Tag: Michael Bloomberg

Who Can the Dems Find to Inject Some Hope into the Race?

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Here we are at the end of the third week of relentlessly bad news for the progressives.  The Impeachment was a nothing burger.  The State of the Union Address was great optics for President Trump and a disaster for Nancy “the Ripper” Pelosi and her handmaidens in white.  Every primary, every debate, every news story has embarrassed the candidates and demoralized the progressive voters.  Bernie has surged in the polls and the party leadership are running out of options to stop him from getting the nomination.  They know if he goes into the convention with a plurality of the delegates and they appoint someone else in a smoke filled room that the Bernie Bros will freak out and either stay home on election day or vote for Trump out of revenge.

But even if they did anoint someone else who could it be?  All the other candidates are hopeless misfits that only appeal to one strand in the liberal coalition of the offended.  The Buttigieg voters hate Warren and Klobuchar.  The black voters only want Biden because of his link to Obama.  If he seems unelectable they’ll have to switch horses in mid-stream.  But which one?  Buttigieg and Warren won’t interest them.  Could they buy into Klobuchar?  Maybe, but it’s not a natural fit.  All in all, the present situation is racking the nerves of the Dem electorate.  The path forward is unclear.

This actually matches up with the outcome a lot of the contrarians were speculating about last year.  They were saying that Hillary would be plucked out of the air as the candidate or Michelle Obama or Oprah.  Would the Democrats do that?  I think they would if they thought they had a unifying savior.  I don’t think Hillary is an option.  Her loss in 2016 has tarnished her too badly.  she is a spent force.  I think Michelle Obama is a possibility.  She would energize the black voting block.  And the lure of the Obama years would fascinate a lot of the other progressive groups.  But it does seem unlikely.  I think the Obamas think 2024 is the right time to re-emerge.  They probably are hoping that a downturn in the economy will allow them to insinuate themselves back onto the national scene.

For these reasons I don’t think there is a viable alternative to Bernie Sanders.  Bloomberg has the money and the moderate credentials but he just got his head handed to him in the first debate.  He is not the right profile to inspire the Left to electoral victory.  So it will be Bernie.  Good.  Bernie has a loyal following of millenials.  They will vote for him.  He will get the loyalist Dem voters who will hold their noses and pull the lever.  But he won’t get the independents.  These libertarian types will listen when Bernie says he is going to take their money and redistribute it to the poor and they will believe him.  And they’ll think, “I like my money, it’s my best friend.  I don’t want to give it all to Bernie.”  And they will vote for Trump or stay home.  So I think the Dems are screwed.  They all got on board the green new deal and free college and free healthcare and free everything and because of that people who work and can count are going to give them the thumbs down.

So here’s to nine more months of Democrat depression followed by the election night despair.  I hope their healthcare plans include free anti-depressants.  They’re gonna need them.

New York Strong?

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Back a few years ago two brothers had the demented idea that setting off a couple of shrapnel bombs at the Boston Marathon finish line was a good idea.  Their family were Muslim refugees from the Caucasus region.  This was their idea of a fitting thanks for being taken in.  While the police hunted these two maniacs down in the Eastern Massachusetts environs, the Media and the Democrats in Massachusetts state and local government and then President Obama immediately started using the expression Boston Strong.  It was meant to imply that Boston not only was too strong to let death and maiming disturb them but also that only weaklings would blame Muslims for wanting to blow them up.  It was a bizarre proposition.  I was trying to understand if it was beneath their dignity to try to prevent a recurrence of the bombing.  Would that be a sign of weakness?

Now we have New York City doing their best impression of Boston Strong.  New York Strong.  Just go about your business.  Attend the Halloween parade.  If you think terror attacks are unacceptable then the terrorists win.  Just shake it off.  No plan from the Mayor or Governor for keeping New Yorkers safe from a recurrence.  No mention that the killer was a known threat.  Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.  Business as usual.  Just the price to pay for enjoying ethnic foods and all that great diversity.  No one’s to blame (except maybe Trump for riling up these good people).  The Muslim Mayor of London has taken it a step further and declared that terror attacks are just business as usual in a with-it cosmopolitan place like London.  Kind of like expensive parking.

And of course the candlelight vigils and the celebrity condolences.  And big stars too!  Taylor Swift, Jared Leto, Patricia Arquette, Josh Groban, David Harbour, Bette Midler, Josh Gad, Zoe Saldana, Sam Smith, Will Arnett.  Wow, star power.

And most impressive, a message from Boy George: “God bless you New York. You are a strong, vibrant, multicultural city and nothing will ever bring you down! My heart is with you!”  Well that’s a relief.  If Boy George’s heart is with us, there can’t be anything really too wrong with the current situation.  Maybe this is really a good thing in disguise.  We’re not only strong but vibrant and multicultural.  Of course, the multicultural thing does make me think about the Uzbeki contingent.  Maybe we should look at that part again.  No, no that’s badthink.

I remember about sixteen years ago New York wasn’t feeling too strong to want a little payback.  But that was back before Obama and Bloomberg re-educated the City on who was really responsible for that attack.  It was all those ignorant yahoos who were clinging to their guns and God.  They annoyed those peaceful adherents to the religion of peace.  Back then even dyed in the wool pacifists like Maureen Dowd were happy to see George Bush would protect America from attack and in fact would retaliate against Al Qaeda.

Full disclosure, I was born and spent the first thirty years of my life in New York City.  I still have family there.  When the 9/11 attacks ocurred I was outraged to a degree that is hard to explain.  And I was proud of the City and the Country for the way they responded to the crisis.  Giuliani and Bush responded extremely admirably and with great competency.

I don’t think there is anything left in New York City that could react to a real attack now.  Looking at the tepid response to this latest attack I’m guessing if the Freedom Tower was brought down by a terrorist attack that New York Strong would mean putting a tarp up over the rubble and a rezoning action to prevent any other tall building from being erected to tempt the purveyors of peace.  And of course, Boy George would send a strong, vibrant, multicultural tweet.