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

Late Night Open Thread: Mike Bloomberg & His Money

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Thing is, while Mr. Bloomberg is certainly willing as well as able to pay for his pleasures, he’s frugal. After not actually keeping his most widely celebrated 2020-election-related promises so far, why volunteer to throw in $100,000,000 now?

Aha:

Yes, Mike Bloomberg would certainly take an opportunity to remind his former NYC neighbor which of them actually *is* a billionaire. Even if Mike doesn’t actually end up spending a hundred million, the Squatter-in-Chief will insist his Marred-A-Largo castle be defended from the Democratic (at the moment) barbarian.

I’ll believe it when I see it, but if Bloomberg can force the RNC to throw a bunch of money they can’t spare into advertising in Florida, bless you Mike & I hope Biden’s team finds you a nice ceremonial ambassadorship come January.

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65Comments

  3. 3.

    West of the Rockies

    Might I suggest the teeniest of changes:  Marred-a-Lardo.

    I’ve expressed this sentiment before:  I hope Trump and everyone around him has their guts twisted with stress, their bowels impacted with the waste product of their ruined souls, and misery wafting over them like pungent dog farts.

  4. 4.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    Just as an aside, the post “Joe Biden on Iran” is not showing up on the front page; I only found it because of the @johngcole tweet announcing it.

  5. 5.

    Another Scott

    The stories say “plans” or “is considering” spending in FL.

    The BBC News chyron said (roughly) “Bloomberg donates $100M to Biden campaign.”

    :-/

    The reporting is so very sloppy on this stuff.

    As others commented earlier – I’ll believe it when the checks clear.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  11. 11.

    debbie

    Trump was bullshitting when he said he’d use $100 million of his own money. He won’t even pay for his own fucking golf games. Bloomberg’s threat (real or otherwise; I think he’ll spend it) may just force Trump to actually expend funds. The real question is whether the Florida t.v. and radio media buyers will accept rubles or not.

  13. 13.

    e julius drivingstorm

    I’m a Floriduh resident. Dade and Broward counties registered thousands of former felons before the Republican state legislature enacted the law that fines and court costs had to be  paid by the prospective voters before their eligiblilty was restored. But the State can’t tell you what those costs are. Hello?  What if Trump were a felon and tried to vote in Florida – oh wait!

  15. 15.

    RaflW

    I’d like to see Mike give most of that $100M to the funds that pay off Florida voter’s backlog of fines, so they can vote. I know, the “Stop and Frisk” dude isn’t likely to want to make those sorts of amends. But he should.

  16. 16.

    Benw

    Let us use this post about Bloomberg to remember Elizabeth Warren’s debate destruction of Mike Bloomberg and his campaign. Ahhhh.

  18. 18.

    Felanius Kootea

    @Omnes Omnibus: He seems to be waiting for late September or early October for 2020 presidential campaign spending.

    His Greenwood Initiative (Economic Justice for Black America) gave $100 million early in September to the four historically black medical schools in the US (Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Meharry Medical College, Morehouse School of Medicine and Howard University College of Medicine). Together, they educate about 70% of black doctors in the US.

    I think he’ll come through for Joe Biden.

  24. 24.

    Chetan Murthy

    @mrmoshpotato: The whoosh of the wind, as Senator Perfesser Warren stoops on her hapless prey is a sight to behold.  Also, the blood flying everywhere, gobbets of flesh, etc.

  27. 27.

    John Revolta

    100 million dollars or not, FL elections are as crooked as a dog’s hind leg. It’s who counts the votes that counts, and the Repubs will do what they have to do to win. We have to assume that we ain’t taking FL and plan accordingly.

  28. 28.

    Carlo

    So, about how best to spend that money:

    Polling averages have been very stable. That lack of volatility suggests that almost everybody has made up their minds. So there’s no point in persuasion, and any coherent media campaign must target either (1) ensuring that every Biden voter votes, or (b) discouraging Trump voters from showing up.

    Lots of people work on the first one. I’m dickishly interested in the second. Shit-for-brains has made it easier, by discouraging the sailors of his brave MAGA Armada from voting by mail, so mostly they need election-day discouragement.

    What’s a good line? Making them feel like losers for bothering would be useful, since they hate losers. Perhaps “your MAGA neighbors have given upon voting” could be somehow conveyed? Or use subtext, with some stock footage of Trump being polite to a black person? They’d feel a bit betrayed, perhaps?

    This doesn’t all have to happen over airwaves. If social media manipulation is such a contact sport, I don’t see why the good guys shouldn’t have some game of their own, with the future existence of the Republic at stake.

  30. 30.

    sdhays

    When this was mentioned before, I hadn’t realized that he’s planning to spend $100m just in Florida.That actually makes me believe it’s likely he’ll do it. Not for Biden. Not for Democrats. Not for the country. But to deny Dump the satisfaction of winning in his new haven after being kicked out of NYC.

