the bit I heard he hadn’t quite gotten around to that . . .