Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumLet's talk about the time Mike Bloomberg spent millions to reelect Republican Pat Toomey in Pa.
This story has received much too little attention! From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Mike Mikus remembers it as a kick in the gut.
Amid one of the most pivotal campaigns in the country in 2016, one many thought could decide control of the Senate, Mike Bloomberg poured millions of dollars into the contest to help Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.
It helped both operationally in terms of the money spent, but it also allowed Pat Toomey to use that endorsement to create a false impression that hes a moderate, said Mikus, a consultant who worked for Toomeys Democratic opponent, Katie McGinty.
Bloomberg, now a rising Democratic candidate for president, used his television ads to vouch for Toomey as a centrist problem solver. Toomey was one of the few Republicans in Congress to support expanded background checks for gun purchases, an issue on which Bloomberg has backed candidates in both parties. [continue reading]
The article goes on to point out that Bloomberg supported Toomey over Democrat Katie McGinty. And much as Bloomberg loves to tout his anti-gun record, McGinty supported much more robust gun regulation!
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Under The Radar
(3,404 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
BlueJac
(7,838 posts)He is our focus
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
markpkessinger
(8,408 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
BlueJac
(7,838 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
OnDoutside
(19,974 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
markpkessinger
(8,408 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
dchill
(38,547 posts)I do. Bloomberg is at the BOTTOM of my list.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Bradshaw3
(7,531 posts)He has given milions to repubs and, as the article points out, was quite possibly the deciding factor in a close senate race won by a repub - in a year in which the senate was very much up for grabs.
Other facts you don't seem to want to know: almost 40 NDAs, stop and frishk, multiple disparaging comments about Obama, twice endorsed Bush for prez. I could go on and on but facts weren't really what you wanted to hear.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
dchill
(38,547 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
tiredtoo
(2,949 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
BlueJac
(7,838 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
liskddksil
(2,753 posts)and the GOP tax scam. Want more facts?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
markpkessinger
(8,408 posts). . . but have yet to cite a single fact in this thread!
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
markpkessinger
(8,408 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
FBaggins
(26,770 posts)We should nominate someone that most Democrats would be willing to support.
Actions like those mentioned in the OP are certainly relevant to that.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,344 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
evertonfc
(1,713 posts)Bernie supported and worked for actual socialist candidates over Democrats.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
markpkessinger
(8,408 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
thesquanderer
(11,994 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
markpkessinger
(8,408 posts). . . to suggest that Bernie's modest donations 40 years ago had anywhere near the potential to influence the outcome of a race as Bloomberg's millions!
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
CalFione
(571 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
tiredtoo
(2,949 posts)Upon examination you will find Bloomberg, like trump, just does things that benefit himself.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
markpkessinger
(8,408 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,344 posts)Snyder is an absolute racist who got his jollies punishing predominantly African American population cities.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
tiredtoo
(2,949 posts)As for your comments re: Snyder YES he was in charge when the good people of Flint were poisoned .
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
liskddksil
(2,753 posts)Imagine if control of the House had come to the Staten Island seat. Democrat Max Rose beat Bloomberg endorsed Republican Dan Donovan there thankfully.
And even though we won the House, all the gun reform legislation the House has passed sits in Moscow Mitch's crypt, because of the Republicans that Bloomberg endorsed continue to vote for majority leader Moscow Mitch. Not to mention Pat Toomey and Susan Collins (who Bloomberg also endorsed over Democrat Shenna Bellows) were the deciding votes for Justice Kavenaugh and the GOP Tax Scam.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
markpkessinger
(8,408 posts)Thank you!
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
markpkessinger
(8,408 posts). . . But the fact that Democrats are even considering a man who systematically terrorized black and Latino residents of New York (where I have lived for the past 36 years) is simply beyond the pale for me!
In some ways, Bloomberg could wind up being even worse than Trump, if only because he possesses a certain bureaucratic competence that Trump does not!
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,344 posts).... get an actual right wing ideologue who isnt a fat trust fund baby too lazy to do the job.
Now?
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Hearthrob
(84 posts)Can you fill me in? I wasn't paying attention when Bloomberg was in office-except for lge sodas and smoking.
Was the stop and frisk program predominately in NYC or practiced around the country?
