Freedom Rider: Bloomberg is Worse Than Trump

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Bloomberg embracing Giuliani: two reactionaries who deserve each other.


 

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]lack elected officials will be silent when Bloomberg subjects the entire country to stop and frisk or some other horrible plan.

“History tells us that Bloomberg is a Trump with more money and better manners.”

David Dinkins was the first and as yet only black mayor in New York City history. His one term ended when he was defeated by Rudolph Giuliani in 1993. Giuliani represented the most racist and retrograde constituency in New York. Black New Yorkers responded to the defeat with shock and horror. The first black office holder was unseated by an overt racist who among other things had encouraged a police protest and near riot against Dinkins. 

Black New Yorkers were convinced that no one could be worse for them than Giuliani. When he left office he was dubbed America’s Mayor in the wake of the September 11 attacks. He was popular enough to have won again but term limits prevented him from running.   

His surprise successor was Michael Bloomberg. Of course black people breathed a collective sigh of relief to see anyone but Giuliani in city hall. Billionaire Bloomberg was a lifelong Democrat who ran as a Republican in order to avoid a democratic primary that he feared losing. He won with the help of his bottomless pit of campaign money but antipathy to Giuliani was so strong that the rich Republican faced less pushback from the black community than one might expect. 

“Black people breathed a collective sigh of relief to see anyone but Giuliani in city hall.”

Bloomberg ran as a Republican but he made friends with the right black people. While Giuliani refused to meet Al Sharpton the shrewd and wealthy Bloomberg made a great show of their public interactions and sealed the deal with generous donations to the National Action Network. Sharpton was silent or supportive of Bloomberg throughout his three terms in office.

But Bloomberg unleashed the police in ways that Giuliani only dreamed of doing. His notorious stop and frisk policy victimized black New Yorkers millions of times. The pressure to make arrests was severe. Police no longer had discretion and were penalized if they didn’t arrest every black person who encountered law enforcement. 

The man who looked like a savior was instead a nightmare for black people. But he isn’t always seen that way. The fear of the open racist like Giuliani and Donald Trump evokes deep anxiety but the smooth and slick practitioners like Bloomberg can do much greater harm.

“Sharpton was silent or supportive of Bloomberg.”

New Yorkers voted for a two-term limit for city officials. Bloomberg used his clout first with the other wealthy people who control the media. The millionaire owners of the New York Times, New York Post and New York Daily News were consulted first. Of course they fell into line and gave editorial approval of an additional third term to Bloomberg and other city officials. The plot was very unpopular with people whose intentions had been subverted. Most New Yorkers were opposed to experiencing Bloomberg for the third time.  

The black comptroller William Thompson was the sacrificial lamb and rival for the third race. Bloomberg bought off the best political talent and spared no expense. He convinced Thompson that he had no chance and Democratic president Barack Obama did not endorse or help him in any way. Very late in the campaign Thompson realized that polls showed him pulling even and he made a last ditch effort to do what he should have done all year. He came close but Michael Bloomberg won his third term.

Bloomberg still has the right, influential people in his pocket. The media will endorse him. He has already bought off the Democratic National Committee and Emily’s List. We can expect a repeat of what he accomplished when he used his influence to get an additional term in office. Trump has no such leverage. 

“Bloomberg has already bought off the Democratic National Committee and Emily’s List.”

Black elected officials are endorsing Bloomberg already. They will be silent when he subjects the entire country to stop and frisk or some other horrible plan. Sharpton is already defending him and the black pundits with blue checks on twitter are following right along, advising forgiveness and claiming that Bloomberg can defeat Trump.

There is no proof that this is so. In addition, past history tells us that Bloomberg is a Trump with more money and better manners. Yet his entrance into the race is proof that the billionaires will give up nothing. Of course they can afford to pay higher taxes. But they don’t want to. They don’t want to give up any control of the populace or the political process. They have worked hard to buy off both parties and they don’t intend to give up now that they have cemented their power.

Bloomberg’s campaign is a declaration. He has cut out the middle man of check bundling and political action committee formations. He is willing to be the face of the super rich who cause so much suffering. The fact that so many black elected officials have surrendered so quickly is a bad omen. As president Bloomberg would have his way with cheap crooks like Sharpton and mayors and congress people too. 

“The fact that so many black elected officials have surrendered so quickly is a bad omen.”

Trump is like his friend and defense attorney Giuliani. He goes out of his way to offend and create enemies. Bloomberg doesn’t have enemies because he buys them off. He is even paying off political operatives and depriving campaigns all over the country of experienced staffers. We already live under billionaire rule. Bloomberg in office or even as king maker will prove to be worse for black people than a Trump presidency ever could be.