    If he does follow through, I hope this opens up some Democratic funds for other stretch targets like Texas.

  33. 33.

    Vixen Strangely

    I hate that my brain does this:

     

    Mike is rich girl,

    and we’ve come so far

    that you’d think it wouldn’t matter anyway

    we could rely on the old man’s money

    but why rely on the old man’s money?

    Trump’s a bitch girl,

    and he’s gone too far

    but his people don’t care anyway,

    say money but it don’t get you too far

    get you too far.

     

    But don’t you know

    that a lead could still grow

    and the margins would give

    and we wouldn’t just live

    to see SCOTUS involved at all?

     

    (Before slinking off from the utter shame of unloading that on you–but unlike Trump–he has it to spend.)

  34. 34.

    lgerard

    @The Moar You Know:

    Trump does not have a hundred million to spend. He is broke. If not for the “kindness of strangers” he’d be homeless.

    trump couldn’t even come up with the 25 million for his University settlement. He got it from a friend who suddenly realized that he owed trump 28 million that he had totally forgotten about.

  35. 35.

    trnc

    @sdhays: He might do it because an unleashed DT after reelection would probably not be a good thing for anyone who made his life more difficult.

  36. 36.

    Quinerly

    @sdhays: autocorrect. Whatever…

    Really shouldn’t have weighed in. I find the Bloomberg… “will he or wont he” very, very annoying.

    I’m pretty sure he will. Right time, right place.

    I’m testy. Should stay off most of these threads. ?

  41. 41.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Quinerly: And I am pretty sure he won’t.  He’s has been talking a good game for  months now and I am pretty sure he hasn’t ponied up anything.  Time is getting short.

  42. 42.

    Kent

    Fuckit

    We allied with Stalin to beat the first round of Nazis.

    I think we can ally with Bloomberg to beat this second round of Nazis.

    And then sort out our differences later.  Eyes on the prize people.

  43. 43.

    Amir Khalid

    Most people in Florida, like most people elsewhere in the US, will have pretty much made up their minds about Biden and Trump by now. So it doesn’t seem to me that there will be much opportunity left to shift hearts and minds at this stage. A month-long pro-Biden advertising blitz would be more a show of financial muscle than of anything else.

    I’m wondering if Biden-Harris/2020 couldn’t think up some better use for Bloomberg’s US$100million, like GOTV efforts, and tell him to apply it there instead.

  45. 45.

    Kent

    @Amir Khalid: I don’t think they’ve said they are going to drop $100 million into just advertising.  I expect they will be putting it everywhere their experts say it will make a difference including funding GOTV efforts.  And Bloomberg has experts.

  46. 46.

    Sebastian

    @lgerard:

    This is the first open move on the “he’s a broke loser” front. The Late September/October surprise will be showing the bandwagon riders that he is not the “successful billionaire” but broke conman.

    Bloomberg drops $100m into Florida and taunts Donnie to do the same. Bluster and bullshit ensues but the trap is set. They’ll keep needling him, bringing up how a billionaire can’t come up with such pocket change.

    Questions will be asked, stuff will be leaked, and then the taxes hit the public eye as decapitating final move leaving Donnie standing in public with his pants around his ankles and all lights on him.

    The final and worst injury and humiliation for a narcissist. Exposed to the world as the loser he is.

  47. 47.

    Kent

    @Poe Larity: Florida has a Republican Governor and Trump has Tik Tok.

    So don’t get your hopes up.

    I’m not sure what TikTok has to do with it.  Corporate mergers take a lot longer than 50 days to sort out.  It will be until next year before much if anything changes at TikTok.  I don’t think MAGA voters use TikTok anyway.  At best they might see a cute cat TikTok that some one copied and posted over to Facebook for grandma to see.

  48. 48.

    Kent

    @Omnes Omnibus:@Amir Khalid: Because of campaign finance laws, the campaign probably cannot coordinate with Bloomberg.

    If Bloomberg has $100 million he can hire some actual Biden Campaign staffers away from the campaign and bring them over to spend the money in Florida.  This ban on coordination has always been more apparent than real.

  51. 51.

    Feathers

    @RaflW: the problem is, Florida refuses to tell the felons how much they owe. Or if they owe. And the appeals court just said Florida doesn’t have to. So Florida can just find post release felons who voted, make up some bullshit amount they owe, and send them back to jail.
    And the amount will be bullshit,  because if you aren’t keeping track of what money is owed you, then you aren’t actually running a business (or government). This aspect of the whole situation is so fucking corrupt that I just want to scream.

  52. 52.

    JoyceH

    On Twitter I saw a link to a 2016 article about how Trump sent an intermediary to Cuba in the late 90s to try to negotiate with Castro to allow Trump to build casinos in Cuba. I don’t recall hearing that during the 2016 election, and don’t think it got a lot of air time. Since Florida Cubans are massively supporting Trump, I can’t believe they’ve heard this story either, and think a couple ads about it would have quite an impact. Having anything to do with Castro, even that long ago, would be a deal breaker for them, I think.

  53. 53.

    Amir Khalid

    @JoyceH:

    On Twitter I saw a link to a 2016 article about how Trump sent an intermediary to Cuba in the late 90s to try to negotiate with Castro to allow Trump to build casinos in Cuba.

    Wasn’t there some kind of prohibition then on Americans doing business in/with Cuba?

  54. 54.

    Betty Cracker

    The going rate for a Florida election is typically $70M – $100M — just ask Rick Scott. Bloomberg has $55B, so $100M is sofa cushion change to him. Here’s hoping he follows through.

  55. 55.

    James E Powell

    @Betty Cracker:

    If my math is right, someone with a net worth of $55B spending $100M is like a person with a net worth of $5M spending around $9100.

    I hope he does, but I will believe it when I see it.

    I doubt they need more TV ads in Florida. Maybe it can fund an intense ground game? I feel like we’re past the persuasion phase and are in the get out the vote phase.

  57. 57.

    Betty Cracker

    @James E Powell: I’m stupid in math so can’t confirm your figures, but it sounds about right — massive sums are chump change to someone with Bloombergian levels of wealth.

    Ever seen that video someone did using grains of rice to illustrate how much more massive a billion dollars is than lesser sums like $1 million and $100 million? Very illuminating.

    I sometimes think if everyone grasped just how huge a pile of cash we’re talking about, the phrase “every billionaire is a policy failure” would be recognized as the gospel truth by all.

    One piece I read on the possible cash infusion said a primary focus would be on Spanish language ads and outreach. Sounds like a good strategy to me.

  59. 59.

    yellowdog

    Bloomberg has a network of organizers at his disposal because he is a major donor to gun control groups. His money mobilized those groups in the successful effort to win control of both houses in the Virginia legislature. So yes, he comes thru. Also note previously mentioned donation to black medical schools. And he gave enough money (about 1B, IIRC) to Johns Hopkins that inability to afford tuition is no longer an issue in perpetuity. And their School of Public Health is named after him, after a consider donation. Their has to be something good about a person who wants to be remembered for his association with science and helping people. As someone on Twitter said, He’s a motherfucker, but he’s our motherfucker.

  60. 60.

    Geminid

    I don’t catch much TV, but a lot of people do. What little I saw of Bloomberg’s TV advertising last spring looked well done, and I’m  guessing the same media team is on call. Political analyst Rachel  Bitecofer says trump’s relative strength among Spanish speaking voters in Florida was due to a messaging void on the Democratic side, so investments on Spanish language media would be money well spent. And I hope Judge Judy is ready to help go after the senior vote again.    Elizabeth Warren’s debate takedown of Bloomberg delighted many Democrats, but I think it was Biden’s resurgence that put Bloomberg away.

  61. 61.

    Chris Johnson

    @Chetan Murthy: I love how Biden came through, backing up Warren’s play immediately.
    Both of them thinking on their feet, to great effect. mind you, Warren planned it out, but in applying the beatdown it had to adapt to however Bloomberg handled it. I don’t think Biden had advance warning, but he was still right there.
    A lovely evening for Democrats and indeed democracy :)

  63. 63.

    Jinchi

    If my math is right, someone with a net worth of $55B spending $100M is like a person with a net worth of $5M spending around $9100.

    Someone worth $55B can burn 99.99% of his wealth and still be in the top 5% of Americans.

    Someone worth $5M donating that much wouldn’t be able to pay his bills at the end of the month.

    Money isn’t worth the same to billionaires as it is to the rest of us. They could lose virtually everything and still be extremely well off.

  64. 64.

    artem1s

    Bloomberg, if he comes thru at all, will probably spend his money on some vainglorious ad that is designed to make him and the country club set feel good about sitting on their hands while Dump burned down the democratic parts of the country. He and his pals just want to return to the good old days when the federal government was there to pave the way for commerce and nothing else. All of which I’m totally fine with as long as it makes the GOP federal and state party chairs spend money in places where they should be safe.

    Once the election is over they and the Lincoln Projects guys are all going to claim the real democratic base couldn’t have won the election without them and then they will demand a seat at every table and appointment in every cabinet position.  That’s when I hope Joe/Nancy/Kamala/Warren et al, tells Bloomberg and Kasich and the rest of them to get bent and go fix the crazy dysfunctional party if they need something useful to do with their time and money.

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