Was stop and frisk equally as devastatingly inappropriate in white neighborhoods with comparable stats.
If the crime rate in black neighborhoods was exceptionally high, did the residents want increased police presence- at least as a promising start to a safer community?
Reason I'm asking is because I've lived in Baltimore for 40 years. My patients live in terrifying neighbourhoods. Both blacks and whites.
Seems like it will never be safe enough for having a safe and peaceful life.
FYI-
I was born in central PA. Left in late 60's. Need to return now b/o retirement issues. This is Toomey territory-big time. Afraid to say there has been too much inbreeding since then! Not an ounce of blue blood. And not a clue. Scary! At least they are somewhat proud to say they now have one black.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
markpkessinger
(8,408 posts)Tens of thousands of people were arrested, sent to Rikers for crimes they did not commit, then eventually released without ever even going to court. Some spent days in jail where they lost their jobs. Single parents lost custody of their kids. Others didnt spend days in Rikers, but weeks, months, and even years for crimes they didnt commit. While they were there, like young Kalief Browder, they were beaten and tortured by both guards and inmates, forced into solitary confinement for years on end, then simply released without even an explanation.
When Kalief was released, he was broken, and took his own life.
Experts say tens of thousands of other innocent men, women, and children were either coaxed by prosecutors and police into taking plea deals so that they could simply be released for time-served, or just chose to take the deals to just escape the madness of jail only to be released back into Bloombergs New York where they were routinely stopped and frisked again and again and again.
Some were stopped and frisked by the NYPD over 100 times. Can you imagine? When I say over 100 times Im not using that as a euphemism for a lot. I mean they were literally stopped and searched by the NYPD over 100 times.
And as parents, activists, organizers, preachers, mental health experts, justice reform advocates, and constitutional lawyers all begged and pleaded with Bloomberg to stop, he refused. They met with him personally. They marched and protested. They interrupted his events. And some of the smartest, most persistent legal groups in the nation sued the Bloomberg administration over and over again to stop these unlawful practices.
And a federal judge deemed that Bloombergs stop-and-frisk policies were indeed a modern day Apartheid for Black & Brown New Yorkers. She found countless constitutional violations and ordered an immediate halt to it. And even then, he fought back, and refused to immediately implement the changes she demanded.
When he left office, and Stop and Frisk was no longer a policy, crime plummeted year after year after year. His racist policies had not made New York safer at all. They had just caused real terror to millions of people.
After he left office, for years on end, Bloomberg bragged about the policy and defended it with all of his might. Thats why he asked the staff at the Aspen Institute to not share any of the videos from when he spoke there in 2015 where he bragged about how police would throw Black and Brown boys against walls in the name of making the city safer. Those kids, and their mothers and fathers and siblings were not just humiliated by such awful practices, they were shattered by them.
Bloomberg literally defended Stop and Frisk all the way through 2019, right up until he decided to run for President.
I would add that Bloomberg insisted on expanding Stop-and-Frisk even over the objections of the rank and file of the police department, who correctly predicted the destructive effect it would have on their relations with minority communities.
There was one year, according to papers filed in the federal court case mentioned above, that more black and Latino young men were stopped and frisk than live in the city of New York!
So his recent acknowledgement that he was wrong about it is pretty hard to take seriously, or to regard as anything other than a cynical move to help him get elected.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
markpkessinger
(8,408 posts). . . you ask about the policy's effect in predominantly white neighborhoods. The answer is there was no effect, because it was not practiced in predominantly white neighborhoods.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Hearthrob
(84 posts)I'm trying to get my head around this. And he got elected 3 times! Wondering how such a liberal town didn't drive him out.
It took a long while for Baltimore to wake up and drain the swamp but it quickly went national.
It did help that Elijah Cummings was front and center. And he was the only politician seen on the streets thru.
Guess I'm back to Warren.
Just that I can't see her psyching out and playing Putin.
Thanks.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
markpkessinger
(8,408 posts)I mean, seriously!
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
redqueen
(115,103 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Bradshaw3
(7,531 posts)And good answers to the usual lame defenses.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
markpkessinger
(8,408 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
BeyondGeography
(39,384 posts)He doesnt see neighborhoods, he sees underperforming assets. Re-zones accordingly. Barf.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Nanjeanne
(4,999 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)fight climate change damage?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden