Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Bark louder, little dog.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

The words do not have to be perfect.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Late Night Open Thread: Mike Bloomberg Regrets

Late Night Open Thread: Mike Bloomberg Regrets

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TL, DR: The Technocrats’ Dream Candidate convened an in-depth exploratory survey of his chances, and he got the media to do it for nothing.

In his own words, at his own site, “The Risk I Will Not Take”:

… Over the last several months, many Americans have urged me to run for president as an independent, and some who don’t like the current candidates have said it is my patriotic duty to do so. I appreciate their appeals, and I have given the question serious consideration. The deadline to answer it is now, because of ballot access requirements…

But when I look at the data, it’s clear to me that if I entered the race, I could not win. I believe I could win a number of diverse states — but not enough to win the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win the presidency.

In a three-way race, it’s unlikely any candidate would win a majority of electoral votes, and then the power to choose the president would be taken out of the hands of the American people and thrown to Congress. The fact is, even if I were to receive the most popular votes and the most electoral votes, victory would be highly unlikely, because most members of Congress would vote for their party’s nominee. Party loyalists in Congress — not the American people or the Electoral College — would determine the next president.

As the race stands now, with Republicans in charge of both Houses, there is a good chance that my candidacy could lead to the election of Donald Trump or Senator Ted Cruz. That is not a risk I can take in good conscience…

All else is commentary, as the saying goes.

Over the past many weeks, as Media Village Idiot excitement about Bloomberg could still jump in! waxed and waned, I’ve started and discarded many drafts of my argument against that happening. If you look at his background, Mike Bloomberg really is the anti-Trump: He grew up working class in a battered Boston suburb, got a BS in electrical engineering, and switched tracks to get his MBA at Harvard. As I interpret that, he’s a numbers-oriented guy who decided what he most wanted was to make a whole bunch of money, so he went where numbers guys with no family funds behind them can do that: Wall Street. He made a tidy sum doing equity trading & then systems development at Salomon Bros, and when Salomon was bought by a bigger corporation, he took his $10million severance package and put it to good (profitable) use. Like the proverbial sundry supplies and jeans manufacturers profiting off the Gold Rush, he saw that the best route to Golden Age Wall Street bull-market glory was not raw materials extraction but retail: In an era when vast fortunes could be made or lost by having the best information a few minutes ahead of competitors, he built a terminal-based information system that promised that brief early edge to its purchasers. It wasn’t glamourous — back room nerd-tinkering is arduous, and it doesn’t get you invited to society-page parties — but it did make him one of the genuinely richest people in the world.

Mr. Bloomberg, it would seem, doesn’t like untidy situations. In the process of amassing as much money as he and his descendants could profitably use, he became very much a New York City guy, and at the turn of the millennium NYC was undergoing one of its regular High Untidiness periods. It cost him $73million of his own dollars and a party switch to get elected the first time, but he enjoyed the job well enough — or considered his services important enough — that he was willing to risk, and pay for, skirting some legal edges to ensure he’d get not just re-elected but re-re-elected.

He’s probably, philosophically, (still) a Democrat, although he switched to the Republicans for his first election and declared himself “Independent” for his third. But above all else, he likes logical government — whether that’s ‘discouraging unhealthy behavior’ by hoi polloi (public intoxication, smoking, bad dietary choices), or discouraging impossible/unethical politicking (building walls, imposing religious laws, ‘tearing down Wall Street’). As he judges it (and goddess knows I agree with him on this point), the two top Republican candidates at this time are the most untidy possible choices; unlike a lot of rich guys who should know better, Bloomberg seems to be fully aware that “business” does better when there’s a Democrat in the Oval Office. More power to him, and I hope he continues his wise course by doing everything possible to ensure that this year’s Democratic nominee will take the oath of office next January.

Reader Interactions

110Comments

  1. 1.

    eemom

    Just glad he’s not gonna fuck things up. #theend

    eta: shit, forgot to put in some italics. Seems to be integral to the topic.

  4. 4.

    Steve in the ATL

    Interestingly, his chances of getting elected did not decrease at all when he decided not to run

  5. 5.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    He’s probably, philosophically, (still) a Democrat, although he switched to the Republicans for his first election and declared himself “Independent” for his third. But above all else, he likes logical government —

    Surprising then that he endorsed Bush and IIRC the (conduct of) the Iraq War in 2004. Probably wasn’t necessary to his mayoralty. In 2012 the people on MSNBC were saying that he endorsed Obama as soon as he was convinced Obama was gonna win. He likes to be on the winning side. Seemed plausible.
    I’ll give him props for being sincere about the environment, too.