The reason for this conclusion is simple and very sad. Black politics is dead. Black politicians want it that way and a sugar daddy billionaire will suit them just fine, and the people be damned. The error of treating Trump like an aberration is now evident. In New York City it was possible to have a worse mayor than Giuliani. In the nation it is possible to have a worse president than Trump. Michael Bloomberg fits that description.

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About the author
 Black Agenda report's Senior Editor and Columnist Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly at the Black Agenda Report. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley (at) BlackAgendaReport.com. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. 

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ALL CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES & IMAGE SELECTION BY THE EDITORS

 


Bloomberg Wants to Swallow the Democrats and Spit Out the Sandernistas

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Glen Ford, BAR executive editor

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]f, somehow, Bernie Sanders is allowed to win the nomination, Michael Bloomberg and other plutocrats will have created a Democratic Party machinery purpose-built to defy Sanders -- as nominee, and even as president.

“No one knows how much abuse and humiliation the Sanders faction is willing to endure to remain in the bosom of the corporate political beast.”

The oligarchy has awakened to the threat to its dictatorship from the left-most ranks of one of its own corporate parties. Michael Bloomberg, the 8th richest man in the world and former three-term mayor of New York City, has vowed to spend unlimited cash to defeat Donald Trump. But Bloomberg’s real mission is to retain oligarchic control of the Democratic Party, the corporate mechanism that squats like a giant toad on the most ethnically and ideologically diverse half of the U.S. population, including virtually all Black electoral politics. 

Bloomberg threw his hat and billions into the race when it became clear that corporate surrogates Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg could not be depended on to halt Bernie Sanders, the purported socialist who now leads the Democratic pack. Joe Biden’s aura of electability, which was always a media-invented mirage, evaporated when he collapsed into the basement in Iowa and New Hampshire. The Black voters of South Carolina are his only hope for resurrection. But Blacks don’t back Biden for ideological reasons, or even on the strength of his service as Barack Obama’s number two. Older (and scarier) African Americans were under the impression that Biden was the Democrat best equipped to beat Trump – but it turns out he can’t even beat previously unknown Democrats.

“Joe Biden’s aura of electability, which was always a media-invented mirage, evaporated when he collapsed into the basement in Iowa and New Hampshire.”

Some of those Black Biden supporters will now switch to Bloomberg, believing he is the one Democrat rich enough to drown Trump in November. Blacks don’t vote their own ideological preferences in Democratic primaries. Rather, many will support whomever they perceive as the strongest opponent against the White Man’s Party, the Republicans. That invariably means the Democrat favored by corporations and their media. Thus, the duopoly system effectively negates the core political aspirations of Black America, the most left-leaning constituency in the nation. The duopoly is a trap that neutralizes independent, progressive Black politics – a mechanism to force Blacks to vote their fears, rather than their aspirations.

However, as BAR senior columnist Margaret Kimberley points out in this issue, there are threats to Black lives and rights even worse than the flaming orange racist now squatting in the White House. As three-term mayor of New York City, Bloomberg increased the frequency of his predecessor Rudolph Giuliani’s stop-and-frisks by 700 percent . Although real estate magnate Donald Trump infamously called for the death penalty for the Central Park Five, it was Mayor Bloomberg who for years delayed payment  of a $41 million settlement to the grievously wronged young Black men. And Bloomberg was the nation’s most aggressive, unrepentant ethnic cleanser, gleefully removing more Black and brown people from the city’s five boroughs than any of his predecessors. 

“The duopoly is a mechanism to force Blacks to vote their fears, rather than their aspirations.”

Mayor Bloomberg was not yet in the top tier of billionaires, but he was busy creating a paradise for the super-rich at the expense of Harlem, Bed Stuy and the South Bronx. In Bloomberg’s world, gross income inequality is wondrous . “If we could get every billionaire around the world to move here, it would be a godsend that would create a much bigger income gap,” said the mayor. Even Giuliani was more discreet than to gush at the mass expulsion of fellow Americans.  As the 2020 campaign continues, diligent reporters and researchers will rediscover a treasure trove of statements by Bloomberg in praise of oligarchy.

The rich man’s wonderland that Michael Bloomberg has worked so hard to create and protect is predicated on eternal job insecurity and deteriorating living standards for the masses of people – and absolute insecurity for Blacks, whose very presence in a racist society devalues surrounding properties, requiring their constant displacement. This “austerity” regime – better described as the global “Race to the Bottom” -- has been a joint project of both Republicans and Democrats for two generations. Enforced mass precarity – buttressed by endless wars abroad and growing police repression at home -- created the class of super-oligarchs like Michael Bloomberg and Jeff Bezos, who are determined to defend their Billionaire’s Oz against Bernie Sanders’ political “revolution” within the Democratic Party, a property bought and paid for by the plutocrats.

“The 'austerity' regime has been a joint project of both Republicans and Democrats for two generations.”

Sanders is no genuine socialist. He does not propose to overthrow the Lords of Capital, but his program of health care, housing, employment and retirement “rights” (entitlements) and a sweeping Green New Deal represent the most serious threat yet to the austerity/Race to the Bottom regime, and therefore to the plutocrats plans for the nation and the world. Sanders’ position on all these issues is supported by super-majorities of Democrats, creating both a potential crisis of governance as well as the already existing crisis of legitimacy for the ruling class. The oligarchy has already seen one of its governing parties, the Republicans, taken over by a maddeningly undependable and incompetent egomaniac, who rejects the “diversity” political ethic favored by the multinational corporate order. But that’s only an annoyance, compared to the threat of a Bernie Sanders victory in November, a sea change that could make it impossible for pro-corporate and anti-austerity forces to occupy political space in the same party: the death of the corporate duopoly.

We at Black Agenda Report welcome such a break-up, as the only way that Black folks and progressives can be freed from the duopoly straightjacket, to vote their aspirations and beliefs, not their fears.  Bernie Sanders’ leftish followers stuck with the Democrats despite their  deplorable treatment by the Party, four years ago. This time, the corporate Democrats and their media machine will pull out all the stops to save the austerity/Race to the Bottom regime and their own legitimacy. The oligarchs are quite capable of physically killing the old New Dealer. But if, somehow, Sanders is allowed to win the nomination, Michael Bloomberg and other plutocrats will have created a Democratic Party machinery purpose-built to defy Sanders -- as nominee, and even as president. Bloomberg has already laid the groundwork to directly seize the party machinery, the old fashioned way: by buying it and stacking it with his own, paid operatives, with a war-against-the-left budget far bigger than the existing Democratic operation. Bloomberg’s participation in Wednesday’s debate, against all the rules, is proof-of-purchase.

“The corporate Democrats and their media machine will pull out all the stops to save the austerity/Race to the Bottom regime and their own legitimacy.”

In addition to the nearly million dollar down payment to the party in November that sealed the deal for the debate rules change, Bloomberg has already pledged to pay the full salaries of 500 political staffers  for the Democratic National Committee all the way through the November election, no matter who wins the nomination. Essentially, Bloomberg will be running the election for the corporate wing of the party, even if Sanders is the nominee. 

In an interview with PBS’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday night, senior Bloomberg advisor Timothy O’Brien made it clear that the DNC is in no condition to refuse being devoured by Bloomberg, even if they wanted to. O’brien predicted the Republicans will spend at least $900 million on the election, while the DNC has only about $8 million on hand. Even the oligarch’s underlings are telegraphing the takeover game plan.

Bloomberg is not so much running for president as making sure that the Democrats don’t go “rogue” anti-corporate to accommodate the Sandernistas. He is ensuring that the Democratic Party will be an even more hostile environment for anti-austerity politics than in the past – not in spite of the phenomenal success of the Sanders project, but because of it.

Such a party cannot possibly accommodate both sides, and is ultimately destined to split. 

No one knows how much abuse and humiliation the Sanders faction is willing to endure to remain in the bosom of the corporate political beast. They remained faithful to their tormentors in 2016, and most are probably still inclined to give their corporate abusers yet another chance. But even if the Sandernistas punk out again, the oligarchy will relentlessly corral them in the tightest space possible in the party, with the aim of forcing them out. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Gen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.


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Bloomberg Versus Bernie: The Upcoming Battle?

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Gary Leupp

(Credit: TGP screenshot)

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]etween January 11 and April 14, 2019, Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, Marianne Williamson, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg had all announced their presidential bids. Sanders after entering the race formally on Feb. 19 was the immediate front runner. Biden entered the race on April 25, immediately replacing Bernie as the new front runner. This was automatic; Biden represented the Democratic establishment, had been Obama’s loyal lackey, had the DNC behind him, and was guaranteed positive coverage on CNN and MSNBC.

The talking points discussed among DNC and news directors would include: Biden is moderate, and the party needs unity; he’s beloved by the African-American community vital to a Democratic victory; he’s the ONLY candidate who can defeat Trump; he is the most experienced candidate. It would be okay to mention his “gaffes” (especially if in an endearing way), and even to note that he’s slowing down. But the anchors and contributors would put the best spin on his debate performances, proclaiming each one better than the last—even if he looked like a deer caught in the headlights half the time. Like Hillary Clinton, Biden could expect a coronation at the convention.

But he started disappointing early on, prompting the media to briefly fawn on Beto O’Rourke as back-up after he entered the race on May 14. But Beto soon lost steam, and along with Harris, Williamson, and Andrew Yang has dropped out. For the last ten months, it’s basically been Biden versus Sanders, with Sanders consistently in second place. It had become the polite convention for news anchors—while posting in the viewer’s face day after day charts clearly showing Sanders in the number two position—to observe “Biden remains the [clear] front runner” adding helpfully, “but Warren [or Buttigieg, or Klobachar] continues to climb” while absolutely ignoring the consistency of Sanders’ strength. The inconvenient truth is that Sanders’ support has outlived Biden’s support and Bernie is now the front runner.

One day we woke up to hear that indeed, Sanders is leading. Finally the news media was honestly seeing things as they really were and are.

Professional bourgeois decadent and media critter Donny Deutsch has been sounding hysterical about Sanders' candidacy and its potential for a "Castro-style" dictatorship. The man is a political idiot, dishonest to his core, or both. Make it both.

But no! Not so fast, responds the Democratic establishment! Its views are conveyed via Donny Deutsch on MSNBC and Sam Donaldson (interviewed by Anderson Cooper) on CNN. Mike Bloomberg—who announced his candidacy late in the game Nov. 21, after Biden’s weak performance, had produced doubts—is just the sort of moderate we need!

The former New York City mayor has done so much for that crucial African-American demographic that the Democratic Party needs to win this year! (That’s the party he joined in 2018 after being Republican mayor 2001-2013 and enforcing the “Stop and Frisk” policy.) Deutsch announcing his support reiterates the need to oppose socialism. Donaldson having declared his support awkwardly read through a list of Bloomberg’s benevolent gestures to African-Americans and became visibly annoyed when Cooper tried to hurry him up.

There’s a script being prepared, to promote Bloomberg over Sanders—as the moderate, rational choice “to defeat Trump” as the sole and ultimate goal. It’s a goal made all the more elusive due to the miserable failure of the impeachment trial to either remove Trump or damage his popularity—indeed its unintended result of boosting Trump’s poll numbers. This script’s talking points include: Bloomberg was a popular mayor, an experienced leader; a billionaire due to his brilliant entrepreneurship, he has been a generous philanthropist; he has expressed regret about “Stop and Frisk” and worked with the African-American community in X Y and Z ways; is strong on environmental issues; can work with Republicans, etc.

It’s impossible for Bloomberg to ignore attention to “Stop and Frisk;” indeed he has repeatedly apologized (since announcing his election bid) for causing so much pain. We can expect that issue to linger in the air so long as he runs. But some will also embarrass him by noting his support for the war on Iraq based on lies, his endorsement of George W. Bush, his boasts about “doing” women in many cities. And then there’s that thing about him being a racist billionaire. So is this Bloomberg candidacy, this last-ditch effort to sabotage the democratic process–whereby normal rules Sanders would after Super Tuesday victories sweep to the nomination in Milwaukee—and produce a brokered convention, leading to someone who personifies all the Sanders supporters detest taking the prize, going to succeed?

Watching MSNBC right now, I think there’s a distinct possibility that it might come down to a billionaire (barking at a self-pronounced socialist for being unelectable for being what he is), and a self-pronounced socialist (barking back at the billionaire that there should be no billionaires). A Bloomberg victory might satisfy the DNC and mainstream, as the second choice to Wall Street’s Joe Biden. But it would infuriate much of the “progressive wing,” and totally alienate the Bernie activists (who will not celebrate their humiliation at the hands of the enemy by graciously “uniting” around him, but stay at home on election day meditating on the profound truth that there’s little difference between one billionaire capitalist racist oppressor and another, no reason to vote for one over the other and pretend to be happy to be “free” to vote in this oh-so-democratic country, the beacon of the world.) Many preferring Bloomberg to Bernie might worry about Bloomberg’s electability. But for them the risk will be worth it: four more Trump years, to stop Bernie.

Isn’t it special that Bloomberg has promised to spend a billion dollars to elect the next Democratic president, even if the nominee isn’t him? He pairs that commitment with a promise to back whatever candidate is selected at the party convention. It is an implicit demand that the other candidates (who do not have a billion dollars) to similarly promise to back him should he successfully buy the election. Fair? Bloomberg will back Bernie if he gets the nomination through mass mobilization; Bernie will back Bloomberg if he gets enough votes from saturating the media with misleading ads targeting the African-American community. That at least is the proposed deal, the gentlemanly norm in bourgeois parliamentary politics.

Now I hear now on MSNBC is that Bloomberg has suggested Hillary Clinton could be his vice president. Why not? Oh, I see. A sympathetic African-American politician explains that both Bloomberg and Clinton are New Yorkers so they couldn’t be on the same ticket.

It’s like the system is playing with our brains, pitting Bloomberg and Sanders against one another in a game that pits rational rejection of the status quo against abject deference to the Wall Street Democrats demanding the masses choose the latter to defeat Donald Trump.

Idiot-anchors have been trained to ask rhetorically: What’s more important? Voting for someone who agrees with you, or defeating Trump? The unstated assumption is that the former are selfish, the latter big-hearted. The talking heads will now ask, angrily: Are you so narrow-mindedly fixated on revolution that you can’t let your Sanders campaign be sunk by a billionaire racist sexist WHO CAN REALLY DEFEAT TRUMP? What’s more important? Getting your man in power? Or defeating Trump and going back to the George W. Bush and Barack Obama eras of responsible normality?

The very posing of such questions insults one’s intelligence. But that’s what the Democratic Party leadership is asking us to consider: an open buy-out of the nomination, to defeat both Trump and Sanders. If they succeed in sabotaging Bernie (again!) they will, I think, finally prove to our youth that U.S. “democracy” is a cruel myth.

***

Every hour more dirt on Bloomberg is unleashed—most of it already known but crying out for repeated exposure. This is accompanied by commentary demanding that Bloomberg further explains (but offers a road to forgiveness). Just listen to Rev. Al on MSNBC. Anchors note increased attention to Bloomberg’s record but also state matter-of-factly that his poll numbers will rise. Have their producers told them “Expect Bloomberg’s numbers to rise, and keep saying that to your audience—but also keep noting what’s obvious, which is that he’s no friend of minorities”?

It looks to me like Iowa and New Hampshire have caused the DNC to bet for the time being on the billionaire. Yes, there’s the racism issue. But hey, look at Trump.

Backing Bloomberg is a daunting task. He’s is not only anti-socialist; he is the very epitome of capitalist decadence, patriarchy, and racism. One cannot imagine a figure more repugnant to the progressives. For him to invite the latter’s support—after stabbing them in the face in a brokered convention—would be more than insulting. It is impossible.

How can Sanders at this point to adhere to his pledge to support any candidate chosen in Milwaukee? He should declare that if Bloomberg buys his way to the Democratic Party’s nomination, he (Sanders) will be morally obliged to his supporters to deny him support. Because Bloomberg is no better than Trump. Indeed, as a supporter of George W. Bush and his war on Iraq based on lies he’s in some respects worse.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan; and Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion, (AK Press). He can be reached at: gleupp@tufts.edu


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Bloomberg’s Rising Polls Show The Power Of Billionaire Narrative Control (Expanded)

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Caitlin Johnstone


[dropcap]B[/dropcap]ack in November Mike Bloomberg was polling at four percent nationally and had the highest disapproval rating of any potential Democratic presidential candidate, and understandably so; the man has a uniquely horrible record and no redeeming traits to speak of.

Now, after spending $400 million in broadcast, radio and cable ads, $42 million on Facebook ads, $36 million on Google ads, and an unknown fortune on other shady manipulations, a national Quinnipiac poll released last week put him at 15 percent nationally in the Democratic primary. This week national polls released by NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist and Zogby put him at 19 and 20 percent, respectively.

You can argue against the validity of polls all you like, and surely none of them are pristine representations of public opinion. But there’s no denying that these numbers have gone way up, and there’s no denying that now, approvingly or not, everyone’s talking about Michael Bloomberg.

Late night talk show hosts are doing bits about the prevalence of Bloomberg ads. People are making satirical videos spoofing them. I’ve seen parents complaining that their kids recite lines from his ads at the dinner table. It’s a story in itself. It’s saturating social consciousness. It’s very much a thing.


https://twitter.com/JAdomian/status/1229548056477081601?s=20

“Nothing remotely like what Mike Bloomberg is doing has ever been seen in US politics – nothing in the same universe,” journalist Glenn Greenwald recently tweeted. “And the threat and danger it (and he) poses to US democracy is equally without comparison.”

The fact that it is both possible and easy for a billionaire to throw a vast fortune at an electoral race and drastically influence its direction tells us everything we need to know about the illusory nature of US democracy. And now it’s right out in the open.
  Greenwald is of course correct. But while Bloomberg is doing something that is without precedent, his campaign is also highlighting problems with the system which have existed for ages. And in my opinion it would be an unfortunate waste if his campaign came and went without these problems getting more attention than they currently are.

Mike Bloomberg is not the first plutocrat to use his wealth to manipulate a US election, and he is not the first plutocrat to use his wealth to manipulate public perception. He’s just the first to do it so brazenly and ham-fistedly. The fact that it is both possible and easy for a billionaire to throw a vast fortune at an electoral race and drastically influence its direction tells us everything we need to know about the illusory nature of US democracy. And now it’s right out in the open.

As long as a small elite group are able to manipulate the way people think and vote, then you don’t have democracy, you have oligarchy. If that small elite group happens to be much wealthier than everyone else, then it’s a specific kind of oligarchy known as plutocracy. You can watch this video and this video for some general information on the ways US plutocrats exert control over the political system, and you can read this fascinating thread here for more specific information on how Bloomberg has been stifling opposition and manipulating endorsements out of political figures using his unparallelled spending power.

This has been happening all the time, for generations, and not just with US elections but with Americans’ perception of what’s going on in their world as well. Whether it’s running ads, buying up media outlets, funding think tanks or incentivizing politicians to regurgitate the desired lines, billionaires are constantly using their wealth to shore up narrative control, because they understand that whoever controls the narrative controls the world.

Bloomberg built a media empire. Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post. Most of America’s news media are owned or controlled by billionaires. Even that so-called “philanthropy” which mass media pundits keep crowing about in the same breath as Bloomberg’s name is actually just another billionaire narrative control apparatus, allowing them to donate a tiny tax-deductible portion of their income in exchange for political influence, and buying them the ability to wear the fancy label of “philanthropist” instead of “sociopathic parasite”.

Billionaires pour vast fortunes into think tanks, which are generally institutions where academics are paid to come up with the most intelligent-sounding arguments possible explaining why it would be good and smart to do something evil and stupid, whether that be the destruction of the ecosystem, regime change in Iran, or further corporate/financial deregulation. They then circulate those arguments at key points of influence.

For a Bloomberg-specific example of think tank narrative control, take the time his donations to the Center for American Progress (CAP) leveraged that think tank into removing a chapter from a 2015 report detailing his Orwellian surveillance program targeting Muslims back when he was the mayor of New York City. Back in 2013 The Nation‘s Ken Silverstein reported that CAP staffers “were very clearly instructed to check with the think tank’s development team before writing anything that might upset contributors.” Sure enough, a former CAP staffer named Yasmine Taeb recently detailed for Democracy Now how “the chapter was flagged by a member of the executive committee who actually previously had worked for Mayor Bloomberg” and “said that there would be a strong reaction by Bloomberg World if this report was released as it was.” At that point Bloomberg had given CAP nearly $1.5 million.

The billionaire class has to buy up narrative control because there is nothing about plutocracy that is sane or healthy; people would never knowingly consent to it unless they were manipulated into doing so. Because power is relative, and because money is power in a plutocracy, plutocrats are naturally incentivized to maintain a system where everyone else is kept as poor as possible so that they can have as much relative power as possible. A glance at what the Sanders campaign has been able to accomplish just with small-dollar donations and grassroots support gives you some insight into why these plutocrats want people working long, exhausting hours with as little spare income as possible.

Nobody would ever knowingly consent to being kept poor and busy just so some billionaires can live as modern-day kings, so they need to be propagandized into it via narrative manipulation. If you’ve ever wondered why it seems like the news man is always lying to you, that’s why.

Whenever I write about the power of plutocratic propaganda, I always get people saying I’m just a conspiracy theorist (and that I have an awful addiction to alliteration). They argue that sure, it’s possible to influence public opinion a bit, but people are free agents and they make up their own minds based on any number of potential factors, so it’s silly to focus on media manipulation as the underlying cause of all the world’s ills.

Oh yeah? If people can’t be manipulated by the wealthy into supporting agendas which don’t benefit them, how come a billionaire presidential candidate was able to quadruple or quintuple his polling numbers in three months just by throwing money at them?

And that’s just one agenda of just one billionaire. There are 607 billionaires in the United States. And none of them are interested in giving up their plutocratic throne.

https://twitter.com/AssangeEdits/status/1226820621994205189

The unpleasant fact of the matter is that the human mind is far more hackable than people like to believe it is. Just listen to UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer describe how he’d been completely taken in by the horrible mass media smear campaign against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange prior to taking his case. This is an educated, intelligent and highly compassionate man who, simply because he’d relied on the plutocratic media to help him figure out what’s going on in the world, had an understanding that Assange was a wicked man who was guilty of wicked deeds. It wasn’t until he took the case and began personally investigating the actual facts of the matter without the filter of the plutocratic media spinmeisters that he was able penetrate beneath the layers of narrative distortion to get at the reality of the situation.

Some clever people figured out a long time ago that humans live in two worlds: the real world and the narrative world. The narrative world consists of the mental chatter which occupies the majority of most people’s moment-to-moment interest and attention. The real world is everything else: life as it is, without the stories about what life is.

The clever people figured out that you can get folks to give you real things in the real world, just by giving them narratives in the narrative world. Use your control over your society’s dominant narratives and you can get people to hand you real wealth and power in exchange for a bunch of made-up stories of fear and inadequacy and factionalism and otherness. Manipulative men can get real-life sexual favors in exchange for narratives about love and romance. Manipulative priests can get your real-life tithes in exchange for narratives about imaginary deities. Manipulative politicians can get your real-life votes in exchange for narratives about imaginary terrorists. Manipulative billionaires can use the rewards of your real-life labor in exchange for units of an imaginary financial system which exists solely as a narrative construct. They figured out a way to get everything for nothing.

Humans are not difficult to manipulate. I am not difficult to manipulate. You are not difficult to manipulate. If you don’t appreciate this fact, you make yourself even easier to manipulate. It’s not difficult to mock the people who’ve been manipulated into supporting Bloomberg. What is difficult is coming to terms with the fact that you yourself, and indeed your entire species, have many glitches in your cognitive processes which can be, have been, and will continue to be exploited by adept manipulators.

All we can do is make this conscious. Like everything else in this struggle, the solution to the mind’s intrinsic hackability is bringing the light of consciousness to it. Manipulators cannot operate in an environment with too much awareness of their tricks.

Mike Bloomberg is a terrible human being. But at the very least he may operate as a catalyst for this consciousness.

____________________

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Oligarch Buys Political Party – Seeks to Become President

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DISPATCHES FROM MOON OF ALABAMA, BY "B"
This article is part of an ongoing series of dispatches from Moon of Alabama

The US political system has reached a level of stinking degeneracy where absolutely anything is possible, and most of the ugly undemocratic maneuvers are now happening in broad daylight and with complete impudence. Does Bloomberg have a chance? Maybe. Anything can be bought off in America.

[dropcap]M[/dropcap]ike Bloomberg is the world's ninth richest person. An oligarch known for strong racism and insulting sexism who once was the Republican mayor of New York City. He since decided that he wants to become president.

As he saw no chance to run for a Republican party that is happy with Trump he filed to run as a Democratic candidate. Bloomberg has since bought the Democratic Party in every state as well as the DNC:

The DNC told Mike Gravel they wouldn't change the debate rules for any candidate. "That's our #1 rule - we can't change the rules for anybody."

A few months later, they changed the debate rules to let oligarch Bloomberg into the debates... after he gave the DNC $300K.

His political tactic is very simple. He does not talk about issues, as people would not like what he has to say, but simply spends tons of money:

He’s dropping huge sums of money: on staff and resources, on TV advertisements, and on Facebook ads, where Trump has long dominated. And he’s attempting to overcome his stodgy public image with the help of a meme army and through well-catered campaign events seemingly designed to convince voters that life under a wealthy technocrat might not be so bad. “I think it’s classy,” one supporter told the Times at a Philadelphia campaign rally complete with drink station and a selection of cheese steaks, hoagies, and brie-and-fig appetizers. “I feel like it’s a nightclub in here. This is what he needs to get people going.”

To this date Bloomberg has spent more than $350 million for his campaign. He is willing and can afford to put several billions into it. Over the years Bloomberg has given more than $10 billion to build a political and philanthropical empire. He used that money to suppress voices  critical of him:

In 2015, Center for American Progress researchers wrote a report on U.S. Islamophobia, w/a 4300-word chapter on the Bloomberg-era NYPD.

When the report was published, the chapter was gone.

By then, Bloomberg had given CAP ~$1.5mm. That number has grown.

The really bad thing is that it works:

3 months ago, polls found Mike Bloomberg “widely disliked” with the highest negatives in the race. Now he’s a top 3 contender for the Democratic nomination. One of the richest humans ever is trying to upend every part of the process. And this is just the stuff we know about.

The Democratic Party and lots of its bought off functionaries seem to be happy with this. They do not mind that it makes the U.S. look worse than the Ukraine. Yes, U.S. politics are always corrupt. But outright buying one's way into office is exceeding the usual stench.

But would Bloomberg, with Hillary Clinton as running mate, really be able to bring out the votes that are needed to beat Trump? I for one doubt it.

Atrios is appalled by the whole scheme but still falls for it:

Bloomberg is bad for lots of reasons, and one of them is PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BE SO WILLING TO EMBRACE A BILLIONAIRE WHO IS BUYING (not just ads, but people) THE ELECTION WITH HIS ABSURD FORTUNE. I mean, ok, sure, if it's BLOOMBERG OR TRUMP I'll choose Bloomberg, but why are people establishing this as the choice? It's absurd. The only person who can beat an asshole (fake, I know) billionaire is another asshole billionaire? Broken brains everywhere.

"[I]f it's BLOOMBERG OR TRUMP I'll choose Bloomberg" is, in my view, exactly the wrong response to this hijacking of a party and election. It is this behavior that makes Bloomberg's move possible in the first place.

Any good response to billionaires hijacking elections must demonstrate that campaigns by rich people have a high risk to fail. To vote for a third party or to abstain is the only responsible reaction to it.

Posted by b

COMMENTS SAMPLER

America, has the best Justice system money can buy, and where everything is for sale, including Presidency.

Posted by: Joetv | Feb 15 2020 18:39 utc | 1

In the US no one should be voting for either the Democrats or Republicans. Vote! But vote anyone but the corrupt duopoly.This goes for the senate, as well as the President. It is the only way to send an appropriate message to the US oligarchs.

Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Feb 15 2020 18:40 utc | 2

Bloomberg's racism and "stop and frisk" harassment of a whole generation of kids, when he was New York mayor, will surely come back to bite him in the upcoming debate. So many ghosts of our haunted past. I can't believe he could become the complete figurehead of the 1%. I don't think he can make the cut, and land in the White House.

Posted by: Copeland | Feb 15 2020 18:44 utc | 4

Bloomberg could be characterized, whether fairly or unfairly, as just another billionaire from New York in the process of attempting to buy a public office and if he has to buy the “leadership” of a political party as a prerequisite that’s okay. The Mike and Don show. Billionaires that share this--they are not producers of things ala Henry Ford but financialistas rentiers ala Michael Milliken. On issues that affect oligarchy wealth, it is not unreasonable to suspect no difference… nada.
On other matters say environmental matters but not on working class matters, Mike will make ‘nicer’ noises. Mikes pronouncements on marijuana and his bigoted and discriminatory law enforcement policies suggest he is closer to Don than me. In 2016 a vulture capitalist former Democrat money captured the morally bankrupt Republican Party and bought an Emperorships err I mean “Presidency”. In 2020, a vulture capitalist, former Republican is plagiarizing him to money capture the morally bankrupt Democratic Party in order to attempt to buy an Emperorship err I mean “Presidency”. Trumpberg or Blump--no real difference-- except that Mike keeps the mask on his inner class warfare wolf more firmly. Credit to Don for dropping the mask so that everyone can see how "business" really governs what was once one of humanity’s better shots at a functioning large population democracy.

In more than a few ways this is Oligarch Street's err I mean “Wall Street’s” final takeover of both parties.

It used to own, 1 and a half political parties, now it will have two.

Posted by: stephen laudig | Feb 15 2020 18:48 utc | 5

Bloomberg is not going to get people to vote in large enough numbers to be a contender, he had zero write-in votes in NH. So he is about running to gain support just enough to force a second vote in order to for superdelegates to over turn the will of the people for Bernie at the convention.

Some people want Tulsi to drop out and endorse Bernie, like Kyle Kulinski, but those people are not thinking right because they act as if Bernie is not a VERY OLD man who has had health issues recently. If Tulsi drops out and endorses Bernie and then Bernie a few months from now has health issues which force him out---THEN WHAT KYLE? You want Warren who is a proven con artist and neocon? See Tulsi Gabbard is The Steely Dan of Politics or: Perfection Isn’t For Everyone

Posted by: Kali | Feb 15 2020 18:54 utc | 7

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About the author(s)

"b" is Moon of Alabama's founding (and chief) editor.  This site's purpose is to discuss politics, economics, philosophy and blogger Billmon's Whiskey Bar writings. Moon Of Alabama was opened as an independent, open forum for members of the Whiskey Bar community.  Bernhard )"b") started and still runs the site. Once in a while you will also find posts and art from regular commentators. You can reach the current administrator of this site by emailing Bernhard at MoonofA@aol.com. 

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