  8. 8.

    Keith P.

    He’ll make a great Clinton surrogate. I’m sure that having a bigger wallet making cracks about Trump’s lesser wealth would drive Donald bonkers.

  9. 9.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @schrodinger’s cat: you reminded me of this tweet

    Simon Maloy ‏@ SimonMaloy 6h6 hours ago
    they’ll be wearing black armbands on Morning Joe tomorrow

    Is there no billionaire in the country willing to boot Joe Scarborough up the ladder to have a career commensurate with his ego? Mr Cuban? Mr Allen? Mr Langone? What kind of plutocracy do we have?

    Rachel had a serious sounding report that Bloomberg had already picked a running mate: Adm Mike Mullen, former Chair of the Joint Chiefs. I don’t think she had any evidence that Mullen was interested.

  10. 10.

    eemom

    Hey, is there a coherence translation available for AL posts actually written by AL ? Just curious.

  12. 12.

    BBA

    To me Bloomberg seems like he’d be most at home in the Singapore People’s Action Party. Draconian fines for minor offenses, corporal punishment for major offenses, strict press regulation, no capital gains taxes, privatized everything, health savings accounts…

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    Open Thread, so…

    Mentioned earlier how thick and heavy the vog is today. (Vog = volcanic smog blown over from the Big Island)

    Here’s a crappy pic taken with a tablet camera about a half-hour ago, looking downslope and across the central isthmus, with some things labeled which are nearly or totally obscured. One can still make out (on the far left) the slope of the mountains down to the shore, but the line of wind turbines on that slope may as well be invisible. As the crow flies, town and harbor are about 12 or so miles away. Along the shore where I’ve put the label “ocean” is the airport.

  16. 16.

    Big R

    Dear Student,

    When the only day I have seen you in class is the exam day, I am a little bumfuzzled when you e-mail me and say, “I will be absent tomorrow so I can attend office hours for a different professor. Will I miss anything important?”

    No. No you will not. Nothing you haven’t missed already.

    Sincerely,

    Your deeply confused instructor

  20. 20.

    Mike J

    OT, but still the 7th on the proper coast, even if not GMT.

    New Order’s Blue Monday was released on 7 March 1983, and its cutting-edge electronic groove changed pop music forever. But what would it have sounded like if it had been made 50 years earlier? In a special film, using only instruments available in the 1930s – from the theremin and musical saw to the harmonium and prepared piano – the mysterious Orkestra Obsolete present this classic track as you’ve never heard it before.

  22. 22.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Anya: We haven’t watched Rachel in a few weeks, after years of watching just about every day.

    It seems clear that MSNBC decided to throw away its liberal niche in the evenings. Rachel often said that she would be happy to talk to just about anyone on the Teabagger side. Only a few took her up on it, but over the last few months it seems like MSNBC decided that she and Chris had to have ~ 80% GOP coverage. It’s annoying, but we’ve been here before.

    It’s annoying that there isn’t decent political news on TV anymore (unless you like and can find Democracy Now!, and i don’t especially, myself), but we have many more choices (blogs, etc.). Even before the Great Rebranding™, it was hard for me to watch her show due to the 20 minute introduction (that could have taken 1/3 of that) and the interminable commercials.

    It was good when it was good though. ;-)

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  24. 24.

    hellslittlestangel

    He did the right thing. Can’t blame him for the press getting all sweaty with anticipation. Thanks, big gulp guy.

  27. 27.

    burnspbesq

    Can I get a “Oh, fer fuck’s sake, Dreher” from the congregation?

    What drives me crazy is that the Left and its Business Republican fellow travelers cannot grasp that Trumpian violence is largely (but not entirely!) a reaction to violence and destruction that has been inflicted by them on many of Trump’s supporters for a long time.

    Egad, this is stupid

  29. 29.

    Redshift

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Rachel had a serious sounding report that Bloomberg had already picked a running mate: Adm Mike Mullen, former Chair of the Joint Chiefs. I don’t think she had any evidence that Mullen was interested.

    Well, Bloomberg never had any evidence the country was interested, so that seems appropriate somehow.

  30. 30.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Bloombito’s maps seem… optimistic about his chances of getting third-party electoral votes, given that the last time such a thing happened was… Wallace in 1968?

  32. 32.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @burnspbesq:

    Can I get a “Oh, fer fuck’s sake, Dreher” from the congregation?

    Can’t Dreher just go and sit on top of a pillar somewhere already and throw down his poo on the passers-by, instead of posting it online? He’s a fucking stylite and needs to live the stylite dream.

  34. 34.

    burnspbesq

    @NotMax:

    If DC is smart, they will sit down with the guy and negotiate some sort of licensing deal. The value of having those things out on the street is nigh on incalculable.

  36. 36.

    danielx

    @burnspbesq:

    What drives me crazy is that the Left and its Business Republican fellow travelers cannot grasp that Trumpian violence is largely (but not entirely!) a reaction to violence and destruction that has been inflicted by them on many of Trump’s supporters for a long time.

    You know, I’m trying to remember when The Left last inflicted violence and destruction upon white dudes with high school educations, and I’m coming up short. Was it in 1972, or thereabouts? Business Republican fellow travelers, yes, they’ve been inflicting economic violence and destruction on the general populace for decades. But The Left, not so much.

  37. 37.

    Tripod

    @redshirt:

    He’s retired and playing with trains…. and when you have that much money you can skip Lionel and become the largest shareholder of the Canadian National Railway.

  39. 39.

    Adam L Silverman

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: He would have done terrible with suburban voters, rural voters, anyone in the South and the Midwest. Even if he wasn’t bankrolling a serious gun control effort, his attempts to regulate soft drink sizes and other food/dining purchases would have done him in. Every small town has, at least, either a Dairy Queen or a Sonic – even in places where there aren’t a McDonald’s. He wouldn’t have gotten much of the GOP vote anywhere. And that’s before you get to him being single, Jewish, and socially liberal. The belief he’d have done significant damage to Donald Trump or Senator Cruz or whoever ultimately becomes the GOP nominee was irrational.

  40. 40.

    Prescott Cactus

    @hellslittlestangel:

    One word in defense of Rachel Maddow: Flint.

    She can still hit the long ball in the big game but she isn’t cutting it for playing every day. Only catch a few shows every few months, but it’s different. Very repetitive. I will always be a fan, but I liked her earlier work.

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    @danielx:

    Didn’t you know? A White Dude (TM) being spoken to without proper deference is the social equivalent of a hundred Selmas.

    And though it’s true that a large number of working-class whites are suffering under our current economic regime, until they correctly identify the cause of their suffering (hint: it ain’t the fault of Those People), there’s not much the rest of us can do to help them.

  47. 47.

    Mary G

    @burnspbesq: I sign onto that sentiment re Dreher. I used to find him kind of amusing in his cluelessness, but ever since the gay marriage decision came down, he has totally lost the plot.

  52. 52.

    Prescott Cactus

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    You teed it up. FWIW, I really tend to be guilty of it. Ask around.

    No problemo. It’s the internet, and I could really be dog, aye.

    Plus I’ll buy the greatest hits CD after the break up.

  58. 58.

    Punchy

    Little Rock forecast to get 8 inches of rain. Rain spelled otherwise is reign. Clinton spent time in LR. The streets will be flooded. In 1930s Germany, streets were flooded with Nazi sympathizers. Nazi spelled backwards is izan, which looks like Iran, whom Hillary may bomb.

    Connect the dots, libtards

  59. 59.

    Mike J

    @Omnes Omnibus: I actually have a copy of Liz Phair’s girlysound tape (and a hundred other tapes from bands that din’t wind up being as big as Liz Phair.) Back in ye olden dayes that could prove your cred. Nowadays, not so much.

  60. 60.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    ichael IsikoffVerified account
    ‏@ Isikoff
    Trump casino was fined $200K for catering to mobbed up high roller by keeping blacks away from his crap tables

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    So are you guys trying to force me to work on my novel by being really damn boring, or what?

  64. 64.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Adam L Silverman:

    his attempts to regulate soft drink sizes and other food/dining purchases would have done him in.

    I think cornsyrupy 40oz drinks are horrendous things, but I also see people on two-hour commutes in their cars or twelve-hour road trips or truck drivers who are contractually obliged to drive when the computer tells them to and piss in a bottle when the computer tells them to, so I see the function of the 40oz bucket o’soda. I think of the QuikTrip — which sells salads! and fruity sugar-free iced tea! but also Coke — and not the Dairy Queen.

  68. 68.

    Calouste

    @burnspbesq: Yes, I asked the lawyers here earlier today if that meant, as I thought, that the Supreme Court said “Dear Alabama, RTFM & STFU”

  69. 69.

    Adam L Silverman

    @pseudonymous in nc: It wasn’t just the sugary ones, it was also the diet ones. Regardless, this wasn’t going to play well anywhere that wasn’t New York City. And while I don’t drink sugared soft drinks, and really only drink diet coke* if I’m out – I don’t drink alcohol except on very rare occasions – I’m pretty sure that the few times when I need a super big gulp diet coke, I don’t want to be told I can’t have one because Michael Bloomberg doesn’t like them.

    * I went to Emory University and part of my merit based aid was, as was almost everything else at Emory, funded by Coca-Cola, so I will only ever cop to drinking diet coke. Also, my undergraduate education was made possible to you, the Balloon Juice reader, by a grant made by the Coca-Cola Company (all rights reserved…).

  70. 70.

    SarahT

    @BBA: Yes, this. Didn’t vote for any of his 3 terms. He’s an arrogant thin-skinned prick who doubled-down on Giuliani’s “Let’s “save” NYC by making life hell on non-wealthy New Yorkers” policy – maybe with less overt racism but with extra priggishness. Bloomberg can seem to be a reasonable guy (supports gun control, believes in climate science, supports gay rights)., but I’ll always loathe him for his enormous role in turning my city into Disneyland for Billionaires and their hellspawn.

    End of rant. Sorry / not sorry. Seriously, fuck Bloomberg.

  72. 72.

    redshirt

    The Supreme Court has turned super liberal already, without the need for another Justice. Let the Republicans sit on their hands while the new SC starts churning the Judicial waters.

  74. 74.

    Original Lee

    His Lordship wants what he wants. He doesn’t like people telling him he can’t do things he wants to do, and he tends to take it out on them later. If you can prove it to him numerically, fine, but legal beagle stuff irritates him. I think there weren’t quite enough moderate Republicans in his focus groups for him to take the plunge, plus I don’t really think he wanted to do it. However, if the Establishment GOP were to offer him the nomination at a brokered convention, I’m not entirely sure he would turn it down.

  78. 78.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I’m writing a genre novel, so there are certain plot points I need to hit. I know from experience that Word will make me dissolve in rage when (not if, when) it decides to corrupt half of my documents when I’m in the middle of editing. Plus I’ve been wanting Scrivener for a while now and it’s not that expensive.

    Still, when the tutorial itself keeps saying, “So you probably want a biscuit and a cup of tea right about now …” you know it’s kind of a slog.

  81. 81.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    You should be proud of 238 hours sober. Keep it going. You’re on a roll.

    I only just decided last week to get back to writing a historical romance novel I’d set aside when I decided to go to grad school for screenwriting instead. I’m trying to convince Miss Bianca she should pick hers back up, too — she has a traditional Regency with faeries and werewolves in it.

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Also, since I haven’t seen you around lately, G started his MLIS at San Jose State in January. It’s going well, but he’s having occasional freakouts about the massive amount of required reading.

  86. 86.

    Mnemosyne

    @Linnaeus:

    My ADHD likes a certain amount of structure. I like that I can create index cards for each story beat and then write a chapter (or two) around them. In the past, I’ve tried to write straight through and run out of steam halfway through, so I’m hoping Scrivener will let me jump around in the story before boredom threatens.

    @efgoldman:

    Sorry, dude, other people already beat you to that joke days ago. ;-)

    Though, perhaps on topic, I’m still weirdly amused that one of the things John Adams hated about Hamilton was that Hamilton would get drunk and talk about the impressive size of his … administration, and the skill with which he wielded it. (Note: not a euphemism. He really would drunkenly brag about the awesomeness of the Treasury Department.)

  87. 87.

    Major Major Major Major

    @efgoldman: eBooks you say? I did make this a few standards ago, though the compressed download links in the README don’t work any more alas.

    @Mnemosyne: When we first started out one of the professors gave us a cheat sheet along the lines of “how to read like a graduate student.” Read full intro, first & last paragraph of each section, first & last sentence of each paragraph, and if something seems to break the flow, then and only then do you read the whole paragraph.

    Unless it’s like a CS paper or something of course.

  90. 90.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    It’s interesting to read the Chernow book, because the whole Maria Reynolds thing is such a classic midlife crisis move. Married 10 years, mid-30s, already has four kids? Time to get involved with a much younger blonde!

  91. 91.

    Original Lee

    @Mnemosyne: Especially in the intro classes, MLIS professors like to assign a lot of papers to read. But most of the papers will be variations on the theme of the assignment. For instance, my intro to cataloging prof assigned 10-15 papers on understanding the title page, and 5 of them were on how to teach a computer how to recognize elements on a title page, and 5 of them were on how to punctuate subtitles, and maybe a couple of others on other title page-y things. So we learned fairly quickly to skim the titles of the articles in the assignment and only read completely one or two of the ones that seemed to cover the topic in the syllabus the best, and skimmed the rest. For what it’s worth. Of course, if the papers are really interesting, I didn’t mind doing all the reading.

  92. 92.

    mclaren

    @Mnemosyne:

    My ADHD likes a certain amount of structure. I like that I can create index cards for each story beat and then write a chapter (or two) around them.

    Now we know you’re a Hollywood hack. Why not just get out your copy of Save the Cat! and surrender to mindless formula?

  93. 93.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Original Lee: I focused on computer stuff so a lot of the reading was… well, highly technical in nature. We didn’t have five papers all about binary search trees or Perl, for instance… but during the core classes, yeah, each week was like “this week we’ll be discussing Tocqueville, free speech, the USPS, and the franking privilege, here’s three readings on each.”

  94. 94.

    Mnemosyne

    @mclaren:

    Wait, I thought I was either a 19-year-old PFC working in a DoD basement or a sock puppet funded by the Koch brothers. Jaysus, make up your damn mind.

  95. 95.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    My NX300 camera is off to get it’s hot mirror removed. Can’t wait to get it back and do some cool stuff.

  96. 96.

    mclaren

    Two facts that ought to concern Democrats:

    [1] “As I understand it Sanders won more States today but Clinton won more delegates, so Sanders is now actually further behind than before. Huh.” — John Scalzi

    [2] Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, comes out in support of payday lenders who charge 200% interest.

    Bonus question: What is wrong with this picture?

  97. 97.

    Raven Onthill

    Finally did sit down & read Aphra Behn’s series on Sanders’s history and, indeed, it comes off better after a night’s sleep. Click on the last part; it contains links to the first three. I’d quibble with some of it; she misses the temper of the early 1970s and the sexual revolution (I think she is too young) and I wish she’d done more on his history as legislator; she focuses on a few bills which she thinks are significant instead, and I’d like more on the whole sweep of it. But these are quibbles. She did research in period sources and for that she deserves a great deal of credit.

  98. 98.

    Applejinx

    @Mnemosyne: Scrivener is awesome. Good for you :) switched to it for my 12th novel. If anything comes up and I know about it and can answer, I’ll help :)

  99. 99.

    Applejinx

    @mclaren: Not at all, ‘story beats’ can mean anything.

    Hacky is ‘hero’s journey’ and three act structure. I’m a huge fan of FILM CRIT HULK and five act structure. What I’m on right now is just tipping into the ‘spiral’ where the primary plot intention is resolved but it made everything impossibly worse (like… nope) and all the secondary stuff, which I’ve been telegraphing like mad, is beginning to unfold.

    It’s necessary to set all that up so it happens just as the reader is understanding that it can happen: story beats are like an iceberg where you put in a lot of stuff below the surface to support what’s shown. Which is probably why I get so fixated on working out what’s under the surface of politics in order to explain what will be shown in succeeding acts: in life as in art, things get set up or alluded to for a reason, and you keep an eye on details because some of them are Chekov’s Gun and WILL be fired before the story is over.

  100. 100.

    The Pale Scot

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:

    It’s annoying that there isn’t decent political news on TV anymore

    It is a source of lamentation for me that the BBC started blocking VPN’s so I can no longer watch their iPlayer on the internet. You can stream their world report if you look around. But honestly they sliding into the bag too. Instead of their traditional subdued delivery there are episodes of forced smiles and the occasional dumb comment coupled with the bothsidism plague. Al Jazeera can be useful about economics but it doesn’t do politics. There’s also an English India channel around that can be interesting, if only to watch guys in turbans swap American cliches applying them to their politics . It was a bit surreal.

    It’s despairing, hopefully my eyes will never go bad so I will always be able to read.

  101. 101.

    Chyron HR

    @mclaren:

    Two facts that ought to concern Democrats: “As I understand it Sanders won more States today but Clinton won more delegates, so Sanders is now actually further behind than before. Huh.”

    Could that be because the state primaries aren’t winner-take-all? And larger states which Clinton won award more delegates than smaller ones which Sanders won?

    No, of course not! It’s obviously an evil conspiracy perpetrated by Queen Bitch and her minion, “Iago” Schultz.

  103. 103.

    Chris

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Bloomberg boomlet was silly to begin with. This year the demand for a Wall Street billionaire as a Presidential candidate was pretty close to zero.

    Like I said at LGM last night – I would consider the Bloomberg boomlet this year to be the absolute peak of disconnected Beltway insider fantasizing.

    In an election with the worst anti-establishment sentiment we’ve had in decades, let’s run the ultimate One Percenter from the ultimate Decadent Coastal Enclave. Nothing wrong with that picture.

  105. 105.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    Somewhere, parked in a grove of olive trees, Thomas Friedman is weeping quietly inside a brand-new Lexus.

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